How To Design A Professional Golf Course From A To Z

Golf as a sport has been around for almost a century and was invented by middle-class English men as a leisure activity. Golf courses design is crafted intricately to cater to the needs and requirements of the golf enthusiasts who still participate in this elite sports activity to spend their leisure time.

Unlike other athletic games played with a club and ball, this sport is not restricted to a specific court or a designated field. This gives the golf course designers the edge to bring out their creativity and include magnificent landscapes in the golf course to be used as the perfect hurdles by the players.

Pointers to keep in mind for professional golf courses design:

Landscape

The landscape of the golf course is what makes it attractive in the first place. Several professional golf courses designs portray the use of the landscape around the course in such a fashion that it makes the course look appealing for visitors and golf enthusiasts. 

The Ria Bintan Golf Club in Indonesia is a great example of the landscape for crafting a professional golf course. This course was designed by the professional South African legend- Gary Player.

Landscape - how to design a golf course

Private golf course

Several golf courses are only accessible to the private owners of the golf park and certain close relations and family. Such golf courses are curated in a fashion that can provide the necessary private space and a proper scenic view of the landscape. 

Traditional principles

Golf courses design is mainly based on the number of holes and pointers to be made throughout the golf course surface. Allotting par values to each specific hole is an important part of this sporting activity. 

Hence, professional golf course designers must certainly keep the traditional principles and rules of golf in mind while designing a golf course.

Layout 

Before designing a professional golf course, it is important to have a blueprint in mid of the layout of the golf park so that the addition of the natural scapes and the natural green shall look tasteful and perfectly crafted.

The positioning of the trees and, in some cases, the lakes and pools are very important for the overall outlook of the golf course. For designing an ideal golf course, it is best to keep the travel distances as short as possible.

Dos and Don'ts:

Green landscapes are always a treat for the eyes. They make for an environmentally sustainable golf course; hence, you can never go wrong with adding the lofty green trees, local vegetation, and shrubs to make the course look vibrant and majestic.

  • Hurdles are fun

Golfing after a certain time might feel a bit dragged and boring; hence, it is always a good idea to add interesting and fun hurdles along the course so that the players and the visitors who are there to watch the game can have fun time.

  • Contouring 

Water and sand landscapes are fun and interesting for a course, especially when placed in the right spots making it difficult to hit a direct target. But, golf courses design shall also include contours and edges to heighten the level of challenge.

  • Make the best use of the landscape.

Several professional golf courses worldwide are built alongside a major landscape such as the ocean or the hills. These landscapes provide natural hurdles along the course if the golf park is crafted tastefully.

Hence, inclusivity of the proper landscapes and making the best use of them is important for building and designing a professional golf course.

  • Blueprint 

Penning your thoughts and designs and jotting down the creative ideas you already have in mind for designing a golf course is a great start. As they say, "it starts with an idea," to bring your thoughts to fruition, you must make a proper blueprint of the golf course beforehand and add to the original plan as you proceed along with the project.

Blueprint - how to design a golf course

When designing an 18-hole golf course of international standards, it is necessary to design three areas. Specifically, the design of an 18-hole golf course needs to meet the following standards:

  • Tee-box: The tee needs to be a square flat surface. This is the player's teeing point, called Tee Shot, Teeing, or Driver. The ball is placed at the tee and the golfer can use any type of club to hit the ball into the fairway so that the ball gets as close to the green as possible.

  • Fairway: This is the taxiway from Tee to Green. Correctly understood, that is the ball line – the ideal area to shoot the ball from the starting position to the endpoint (from the tee to the green). If the ball goes to the correct trajectory of the fairway, the easier it is for the player to push the ball to the obstacle, their accuracy is much higher. Players often have to use clubs 3, 45, and 5 to hit the ball long distances. Fairways are often absent on par-3 holes because the line is too short for long-ball targets; it occurs mainly on par-4 and par-5 holes.

  • Green: Also known as the area surrounding the hole, it is green, not exactly the same in shape and size. However, the most popular is still oblong or oval. They are as tall as the fairway or slightly steeper. When designing, people need to put green and smooth grass here to make it easier for the ball to roll into the hole. So grasses like Bermuda or Bentgrass are most often chosen.

There is also a "Double Green", which is the green area surrounding 2 holes on the course. It is for two different groups of players to play at the same time (1 hole, 1 chess each). Besides, there are Alternate Greens- greens ie 2 alternating green areas. Players can play on the first green for the first 9 holes and the second green for the 9 holes in box 2.

Conclusion 

Golf course design can be a hectic task, and starting a project on a commercial level may take months and years at length, but a finished golf course that has been carefully curated will always be worth all the sleepless nights and all the work.

Hence, if you are planning on designing a professional golf course, it is best to have your plans and ideas straight and to have a blueprint or basic layout of the court planned. 

For more such content on golfing and golf courses, visit the official blog page of- AllTimesGolf Blog.