1 The EIGCA Professional Diploma in Golf Course Architecture ...

The EIGCA Professional Diploma in Golf Course Architecture
Seminar 4
Introduction
The fourth seminar in the series of five was held at
Vilamoura in the Algarve region of Portugal. The most
obvious choice for this was to introduce us to the art of designing resort golf courses and the many factors
that must be included in the process. Most of our presentations were held at the Dom Pedro Golf Resort,
which functioned as a base for the entire seminar, while a few were held in the conference room at the Old
Course in Vilamoura.
The first few days in Portugal were a chilling experience with temperatures around 17-18 degrees but the
rest of the two weeks was enjoyed under the scorching sun in 25 degrees.
Sunday 12/4-09
• Travel day
With a very pregnant girlfriend left behind I headed for
London Gatwick to board my flight to Faro Airport.
I landed at 20.30 in the evening at met up with Rob,
Rogilio and Agustin (whom I actually met in Gatwick) after an impressive flight over the mountains in
Spain and Portugal. We shared a taxi to our various hotels in Vilamoura and went straight for the marina,
where we met up with the other guys that had arrived before us. Less than an hour later the entire seminar
group was gathered and ready for two weeks of presentations, workshops and site visits.
Monday 13/4-09
•
•
Presentation Skills
Role Play Presentation Workshop
Monday morning everybody gathered in the conference
room located in the basement of the Dom Pedro Golf
Resort. This hotel was chosen as the venue of the fourth
EIGCA Seminar and proved to be an excellent choice.
Monday morning was the first introduction for most of the guys to the motivational speaker Frank
Newbury. I had been so fortunate to actually attend one of his seminars in Denmark two years earlier and
thus had an idea about what was awaiting us.
The day was separated into two sections. The first and longest was Franks interactive presentation of
how to do presentations and the second part was a small roleplay workshop. As always Frank came very
prepared and it is obvious that he really knows what he is talking about and that he himself is good at
presenting and getting his message across the table!
His presentation of “Presentation Skills for Golf Course Architects” was a mix of power point slides
accompanied by his words and gestures, short work sessions where we had to fill in small assignments
included in the session handout and finally open debate and discussion about the various points of his
presentation. All together a very powerful presentation that lasted more or less 6 hours separated by
coffee- and lunch breaks. The only real criticism I have about his presentation is that some parts seem
too rehearsed - almost like watching an actor perform... But I guess that is just the nature of the beast

when giving a presentation about presentation skills and basically it was a training seminar, not a real
presentation! All together it was a very useful presentation where I picked up a lot of small tips, tricks and
hints to improve my presentation skills - and I guess that was the aim of the day.
The second part of the day was the roleplay session where everybody had to “learn by doing”! We were
split into three groups and were instructed to give a 10 minute presentation following the template laid
out by Frank. The topic of our presentations could be anything and we were all ment to have prepared
one for this Monday session, but alas.... Unfortunately there had been some bad planning from EIGCA
and we were told to prepare this presentation only one week before. This was not enough time considered
that probably everybody was working on their Great Orme Project and the result was that more or less
everybody (including me) came to the seminar without a prepared presentation.
Well nevertheless the day went on and I prepared a short presentation on “Becoming a dad” - well
actually I prepared two presentations leaving the choice up to my audience. But luckily (and with a
bit of presentation skill from me) they chose the right presentation. The start went very well. I had
bought two bottles of champagne in the airport and brought drinking cups, so I initiated a couple of my
fellow students in opening and sharing the champagne while I started my presentation. The rest of the
presentation, which was unrehearsed and unprepared, went as I anticipated - a bit chaotic but fun!
Tuesday 14/4-09
•
•
Resort Golf in the Algarve
Resort Golf and Masterplanning
The second day of the seminar was held in the conference
room at The Old Course, Vilamoura - or Oceanico Old
as it is called. The people staying at the Dom Pedro took
their free shuttlebus up there while a large group of us
not staying at the Dom Pedro chose to walk! We were told it was a 20-25 minutes walk but it turned out
to be closer to 45 minutes and when we closed in on the finish line it started to rain! So not only did we
come to late (my apologies), we were also soaking wet...
Nevertheless the day turned out to be very interesting. The first part of the day was spend in the company
of Andrew Glen, the Regional Manager of Oceanico Golf. His presentation focused on the financial and
operational views of resort golf and with his background from Oceanico, who manages in the region of
7-8 courses in the Algarve, he was well suited to introduce this topic to us.
Coming from Denmark where resort golf is unheard of (up until last year where Lübker Resort opened)
I was quite stunned about the drive behind these golf courses! It is NOT about golf at all... It is purely
about business and money and the golf courses are only there to increase the potential revenue of a given
project. This doesn’t mean that the golf courses are second rate or anything! On the contrary they are most
often high end and very expensive courses.
One of Andrews main points was the many changes of the golf course design when this is part of
resort planning. When the masterplan (especially housing plan) changes so do the golf course design
and developers always try to maximize their potential revenue so Masterplans change quite often and

consequently so does the golf courses.
Second part of the we were entertained by Aaron Minson from WATG. He was going to present the
different stages of masterplanning to us but the presentation quickly took a turn in another direction. He
turned out to be an absolute wiz-kid when it comes to computers and the various software we use within
the industry. So the first hour of his presentation, which was also the best part for me personally, went
with nerdy computer stuff on hard- and software. But in at the end of the day he actually also managed
to take us through the various stages of masterplanning by showing us the development of one of his
projects. His presentation was a combination of site-photo’s and how the plans and drawings developed
through the design process.
I was so impressed with his workflow and how he used the different software packages together that I
realised how much time I could save by getting the right equipment. So the direct consequence of Aarons
presentation for me has been an investment in a brand new and very powerful laptop and I am looking
very much forward to increasing my work-speed and workflow over the coming months.
Wednesday 15/4-09
•
•
•
Golf Development
Considerations and Planning
Documentation and Tendering
Wednesday we were back in the basement of the Dom
Pedro where we were introduced to the very interesting
character Jeremy Pern. He is very charismatic and good
at presentation but... You need to scrape through the
layer of bu...... to get to the core of business - then he
made quite a lot of good points. But generally a guy who likes to provoke his environment and especially
us students to get us thinking.
In general he delivered some very good presentations during the day. A bit unstructured at times but he
got his points across in the end and the day finished with his very entertaining “Rocky Horror Show”
with photo’s of mishaps at golf courses - just a remainder of things that can go wrong if the architect is not
paying attention through the entire process.
Thursday 16/4-09
•
•
Environmentally Sensitive Golf Design
Visit to Vilamoura Old
The first half of Thursday we enjoyed another session
with Jeremy Pern in the basement of the Dom Pedro. His
second day talk was about environmentally sensitive golf
design.
With his background and long-term involvement in golf design and environment we could not have found
any one better for the job. His view on environmentally sensitive design was explained through examples
of projects he had been involved in and other projects he had been introduced to. I fully appreciated the

need for environmentally sensitive golf course design and it is actually a subject which I am very interested
in and know a fair bit about. Maybe because of this I got a bit disappointed about his presentation. He
likes to provoke his audience to think about the topic and start a discussion - which I appreciate - but
when he starts to discuss certain projects and talk against them without having been involved at all and
without having his facts right it all starts to get very subjective and opinionated! And I was actually hoping
that he would be able to present new and useful information on environmental sensitive design to us but
instead that drowned in unsubstantiated criticism of other projects.
We finished quite early with Jeremy and got a long lunch break before going to the Old Course at
Vilamoura. Unfortunately there were no meetings or course tours arranged, so instead most of us took
the opportunity to play 18-holes on this famous course (did I just say unfortunately). A great opening
hole followed by another three great holes. During the rest of the round I get continuously more and
more disappointed with the course! Maybe it was because this was my first round on a resort course, but
nevertheless I found the course too monotonous with its tree-lined fairways and high tees to low fairway
to high green layout. Furthermore I found the housing way too close to the golf course but then again, it is
an old resort course with a layout from before the era of law-suits!
Friday 17/4-09
• Case Study of Quinto do Lago
- Safety & Planning
• Site Visit Quinto do lago
The first thing that was rather pleasing about the course was the
fact that it was without housing - very unusual in the Algarve region
of Portugal! Secondly the layout seemed surprisingly spacious
considering that the course is 6.480 metres long and crammed into an
The first short part of the day we had a brief introduction
to safety in planning from Jorge Santana da Silva but the
interesting part of the day was the site visit to his newly
opened design Quinto do Lago Laranjal - an old orange
grove transformed into a 6.480 metre golf course.
area of 60
hectares
and besides
a few steep
southfacing
slopes on
the greens
that will
become
hard to maintain the entire course impressed
me very much. During construction they had

kept both orange, avocado and cork oak trees which added to the atmosphere of the course by telling the
story of what used to be there. The marvellous smell of the orange trees added a wonderful new dimension
to the north-eastern corner of the site and all together the course seemed well fitted into the surrounding
scenery. One of the great features of the course was the greens, which were very boldly and challenging
shaped with lots of undulations - but as nice as they looked and
played they will probably also be the Achilles heel of the course
because they will be so hard to maintain.
After the visit at Laranjal we all headed home to call it an early day
and to
charge the
batteries for
a fun night
out.
Saturday 18/4-09
•
•
Dissertation Updates
Main Design Project Updates
Saturday was set aside for student presentations at the
Dom Pedro. The goal/topic of the day was to present
the content and research of our individual dissertations
to all our fellow students and to receive critic afterwards.
First of all not everybody showed up for this part of the seminar, which was a bit of a shame since they
probably could have benefited from it. But nevertheless, those who were there benefited from the critic
and good advice given from both Martyn Jones and the rest of the students. From my own perspective I
already had a very clear idea of my dissertation and the only problem, I was facing, was finding enough

elevant literature and because of my relatively special topic I unfortunately did not get any further in that
direction!
Sunday 19/4-09
• Nothing on Programme
Chill out day with pool session and movies on the
laptop...
Monday 20/4-09
•
•
•
Warm-Season Turfgrasses
Visit to Algarvereiva Grass Nursery, Faro
Visit to Espiche Golf Club, Lagos
First day of the second week was a hard-core awakening
from the relaxed weekend! The first half of the day was
dominated by a warm-season turfgrass lecture by Martyn
Jones and as usual he did this with plenty of humour and
lots of special knowledge! He is by all means a turfgrass
specialist and a walking encyclopedia and his many years of teaching experience gives him the insight to
deliver his message clearly to everybody. Even though he cut the presentation down there was still quite
a lot to know about warm-season grasses and it is very good to have his presentation on the pc for future
reference. The buzz-word of the presentation was Paspalum grasses and their potential as a great turfgrass
for golf courses.
The high-light of Martyns presentation became real when we visited the turf nursery in Algarvereiva
near Faro. Here we met the nursery owner and former EIGCA Diploma student Simao da Cuhna
whom together with his first man on site told us about the advantages and limitations of their Paspalum
turfgrass. We also given a presentation of their other turfgrasses like Bermuda and tall fescue.
The last stop of the day was the unknown Espiche Golf Club an hour south of Faro near Lagos. When
we arrived it turned out that the golf course was under construction and it seemed like there was a lack of
time and project management - more of that
later! We were there to see the greens that
were the only Paspalum greens in the Algarve
region. But due to the lack of maintenance it
was very hard to determine their properties
and how well they actually will work.
During the site visit we actually met up
with the site manager and the owner who
told us more about the place. First of all; the
construction had been ongoing for around
15 years on an on-off basis. The first major
problem was that construction had begun

efore any actual permission were given... The
result of that was that they may have started
construction early but was stopped for some
years. The impression of the course was that it
was so much below standard in all aspects that
they never will be able to attract and keep any
players there. The design was appalling with
some impossible holes, enormous greens
without a single pin position and the worst
bunkers I have ever seen - and what a
shame! Because the topo and ground cover
of the area was very interesting and held a
great potential.
Tuesday 21/4-09
• Irrigation in the Golf Resort Development -
Principles, Practise and Operation
Back in the dark conference room of the Old Course,
Vilamoura for a full day of lecturing. Most part of the
day was spend listening to Giles Wardle from Irriplan on
how to design, implement and operate irrigation on golf
courses and especially on resort courses in the warm regions were breakdowns are catastrophic.
One of the points Giles got across to me was the complexity of the maths involved in irrigation design!
Some of the formulas they use to calculate the area of spread were very intimidating to say it the least;-)
and I am glad this is not part of my job description.
A small part of the day was set aside for a product presentation from Rainbird. This turned out to be a
great little demo of how the various parts of their sprinklers work and what they can and cannot do. It was
actually my first time holding an actual sprinkler in my hand even though I have worked in greenkeeping!
The day was finished off with a Rainbird sponsored dinner at an excellent local Portuguese restaurant
- thank you very much.

Wednesday 22/4-09
• Visit to Golf Resort Amendoeira - Faldo Course
& Christie O’Connor Jr. Course
• Visit to Pine Cliffs Golf Resort
the development we met up with Andrew Glen once more.
Wednesday morning we all got in the bus and drove
about an hour to get to the brand new golf resort
Amendoeira that boasts two courses designed by Faldo
Golf Design and Christie O’Connor Jr. The resort is the
newest on the Oceanico palette and to tell us more about
He gave us a guided tour of the enormous
club house and practice facilities while
explaining the development process from
beginning to the end. The Faldo Course is
meant to resemble an Arizona desert style
golf course while the Christie O’Connor Jr.
course is a valley/flood plain course.
The first impression I got was that this place
was very impressing with all parts being
constructed to a very high standard. The
club house and entire village was developed
in a central position on the site with
beautiful views across both courses.
Especially the driving range caught my
attention since this probably was the first
time in my entire golfing career that I
actually felt inspired to wack some balls on a
driving range! Plenty of targets, nice shaping,
fantastic teeing ground and Titleist balls in
pyramids - it doesn’t get any better...
For the tour of the courses we were introduced
to Russ Wilson, the young Faldo Course
Superintendent. He had been involved in
the construction of the courses as well as the
grow-in and apparently he had done a great job
and was offered the position of Faldo Course
Superintendent.
The next couple of hours were spend racing from
feature to feature of the two courses in the carts
provided by the club. The time was mainly spend

on the Faldo course which seemed to be a very strategic and long experience - but also beautiful with
some stunning vistas across the site. We only briefly saw the Christy O’Connor Course.We finished off by
visiting the temporary maintenance compound. As with the village this part of the development was still
under construction - or actually in this case, construction had yet to begin.

The second stop of the day was the Hawtree
designed Pine Cliffs resort. This used to
be a high end resort course for Sheraton
guests only, but somewhere along the line
this was changed. When we arrived the
club house and course were both very busy
and from walking the course it was easily
spotted that maintenance could be better.
But nevertheless Pine Cliffs turned out to be
a very charming little par 32 9-hole course
with a great layout and some stunning holes.
Especially the bunkering is sensational and
of course the world famous cliff hole. This
used to play as the last hole on the round but today it is the 5th hole.
When walking the course I picked up a very calm and intimate atmosphere even though this still was a
resort course with housing along the
boundary. It is very hard to pin point
exactly what made this course a better
experience to me, but it was definitely a
course I would enjoy to play!
And mentioning to play... We were
actually ment to play a round here and
everybody was very excited about it,
but unfortunately something in the
planning had gone wrong so the tee
times we thought we had, were nonexisting.
10

Thursday 23/4-09
•
•
Environmental Issues and Impact Assessment
Site visit to San Lorenzo
The second Thursday of the seminar was devoted to
environmental issues and was hosted by Mike Wood. He
gave an introduction and overview of the environmental
concerns a golf course architect should consider during
a design process and went on to explain how to use the tool Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
before, during and after the design phase.
One of the flashy “in-terms” of our time and industry is “Sustainable Golf Design”! Nobody really
knows what it covers or at least it is not the same from architect to architect, but everybody uses it when
promoting their newest developments and that includes signature golf courses placed in the middle of the
Dubai desert! But Mike tries to give it a definition and the closest he can get is the Brundtland definition
of “sustainability”, which states:
Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs.
Converting this to golf development terms it probably is quite accurate and the three components of
sustainability and sustainable development are economy, society and environment – the key concept to
grasp is that all three are interdependent, indivisible from each other even – you can’t just look at one in
isolation (from Mike Woods presentation).
What is for sure is that nobody can disregard the environment anymore, so why struggle against it instead
of, as Mike suggests, turn it into a useful tool and integrate it into the analysis and design phases.
Mike finished his morning presentation by explaining how to use EIA in real life through a case study of a
project he was involved in.
The afternoon was to be spend on
the San Lorenzo course - famous for
its golf course and the environmental
protection and enhancement of the
area. Golf first... Without having
played the course and disregarding
a few spectacular holes, the course
seemed uninteresting with poor
bunkering, extremely wide (resort)
fairways and a maintenance that was
letting the fine reputation down. But
the wildlife and flora integrated into
the site was no less than astounding
and Mike could not have chosen a
better place to emphasise his ideas on golf as an integral part of the environment and nature - and vice
12

versa. In one of the main lakes I saw more
different bird species in one go than ever
before and the waters also inhabited turtles
and salamanders. And for the public to be
able to enjoy all this splendour they had
even build a bird-watching tower.
All in all a great place to enjoy a day in the
sun! The golf course was not to inviting
and certainly overcrowded with players
waiting on every single shot. But the
nature could make all that vanish
and leave you with an unforgettable
experience.
13

Friday 24/4-09
• Golf - its role within the tourism industry
The last day of the seminar was set aside for a joker
presentation by Maria Manuel Delgado e Silva from the
Algarve Promotion Bureau. She gave a very charming and
informative presentation on the history and development of the tourism in the Algarve region of Portugal as
well as a picture of the present situation. She finished off by narrowing the presentation into only golf and
golfers in Algarve, which was very interesting.
The second part of the day was set aside for a round of golf at San Lorenzo for those interested. I had already
booked my flight back home before we received the timetable and was therefore unable to play. But with my
pregnant girlfriend at home that was in fact where I wanted to be the most, so it did not matter too much.
14