“When I see great golf that inspires me – golf design with a soul – the thing that always jumps out at me is that someone who knew what they were doing was on site directing the work,” says Kurt Bowman. “You can’t do that from a plan. The art happens in the construction, not the drawing.” Since starting his own design practice in 2016, Bowman has built his career on that belief. Few golf architects in the world spend more time on site than he does: 150 days on the redesign of the La Hacienda Alcaidesa Links course in southern Spain which was just rated the #2 redesign in the world for 2023 according to Golf Inc Magazine “The amount of time I spend on site is what makes me different, it is the best way to deliver outstanding work for my clients. So, I do it willingly.
Bowman spent three years as a Nicklaus site coordinator, training under architects Phil Smith and Jim Lipe – who he describes as his mentor. He was involved with the Superstition Mountain project in Arizona and the King & Bear course at the World Golf Village in Florida. “Then Jack sent to Mayacama in California,” he says. “It was a great site and a really good developer, and it was during that project, in 1999, that I was promoted to design associate. I knew I needed to get better at drawing for that role, so Jack said to me ‘Why don’t you go back to the office?’ which I did for a year. I then went to May River in South Carolina, which I think might be the best course I worked on at Nicklaus.
Nicklaus Design 1996-2009
When Nicklaus moved Bowman to Cabo he worked on several of the highest rated courses the firm did in those years, including Desert Mountain Chiricahua, Mayacama, Sebonack, Cabo del Sol Ocean (Cove Club) and Punta Mita Bahia. Mexico in particular was great for me – I think I have worked on six of the top fifteen courses in the country.” He started his own company in 2016, and immediately began his first solo design at Santo Domingo Country Club in the Dominican Republic, the most elite private course in the country and soon after began assisting Nicklaus on his revered Ocean course (Cove Club) at Cabo del Sol, where he has worked for seven years. Based now in Texas, he has done a number of jobs close to home, including some working with PGA Tour legend Lanny Wadkins. His big break, though, was the La Hacienda-Alcaidesa Links job in southern Spain, one of the most remarkable golf properties on the golf-rich Costa del Sol, which opened in July 2022.
The best golf is founded on small-scale design decisions – a contour here, a swale there – that cannot be drawn in an office. We are lucky in the golf business to have some great contractors and brilliant shapers to work with, but even the best of them need guidance, and that can only be done on site. I know that my strength is in detailing, and in golf courses I believe that it is the fine details that separate the average, the good and the great. A great golf course has a sense of place that moves you when you play it – it has a soul. Soul is built in the field, not in a design office.”