Producing visualisations of how golf holes might look after they have been built or rebuilt has become a vitally important sales and marketing tool for golf designers over the past decade or so. Most customers of golf architects, whether club members or new course developers, are not able to interpret a topographical map or a CAD drawing. Thus, providing something a little more user friendly is key to getting projects approved. Whether it’s a sales meeting with a single developer contemplating building a new course, or a large-scale meeting of club members discussing a proposed renovation, it has become expected that the architect will produce some sort of visualisation of the proposed works.

These visualisations can take many forms, from the amazing watercolours that Mike Strantz used to draw to explain his vision, not only to clients, but also to shapers, through still images manipulated using tools such as Adobe Photoshop, and full-blown animated fly-throughs of proposed holes. Most architects will agree that the better the visualisation, the more chance there is of getting a project approved. The fact is that good images sell.

Producing really good images is a specialist skill, one that golf architects’ offices don’t necessarily have. Lots have invested in training in that regard, learning Photoshop-based image manipulation in particular. Animations and fly-throughs, though, are still more specialised, and here architects have generally gone to third party companies to do the work.

Golfgraffix, specialises in this kind of work. There is great crossover between what golf designers need and what media outlets covering golf need. We have been able to mix working for golf architects such as Nicklaus Design, Greg Norman Golf Design, Mackenzie & Ebert and Jeff Howes, with producing fly-throughs for TV, for golf simulators and for use on golf carts. To date, we have produced 3D visualisations for over 220 golf courses around the world.

Over the past 18 months, we have taken this technology and developed it into a marketing and communication tool for golf clubs to showcase their course. There are now over 75,000 golfers using the ClubLink App from Golfgraffix to interact with their local club, and now we are ready to take the next step. This year, we will launch Course Master, a new app aimed specifically at course architects and greenkeepers. The CourseMaster app will act as both a communication device and graphic tool, allowing the user to communicate their plans from any location. The app will act as a live map, with the ability to measure and draw new features, geo tag images, track real-time movement, GPS plot tree locations and to export these to any CAD software.

I believe CourseMaster will be a game changer for golf architects, and greenkeepers for that matter. The ability to produce a ‘virtual map’ of a golf course could be priceless for club record keeping, particularly when charting irrigation patterns or water flows. GCA

John Aherne is the CEO and founder of Golfgraffix

This article first appeared in issue 44 of Golf Course Architecture.