Interview/Robert Trent Jones: Paul Gallagher hears the eminent golf architect rail against expanding classic courses to fight technology
Robert Trent Jones Junior is an intriguing character to be around. Not only has the American continued the family dynasty in golf course architecture founded by his father and namesake, he was once a target for assassination by a head of state, not to mention labouring for 20 years before finally completing a course in Moscow at the height of the Cold War.
To say 66-year-old "Bobby" has interests beyond his primary skill of shaping and moulding fairways and greens is a major understatement. Even though he is responsible for designing or remodelling over 200 courses in over 35 countries, he speaks with great vigour of all things cultural, or of dining at the top tables and rubbing shoulders with US presidents and Chinese premiers.
Yet, amid all this pomp his one true passion still beats strong, designing golf courses to the very best of his ability while adhering to the core values of a game which he claims has opened so many doors and provided him with so much.
Yes, he can wax lyrical across a myriad of issues, but when someone of his stature in the game speaks on issues such as the technology and equipment debate - and its detriment to the game - it's difficult not to sit up and take notice.
As golf evolves with alacrity, Jones suggests the fundamental principles of the game haven't changed, rather it's the multi-national manufacturers and commercial influences which are transforming the game.
"The traditions of the game are the same as they were 500 years ago. You have a stick and a ball, you hit it cross-country, and if you put it in the hole in less strokes than the other guy, he buys drinks, otherwise you do," notes Jones.
"If that's still the core game 500 years later, what has undoubtedly happened in the interim is: balls have gotten livelier, clubs are better - from a hickory wooden stick to titanium shaft - and equipment that's akin to an aerodynamic missile being put into orbit.
"Therefore, golf courses have to respond as all games work on an attack and defend principle. If the golfer is on attack then I as a course designer am on defence.
"Now I can do a lot of things: I can make the course longer, introduce more bunkers or water hazards, create smaller greens or simply trick the course up with hidden ravines or creeks. But the problem here is we are responding to the technology and in reality you can't keep up with balls going farther and farther.
"We believe the R&A, the USGA and ourselves have let the genie out of the bottle," says Jones, speaking as a former president and lifetime member of the American Society of Golf Course Architects.
"We could have clamped down on some of the effects and in fairness, the governing bodies are trying to now, but they are lengthening some classic courses - eg Pine Valley, Merrion, Augusta National and even the Old Course at St Andrews.
"That frustrates me because those courses are classics, like great period pieces of their time. It's like repainting the Mona Lisa.
"And to simply add length to a course for its own sake punishes everybody," adds Jones.
"Don't get me wrong - length should have its own reward and youth will out but old foxes should still be given the chance to play. The biggest test we designers face today is showing our ability to make courses more interesting so they hold your attention.
"We simply can't be designing courses for the best players in the world because what happens the other 51 weeks of the year when they aren't competing?
"For me that's why club championships and matchplay, the truest form of the game, among friends is when the real game is on."
If the ongoing technology debate poses a challenge for Jones, his determination to finish what he started in Moscow proves he is up a for a challenge.
The Russian Golf Association (RGA) only became affiliated to the R&A in 1992. "We built the first ever course in Russia, called Moscow Country Club. That was a monumental effort, our toughest assignment ever.
"We went in, in 1974 and it finally opened in 1994. It tested us to the limits," recalls Jones with a wry smile.
"Firstly, it took all our skills politically to get the Soviet leadership to understand that golf was not just an English or American elitist game, rather it emerged from Celtic or Scottish influences, played by shepherds and poor people for hundreds of years.
"That's not to mention us brazen Americans who were in someone else's country at a delicate time when supposedly our own bombs were pointed at us. Anyway, with the help of one of their ambassadors we were able to convince the government the concept was a good idea.
"Then Russian attacks on Afghanistan, the boycotting of the 1980 and 1984 Olympics meant all forms of communication had broken down in the Cold War period," noted Jones who sat on the Olympic Committee for the 1984 Games and has a role to this day, albeit a smaller one, and was at the Winter Games in Torino.
"After 12 long years we dusted down the old plans in 1986 and went to the site in Nakhabino. When walking the terrain through the woods, I soon realised we had been given inaccurate maps, to which our guide and engineer responded: 'It's our policy not to give foreigners accurate maps!'
'Then I am going to end up giving you an inaccurate course.'
"We managed to start building, but it was during the collapse of the Soviet Union. We got nine holes done, then no one would grow it in or take care of it. Everything was confused and priorities were certainly not golf around 1991 when Yeltsin took over from Gorbachev.
"The country's system had broken down and at one point myself and my Finnish partner invested our own money, simply to keep the project alive. We even had Red Army soliders picking up rocks from the course for a dollar a day such was the dire situation."
"Finally we got the place open in 1994 - never compromising the course - and I guess we dug our heels in to finish something we had started. Now Le Meridian Moscow Country Club hosts the European Tour's Russian Open. The whole thing, though, tested my very character and my love of the game," said Jones.
That said, the Moscow experience only whetted his appetite and gave him a sense of how the Eastern Bloc works.
It also explains Jones' reason for getting involved in his latest project, Zala Springs in Hungary. Irish-based company Carr Golf are part of the consortium which called on Jones to design the course.
His interest in the region stems back to 1994 when he was in Budapest as part of a US delegation with the remit to put forward a White Paper on how to progress sports tourism in the Eastern Bloc.
Jones recalls how Beethoven, who was based primarily in Vienna like many of the aristocracy of that era, used to spend summers in the Balaton region where Zala Springs is situated.
"Beethoven never married, but he had his one love, the wife of a Count, and they would meet there and some of his best work was inspired from those summers," said Jones as if justifying his decision to carry out work in an area previously visited by one of his musical heroes.
For almost 50 years Jones has traversed the globe to design golf courses.
In the late 1970s he even negotiated with then Chinese premier Deng Xiaoping and US president Jimmy Carter with regard to building a course in Shanghai. And it was on a visit to the Philippines in 1986 that Jones' life was put in real danger as he says the then President Marcos had him marked for assassination.
Jones, who has designed seven courses on the islands, had made no bones about his opposition to Marcos in regard of the leader's human rights abuses.
And he always favoured Marcos' political opponent Benigno Aquino. Then Marcos had Jones' friend Aquino assassinated in 1983.
But three years later the American was back in Manila to inform Aquino's wife Corazon that the US would support her government if they could overthrow Marcos.
This is not to mention Jones' claim that Marcos, who was ... said to be a seven-handicapper, was a rogue golfer too.
"He cheated to keep a phoney seven handicap and had his caddies improve lies all over the course," said Jones.
The threat on his life in 1986 was so real Aquino reportedly offered Jones an Armalite for his safety on arrival at the airport. Refusing the weapon Jones said he asked for a golf club. "I'm better with a seven-iron," he quipped.
Serious matters indeed. But the fact is Jones continues to work on his passion of designing golf courses and he has ambitions to create his own masterpiece here in Ireland. His father, renowned for projects such as remodelling Augusta, designed Ballybunion in Kerry and the excellent parkland course at Adare Manor in Limerick but Jones Junior wants to leave his own mark in these parts.
And with that Jones revealed moves are afoot over a couple of sites but wouldn't confirm anything further at this stage.
"I consider myself one of those designers who don't try to impose our point on the land, rather we prefer to let the land reveal the golf course to us," explains Jones. "There is a potential golf course on every piece of land, it's just a matter of finding it. And here in Ireland, if you simply start cutting the grass in duneland you will surely find a hole.
"I would love to design a course in Ireland. We have tried in Wicklow for 10 years, but differences mean we haven't been able to bring the concept along. But give me a piece of links land, I'd kill for that, I'd be like Michelangelo. I'll take anything you give me. It will happen one day, there is Celtic blood in me."
It didn't stop Jones offering comment on existing Irish courses, particularly some of the country's best links tracks.
"Pat Ruddy's baby at the European is a wonderful creation on a great piece of land. Bernhard Langer also created a fine course at Portmarnock.
"Lahinch has been remodelled and made better in my opinion, particularly on the back nine," he continues.
"Waterville is also good and I understand it is being remodelled too. It lacked spirit as some holes were repetitive so maybe the remodelling will help as it's a great piece of land."
However, on other sites the American was less complimentary. "I believe Tralee was a tragic waste of a good piece of land. It was far better land than the course they carved out. An extremely beautiful and unique place, but the potential wasn't delivered."
It is this decisive clarity with which Jones delivers his opinions and reasoning which makes him such an interesting character.
Whether you choose to agree with him or not is not the issue, recalling his unique experiences makes for compulsive listening.
