Tweaking the celebrated work of Tom Simpson at County Louth

  • Lovely Golf Course

    The green of the fifth hole has been recontoured as part of the work

  • Lovely Golf Course

    The recontouring helps provide more pinnable areas

  • Lovely Golf Course

    Spogárd has created an alternative green for the seventeenth hole

Adam Lawrence
By Adam Lawrence

Ever since the golf development industry went into near hibernation in 2008, GCA has been discussing the problems young architects have in establishing a reputation in the business. Frankly, building a name has always been difficult; even in times of boom, established firms have hoovered up much of the work, and those seeking to get a foothold in the industry have had to battle to get the jobs that will allow them to become recognised.

The best way of all to make a name for yourself is to design a new course that makes waves around the world. In recent memory, no-one has done that better than David Kidd, whose design at Bandon Dunes established him as an architect to watch, and helped him sell himself into a number of other great projects around the world. But one great course does not a career make; witness Mike Nuzzo, whose uber-private Wolf Point in Texas has been lauded by all who have visited, but who is still to build another.

New build contracts have been hard to come by since 2008, even more so in the kind of locations that actually get you real attention. German architect Rolf-Stephan Hansen made his debut by building the wonderful Budersand links on the island of Sylt, now recognised as one of the country’s two or three best courses. Hansen, a Sylt native, may have been perfectly placed to take on and execute that commission, but has he been able to parlay the success of Budersand into a group of other contracts? No, for a variety of reasons, not least the fact that Germany, large and strong golf market though it be, is not the focus of the global industry, which, essentially, revolves round the US and the British Isles. To have really made it, you need a great project in North America, the UK or Ireland.

Danish designer Philip Spogárd has been recognised for some years as one of the best young architecture talents around. While completing the European Institutes diploma programme, he won the student of the year award, and, after going to work for London-based practice Thomson Perrett & Lobb, his first new course as lead associate, Carya in Turkey has been extremely well received. Spogárd left TPL a few years ago to start his own practice in partnership with Dutch architect Michiel van der Vaart. The two have already won plaudits for their work in the Netherlands and Scandinavia, such as the new Stippelberg course near Eindhoven and the major renovation of Himmerland in Denmark, now a European Tour host course – but again, neither of these two locations is likely to move the needle on a global scale.

In the absence of a really good newbuild opportunity, the best way to get attention is to earn the chance to work on a course that is already well known around the world. And here Spogárd has made some moves; for the last three years, he has been consulting architect at County Louth in Ireland, an iconic work of Tom Simpson, and generally viewed as one of the Emerald Isle’s top ten courses.

How did a young architect based in Denmark land a plum job at one of Ireland’s top clubs? Spogárd expresses his gratitude to Irish designer and fellow EIGCA member Ronan Branigan, a long-time member of County Louth. Branigan, wanting to remain at arm’s length from any architectural work at his own home club, recommended the club contact Spogárd & VanderVaart instead. “Ronan’s knowledge of the course has been vital, as well as his sparring throughout,” says Spogárd.

County Louth held the Irish Open as recently as 2009, when homegrown talent Shane Lowry, then still an amateur, won his first European Tour title. It still has clear aspirations to be regarded as a top rank championship venue, and with that comes a difficult task for an architect. Spogárd is by inclination a preservationist – he wrote his diploma thesis on the heathland courses of southern England, and for years one of his great desires has been to restore Harry Colt’s iconic bunkering on the par three fifth on Sunningdale’s New course.

But keeping a course championship-ready often involves more than just preservation work. Obviously, a key part of any championship test is sufficient length to challenge top players, while the requirements of big events for pin locations (and the parallel desire to have greens running super-fast) means that many old greens, especially by architects famed for bold contouring, as Simpson was, become problematic.

Over the last three years, Spogárd has worked particularly on four holes at County Louth. At the par five second hole, whose greens was reworked less that ten years ago, he has built a new green. “We reshaped parts of the three-tiered green to remove one of the tiers, as the green contours made it almost unplayable and partly unpinnable during certain weather conditions,” he says. “We also adjusted some of the bunkers, so that there is a greater emphasis on ‘mental agility’ – more in line with the ideas of Tom Simpson. The layup shot had no strategic value before, but now needs to be played to the right side of the fairway, flirting with a new bunker, to gain the optimal angle to the angled green. The shaping has also been aesthetically improved so that the hole now appears more natural and settled in the landscape.”

So far, so relatively uncontroversial. However, Spogárd’s work on the fifth hole is more likely to be shouted down by purists. An iconic Simpson par three, the small and severely sloping green caused the club continual problems, as a shortage of pinnable areas meant the turf in those areas where the hole could be located was subject to extreme wear. Spogárd says he had detailed digital survey carried out prior to the work, so the club will be able to reconstruct the green if methods develop which allows them to maintain it in good condition.

“50-80 years ago it would have been pinnable almost throughout, but the faster green and increased number of golfers makes it impossible to maintain it in good condition,” he says. “We kept 90 per cent of the green intact as it is and stripped 10 per cent towards the back left corner, which was flattened out and tied into a green enlargement area of approximately 100 sq m. This will increase the pinnable area by approximately 150 per cent. Tom Simpson’s idea of a runoff on the left remains and provides – together with the two original bunkers on the right – the hole’s main defence.”

The seventeenth hole was formerly considered by many golfers as County Louth’s weakest. Spogárd has created an alternative green, to the right of the existing one – on land that was not available to Simpson back in the day. The new green is still growing in and has not been brought into play yet, and the club is still considering what use to make of it.

Spogárd’s final change at County Louth, up to press, has come on the home hole. A par five of almost 560 yards, the hole has been extensively altered from Simpson’s original, but safety concerns preclude a full restoration. Spogárd has widened the fairway in the drive zone, creating new strategy by forcing players to decide how to tackle a bunker that now sits in the middle of the fairway. For big hitters, it can be carried, while others will have to decide whether to go left or right or lay up short. Going down the new part of the fairway to the left is the narrower option, but a tee ball hit in this area will open up the angle to the green for an attempt to hit it in two. Bailing out to the right is easier, but will leave a more difficult angle of approach.

No-one who knows Philip Spogárd will be surprised at the careful, cautious approach he has taken to working at a course of County Louth’s status. He is not the kind of architect to go round obliterating historically important work for the sake of it, and, in the case of the fifth hole, by some distance the most controversial part of his changes, I am convinced he has come up with a solution that has the lowest possible impact on Simpson’s original design – which he reveres – while still achieving the club’s goals to have more pinnable area. He should be commended for such an approach.

This article first appeared in Golf Course Architecture - Issue 41

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