Congratulations on the Dunes Course, it has quickly become a favourite of ours in the HK Golfer office. Did it turn out exactly the way you intended?
It did. We came back in here about 12 months ago and made minor changes to some of the greens. Some of the shapers we had in place at the time probably missed it just a little bit. But they were just subtle changes, there wasn’t anything drastic. The playability of the golf course was exactly what I wanted. You know, quite honestly, as designers we don’t normally get this type of terrain to work with. I mean it’s just perfect golf topography, and it’s as simple as that. So, if you can’t build a decent golf course around here, you don’t know what you’re doing! [laughs]
I find myself in Hong Kong trying to explain to people what this place is like and it’s basically: a golf course is usually green and you put in some bunkers, whereas here it’s all bunkers and you weave in some green.
That’s exactly right [laughs]. It’s a great golf course.
But it’s very playable too, challenging but playable.
It is, it is. We knew it was going to be breezy here, we knew the type of players who were going to come here. You had to give them plenty of corridor to play with but by making it visually kind of intimidating to the eye, it can make you feel like ‘Oh my gosh, this golf course is difficult.’ But, you know, at the end of the day, when you play here, you get the feel of ‘Oh my God, I want to play again.’ And the other thing that I love about it is that it’s a memorable golf course. You can remember all the shots you played.
Now, you were 21 when you turned pro. You look at Rory McIlroy, who was 21 when leading the Masters. Matteo Manassero, 17 and two European Tour wins. Do you wish you had turned pro earlier?
Oh. I don’t think I would have been good enough to turn pro earlier. You know, at the time I started taking up the game, which was 16, up to the time I won my first tournament was like five years, so I couldn’t see myself doing it any sooner because I had no introduction to the game of golf any earlier.
Is it true that you started at 16 and were a scratch player in just over a year?
In 18 months, yeah. I was happy how I started, I played a lot of my national sports, the rugbys and the cricket and the Aussie Rules. I was a swimmer, I was a surfer, I was in athletics, you know. All the other things you are supposed to do as a kid, I did.
