Developers’ objective:
selling
lots
For
aspiring women
architects, there
is an additional
barrier to entry. The names on the marquee
are Fazio
and Palmer, not
Beljan and Martz, the architects who
have been
on
site.
“The
people building golf courses
want to sell houses,” says Alice
Dye, the
first woman
admitted
to the ASGCA and its only female president. “They
want a
signature course architect to market these
houses. I don’t know
if a
woman’s name is a detriment, but
developers don’t seem to think
it’s that big a
plus.”
Dye should know. Although she
has
co-designed 17 courses with her
husband, Pete, including
TPC Sawgrass’
Players Stadium, the Ocean Course at
Kiawah
Island and Crooked Stick,
there is no mention
of her name on any of the
properties’ Web sites.
“You go anywhere and it’s Pete, Pete, Pete,” says the
Dyes’ niece
Cynthia Dye McGarey, herself an architect. “Nobody ever asks me
about
my Aunt Alice. Ever.”
Martz doesn’t mind the lack
of recognition.
“People in the industry know who the
architects are who
represent Mr.
Palmer,”
she says.
“He has always been very
gracious. Whenever we have
an opening
or site
visit, he is the
first to get up and say, ‘This
course was designed by Vicki
Martz,’ and bring me out
in front of
everybody and put me in
front of the
microphone to answer
questions.”
For staff
architects, being overshadowed
by their
bosses is not
necessarily a gender issue—just ask Jim Urbina (who
works
for Tom Doak) or Beau Welling (Tiger Woods).
But the lack of
recognition
for women means there are
few role models for
young women
interested in entering
the design
business.
That may change with
Sorenstam’s entry into the design
field—as long as
her name remains
marketable. “I don’t know
how well the name
Annika Sorenstam will
relate to selling
houses,” says
Alice Dye, “because the
people that buy
houses
are
not that sophisticated in the golf world. Even if you
said
Ben
Hogan designed the course, a lot of people wouldn’t know who he
is.”
