42 US, where Mike and Frank worked together, Royal Dublin, which was Frank, Hendrik and Clayts, and 7 Mile Beach in Tasmania, where Clayts and Mike are both working. We have several other upcoming projects where such collaboration will take place. “Additionally, all four partners have consulted on the designs for our courses in Vietnam. Hendrik is lead designer and I expect all of them will be involved during the build phase.” Philip Spogard and Michiel van der Vaart are not so far apart, but Denmark and the Netherlands are still not quite next door. Spogard says that on most projects he and his partner work separately, but have collaborated closely on a number of jobs. “At Golfbaan Stippelberg in the Netherlands, Michiel worked more on the routing and landscape while I got stuck into the greens,” he says. “On a number of other jobs, such as Himmerland in Denmark and Ålands GC in Finland, which were mostly ‘my’ projects, Michiel joined in with some visits, ideas and a few greens. Similarly I had input on some of his jobs in the Netherlands. In that way we can supplement each other through large scale projects – and cover for each other in case of illness. That has a great value for our clients, who are more ‘covered’ that way at critical points during construction. For most of our clients, upgrading their courses is a massive investment and it can be problematic if the architect doesn’t deliver at the moment of implementation. We have been so busy for the last fifteen years that we mostly have to focus on our own projects – but we know we always have each other’s back in case we need help or get stuck with issues where we need another point of view. “It is definitely an advantage for both us and for our clients to have a team of architects who can draw on each other during a project. More often than not our relations to our clients are between five and 15 years – so there are multiple points in that timeline where we get the chance to either give input or assist each other.” Kevin Ramsey and David Dale of Golfplan have worked together for many years, and are both based in the same city in northern California, so “ It is definitely an advantage for both us and for our clients to have a team of architects who can draw on each other” COLLABORATION Photo: CDP The Clayton, DeVries & Pont team, although based in different countries, sometimes come together to work on a project, such as at Golf de Fontainebleau in France
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