47 the summer of 2020 was going to be dead, so let’s get on and do what we need to,” he explains. “Where newbuilds are concerned, people thought, ‘We are three to five years away from needing to market and sell this thing, and if Covid is still a serious problem then we’re all in big trouble, plus interest rates are low, so why not go ahead now?’” Bill Coore says: “If I took a call today from a prospective client with a project that was ready to go, it would be the winter of 2025/26 before we could possibly start work on it, and even that is questionable, unless one of our committed projects were to fall away.” What is clear about this boom is that it is happening from the top down: it is the elite firms who are busiest, and the most high-end projects that are moving ahead fastest. Yet the spike in activity is feeding through to almost every level of the business. “My business has exploded since Covid,” says Phil Smith. “Both private and resort businesses have seen an increase. It’s mostly in the US, but I’m getting a few overseas leads for new course work. The nature of projects is a mix. As an architect, it just depends on the type of developers that we are connected with. But people seem to be spending money both on resort vacations and/or club membership. It’s been nice to see the rebirth of both since the 2008 disaster.” Texas-based designer Kurt Bowman echoes the theme that the boom is across the market. “It’s definitely best for the top guys, but it’s still pretty good for most architects – there still seems to be a lot of work out there,” he says. “I’ve had a bunch of enquiries in the last six to eight weeks, and I have one project I’m finishing this year, and one eighteen-hole redesign that will start late this or early next year. Add to that a couple of little projects and it’s pretty good – two decent projects at once is a ton of work for me. I think the positive reviews, and the recent ranking of the Links course at Hacienda Alcaidesa in Spain has helped me. The more you’re out and about and people see your work and talk about it, the better, obviously.” Trying to market and sell golf design services is always a challenge, but Slessor says that, at the moment, the lack of any identifiable trends about where work is coming from make directing sales efforts even more difficult. “I would say that as an industry we are in a good place, but it is everywhere and nowhere. We look at our enquiries and there are no trends,” he explains. “There is very strong optimism in all the markets in which The Portmarnock course in Dublin, Ireland, has been renovated by Jeff Lynch of (re)GOLF and rebranded as Jameson Golf Links Photo: Momentum Golf Photography
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