Tom Fazio has designed more than 200 golf courses in 60 years, so it’s safe to say that there isn’t much he hasn’t seen in the world of course architecture.
Given those numbers – and his stature as one of the game’s all-time great architects – what worries him in today’s world of course design?
“I usually never go to other new golf courses,’’ Fazio said at the recent opening of his new Richland course at Reynolds Lake Oconee in Greensboro, GA. “I hardly have time to go to my own. The only thing that concerns me about so many of the new ones that you see – there’s one common denominator – lots of sand.’’
Fazio installed 90,000 square feet of sand at Richland, which he created from nine holes of his National course and nine new holes.
The problem with sand, Fazio said, is that it becomes difficult to maintain.
“It also becomes very difficult to play for the average player and high handicap player. Good players… they don’t have many difficult shots in bunkers.
“There’s this trend to build golf courses in these sand belt areas, whether it’s in Aiken (S.C.) down to the whole ridgeline from Columbia down all the way to Georgia and other places… Wisconsin, Nebraska… different areas.
“It’s fun to build golf on sand. It’s easy to construct because of drainage. It’s a normal tendency because it’s almost natural to use sand. I don’t worry it for myself because we work very hard at trying not to over build sand even though there’s a tendency you want to do it.’’
“To some degree it becomes how much can you afford? And if you don’t like sand and you’re in charge of design, maybe you don’t have as much sand. But if you like sand, maybe you have more. So it’s a very interesting concept of sand, which bothers me about the trend.’’
Photo: Tom Fazio at Richland Reynolds Lake Oconee (Reynolds Lake Oconee)