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GOLF RESOURCE GUIDE:
The art of design
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 O'Callaghan used the terrain to his advantage at Arroyo Trabuco. Strategy, playability and aesthetics are at the top of O’Callaghan’s list for good golf course design, and he thinks a layout should “reward a golfer who intelligently manages their way around the golf course.” In order to do that, he said, a golf designer’s main task is “to create a variety of circumstances throughout the golf course that allows a golfer to discover the risk and reward opportunities on every hole. A golf shot that challenges and successfully carries a hazard should be rewarded with an opportunity to attack the next shot.” Great golf courses usually begin with a great site and the designer’s charge is to “enhance the natural features,” he said. This can be done by routing the golf course toward the prominent areas of the property, creating landforms and bunkering that flow with the existing terrain, and incorporating the appropriate landscaping that blends with and celebrates the existing native vegetation. Some of the best golf courses also are “unique and the strategy on one great course might manifest completely differently from another one,” O’Callaghan said. “A golf site in central California might have great landforms that can be used in the golf course routing to reward great golf shots. A coastal golf course site might take the predominant wind direction and ocean more into the strategy. Both courses are strategically sound but the risks and rewards encountered on the courses are different.” THE ART OF DESIGN: TEN GOLF COURSE ARCHITECTS George C. Thomas | A.W. Tillinghast | William P. Bell | Ted Robinson Sr. Tom Fazio | Casey O’Callaghan | Clive Clark Todd Eckenrode | Damian Pascuzzo | John Harbottle BACK TO MAIN PAGE |
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