What are some of the challenges facing golf course design today?
Probably the biggest thing is environmental concerns. With the setbacks (buffers around streams and water that must remain undisturbed) in North Carolina, and probably coming everywhere, that are 50-, 75- and 100-foot setbacks on a lot of the creeks, it will keep you from ever playing across a creek or ever seeing a creek. If some of the restrictions in North Carolina go (nationwide), the only thing golf is ever going to be is in a 40-acre field. It’s going to push us into a cornfield where you can’t do anything but move dirt. All the natural streams and lakes and things, you won’t be able to include them in the design. So, potentially golf courses won’t have water hazards? Yes. They already have rivers in North Carolina that have 100-foot setbacks, and they’re trying to do all the tributaries, too. So that’s the biggest single factor that is affecting us right now. Can you build a pond on a golf hole? You can build one in a 40-acre field, but as far as being able to even cross a wetla
