Andrew Haggar (middle) with the team
Q: With the new premium design service at Faldo Design,
what would you say are the key elements that make up a
‘Faldo Signature’ design course?
The quality of project delivery for any Faldo design is
the same, be it a Sir Nick Faldo Signature or Faldo Design
course. However, Signature courses primarily benefit from
a greater involvement by Sir Nick, who brings in a wealth
of knowledge and experience. As premium designs, they
are characterized by his significant input in the process
and therefore the highest design quality than any kind
of ‘Championship’ status, including a commitment to
sustainable design and the natural environment with
involvement from The Golf Environment Organization
(GEO). It’s for these reasons that Laguna Golf Lăng Cô in
Vietnam recently became the first fully operational club
to be awarded Signature design status.
Q: Faldo Design’s first signature course is Rumanza
in Pakistan. What are some of the challenges and
opportunities that are faced when starting a project in a
completely new destination?
Understanding the market, possible design restrictions,
and getting quality expertise to construct the course
are some of the key challenges. However, there are
many opportunities that arise from introducing a new
destination on the golfing map, especially when they are
well-received through the quality of design. Additionally,
we have the ability to bring new expertise to countries
that may otherwise not have them, for example, teaching
construction skills to local people when building the
courses. Ultimately, there’s always a massive opportunity
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for us to learn and expand our minds as we experience
different countries and look to understand different
cultures.
Q: Where does the inspiration for designing a golf course
come from?
Personally, I look for inspiration from anywhere and
everywhere - the natural world, landscape architecture,
art, features of the site, and the local area of the golf
course. Although my knowledge of existing golf courses
may subconsciously play a part in my design thinking,
I always look away from golf course design for my real
inspiration. I love the great outdoors and spend a lot of
my time walking, climbing, and photographing in wild,
rural locations, so I’m always discovering new inspiration
that can be used in some way, shape or form, to a greater
or lesser extent, in golf course design.
Q: Overall, what would you say is your design
philosophy?
I want golf courses to be interesting and memorable. This
fits into the Faldo Design ethos: Strategy, Environment,
and Memorability. A key part of Sir Nick Faldo’s success as
a player was being able to read the strategy of a course,
so this is naturally a big factor we take into account when
building Faldo Design courses. From my point of view, I
like golfers to remember all the holes they’ve played after
a round, so they want to return to play the course again.
At Faldo Design, making use of the natural environment
is crucial – environmentally and socially. We aim to
incorporate as many of the natural landscape features