Gil Hanse is the hot name in golf course architecture these days. Among his other projects, the affable Pennsylvanian is taking on the renowned yet dated Champions Course at Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. At the groundbreaking ceremony yesterday, I sat down with him for a few minutes to hear what he has in store for the legendary PGA Tour venue, and to discuss his craft in general.
When people who've played here before return next year after the renovation is complete, what differences will they notice?
GH: Well, everything. There’s a real connection to the landscape – the native areas – that's going to ultimately distinguish it more than it does right now. Those areas are going to take a while – three to four years — to actually finally really get going properly. They're going to require some rainfall. So it will be maybe a softer golf course, a little bit lower in the ground that feels more connected to the landforms, and relies more on native vegetation. And the surrounds of bunkers will be distinctly different. The fairways will have width, but we're going to make sure the angles are relevant – like if you're trying to score, you’ll have to hit it to the right side or left side of the fairway, as opposed to just hitting the fairway. I think that'll be a critical piece.
What inspires you when you come here?
GH: Some sites take a little bit longer. You have to understand the context within which we're building and sometimes that can actually be a good thing because you've got a framework to build within. So here, it took a little while to decide how we are going to optimize the elevation changes that exist on the holes on the north side of the road (that physically divides the course) because they’re significant. And how do those holes differ from the ones on the south side of the road. They kind of sit a little bit more in the valley. How do we emphasize the creek that runs through the middle of it, both from a playing standpoint but also from a visual standpoint – so that we create different identities for both sides of the road? So I think that's really where we started to try to figure out how we’re going to do this. And then the conversation started more along the lines of what's it going to look like. We discussed the looks of L.A. Country Club, Riviera and Wilshire Country Clubs just up north from here. There's just so many great old golf courses up there in L.A. in particular.
There seems to be many courses from the 1960’s and 1970’s that are finally being renovated. Is that something we'll continue seeing?
GH: It’s interesting because just like any design or style in building architecture, furniture or clothing, you go through these periods of time and sometimes they never come back and that's probably a good thing. But sometimes they do or they really need to be changed. And so what we've seen is reverence for the golf courses built in the teens and 20’s and 30’s, and that golden age. And then a bit of a questioning of the courses from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s that relied more on heavy earth for scenery, and maybe a little bit more clumsy in the landscape. But yeah, do you renovate those to give them more of what's currently stylistically accepted in architecture which is again, harkening back to those old days? Yeah, I think you're going to see an attempt by a lot of architects to try and make these short, dated golf courses feel altered. But as a result, they're also feeling like their own era.
How have the tools changed to do your job?
GH: I'm still in the field being a dirt-on-my-boots kind of guy. But the equipment out there like the bulldozers that we have now, the excavators, there's a thing called a knuckle bucket for an excavator which can twist and turn. And those guys who can use those are so talented. Back 25 years ago, all we had was a rubber tire backhoe which can only dig straight. So the tools at our disposal to create are better, and the tools that we have at our disposal to either provide us with guidance like laser mapping and grading are high-tech. Now the bulldozers have GPS and it's great. I can sit in the bulldozer and know that the blade is tilted at five degrees or that the machine itself is sitting at three degrees. And those sorts of things help us from an efficiency standpoint. I still think at the end of the day, it's up to your intuition in your field. But those tools definitely provide guidance, which helps expedite things.
How did you become an architect?
GH: My grandfather was the only golfer in our family and I idolized him. So when he would invite me to play golf, which he didn't do until I was in my teens, it was a life-changing experience. And I don't know if it was the love for the golf landscape or the fact that he was in that landscape or whatever else attracted me to that landscape, but I doodled golf holes through college. I went to University of Denver and studied political science and history, which was one of those now-what-do-I-do degrees. So I went to graduate school and in my first semester at Cornell, I was studying city and regional planning, and taking a landscape architecture class. And I met a guy in class who had studied to be a golf course architect. I went home to my now-wife Tracy – we were engaged at the time – and told her I can get into this. It's going to take an extra year of grad school because I don't have an undergraduate degree in design, but it's what I really would love to do. It was by no means a linear path. But it has worked out.
Hanse’s work at La Costa will pave the way for the 2024-26 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Collegiate Golf Championships to be held at the venue.
