1 WELCOME Seventy-two is not, in any normal sense, a very special number, but because it is four times 18 it has particular significance and resonance in golf. Since 1892, when the Open Championship moved from being played over 36 holes to 72, the vast majority of important golf events have been contested over four rounds of 18. Nowadays, if a tournament is not played over 72 holes, it is tantamount to an admission that it is not a serious event. This issue of Golf Course Architecture is the 72nd that we have published since we made our bow, way back in 2005. The golf business has changed dramatically in the eighteen years since GCA began. Back in 2005, the great course building boom of the early twenty-first century was just starting to lose its impetus; the crash of 2007-8 brought it to a very rapid stop. In the aftermath, many golf architects left the industry. For those who remained, renovation work has been bread and butter since. New course building has never returned to those levels, although the boom in golf that has followed the Covid-19 pandemic means a lot of architects are currently very busy. In 2005, the industry was dominated by ‘signature’ design projects created to sell housing; the crash put paid to most of those too. In the intervening years, the preeminent model of new construction has been the destination course, whether a resort or a club. Mike Keiser, his partners and those who have sought to emulate his success, and the architects he, and they, have preferred, have come to be the elite of the industry. Finally, the media has changed too. In 2005, the only other outlet focused solely on golf architecture was the Society of Australian Golf Course Architects’ excellent annual journal. Journalists like Ron Whitten and Brad Klein were there too, but in the mainstream golf media, architecture was at best an afterthought. Now though, there are blogs, podcasts and niche magazines for whom architecture is, if not their be all and end all, a very major part of their offer. Mainstream golf magazines too are much more likely to talk about architectural-based subjects. If we have played a small part in that change, it’s not a bad legacy. Here’s to the next 72! Four rounds ADAM LAWRENCE
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