46 INTERVIEW Jones, Fazio, Hawtree: there have been several golf design dynasties in the century and a bit since the profession was established. But, as far as I can tell, only one has got past the third generation. The Dubai-based designer Peter Harradine has been active in golf architecture for many decades; his father Donald practiced as an architect for over half a century, in the process bringing golf to parts of Europe where the game was previously almost entirely unknown. Don’s stepfather Albert Hockey, though principally a golf professional, remodelled his first course in 1920, and in 1925 took the family, including a 14-year-old Don, to Switzerland when he was asked to upgrade and extend the eight-hole course at Bad Ragaz to a real nine-hole course. And now, Peter’s son Michael is a key part of the family business, so the Hockey/Harradine dynasty has, uniquely, entered a fourth generation. When one meets Peter, who will be 80 in 2025, for the first time, it is natural to see him as an English gentleman, though perhaps a slightly rakish one: he is a natty dresser with a particular fondness for stylish scarves. In fact, though his family background is English, he is a Swiss national, born in 1945 next to the old golf course in Gurten, just to the south of the Swiss capital, Berne; his father was the manager of the course at the time. When Peter was three, Don was asked to move to Lugano, in the southern Swiss district of Ticino, to manage the golf course there. Ticino is close to the Italian border, and is largely Italianspeaking. Here, Peter grew up speaking Italian as his mother language: to this day, it is the language he uses when talking to his children. Most of Don Harradine’s early work was in Switzerland; he also built courses in Germany and Italy in the 1950s. In 1962, he built the Glyfada club outside Athens, Greece’s first golf course – “there is a street near the course called Donald Harradine Road,” says Peter with pride. Until his retirement in the 1980s, he worked across the continent, including courses in Austria, Yugoslavia (the Bled course in what is now Slovenia), France and PETER HARRADINE Peter Harradine is part of golf design’s most enduring family business – and is one of the besttravelled men in the profession. Adam Lawrence found out the lessons of his long career. Golf’s great explorer
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