Jeff Howes Golf Design Wins Prestigious European Contracts


Irish golf architect, Jeff Howes Design, has landed a number of prestigious European contracts. His commissions include Talentis in Hungary, Hafjell GK in Norway and GC Adamstal in Austria. The firm, established by Jeff Howes in 1991, has grown significantly since its inception in Kilkenny.

Howes first came into prominence for his work on Kilkenny's Mount Golf Club, where he was Jack Nicklaus's design coordinator. Howes graduated with a degree in Physical Geography, a Diploma in Turfgrass Management and managed and supervised several projects in Japan and Thailand. He also worked with the Robert Trent Jones Jr. Kananuskis course in Canada.

"Mount Juliet was essentially the reason why I came and fell in love with Ireland," said Howes. "It was a huge opportunity to work on this with Jack and I was delighted to be asked to do further work on the putting greens before the 2002 AMEX. And having Tiger Woods describe the greens as the best he had putted on was a huge highlight for me."

A Jeff Howes course is designed for pleasure and durability in a manner sympathetic to the environment. "First and foremost." said Howes, "I design to give the maximum pleasure to the greatest number of people for all grades of golf. Secondly, I make it a priority to incorporate the flow of a particular piece of land into my designs and thirdly, I always aim to design a course which will stand the test of time."

Howes also sets out to challenge all golf abilities, including touring pros. "The pros expect the courses they play to all be pretty much the same in terms of green speed, rough length and manicuring," he said. "This tends to reduce the uniqueness that a particular course has to offer and I think it is making golf less attractive to the spectator. Perhaps the pro tours should consult more with the course architects and try to get more variety from week to week."

Other highlights of work undertaken in Ireland by Howes and his team include: the Heritage Golf and Country Club, Co. Laos – a co-design with Seve Ballesteros; the redesign of Fota Islandin Cork, which hosted the Irish Open in 2001 and ’02; and Gowran Park Golf Course, Co. Kilkenny, which was a particular challenge since it was designed in and around an existing horse racetrack. Current Irish projects include the Farnham Estate Golf Club, Radisson SAS, Cavan; Tramore Golf Club, Waterford; the Carrig Glas Golf Club, Longford, a co-design with Retief Goosen; as well as designs in Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Kildare, Cavan, Longford and Carlow.

International Howes’ projects include: Golf Club Adamstal and Golf Club Föhrenwald in Austria, and Thunersee Golf Course of in Switzerland. Other projects are currently underway in Austria, Norway and Hungary.

Members of the Jeff Howes Golf Design team hail from Canada, Sweden, Germany and Ireland. Howes is a member of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) and Golf Course Superintendents Association of Ireland (GCSAI). For further information, contact Jeff Howes Golf Design, Barrack Street, Kilkenny, Ireland at +353 (0)56 7756622/3; email: jeffhowes@jhgd.com; or see visit www.jhgd.com.