The Springs

“The Springs course was designed as an 11-hole facility by Al Howard, who was a father figure to Australian Golf Course Architecture and did some good work over many years. I think the original site was only large enough for the 11 holes and when the owner at that time (a Korean named Henry Sunwoo) secured a further parcel he asked me to layout and design the 7 holes to obviously make it an 18-hole course.

After agreeing on the layout for the new holes Henry (who was a colourful character) eventually rang to say I could proceed with the green designs, which I did and sent all seven to him with an invoice. He responded that he didn’t expect me to design all of them, just a couple and I knew I’d have a struggle on my hands to get paid.

I found out that he’d had the greens built so I visited unannounced and found the greens had been well built and were very much in accordance with my designs. After all sorts of suggestions from Henry about how I could get paid if I did a few other design jobs for him I decided to take it to court. I won the case but before the judge could announce the penalty for Henry, his solicitor advised that he was bankrupt and couldn’t pay.”