12 things I learned at golf architecture bootcamp

What can the average recreational golfer learn from a five-day, in-depth seminar on golf course design taught by prominent architects? Plenty. Provided they’re willing to nerd out on the nitty gritty and get their boots dirty in the field.

For the second time, the American Society of Golf Course Architects hosted Design Boot Camp, drawing 15 students to work in a team-training environment to develop their own designs guided by leading figures in the field. The inaugural session in 2024 took place at Erin Hills outside Milwaukee in advance of the 2025 Women’s U.S. Open. This year’s camp was held at historic Pinehurst, locking in on the principles behind its legendary No. 2 course and using No. 11 — a Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw design set to open in fall 2027 — as a hands-on educational aide.

Attendees paid $20,000 tuition, with $15,000 of that earmarked for ASGCA’s philanthropic efforts to support public course development and to fund the recruitment and education of the next generation of designers. This year’s instructors included ASGCA members Jan Bel Jan, Jeff Blume, Jeff Brauer, Bruce Charlton, Steve Forrest, Mike Hurdzan, Tom Marzolf and Damian Pascuzzo. Coore also led students on a walking tour of his course-in-the-making at Pinehurst No. 11.

That’s who did the teaching. But what did they teach? Here are 12 key lessons from the camp.

1. There’s so much more to the work than meets the eye

Most golfers have little concept of the amount of time and effort that goes into creating a single golf hole, let alone an entire 18. Planning and construction can take years, requiring close attention to a dizzying array of details that the average player takes for granted — from topography, drainage and irrigation to cart paths, grass varietals, soil types, ADA accessibility and more. Greg Norman once said that “nothing is easier than designing a difficult golf course.” But designing a compelling course that gets built on time and on budget with all the nuances dialed in? That’s a tall task.

2. In a digital era, it still calls for analog skills

While AI will undoubtedly transform the field, and design software like AutoCAD is already creeping into related tasks, designing a course is still an artisan trade. The sketching of contours and careful color-coding of hazards remains a hands-on skill. Once the ink and graphite are laid down, designers physically lower their faces to the desk, sighting down the direction of play on the paper roll as though standing at the tee. For now, the human eye is the final judge.

3. It takes a village

A course is envisioned by an owner, planned by a designer and built by extensive construction crews. Keeping all of them aligned requires meticulous planning. Since a designer can’t always be on site for a day’s digging or grading, detailed plans are essential to keep everyone on the same page. That’s especially true on international projects where languages differ. Inches, feet and yards need no translation.

4. Good design keeps the round moving

A well-designed course doesn’t just challenge players. It maximizes their time. According to bootcamp instructor Jan Bel Jan, pace of play should be as central a concern as shot difficulty: “Being able to maintain pace of play is important for the enjoyment of a round. The design should reflect enough of a challenge while allowing the competent player to maintain pace of play.”

5. Maintenance matters more than you think

Designers were emphatic on this point throughout the week: over the long haul, upkeep is more important than the original design. A brilliantly conceived layout can deteriorate quickly if maintenance lags — and much of that burden falls on proper drainage. Students got a vivid demonstration when they played Pinehurst No. 2 following a morning of intense thunderstorms. By noon, the course showed almost no trace of rain beyond slightly slower greens and some packed sand in the bunkers. That speaks to world-class maintenance and infrastructure. It’s also evidence of great design.

6. The golfer is always the end user

Just as automakers envision their typical buyer when designing a car, course architects must keep their audience in mind at every turn. The difference is, there’s no single “average golfer” to design for. The goal, then, is to design an experience that works for 99% of players. Golf courses are businesses, and no business wants to send its customers home frustrated.

7. Great holes offer options for every skill level

While it’s not true for every hole — especially par 3s intended for target golf that leave no choice but to bomb it at the flagstick or aim for the center of the green — most good hole locations allow an escape route for the higher handicapper while still rewarding the player willing to take risks.

8. Width is a weapon — and designers know how to wield it

Every course starts wide and gets narrowed down through revisions, and those width decisions are central to how difficult a course ultimately plays. Pinehurst No. 2 was a vivid illustration: even a modest hook or slice sent balls into hard-packed sandy waste areas thick with scrub and wiregrass. It’s a course owner’s call — and a designer’s mission — to determine the width and length of a course in relation to its level of difficulty.

9. The best designers need room to experiment

Bill Coore’s walking tour of the in-progress Pinehurst No. 11 was a highlight of the week, offering a ground-level look at how a course takes shape before a single blade of grass is planted. Along the way, between lessons on using recycled debris to create hills and insights into the earth “work as artwork,” Coore credited the clients who give him and partner Ben Crenshaw the latitude to try things: “We love it when we’ve got ‘weird owners’ who let us try things along the way. We understand experimenting affects budget, but this is a creative process.”

10. Sustainability isn’t optional anymore

The industry has moved decisively toward environmentally sensitive design. While some projects still involve clearing land down to bare dirt, the stronger trend is to preserve as much existing terrain, vegetation and native species as possible. With golf under occasional fire from environmentalists, working with the natural landscape — rather than against it — has become both a design principle and a practical defense.

11. It can be a family business

Davis Love III arrived at Boot Camp in a dual role — part instructor, part supportive parent — accompanying his son Dru (officially Davis Love IV) through the program. Love III is no stranger to design, having recently overseen the revitalization of Harbour Town at Sea Pines, but he made time before heading to TPC at Sawgrass to watch his son work through the process firsthand. “It was my son who told me about the Boot Camp, and he brought me into it,” Love said. “It was great being here and watching him work through the design process in real time.”

12. Events like this can spark the next generation

Mara King, a freshman on the Penn State women’s golf team, stumbled across the Boot Camp when her squad was in town for an NCAA event. Instructor Jan Bel Jan invited her to sit in on a morning session, and it planted a seed. “The idea of designing golf courses is a career option that hadn’t occurred to me before,” King said, “but seeing everything that goes into it is really interesting. I think it might be something I want to study after college and after my playing career is over.”