what is required when we are not on site as a result of our plans and on-site direction. Now, as a result of Covid, when we had to support the major Hamilton renovation project in Canada without visiting the club once, we have techniques to support construction remotely. Drone surveying of construction areas, 3D photos and videos viewed with virtual reality headsets and Photoshopping sand lines on 2D photos are now great tools of our trade. “In addition, we have our in-house produced CGI stills and videos of our proposals to assist us with evaluating our designs and to help the shapers in understanding what we want to achieve. Our true-to-life imagery helps to convince members that our proposals are in their best interests, and provides impressive marketing materials. However, it is only possible to produce that by drawing highly accurate plans of our proposals so that a 3D model of the proposed course or holes can be produced.” This talk of plans leads to an important differentiation between M&E and some of its peers, As is well known, some of the most successful designers in the business – headed by, but not limited to, Coore and Crenshaw, Tom Doak and Gil Hanse – are not great fans of detailed plans, preferring to control construction through using shapers they directly employ, and making design decisions in the field. M&E comes from a different background, creating extremely detailed plans of all jobs, and not having a construction operation of their own. “We regularly hear the views of other designers and also architectural commentators that the best golf courses can only be built in the field and that plans should be torn up as soon as permission is obtained,” says Ebert. “We recently came across a video where a designer said, ‘you show me a course built to a plan, and I will show you a bad golf course’. We do not say that you cannot build a great course without plans. The designers who work that way have produced some amazing courses themselves and often trust their design associates and shapers to produce the goods. However, we think that we prove that you can build great courses and great holes with plans.” Ebert says that the greater proliferation of high-quality designer/shapers in the American market probably makes the design-and-shape model easier to execute for firms based there. “There are more independent shapers in the US and that certainly helps with building without a detailed plan,” he says. “In the UK, almost all projects are tendered, so clients and contractors need an accurate representation of what is required. That can only be delivered through the preparation of an accurate set of plans. But plans must be supplemented with sufficient visits and construction support. “Without plans, there is a real danger that greens, in particular, get out of control in terms of their levels. It is all too easy for the vertical scale of green surfaces to be exaggerated to the point that an individual green, or a set of 18 greens, really lets the course down. While the best courses have a great set of greens, providing challenge, variety and beauty, the golfer should not come away from a green or a course feeling as though the putting test is absurd. I believe that is happening more and more due to a lack of control of the named designer, with them being so busy and unable to visit sites to provide their critical on-site input sufficiently. We can judge our individual greens and a set of 18 before any construction starts, analysing the slopes to identify where flag positions will exist and to judge the slopes between those areas.” M&E’s ubiquity on the Open Championship rota – where courses, like it or not, have needed to be made longer and more difficult to deal with the enormous distances players now hit the ball – has perhaps fed through to some of its work on other historic courses. The firm is known for updating these courses, as well as doing some highly acclaimed restorative work: its projects have rarely been purely restorative. “Hirono provides a great example,” says Ebert. “The club wanted to restore the character of Hugh Alison’s design which very much focused on restoring the incredibly intricately shaped bunkers, although I think that MARTIN EBERT “ There has most certainly been a need to update our Open venues if they are to remain a searching test of the best players in the world” 47
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzQ1NTk=