20 DESIGN BOOT CAMP Fourteen students enrolled in the second ASGCA Foundation Design Boot Camp, held in March 2026 at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina. This cohort included a dentist, the CEO of a steel business, an entrepreneur, several retirees and two people who have their own golf design businesses. Golf as a passion does not discern by profession. Arriving for their week of learning on Monday, attendees gathered at the charming Holly Inn, which would be home for the week, and the location for seminars led by ASGCA members on topics including the design process, routing principles and construction documents. To provide deep insight into the venue, ASGCA Past President Jan Bel Jan also delivered ‘A History of Golf Course Architecture at Pinehurst.’ I was fortunate enough to participate in the Design Boot Camp at Erin Hills, so was curious about how these weeks would compare. The instructors – ASGCA members who cover their own expenses and donate their time – could have recycled their material, but instead spent time evolving their presentations for this year’s group. One of my fellow attendees, Barbara Mason, herself an educator, was impressed by the curriculum for the week. “They did an excellent job of layering the learning with variety for maximum impact,” she says. The overarching task for the week was for students to design a golf course, step-by-step, while learning about and applying design principles along the way. The designated land was part of Pinehurst’s Sandmines, a 900-acre site, largely undeveloped, that is also home to the No. 10 course. To allow for dedicated instruction, four teams were formed. The seven ASGCA instructors served as coaches, leading their teams with a game plan and posing thought-provoking questions, such as: where is the safety corridor? How can we balance the cut-and-fill quantities? Where is the best place for the cart path? On Tuesday morning, we learned about irrigation and course infrastructure, and saw the pump station for No. 10 in action. Representatives from Watertronics and Rain Bird, who, along with Kafka Granite, sponsored the Design Boot Camp were there to explain how it all worked. We then walked the course site, with sunshine dappling through the pines, and talked about yardages, grading, hollows and high points. “I really enjoyed walking, evaluating and seeing the property for the theoretical design that we were tasked with routing,” says attendee Eric Klein, a pharmaceutical professional with a passion for golf and course design that stretches back several decades. Bill Coore, ASGCA, led the group on a tour of his new layout at Pinehurst. Seeing No. 11 under construction reinforced our newly acquired knowledge of infrastructure. “What I learned Training days After a successful first edition at Erin Hills in 2024, the ASGCA Foundation Design Boot Camp returned in 2026, this time in Pinehurst, North Carolina. Lee Carr attended both, and shares her first-hand experiences. “ The seven ASGCA instructors served as coaches, leading their teams with a game plan”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzQ1NTk=