SURVEY & ANALYSIS

Working with what you've been given...

The early stage of any project involves surveying what you've been given to work with, a principle that forms the basis for sound design. The earliest golf courses were fashioned from natural landforms that provided the challenges and strategies that have evolved with the game.

Regardless of the site encountered, it is important to be able to survey the individual features that give the site its uniqueness and then be able to analyse their contribution to this uniqueness.  

Evaluating nature...  

Many features in a landscape contribute to its uniqueness. Physical elements such as landforms and vegetation are important, as are elements that add to your sensory appreciation of a place such as vistas and feelings of enclosure or openness.

Being able to survey the contribution all of these elements make to the overall landscape allows you to attach a value to each element. The success of the finished project will rely on being able to implement as many of the high value elements into the finished design as possible.

Establishing the natural...  

Given that golf course design requires some form of construction, the benefit of thorough survey and analysis will be an environment where it becomes increasingly difficult to discern the imposed features from the natural landscape.

This becomes a key feature in a golfer's perception of a new golf course or golf hole. The words you want to hear are, "how new is this bit? It feels as though it's always been here!"

You will have had this feeling on new courses or re-modelled holes and you will know that the seamless blend between original features and imposed features stems from surveying and analysing the qualities of the original canvas.

Next - Project Concept Phase