Virginia Golfer September / October 2014 | Page 33

One of Kubly’s and Landscapes Unlimited’s most notable projects is Shanquin Bay Golf Club in China. BRIAN MORGAN China Sea. On Hainan Island, Kubly demonstrated his skill at connecting people, first by recommending the architects to the developer and then by supporting the renowned co-designers with some of Landscapes’ top experts. “One of our guys, John Klinkerman, is one of their favorite superintendents in the world,” Kubly says. “As long as John was there, they were willing to do it, [because] they knew he could control the project.” The result? Shanqin Bay debuted last year at No. 78 on Golf Magazine’s ranking of the top 100 courses in the world. A few designers don’t even use plans, which demands an extra level of discipline from Landscapes’ well-trained employees. “We call them the ‘arm-wavers,’” Kubly jokes. “But someone like (architect) Bill Coore makes up for not having fancy plans by being on site so often. Bill basically lives on the job, and that works out great for us. We’ve built eight or 10 courses with him over the years.” Most recently, Landscapes teamed up with Coore and Ben Crenshaw to build Shanqin Bay, an elite private club that was the first project in China for both companies. “It’s a Pebble Beach kind of site, maybe even better,” Kubly says. He adds that Coore and Crenshaw initially weren’t sure they could build a course there unless they could get down to the South w w w. v s g a . o r g FAR-REACHING, WELL-ESTABLISHED ROOTS Depending on the property, Landscapes is often involved in areas of golf operations that go well beyond construction. “We own a dozen golf courses, and are a third-party manager or manager of 30 others,” Kubly says. The company is even capable of building clubhouses and other ‘vertical’ architecture. As George puts it: “He’s the one-stop shop, if you will, for anything golf-related.” These additional points of contact enable Kubly to keep his finger on the pulse of the industry, and he remains an optimist in spite of all the doom and gloom that has surrounded the game lately. Landscapes kept layoffs to a minimum during the darkest years of the recession, which made it well poised to quickly increase volume as the economy recovered, without having to hire and/or train as many new staffers. “There aren’t too many industries that have had the roller coaster ride that the golf industry has had,” Kubly says. “I don’t see us going back to the heyday of building 300 courses a year [in the U.S.], but there’s a lot of pent-up demand among clubs and municipalities that basically put the brakes on spending in ’07 and ’08. There’s a real backlog of work out there for contractors, mainly in renovation.” One such renovation project recently took place at Independence Golf Club near Richmond, where Landscapes and George freshened up Tom Fazio’s design under new owner Giff Breed. In the past, Breed has witnessed first-time developers getting intoxicated by all the bells and whistles a golf course can have. “It’s like going to the grocery store when you’re hungry,” Breed says. “You can spend a lot more money than you had hoped.” He worked with George and Kubly to develop a plan for the c