Until recently, golf enjoyed a period of steady change. This steady-state was enabled by golf’s barrier to entry: the inordinate hours of costly lessons, the expensive equipment, the requisite leisure time, and high membership fees. The exclusive nature of the game pretty much ensured that the game would be reserved for the elite. At this time however, this steady-state is being eroded—because post-pandemic golf faces a host of macro headwinds—and these headwinds require the game to rapidly adapt. Survival will be attained only by the fittest.

In the coming years, the golf course, one of the most important facets of the game—will undoubtedly undergo massive change. Long held assumptions about what does/doesn’t work for course design will need to be challenged; traditional design typologies will need to be re-imagined or completely overhauled. Surely, there will be a handful of courses that will ratchet up their exclusivity—and do whatever possible to remain unchanged—but this strategy is not viable for most. The headwinds are pushing the 9-hole course to dominate; the days of 18-hole golf seem to be numbered. We used the compact 9-hole public golf course—The Hay at Pebble Beach—to showcase how rapid prototyping can light the way for course design.

Read my blog post on Topography here.