Golf's Version of "It's the Economy, Stupid," Courtesy of Mike Young

These past several days have been rich with cross-discussion between FEGC and Golf Club Atlas! There's now a thread discussing the subject I raised in this week's edition of Design Notebook.

By far the best reply, in my opinion, comes from Mike Young, who has turned into something of a pen pal of mine over the years. Mike designed and continues to own and operate The Fields Golf Club in LaGrange, Georgia. He has influenced my thinking about golf architecture and maintenance deeply. The last time I interviewed him was in March 2024, when we discussed the ins and outs of building and running a mom-n-pop golf course. I find him to be a unique and important voice in the industry.

So it's no surprise that I found myself nodding along vigorously with his contribution to the GCA thread:

"I'm not sure original or unoriginal should be the question. The question should be are [the courses] sustainable and can the game continue to be played on them. If not then why does it matter. Subtlety seems to be gone no matter the 'style' and the abundance of money has ideas being tried that may have been thought of earlier but could not or would not be implemented int he past due to agronomic issues or playability issues.... There is a lot of good young talent out there and the overabundance of money available today may be more of an issue when it comes to originality than we think."

Mike also says that "a good routing with subtle, strategic greens and bunkering can always stand the test of time if it can be maintained."

Right on. I think this is a logical extension of my own statement that an important, under-discussed task of a golf architect is to "prepare a ground for the game." Part of preparing a ground for the game is ensuring that the game can be played on it affordably and sustainably into the future.

If I could write my essay again, I'd probably add a section about the importance of "innovating" in the arenas of economical construction and maintenance. The industry has learned an incredible amount about golf course maintenance over the past several decades. Because of these knowledge gains, architects now have the ability to build the most affordable, sustainable golf courses the game has ever seen. But the problem is we're lacking owners and developers for whom that is a primary objective.

To be clear, I don't think Mike is saying golf architecture shouldn't be bold or innovative. He's just pointing out, accurately, that if it can't be maintained without great expense and effort, there's no real point to the initial boldness or innovation.

Anyway, always listen to Mike Young.