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From the Middle Kingdom to the Home of Golf, the author's misadventures and revelations from the world of architecture
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By
George Peper
Here’s a good one for you. Roughly one year ago, I was invited to design a golf
course. In China.
Now, what I didn’t know about golf course architecture—and
for that matter, China—could have filled an encyclopedia. That made me a perfect
fit for the developer—he had no budget.
This all came about as a result of a
little business I’d launched a year earlier—ChinaLinks Golf Consulting—wherein I
partnered with two Chinese publisher friends to represent American course
architects for opportunities in China. (We signed six distinguished
designers—Mike DeVries, Dana Fry, Don Knott, Mark McCumber, Kyle Phillips and
Baxter Spann—and to date we have four projects off the ground—or is it in the
ground?)
At an early business strategy meeting, I said to my partners, “Hey,
if you guys should find a developer who can’t afford to hire a proper designer,
tell him he can have me for next to nothing.” I was joking—well, half-joking.
Like just about every serious golfer, I’m a frustrated architect.
Then
suddenly, unfathomably, I was summoned!
Brimming with ignorance, I flew to
Beijing, hopped a connector to Shenzhen, lunched ceremonially with the
developer, squinted briefly and cluelessly at a topographical map, and then
hiked through three life-threatening kilometers of Rambo country.
The site
was gorgeous—600 rolling acres, clad with lush tropical vegetation and nestled
in a stream-threaded valley at the nexus of three massive hills. But even I
could see there would be some difficulty putting a golf course on it.
Then, as we stood atop one of the hills, the developer dropped his
bombshell. He didn’t want a golf course—he wanted two courses, along with a
palatial clubhouse, a five-star hotel, 50 condominiums, and an American school
(don’t ask).
“Give me a sketch,” he said, “and if I like it, the job is
yours,” adding inscrutably “and this will be the first of many major projects we
will do.”
Right. Now all I had to do was speed-school myself in the
fine points of schematic design, geological engineering, soil agronomy,
subsurface irrigation, turf analysis and artful earthmoving—not to mention
chopstick dexterity and conversational Mandarin.
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