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GOLF RESOURCE GUIDE:
The art of design
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 Pascuzzo (left) designed Monarch Dunes with PGA Tour veteran Steve Pate. Pascuzzo says the ability to “be evocative” is crucial to good golf course design. “The moment you arrive on the property, your emotions are stirred,” he said. “Then, when you get on the course, the strategy and the beauty combine to make a fantastic experience.” The setting also plays a big part in what designers can accomplish, Pascuzzo said. “It’s hard to design a world-class, exceptional golf course if you don’t have the natural setting, with excellent topography and a variety of vegetation,” he said. “Those are the fundamentals you need; then it’s up to the designer.” Pascuzzo also thinks great courses need a chance to mature and grow into outstanding facilities. “I think it’s incredibly hard, if not impossible, to have a great golf course on day one,” he said. “I think you can have the foundation for it, but I think most courses need five to six years to weather, break in and to naturalize, for their greatness to come out. And you need a little bit of time to go back and fine-tune. There aren’t many really outstanding golf courses that have not been tweaked, even in the first few years.” He also thinks that there “is some commonality between all great golf courses.” “Though great golf courses come in a lot of different styles and can have a lot of different looks, at their core they are evocative, and that’s done through aesthetics, drama, strategy — whether they’re links-style, seaside, parkland, in Nebraska, Wyoming or California,” Pascuzzo said. “So, on the surface they can be very different, but there are core elements that are fairly common.” 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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