Design Notebook: Thad Layton Steps Out of the King’s Shadow

This installment of Design Notebook reflects on the end of Arnold Palmer Design Company and the beginning of Thad Layton Design, and what those occurrences tell us about the past three decades in golf course construction. Also covered are the recent surge in high-end golf development in Florida and a lovely, simple hole we saw at a muni in Eugene, Oregon.

As Arnold Palmer Design folds, Thad Layton bets on himself

Many golf architects get their start on a bulldozer, crafting features that a higher-up designs and edits. If shapers do their job well, they eventually become associates, then lead designers, and with each promotion, they spend less time operating heavy machinery. At least that’s the way it usually works. Not for Thad Layton, though.

Early in his 27-year career at Arnold Palmer Design Company, Layton became a frequent flier, overseeing golf course construction projects from Kazakhstan to Uruguay, but he didn’t move a lot of dirt himself. Only in the past several years has he put in significant time behind the wheel.

After Arnold Palmer’s death in 2016, Layton and design partner Brandon Johnson continued to serve many of APDC’s clients but gradually changed the firm’s approach. Fewer projects, more site visits. Instead of relying on contractors to execute plans, Layton and Johnson collaborated with shapers like Jeff Bradley, Riley Johns, and Brett Hochstein—artisans who had cut their teeth on design-build projects by Coore & Crenshaw and Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf Design. APDC became smaller and nimbler, and its work more eccentric and compelling.

The canyon hole, No. 14, at Saticoy Country Club, after a 2018 renovation by APDC, with bunkers shaped by Brett Hochstein

“As a golfer,” Layton says, “I realized the courses I enjoyed playing most had one thing in common: they were the result of the design-build process. Since then, I’ve done my part to nudge APDC in that direction, and I believe it’s made a noticeable difference.”

(For more on APDC’s evolution, listen to Andy’s interview with Layton in an episode of the Fried Egg Golf Podcast from earlier this year.)

Yet the company could only survive for so long in the absence of its legendary founder. Last week, APDC announced that it will close its doors after 51 years of operation. “As a non-stakeholder, the dissolution of APDC wasn’t my decision,” Layton explains. “What I can say is that we fulfilled all of our client commitments.”

For the first time in his career, Layton will be working under his own name. His new shop, Thad Layton Design, will be based in Denver, Colorado, and devoted to producing what he calls “hand-crafted golf courses.” “Now that I’m on my own,” he says, “I can go all in on the design-build process, shaping my own features and working collaboratively with those who love the game as much as I do.”

Thrilled to announce Thad Layton Design- a Design Build Golf Course
Architecture Firm dedicated to creating inspiring golf courses for all who love the game. Go tohttps://t.co/Gihn99o0IN to learn more… pic.twitter.com/MHCUikcLBW

— Thad Layton (@ThadLayton) September 4, 2023

Clearly Layton has come a long way since he was a 20-something world traveler helping Arnold Palmer’s firm churn out 10 to 12 golf courses per year.

But just as APDC’s original business model was an awkward fit for the golf course industry’s post-Great Recession lean times, Layton’s hands-on approach might be slightly out of step with today’s bullish environment. Leading design-build firms that once took on only a few jobs at a time are now juggling dozens, and the temptation to prioritize quantity over quality is stronger than it has been since the 1990s.

“The guys who pioneered the design-build movement are busier than ever,” observes Layton. “From what I’ve seen, they’ve maintained quality as their seasoned associates continue to take on more responsibility. I do wonder what the breaking point is—personally, I wouldn’t feel comfortable with more than two courses under construction at once, until I start to build my own network of trusted associates.”

More than almost any current golf architect, Thad Layton is familiar with the inner workings of a celebrity-branded golf course mill. The fact that he has founded the opposite kind of company, even in a market eager for supply, speaks volumes. -Garrett Morrison

Catchphrase watch: “new ultra high-end Florida course”

In Golf Digest, Derek Duncan has a tour of Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner’s soon-to-open West Course at Apogee Club, a new private golf complex north of Jupiter, Florida. Within a few years, Apogee will feature 54 holes and multiple short courses. The second 18, designed by the team of Tommy Fazio II (Tom Fazio’s nephew) and Mike Davis (former USGA CEO), is under construction, and a third regulation course from Kyle Phillips is expected in 2025. Judging from the Golf Digest photos, Hanse and Wagner’s design will be as good as we’ve come to expect from the firm but likely won’t revolutionize golf architecture.

What really interests me, though, is the sheer amount of golf development—especially of the upscale private variety—happening in Florida right now. Gil Hanse, Tom Doak, and Tom Fazio all have multiple ongoing new-build projects in the state. Coore & Crenshaw’s Back Yard at McArthur Golf Club in Hobe Sound is scheduled to open this year, as is Panther National in nearby Palm Beach Gardens, a collaboration between Jack Nicklaus and Ryder Cup captain’s pick Justin Thomas. Two weeks ago, reports emerged that Fry/Straka and Paul Azinger would work together on the new Myakka Golf Club outside of Sarasota, and in July, Friar’s Head founder Ken Bakst revealed that he had hired Whitman, Axland & Cutten to build a 36-hole club called The Ranch on “dead flat ground” near Hobe Sound.

As Duncan notes in his piece, the golf-development surge in Florida can be explained by two Covid-driven dynamics: the state’s increasing population and golf’s increasing popularity. Still, the number of projects is striking, especially in a part of the country that was, until recently, thought to have too much golf. So far, fortunately, most of the new courses appear to have more architectural merit—and less restrictive residential commitments—than the products of Florida’s last golf boom.

But I hope the enthusiasm of today’s developers and architects is tempered by lessons learned from the excesses of the 1980s and 90s. Building too much too fast is a bad idea for both art and business. -GM

Keep it simple, stupid

Last week, I drove a couple hundred miles down I-5 to see Bar Run, a striking new design by Dan Hixson in Roseburg, Oregon. My favorite hole of the trip, however, was at Laurelwood Golf Course, a municipal nine in Eugene that I visited on my way back. After interviewing Will Benson, the manager and superintendent, for an episode of the Fried Egg Golf Podcast that will come out on Tuesday, I played a round, and the par-4 second jumped out to me immediately.

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The design is as simple as can be. The fairway tilts from left to right and runs on a left-to-right diagonal from the tee. The green is oriented in the opposing direction—right to left—and a Muirfield-inspired doughnut bunker guards its front left edge. If you bail out to the forgiving left half of the fairway, you’ll have a dicey approach to a shallow target between the bunker in front and a fierce runoff behind. If you find the right side of the fairway while avoiding the hillside and grove of trees to the right, you’ll have more room for error.

This is Strategy 101. Any halfway-decent architect could conceive of a hole like it. But what makes No. 2 at Laurelwood stand out is that the angles actually work. The fairway is the right width, and the green complex correctly sized and oriented, for the approach to be substantially tougher from the left than from the right. I should know. After a conservative tee shot to the left side of the fairway, I dumped a pitching wedge in the bunker. -GM

A course we photographed recently

Bar Run Golf + RV Resort (Roseburg, Oregon)—designed by Dan Hixson, opened in 2022

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Quotable

“During our initial trip to Scotland, Alice and I found out that most of the time the designer of the great Scottish courses was also involved in the building. This reinforced our feeling that it was difficult for a contractor to take a set of plans and implement the vision that we had for the details of the course. We knew the only way to build the specific type of greens, fairways, tees, and hazards we had in mind was for us to be intimately involved in the construction of our courses. That way, we would always have the opportunity to improvise and change things while shaping was in progress.” –Pete Dye

Know of something we should include in a future edition of Design Notebook? Email garrett@thefriedegg.com.