14 ASGCA Founding Member Robert Trent Jones, Sr. famously said that “the sun never sets on a Robert Trent Jones golf course,” a reference to his farreaching portfolio of courses, the pioneering architect eventually working in 35 countries around the world. Many ASGCA members have since followed a similarly globe-trotting path, with large portfolios far from home. For example, Jones’s sons Rees and Bobby, and their respective design teams, have extensive global design experience, while Brian Curley, ASGCA, Kyle Phillips, ASGCA, and Golfplan architects David Dale, ASGCA, and Kevin Ramsey, ASGCA, are perhaps all better known for their international work than their designs in the United States. Most ASGCA members have completed projects outside the US and in total, there are golf courses by ASGCA members in more than 90 countries. Over the following pages, By Design looks at a small but diverse selection of those, and finds out about the challenges of working in different environments, cultures and landscapes. • By Design takes a whistle-stop tour of the globe and asks ASGCA members what makes international projects different to their work in North America. Around the world GLOBAL GAME Course: Curracloe Links Country: Ireland Architect: ASGCA Past President Jason Straka and Dana Fry, ASGCA Curracloe Links is a new 18-hole golf course by Fry/Straka that is taking shape on the southeast coast of Ireland and is expected to open in 2027. “Working in Ireland is certainly different than in the US insofar as the access to materials are more limited,” says Straka. “Although our design approach hasn’t really changed, we have opted for a more aggressive style of bunkering, mainly in terms of steepness of slopes, depth and more randomized locations. “Both Dana and I traveled around the country studying all the well-known courses and many lesser-known ones. That gave us a barometer of how to be different but also to know what extremes they each had. For example, the wildwooly natural edges of Royal County Down led us to plant gorse, ferns and marram grass around some bunker edges; we also studied how bold we could be with green slopes and transitions; and noted the fairway and primary rough widths of many seaside courses to account for the wind.” Photo: Kevin Murray
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