Getting to Know: Richard Mandell, Golf Course Architect

Skydoor Golf Club, China

American Golfer: When did you start playing golf?
Richard Mandell: I started playing golf in eighth grade when about seven of my friends and I started sneaking onto Rye Golf Club in my hometown of Rye, New York.  We would sneak up the hill behind the fifth tee and then play a loop of holes that included 5, 6, 7, 2, 3, and 4.  It was a great old Devereux Emmet course with blind shots on almost every hole.

Richard Mandell

We would all average about 10-12 shots per hole at that time hoping we wouldn't get run off, which we rarely did, surprisingly.  We couldn't understand how anyone knew we didn't belong;  We were so green as to the everyday happenings on a golf course. It was great fun.

We would also go into the ponds late at night and find golf balls.  They were only three or four feet deep, just full of muck, and we would be on our hands and knees sifting through the muck and algae to feel for golf balls.  Every now and then someone with a flash light would come along and somehow they "never saw us" as we stayed perfectly still.  Looking back on it, it must have been obvious what we were doing and no one cared.  They probably thought it was funny.

By the following Spring my Mother got me a junior membership at the course and I've been legit ever since. I started playing junior tournaments and played on the high school team.  My senior year we were undefeated and I was captain.  We played nine-hole match play events which I loved much more than stroke play events (and still do).


AG: How did you become a golf course architect?
RM: The main reason we didn't include holes eight and nine in our covert Rye Golf Club loops was because they were being renovated at the time by Rees Jones.  The course did not have returning nines so we could very well have gotten away with two more holes. Nonetheless, that opened the door to my fascination with golf architecture and so from the time I was 15, that was my plan.

Because of that early direction, I enrolled at the University of Georgia to major in Landscape Architecture.  On Day 1 in Athens, I was pegged as the golf design guy.  Back then in the 80s, few people even knew of that pursuit.  When my internship year rolled around I got to spend a summer in Pinehurst working for Dan Maples and he hired me after I graduated.

AG: 
Why did you choose a career in golf course design?
RM: I was just fascinated with the golf courses I played as a junior golfer in the Met Area of New York.  The way golf holes were weaved through the lay of the land in particular excited me more than anything else, including playing the game.  We had a family friend who was a landscape architect who gave me food for thought about pursuing golf architecture as a career.  So very early on I was on a quest to do it.

AG: 
In your opinion, have any design trends hurt the game?
RM: Yes, I believe that almost all design trends have hurt the game.  Trend is defined as "the general course or prevailing tendency; drift."  Drift is a great word to answer your question.  Every time a trend emerges, we all drift away from the basic tenets of the game.  From a design standpoint, we get away from the lay of the land.  From a golf standpoint, we drift away from fun and enjoyment and toward difficulty and aesthetics, two elements that cost on all levels.

AG: 
How can we grow the game of golf?
RM: Of course, we need to figure out how to provide a product that is accessible for a larger net of users.  First and foremost in my mind, that means controlling costs.  We need to figure out what is really important to enjoy the game and work to eliminate all else.  That will open doors for those who haven't played the game and keep existing golfers engaged.  It will mean an increase in playability, enjoyment, and fun.

AG: 
Do you have a specific design philosophy?
RM: A hazard is to challenge the golfer, not penalize the golfer.  In other words, a hazard should be placed so that a golfer who successfully negotiates it will gain an advantage.  That is why I always seem to create a hole with a central hazard in my work.  Most hazards are placed strictly for aesthetic purposes or to penalize the golfer. Many times, they are one and the same.  Eliminate those and you can eliminate costs (and difficulty for the lesser-skilled).

AG: 
Of all the holes you’ve designed, do you have a favorite (why)?
RM: I will refrain from saying it is like picking my favorite child.  Today, though, I will choose one from my first China course, Skydoor Golf Club in Hunan Province.  I was able to route a great high point to high point golf course and utilized many of the existing topographical features to act as hazards that determine the strategy of the hole.  To me, that is the highest level of design - where the natural topography determines the strategy.

My favorite hole at Skydoor is probably the 4th hole of what is called the "C" nine.  It is a par five of 502 yards which plays from a high point over a valley to an uphill slope flanked by three cross-bunkers.  The hole then rolls around a hillside on the left with two more bunkers at its base and a third bunker on a diagonal at the other side of the fairway.

The hole continues to rise to a peninsula plateau that falls off very quickly and severely on three sides to the City of Zhangjiajie below.  The view of this sliver of golf hole surrounded by urbanity is pretty breathtaking in its contrast.

The strategy for the hole is based upon how much of the large hill on the left the golfer wants to bring into play to gain an advantage (primarily a shorter route). I love the topography of the hole, the way the bunkers all fit naturally into the slopes, and the peninsula green overlooking the city.


AG: What’s your “dream foursome” (living or dead, golfer or non-golfer)?
RM: Billy Joel, Calvin Peete, Cosmo Kramer, and myself.

AG: 
Is there a “bucket list” location in/on which to design?
RM: Not particularly.  I just want a sandy site with a lot of interesting topography.  Nothing too dramatic like a mountainside, but one which has maybe 30 to 50 feet of dramatic elevation changes throughout and a variety of topographical features - swales, saddles, ridges, hollows, etc.

If I had to pick one location, it would probably be a site in metropolitan New York, specifically in Westchester County where I grew up.  If I could build a new course on a site that was as described above (with or without the sand component) that could be on the level of all of those great Golden Age courses, It would be a great deal for me.

AG: 
What is the future of golf course design?
RM: Let me just "cliché" that up for you by saying the future is in the past.  Joking aside, it is true that if we could go back to the fundamental design lessons taught through the work of the golden age architects, then the future of the game would be in better hands in terms of playability, enjoyment, and even sustainability in the sense that we could probably reduce our overall carbon footprints through smarter design.

Design that works with the land better and leaves well enough alone in many cases always results in better golf courses when one's goal is to derive strategy form the existing topography.  Smartly thinking about the "brown is the new green" concept (which clearly means to me that we water less and not worry about being perfectly green everywhere - not literally playing brown courses (I just feel I need to clarify that because too many in the industry fight that concept as if it is the coming of the end) - is another return to the past that will focus on the golf first.  Let's get back to managing a piece of ground and not maintaining that ground.

Learn more about Richard Mandell at www.golf-architecture.com.

Did you know? GOLF Magazine named Mandell's work at Keller Golf Course outside St. Paul, Minn., the 2014 Renovation of the Year? Click HERE for more information.

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