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Interview with architect Tim Liddy (part 1) – Bulle Rock fans rejoice!

After spending many years working with Pete Dye, Tim Liddy has made waves with some terrific designs of his own, such as The Trophy Club near Indianapolis. Tim took time out to talk about his formative years. Soon, we’ll have some deep xs and os on his Indiana designs.

What were your first memories of the game as a kid?

I started playing golf with a grade school friend in the 5th grade. We would hit it around the yard using his fathers clubs. I continued playing in my large yard (we lived in the country) as a kid developing a good short game. I worked at a golf course all through high school doing everything from mowing greens (I loved landing and taking off on the greens with the triplex), taking care of the golf carts to working in the pro shop. These were great times. It was a private club, with men that really loved golf and were great examples during my adolescent years. My favorite was a college history professor that carried eight clubs and shot par. He was always kind to us and spoke philosophically about the game and its beauty.

What were some of your favorite memories from your college days at Ball State?

My college days were all about work in the studio system at Ball State which required long hours of critiques and projects. There was little time for golf. It was my time for a broader exposure to the history of art, architecture and landscape architecture. The wonderful thing about Ball Sate was the guest lectures every Monday night. We would have the best living architects visit us and share their excitement and visions for their work. It was very motivating. I met Buckminster Fuller, Dan Kiley, David Lewis and many other great architects and landscape architects. It provided a great understanding of their art and passion for their work. It influenced me greatly.

How did you decide on GCA as a career?

I was working on a 9-hole addition to a golf course in Indiana. Concurrently, I also was picked to work with Pete Dye on a large scale project that involved his golf course. Obviously, working with him on that project changed my career path and exposed me to the greatest living golf course architect today. I cannot say enough about this relationship and what it has meant to me both personally and professionally. It has and continues to be a joy.

Tell me about some of your funniest moments during the time when you were just beginning your career.

I would start with getting lost in the forest on a site visit in Maryland. I was walking the site with Mr. Dye and the owner. They wanted to walk uphill along the stream edge and ask that I go back, get the jeep and meet them upstream at the project’s boundary. I turned around and completely lost my sense of where the jeep was located. After searching for about an hour, I decided I would just have to walk out of the woods into a clearing and try and find the jeep. The entire woodlot was surrounded by multi-flora rose which is a large thorny shrub. After trying for an hour to find an alternate path, I crawled through the multi-flora rose ripping my short and getting small thorn cuts over my chest and arms. I looked like I had been attacked. It took me another hour to find the jeep and drive to meet them. The client and Dye were waiting on me the entire time and the client was upset about waiting. When they saw me in such a sorry state the laughter began and all was forgiven. The project became Bulle Rock.

How did you first meet Pete Dye?

He was completing a golf course within a large housing project and they needed someone to coordinate the grading and drainage between the golf course and the housing. I have been riding on his coat tails ever sense.

What are some of the design features either Pete taught you or that you saw at other great courses and use in your designs?

There are too many to count. The most important aspect that he has taught me is that the architect must be on site religiously throughout the construction process to have a successful project. Yes, it minimizes the amount of work one architect can do, but with so many important decisions made on a daily basis during construction that effect the design it is important that the architect is making those decisions. Each decision determines the feel, texture and visual outcome of the project. The architect must be on site making these decisions or someone else will be making them for you. Many times on production-type projects, it is an equipment operator that does not play golf making these decisions.  These projects are easy to spot.

The commissions I have worked on are always collaboration between me, the owner, and the craftsmen on the site that are building, sculpting the features of the golf course. I enjoy bringing the most talented people I can find to work with me on projects and who also understand that being an intricate part of the construction process is the key to a good golf course. Many times I try and bring in other architects that are willing to give me a month here or there to collaborate on a golf hole or series of golf holes. Many times we have a common bond, as they may have started their careers working with Mr. Dye.

A good example is the recent remodel of the Duke’s Golf Course in St. Andrews. James Duncan, Kye Goalby, Dan Proctor and many young upcoming architects were involved in it. We all had a great time and accomplished some excellent work. Recently, I have talked with Rod Whitman, Kye Goalby and others on an upcoming remodel project for next spring.

Of course, the architect must prepare a great routing, golf hole layouts and strong green designs with appropriate risk/reward options, but in the final analysis, the talent that is on the job during the construction of the project determines its fate.

How many CC’s of earth were moved to build the trophy club? How many acres is it?

Not much, about 200,000 yards, enough to build the irrigation lake, a wetland and one large land form separating golf holes #2 and #12.

Give me some of your favorite memories of Pete dye?

I have worked for Pete Dye off and on for about 18 years, so I have many great memories. He is the consummate story teller and I love to hear him tell stories, even if I have heard them a few times before. Most people do not realize he played a lot of golf with Hogan at Seminole, as Hogan would spend the winter in Palm Beach. He told me in all his recreational golf with Hogan he never saw him miss a fairway. Also, he played a great deal of amateur golf against Nicklaus, as he lived in Ohio. He has also worked with Greg Norman on his first golf course design. He has crossed three generations with all the greats of golf.

What is the dumbest mistake you ever made as an architect?

This is easy. I counted on an engineering/landscape architectural firm to obtain a permit to start a 9 hole expansion (which will remain nameless). We were shut down within a few days and were delayed for a year. The delay cost the client approximately $750,000 in interest cost, which was my responsibility as the engineer/ landscape architecture firm was my sub-consultant. It ended up costing my insurance company and I alot of money and time. I will never start a project without permit in hand again. My insurance premiums still reflect this oversight. Needless to say, I do not use engineers as sub-consultants either.

What is the most heartwarming moment the game has ever blessed you with?

There are many heartwarming things that I have seen Pete and Alice Dye do over my time with them. Mr. Dye has helped many kids through college. His work in the Dominican Republic has literally changed hundreds of lives by providing work and bringing high-end tourism to this impoverished country. It is a wonderful example of how golf can be used as a vehicle to provide a new standard of living to the working poor. It is very inspirational to see a third world area that had nothing become an active tourist spot. Today you can see the generational change of the older population that does not speak English or have any education compared to the younger generation that is very well educated, sophisticated and have come back to advance this area of the Dominican Republic. This was all done with through the vision of Pete and Alice Dye and the development of golf as a vehicle to accomplish it. It is incredible. I think there is a book (or at least an article) in this story, but cannot get anyone interested.

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