Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
April 12, 2002, Washington Post

If You Build It . . .

The greatest golfers in the world are playing in the Masters tournament this weekend on the famous Augusta National Golf Course in Georgia. The big news this year is that designers have changed the golf course to make it harder for pros such as Tiger Woods.

Golf course designers have cool jobs. I spoke with Brian Ault and his 34-year-old son, Eric, to find out how designers build a golf course. The Aults are partners in a golf course design firm in Maryland called Ault, Clark & Associates. They have built dozens of local courses, including Worthington Manor in Urbana and Pleasant Valley in Chantilly. Right now they are working on golf courses as far away as China and as close to home as Prince George's County.

A good designer has to know about engineering (building stuff), grasses, irrigation and the environmental sciences, as well as how to maintain the course. "We wear a lot of different hats," Brian says. One thing they don't have to be is great golfers. Both Aults play, but neither of them is quite as good as Tiger Woods. "You don't have to be a doctor to design a good hospital," Brian says with a laugh.

You do have to do a lot of studying, but studying golf is fun. The Aults have traveled to Scotland and Ireland to study great golf courses that are hundreds of years old. They have been to Augusta, as well as the courses where the U.S. Open is played.

When a client comes to them and asks them to design a course, the very first thing they do is study the lay of the land. "We walk the grounds to get to know all the hills and streams and valleys," Brian says. "Sometimes we study pictures of the land taken from airplanes and satellites," Eric adds.

Such high-tech stuff is a long way from how Brian's dad designed courses 50 years ago. Edmund Ault would walk the land and put bamboo sticks into the ground where he wanted the fairways to be.

Once Brian and Eric have studied the grounds, they have to decide where to put the clubhouse. "The clubhouse is like the hub of a wheel," says Brian Ault. "There is a lot of activity in this little area and at least four of the holes -- 1, 9, 10 and 18 -- will go in or out from here, like spokes on a wheel."

The Aults have a lot of fun on their job and encourage kids to think about becoming golf course designers. Kids can start dreaming now. They can get to know golf courses by caddying when they're old enough and strong enough (age 12 or older) and joining the crews that maintain the courses. At any age, they can have fun by drawing their own dream golf courses.

And who knows, maybe someday Tiger Woods will play on your golf course.

Fred Bowen writes KidsPost's Friday sports column and is the author of sports novels for kids. Write to him at KidsPost, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, DC 20071. Or e-mail (with "The Score" in the subject field): kidspost@washpost.com.

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