51 As might be expected from someone who has lived so cosmopolitan a life, Peter is multilingual. But therein lies one of his biggest regrets. “I speak four languages fluently – English, German, French and Italian,” he says. “I pick up languages quite easily. But I really do regret living out here in the Gulf for so long and not learning to speak Arabic fluently.” If not learning Arabic is Peter’s greatest regret, one of his proudest moments happened in July 2000 when the British Association of Golf Course Architects (of which Don was a founder), the French Association and the European Society, of which Peter was president at the time, merged to create the European Institute of Golf Course Architects – which has been a partner of GCA since the magazine started in 2005. “My dad started the International Society of Greenkeepers and that, I think, drove me to pursue the amalgamation of the architects’ societies,” he said. “People said to me, ‘You’ll never manage this’. It took three years of negotiations, but eventually we brought it off. And the continued success of the EIGCA makes me very proud.” The Harradine name will continue in golf. Peter’s son Michael has now joined the business after graduating in landscape architecture from a Swiss university and five years playing golf on the amateur circuit – to a handicap of plus five. “I always really wished that Michael would enter the family business,” Peter says. “That is why I strongly urged him to study and obtain a degree in landscape architecture, which I firmly believe is one of the requirements most needed to become a good golf course architect.” Peter Harradine may be approaching his eightieth birthday, but he is still lively and enthusiastic about the golf design business, and still putting in the miles. “I’m not going to retire,” he says. “I’m having a great time; I love what I do. Why would I retire?” Peter now works alongside his son Michael, pictured here at Golf Club de Campagne in France. Above, the Fenti course in Sudan Photos: Harradine Golf
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