Fred and Tiger Woods have both careers in the course design.
Getty Images
Is not unusual for the top Pro Pro Tour To carve their second career as architects of the golf course, sealing their names on high profile projects. But how involved are they, really, in those models?
This seemed like a good question for architect Brian Curley.
Born and raised in Monterey, caliph. Where Pebble Calculated as a home course, Curley began its beginning in the design of Golf under Pete Dye in the 1980s before establishing its firm.
In his decades -long career, he has accumulated a number of valued design loans around the world, including the Montana and Plantation Golf Club’s Plantation at Palm Springs.
But nowhere he was more fertile than in Asia. Among Curley’s visible projects in that continent is the Mission Hills, in Shenzen, China, which is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest golf development.
A widespread complex that can pass for a small town, Mission Hills is home to 12 courses whose names (Vijay course, Connected Course, Els course, Annika course etc. In public data, they are the players who designed the courses. In fact, however, it was Curley who made the heavy rise.
How much did his famous design partners contribute?
The short answer is, “This changed”. The longest answer is given in this week’s episode of Golf destination Podcast, in which Curley appeared as a guest (Spoiler Alert: Curley managed to complete the Ozaki course in Mission Hills never to meet Japanese star Jumbo Ozaki).
The concept of a architect, says Curley, often presents a paradox. For marketing purposes, it helps to have “a very prominent active player who is making news and wins tour.” But that kind of success requires such a focus that it leaves little time for other pursuits. Is a complicated balance to attract both.
Beyond Mission Hills, Curley experienced that first -hand phenomenon as he collaborated with his friend Fred couples in the 1990s, when couples were still in his competitive prime minister.
“Fred was No. 1 in the world at the time,” Curley says. “So he was not really making many visits to Sit.”
Not that Curley cheats such partnerships. In the right projects, he is pleased to play a similar role to Cyrano De Bergerac, a creative back-and-art force, even when pushing forward with stylists, where his name is in Marque.
To hear more from Curley in his career in Globe Trotting, the past and the present, as well as his cooperation outside the course as the front man for a well -known group of the Scottsdale area, you can hear the whole episode here.
Are you a golf travel jungle? Listen and agree on our Golf Podcast: Apple | Spotify | Heart | Amazon
