WEBVTT - Why a Golf Course’s Footprint Is So Important 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.559 One of the most important discussions in golf architecture right 0:00:03.640 --> 0:00:07.920 now relates to the footprint of a golf course. That is, 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:12.080 how much space a course takes up physically and environmentally. 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:16.319 Why is this so important, Well, over time, golf course 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:20.079 footprints have gotten bigger. One reason for this is that 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:23.720 players hit the ball farther than they once did, so 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:27.040 a major question that the golf world faces today is 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:30.960 whether we need golf course footprints to start getting smaller, 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:34.239 and the next major question, of course, is how to 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:37.400 do that. To dig into all this, I'm bringing on 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:41.200 someone who has studied the historical evolution of golf courses 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:44.440 as closely as anyone in the world. That person is 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:49.720 George Waters, the manager of USGA Green Section Education, and 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:53.120 today George is going to help me understand how golf 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:56.120 course footprints have changed over the past one hundred years 0:00:56.640 --> 0:00:58.960 and what that means for the future of the game. 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:10.959 I'm Garret Morrison and this is designing golf, So George, 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:14.320 A lot of our conversation here will revolve around the 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:16.720 findings of a study that you and the USGA Green 0:01:16.720 --> 0:01:20.080 Section did a few years ago on how golf courses 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:23.880 have evolved through history. This study was part of the 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:29.080 USGA's Distance Insights Project, one result of which was the 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:32.119 suggested golf ball roll back, which which will take effect 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:36.560 later this decade. So what was the basic motive behind 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:40.960 analyzing how golf courses have changed over time? 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:43.960 Oh, Garrett, First of ball, thanks so much for having 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:47.080 me on and big fan of the podcast, so congratulations 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:49.160 on all that you've done on here. And in terms 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:53.520 of the research project, it emerged from the Distance Insights 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:56.800 Project that was sort of the impetus Burt for the project. 0:01:56.800 --> 0:01:58.680 But as we kind of got into it, Okay, so 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:02.880 what are the what are the implications of how golf 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:05.680 courses change over time in terms of footprint, in terms 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:08.079 of their maintainability, in terms of cost to build, and 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:10.919 so forth. As we got into it, Yes, we looked 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:14.120 at those ways in which distance, looked for ways that 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:18.840 which distance might affect how golf courses change. But since 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:21.440 we work in the green section, we're very interested in 0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.320 how a lot of things influence the way golf courses 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:26.960 change and just what are those trends and what are 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:29.840 the changes. What are some ways that we can look 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:34.760 at where maintenance and the implications of various types of footprint, 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:37.080 not just the entire footprint of the property, but the 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:42.240 footprint of different pieces of that property fairway, green acreage, bunker, 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:46.520 square footage. How have those changed over time? Where can 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:49.640 we draw those connections to golf course maintenance. What are 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:51.840 the implications for the future if we look at the 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:56.079 trends going forward? So what started as a let's look 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:58.799 at how golf courses change and think about how distance 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:04.040 might play a role in that grew into let's look 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:06.440 at all the different ways that the golf course has 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:09.320 changed and really try to think about that total that 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:13.360 total package. And thankfully the USJA was happy to let 0:03:13.440 --> 0:03:15.160 us kind of run with the study a little bit 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:16.960 and really see what we could learn. And it was 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:19.440 fascinating and it was fun for me, as somebody who's 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:23.680 spent a lot of time restoring golf courses, thinking about 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:27.000 how golf courses have evolved over time, to really get 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:29.320 into the nuts and bolts of it and see a 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:31.880 wider range of courses. Also, I mean, we'll get into that, 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:34.639 but I spent most of my time in golf course 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:39.400 architecture working on higher end courses. Alistairs, Mackenzie designs, you know, 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:43.720 these sort of famous really highly regarded projects. We made 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:45.920 a very concerted effort through this study to get a 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:48.960 handle on what's happening with the average golf course, like 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:52.520 the truly average golf course that probably doesn't get necessarily 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:55.680 talked about as much, but that's where the majority of 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:58.480 golf in the United States and anywhere is really played. 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:03.320 How did you go about conducting the study. It was 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:06.280 a complex study, So there's a lot of detail here, 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:11.840 but you know, a basic outline. What was your methodology here? 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:15.800 Honestly, building the sample was probably the hardest part of 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:18.359 the whole thing. So we wanted, like I said, to 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:21.239 develop a really good picture of the average golf course. 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:25.160 And so we came up with an eighty course random sample, 0:04:25.480 --> 0:04:28.280 random with an asterisk there that we wanted it to 0:04:28.320 --> 0:04:31.280 be random, but with certain criteria. So we wanted an 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:34.880 even mix of publican private. We wanted an even mix 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:39.440 of northeast, Southeast, Central, and west, kind of a regional mix, 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:45.479 and we wanted an even distribution of date of opening 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:48.880 from the nineteen twenties through the twenty tens. And so 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:52.159 you end up with ten courses in each of those buckets, 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:58.919 divided over the different regions divided over publican private, it 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:02.120 gets and then you need aerial imagery was kind of 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:05.280 was the foundation of the analysis, and so we set 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:08.400 some criteria for ourselves that we had to have aerial 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:10.919 images of the course from when it opened, you know, 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:14.920 within fifteen twenty years of when it opened, and then 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:19.800 at a fifteen to twenty year cadence throughout its life. 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.520 And so you end up going through a lot of 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.480 permutations to build that sample, because you get courses that 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:27.560 work that don't have the photos, and you get courses 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:29.479 with the photos that don't fit into the buckets. But 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:35.080 that was the eighty course sample. We also included, because 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.320 we had a feeling that there would be differences, We 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:41.200 also included a fifteen course what we called it a 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:44.479 championship course case study for championship for lack of a 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:48.279 better term, but courses that have hosted men's professional golf 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:52.440 events USGA championships. Those were not random, but we did 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:55.120 our best that we could to kind of spread those 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:57.640 out over a decade of opening. So we have some 0:05:57.720 --> 0:05:59.840 courses from the twenties and thirties all the way up 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:02.200 ones that had opened as late as the twenty tens. 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:05.440 We split that up by region a little bit. We 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:08.680 also divided that up by architect to make sure that 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:13.520 we didn't have sort of too much of a stylistic influence. 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:17.640 Now that smaller case study fifteen courses is more vulnerable 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:20.800 to some variation, a little bit tougher to get sort 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:25.000 of statistical significance on things. But so the only trends 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:27.440 that we really reported about from that were ones that 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:30.920 we really felt confident were, hey, this is definitely happening. 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:34.400 We also included a couple of international case studies just 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:36.680 to kind of throw a little context in. Those were 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:39.480 non random that was just kind of some courses that 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:41.279 we were able to get our hands on a good 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:45.600 run of aerial images in Japan and Australia. Those were 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:49.159 both really interesting, sort of just kind of pieces that 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:51.080 went along with it, but not really something that was 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:52.440 a big part of the analysis. 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:56.640 So you had this body of courses that you were 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:01.960 looking at, this sample of golf courses mostly randomly generated. 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:02.640 Yep. 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:06.280 Now you're looking at at aerial photos of these courses 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:10.640 and you know, sometimes Google Earth photos or before Google Earth, 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:15.840 you know, whatever aerial photos are available, and you're comparing 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:21.040 the golf courses these photos across time and seeing what 0:07:21.320 --> 0:07:26.680 changed as you're doing this. Certainly you need some sort 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:30.360 of working definition for what a golf course footprint is 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:34.240 so that you are comparing like to like. So what 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:37.200 was the definition of a golf course footprint that you 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:39.200 came up with and started working with. 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:44.200 So we included everything of the physical space of the 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:48.320 golf facility, and so that includes all the playing areas 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:52.080 of the golf course itself. That includes the clubhouse, the 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:58.520 parking lot, the entrance road, the maintenance facility, any paths 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:01.120 that were you know, roads and paths and dump areas, 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:04.840 things that were you know, clearly attributable to the operation 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:09.800 of the golf course. Naturalized areas because anything that requires maintenance, right, 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:12.640 so like even if there's big expanses between the holes 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:16.040 and their naturalized, those areas are going to require some maintenance. 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:18.960 And so that's included in the bucket. If a course 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:22.120 had forest, like was sort of wrapped around forest, we 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:25.080 included the perimeter of the woods, but not like way 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:28.680 into the woods, so kind of like the logical maintained 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:32.360 perimeter of it. Any large roads that went through we 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:37.960 didn't count. Multi course. We kept everything to eighteen whole courses, 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:41.120 so we avoided any sort of multi course complexes, but 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:44.760 practice facilities, all of those things that are sort of 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:48.640 like maintained elements of a golf facility. And I will 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:50.440 give a shout out to the fact that we worked 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.120 with a number of people who worked in golf course 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:54.960 architecture were really the people who did a lot of 0:08:54.960 --> 0:09:00.640 the legwork, myself, Christine Fraser, Ryan Farrow, of folks that 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:05.240 had a good backgrounding course design and studying golf course 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:09.560 maps and measuring golf course maps. So there was judgment 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:11.760 calls to be made obviously anytime that you're working with 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:14.400 aerial photography, so it really helped to have people that 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:18.800 had a lot of expertise in that field doing that 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:21.760 analysis because it was definitely some pictures are easier to 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:24.320 work with than others and shadows, and so we had 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.680 some fun discussions kind of working through it all and hey, 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:29.760 is this a ta is a spunker? It was really 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:31.760 an enjoyable process, challenging but. 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:36.280 Enjoyable, enjoyable for people who like doing this sort of thing. 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:39.720 I would imagine, which I don't know, I do, you know, 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:43.280 I kind of go through historical areas of golf courses 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:45.320 for fun, and I would imagine there are some people 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:47.480 out there listening to this who are the same way. 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:50.680 So this project is kind of a playpen for that 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:51.480 kind of interest. 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:55.600 I tried not to hog all the really interesting courses 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:57.520 for myself. I tried to make sure that if we 0:09:57.559 --> 0:09:59.800 had some good ones pop up on the random list there, 0:09:59.840 --> 0:10:02.440 that that we spread them around a little bit. And 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:04.160 one thing that you know, we'll get to this as 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:06.280 we get further into this conversation, I'm sure, but just 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:10.480 to kind of highlight, you know, the footprint. So I've 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:14.200 laid out kind of the definition of a spatial footprint 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:16.520 that we talked about for this study, the golf course 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:19.360 and it's integral components. We mapped all the fareaway areas, 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:23.360 greens areas, bunker areas, tea areas within that kind of 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:29.440 along with that bigger total footprint. Within the concept of footprint, 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:32.640 there's the spatial but then there's also kind of like 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:38.160 the input aspect of footprint, right like what is the 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:41.800 intensity of maintenance, what are the inputs required to maintain 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:45.720 that space? And you know, not all footprints are not 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:50.080 all created equal, right, Like the same area with different 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:55.080 expectations have two really different implications. And you know, sort 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:58.160 of a fun example of that, I think is this 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:01.160 wasn't from the study, but just from know life recently 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:05.080 and a seminar I did recently. Pasa Temple recently did 0:11:05.080 --> 0:11:08.120 a you know, a very thorough restoration, and we had 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:12.080 Justin Mandon join us at the GCSAA seminar last year 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:15.720 for my seminar about golf course renovations, and I showed 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:19.280 a side to side photo of the thirteenth pole and 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:22.400 you know, they look you know perfect, you know, great replication, 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:25.680 great restoration work. And I said, justin you know, it 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:28.000 looked exactly the same. But do you think it costs 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:30.280 the same to maintain those bunkers today as it did 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:33.720 back in nineteen thirty And he obviously aggressively shook his 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:35.959 head no, that it's a lot harder to maintain them 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:39.960 to today's standards. So that's an example of how the 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:44.880 same footprint in very different sets of expectations has very 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:49.640 different implications for the sustainability of the game, the inputs, 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:51.600 the cost that we pay as golfers, and so on. 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:53.960 So there's sort of two types of footprint there. There's 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:58.520 the spatial and then there's the input type of footprint. 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:02.000 As well, right, And that's an important distinction because often 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:05.600 when people talk about their carbon footprint, like their personal 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:09.640 carbon footprint, it's not like a spatial concept. It's it's 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:13.720 more of an abstract concept. How much energy are you using? 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:17.040 How many inputs go into the living of your life? 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:20.080 And that is sort of what you need to get 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:23.360 into when you talk about golf courses ultimately, not just 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:24.520 the space they take up. 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:27.080 And that's where I mean, that's where this is all going, right, 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:32.000 Like it's a spatial conversation to then talk about the 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:34.240 resource part of it and the cost part of it 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:36.120 and the input's part of it. So the two were 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:40.480 connected but also sort of slightly different concepts. 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:44.520 Yeah, space has something to do with the abstract footprint, 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:49.160 but it does, it's not the whole of the definition. Okay, 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:53.600 So what were the basic findings about golf courses in 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:57.400 this study as it relates to the evolution of footprints 0:12:57.600 --> 0:12:59.400 over time. We'll eventually get to some of the other 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:03.280 interesting in the study about the sizes of various golf 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:07.120 course features, but let's talk about footprint changes over time. 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:10.000 First of all, Yeah, I mean the first kind of 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:13.400 big broad brush. One that I'd throw at you is 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:17.600 newer golf courses are bigger than older golf courses, and 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:20.880 that was something that we saw in the eighty core 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:27.199 sample and in the Championship course case study. The average size, 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:29.240 I've got it on my screen. Here a few numbers 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:33.960 so I can remember them. Average acreage footprint in the 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:37.679 eighty core sample was one hundred and seventy four acres. 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:42.200 But so that's the average courses that open in the twenties, thirties, 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:44.439 and forties. If you average those, it's one hundred and 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.640 fifty two acres, so it's about twenty acres twenty five 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:51.680 acres smaller for courses that open in those decades. When 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:55.400 you go up to the nineteen nineties through the twenty tens, 0:13:56.040 --> 0:13:59.680 they're two hundred and sixteen acres on average, So you 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:04.160 see big jump later on. It's almost, you know, fifty 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:08.920 acres difference, more than fifty acres difference between the oldest 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:12.600 ones and the newest ones. So that's a very clear trend. 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:17.280 An interesting kind of corollary to that trend is that 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:20.520 the primary playing areas, you know, what we would consider 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:25.720 sort of tease greens, fairways, bunkers get smaller over that time, 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:28.920 and so you've got fairway acreages that are consistently in 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:33.960 the forty acre range on those older courses. Newer courses 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:38.120 that are developed through the seventies, eighties, nineties, you're in 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:41.480 kind of a mid mid twenties type range of a 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:45.480 fairway acreage. You've got smaller greens, you've got less square 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:50.960 footage devoted to bunkers, and so you're getting bigger footprints 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:56.600 and you're getting kind of smaller playing primary playing surfaces 0:14:57.000 --> 0:15:01.000 through time. There which is an interesting offse that you 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:04.600 also see within the courses once they're built. So that's 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:08.520 when they're built, Okay, you get a parallel phenomenon or 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:13.360 sort of concurrent phenomenon. Once a course is built, its 0:15:13.400 --> 0:15:18.360 footprint of those primary playing services also tends to shrink, 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:21.480 and so courses that are built in the nineteen twenties, 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.880 thirties and forties that had forty acres of fairway, they're 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:30.480 constantly shrinking down their green size fairway acreage button bunker 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:35.440 square footage. New courses being built are following that trend, 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:38.520 except that they're being newly built, so there isn't as 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:41.240 much time for that to happen over time. We saw 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:43.160 a little bit of a turnaround on some of that 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:47.320 in the absolute most recent ones built in the twenty 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:50.360 tens were the last ones built in our study where 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:53.480 we started to see fairway acreages creep back up again. 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:56.120 But they had been declining up until that point, and 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:57.960 then you start to see a little bit of an increase, 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:00.720 which we can get to after that, So that's sort 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:03.760 of that's kind of one of the key findings is 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:09.400 that older courses smaller than newer courses in terms of footprint. 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:15.119 Another key finding is that longer courses have a larger footprint, 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:21.600 and so there's an interrelationship there between older courses tending 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:24.920 to be shorter at the time of construction versus more 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:28.800 modern courses that tend to be built longer initially in 0:16:28.840 --> 0:16:32.040 the first place and built with a larger footprint. So 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:34.640 you get that phenomena. If I look at my chart here, 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:38.240 courses that were in the seven thousand to seventy five 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:42.800 hundred range for back te yardage had an average footprint 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:46.280 of two hundred and ten acres sixty five hundred to 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:49.920 seven thousand, one hundred and sixty seven one hundred and 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:55.520 sixty eight acres of total footprint, so we're talking fifty 0:16:55.560 --> 0:17:00.560 acres difference on you know, a range of probably about 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:03.440 five hundred yards of back te difference, and that goes 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:06.359 all the way down courses that are six thousand to 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:09.000 sixty five hundred or one hundred and thirty four acres 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:14.040 of average footprint in our eighty course sample, so back 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:20.320 to yardage and total footprint connected new courses bigger than 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:25.440 older courses. Part of that. Another thing that we saw 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:31.520 is a growth in practice facility acreage square footage. So 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:36.840 that's the range, but that's also sort of related practice facilities. Right. 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:41.600 You see short game areas crop up. You see you 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:44.640 know a range tea on both ends of the range, 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:47.320 and the range get expanded. You see basically a growing 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:54.440 interest in practice materializes in these aerial photos over time, 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:58.120 where a bunch of the sort of earlier courses some 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:00.399 didn't have a practice facility at all or any kind 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:04.000 of evident range. You see those get added. You see 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:09.560 ones that were there get developed to become larger. Part 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:13.480 of that has a distance component to it, obviously, part 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:16.760 of it. It just reflects a growing interest in practice too, right, 0:18:16.840 --> 0:18:19.720 I mean we see that everywhere that there's just a 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:22.800 more emphasis placed on it than I think there was 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:24.919 in the past. And certainly when you go overseas and 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:27.800 you look at any of those courses, any ranges that 0:18:27.800 --> 0:18:31.720 they have have been retro fit in, you know, two 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:33.679 hundred years after the course opened, right, I mean, it 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:36.040 just wasn't really a thing back in the day, and 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:39.280 then it kind of became one, and golf courses have 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:42.800 had to react. That has a footprint implication to it. 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:46.560 To boil down some of the main historical trends here, 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:51.400 what this study found was golf courses have gotten both 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:56.119 bigger and smaller, a bigger in footprint and smaller in 0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:00.520 fair way and green size. How did you go about 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:06.320 determining why it was that golf courses in general expanded 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:10.159 their footprints? How did you think that issue through in 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:11.520 terms of causes? 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:14.520 You know, I mean number one, I don't believe that 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:17.800 we can answer it definitively. You can look for you 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:22.200 can look for connections, you can look for correlations, but 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:24.960 it's it's something that we left sort of in the 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:26.840 hands of the reader. I think a little bit is 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:30.400 to say, hey, here's some reasons why, but it's hard 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:33.480 to answer definitively. So a few factors to consider. You've 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:38.000 got the distance factor is longer courses correlated to being 0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:41.360 larger courses, So that's that's a part of that overall 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:47.720 footprint equation for sure. In addition, you've got something like 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.760 the growing interest in practice, right, that's a that's a 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:55.680 cultural change of how golf facilities are being used, how 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:59.960 people what people expect from a golf facility. So that's 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:01.959 but that's an element of footprint, right. I mean, we 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:06.040 had a number of courses that didn't have practice facilities 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:09.960 that added them. That was correlated actually with when we 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:12.440 saw the biggest changes in courses. So not very many 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:15.360 courses added a practice facility when they didn't have one, 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:18.199 usually because they didn't have the space. They didn't have it, 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:19.919 they weren't going to be able to find the space. 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:24.240 But when we saw really big changes in footprint, it 0:20:24.359 --> 0:20:28.280 often connected with the addition of a practice facility, the 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:31.600 addition of a driving range that wasn't there. So that's 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:35.440 a cultural change in footprint. That sort of cultural change 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:38.080 from what you expect from a facility, how a facility 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:46.280 gets used, goes to parking lots, clubhouses, maintenance facilities growing. 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:48.080 I mean, when you look at some of the old 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:52.920 old maintenance facilities versus what's you know, kind of considered 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:58.680 normal today, that's a big change. Access, access to the 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:02.480 maintenance facilities, store bridge for materials, all these different things. 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:06.800 Golf courses, golf facilities are used differently than they were 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:10.880 in the past, and so that's certainly a driving factor 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:13.920 to it. Another one that's an interesting one, and again 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:16.240 it's you know, it's hard to place any of the 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:19.240 weight on any one thing, and the factors kind of 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:23.240 relate to one another. The more modern courses in general 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:26.639 tend to be built farther out of town, and we've 0:21:26.680 --> 0:21:31.439 seen that, you know throughout these past however, many you know, 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:35.439 decades of recent golf course development, and once you get 0:21:35.520 --> 0:21:39.720 farther out of town, there's probably a little less incentive 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:42.400 to be that concerned about space, right, I mean, you're 0:21:42.440 --> 0:21:46.119 out at Sand Valley or wherever you're at, you're not 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:50.040 going to be quite as concerned about what your footprint 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:53.680 is when the land, you know, the land acreage, isn't 0:21:53.680 --> 0:21:57.399 it as the same premium When you don't have, you know, 0:21:58.200 --> 0:22:03.359 an entire neighborhood of dense populated New Jersey surrounding your property, 0:22:04.200 --> 0:22:06.160 you're kind of out farther out, You've got more room 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:09.560 to you know, spread out a little bit more, and 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:13.840 so that's definitely a driving factor. There's also probably sort 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:16.280 of a fashion element to it as well. And I 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:20.440 don't say fashion disparagingly, but I say, you know, there's 0:22:20.480 --> 0:22:23.440 been an emphasis on with in recent years, which I 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:25.040 think is a great one, which I think is a 0:22:25.080 --> 0:22:30.960 super positive trend that has implications in terms of golf 0:22:31.000 --> 0:22:37.119 course footprint. For example, there's an emphasis on you know, 0:22:37.640 --> 0:22:40.480 vouting to really optimize the land. Right well, if you've 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:44.480 got this big site and you've got all of these 0:22:44.600 --> 0:22:48.040 kind of this huge area at your disposal, that may 0:22:48.160 --> 0:22:50.479 lend itself to you know, fanning out a little bit 0:22:50.520 --> 0:22:52.679 more and going to look for the you know, what 0:22:52.760 --> 0:22:55.160 are the best nooks and crannies of that site. When 0:22:55.160 --> 0:22:58.720 you've got your sort of sand Hills constellation map in 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:00.560 front of you and you're kind of thinking through that, 0:23:02.520 --> 0:23:06.120 if space isn't a super a super pinch point, then yeah, 0:23:06.160 --> 0:23:08.680 you've got some more room to spread out and go 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:11.919 find the best ground that's out there. So I think 0:23:11.960 --> 0:23:15.240 those are probably some of the key trends that have 0:23:15.400 --> 0:23:17.919 led to a little bit of a growing footprint overtime. 0:23:25.840 --> 0:23:28.320 This episode of Designing Golf is brought to you by 0:23:28.440 --> 0:23:32.800 Club Champion. Every Club Champion built club comes with a 0:23:32.920 --> 0:23:36.840 perfect fit guarantee that ensures that what you saw on 0:23:36.920 --> 0:23:40.359 the bay is what you'll see on the course. Now, 0:23:40.840 --> 0:23:43.880 what players generally see in the bay at Club Champion 0:23:44.200 --> 0:23:47.400 is twenty one plus yards off the tee and distance 0:23:47.480 --> 0:23:52.960 gains sixteen yards, better dispersion with irons, measurably, more fairways 0:23:53.080 --> 0:23:57.480 and greens in regulation, and fewer three puts. Now, if 0:23:57.520 --> 0:24:00.320 you don't see the results that you saw in the 0:24:00.359 --> 0:24:03.320 bay on the course with your new clubs, you can 0:24:03.320 --> 0:24:06.800 come back within ninety days and Club Champion will make 0:24:06.840 --> 0:24:09.520 it right. This is part of why Club Champion has 0:24:10.000 --> 0:24:13.800