55 bunkers have been designed to be in play more for the better golfers. The greens have multiple ‘outs’ and they are not super fast. There are rolls coming into them and then it flattens out with multiple pin placements. This sort of design is key to making it challenging for some but not for the for average player. We want them to get to the pin. We also have the ability to tighten the greens up to get them playing as hard as we want.” Dye Designs, which Cynthia runs alongside her husband O’Brien and son Matthew, has projects in progress in Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Serbia, along with renovation work in the US. “Golf’s surge in popularity looks to be sustained, but I don’t know how long it will last,” says Dye. “It seems the industry is building more highend and destination golf courses for very few people, and the remodelling work is raising the prices of golf for the average player. These two factors are what concerns me: are we outpricing the sustainability of golf courses and the people playing them? Everybody wants to remodel their golf course, but it’s all the old guys at the clubs asking for it as they can afford it. We need to build more municipal golf that people can afford or remodel courses in a way that doesn’t outprice the existing players. That is the challenge for the future of our industry. “A lot of our remodelling work relates to decreasing the maintenance on a golf course. Everything has a life expectancy, and before clubs spend a lot of money on upgrading their irrigation system, they have to make course changes to make sure everything is in place. Bunkers are a huge part of it, so is tee placement and grass reduction.” Sustainability and playability are key to Dye’s design philosophy. “Designers evolve to their own likings,” she says. “I always think about playability – my uncle would say to me, ‘How do you think you’re going to get there?’ I’m not the best golfer in the family, so I really think about this, especially from a forward tee perspective, although I often play from the intermediate tees. I don’t make things too easy, as those playing from a Photo: Erbil Hills Golf Club Fittingly for a Dye design, Erbil Hills includes an island green
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