One of the most prominent names in golf course architecture in Canada, Thomas McBroom has built some of our country’s great modern tests, and today remains as prolific as ever. No less than six championship layouts of his imagination will open in 2005, including The Ridge at Manitou, the very private Oviinbyrd in Muskoka, Whitewater in Thunder Bay, and the Ambassador Golf Club in Windsor, Ontario.

Overseas, McBroom has begun broadening his horizons, with two layouts now open at Kyjata, just north of Helsinki, Finland, with a third about to begin construction, as well as the new Marriott Royal St. Kitts.

We had the opportunity to sit down with McBroom recently to discuss the trajectory of his career, his favourite courses and architects, and where he sees himself moving forward down the road…

GTI: Thanks for joining us, Tom. I suppose the best way to start is to go right back to the beginning. You’ve been designing golf courses for decades now. How did it all begin for you?

TM: Well, I started this company about 18 years ago, as Thomas McBroom Associates, and in the early years, we started out as a one-man show…

I’m a landscape architecture, that’s my educational background (McBroom graduated from the University of Guelph’s landscape architecture program in the late 1970s), but I’ve loved golf since I was knee-high or so. I always had wanted to be a golf course architect, going back as long as I can remember, but in Canada that was unknown territory at the time. 20-30 years ago, there was really no precedence for it. There’s really just the one granddaddy of golf course architecture, and that’s Stanley Thompson, of course. His courses have stood the test of time, for 70-80 years, so of course he’s the obvious role model.

Now, he had an apprentice that worked for him named Robbie Robinson, and I did a little bit of work for Robbie when I was starting out here in the early 1980s…

GTI: So it was really like a two-generation mentorship?

TM: Exactly. That was really the only way to connect with Stanley Thompson. Robbie may not have been quite the talent that Thompson was, but…

GTI: Some of it has to rub off, doesn’t it?

TM: Well sure. I mean, in those days I was young, and after the productivity and the experience and doing whatever I needed to do to further my career. So I did a few things with Robbie, but I’d say my real break, my real mentor was working with Bob Cupp, who was well known in the States at that time. And Bob and I did two big projects here in Canada together; one was Beacon Hall, and the other Deerhurst Highlands, which are both top-ranked golf courses, and I think they’ll probably stay there.

It’s interesting. You see some courses, they open and get some early buzz and go off the charts, but they settle back down again (in the rankings). I think both of those will stay there: Beacon Hall really is a wonderful golf course.

GTI: No question. Now, you’ve noted that most of your work has been centered in Canada, but more recently, you’ve been working internationally, including a big project with a Finnish developer. Can you tell us a little bit about that project (Kyjata Golf)?

TM: It’s an impressive project, really. I’ve been going over there about 5-6 times a year since ’00, and I see that continuing. He has this wonderful 50,000-hectare estate; it’s just a gorgeous property that actually shares some similarities with Muskoka, with the granite rock outcroppings, the pine trees, and the lakes, except that, relative to Helsinki, it’s a very short trip up a four-lane highway, and you’re there.

The Southeast Course opened in late 2003, and the Northwest Course in late 2004, and we’re going to break ground on a third course this fall, and it will take a couple of years to build that.

GTI: Now with three distinct courses going in on the same property, are there certain qualities to each that you feel distinguishes each of your designs at Kyjata?

TM: First of all, from a terrain perspective, the Northwest Course is more dramatic. It moves up into quite rugged terrain, and hills, whereas the Southeast Course has a little bit of a links feel. While it is not a links course, but the land is a little flatter and one of the nines actually circles back around Lake Kyjata. There are fewer trees, there is little rock, and it simply feels different.

Part of that is in the way we work to differentiate between courses in terms of style and design. For the two courses already built at Kyjata, we chose a different bunker style, which at times is so starkly different that it can seem as though two different designers built the two courses. I think you have to do that intentionally. It goes with the territory of wanting each of your courses to stand on its own merit.

GTI: Then, going back to 2000 when you first arrived at the property, as part of the whole allocation process, are you looking at certain parts of the land, and noting where each course will go, and further to that, what type of “personality” each will have?

TM: Absolutely. Differentiation and variety are key touchstones in the golf design business, and you’re always looking to differentiate holes and courses from each other with a continual sense of variety. When we were working on the original routing… the clubhouse is on the lake, which was the natural location for it, and around that, I was looking for some commonality for each of the courses, and found it in the diversity of the land.

GTI: And the third course at Kyjata? What will its personality be?

TM: The third course is pure links. It will have its own distinct personality in that respect, and I now have some experience in recent years with links courses, with ClubLink’s Glencairn. The course is right around the lake – nine out and nine back. We’ll be creating a unique sort of lakeside dunes setting, and we’re doing it on a land that was originally very agrarian in its feel. It’s been sort of a no-brainer. There won’t be a lot of earth to be moved, because there are just some amazing contours in the land. That one’s going to be a lot of fun.

GTI: Can you tell us about some of the courses that you’re working on in Canada right now?

TM: There are a couple of big ones that we’re just breaking ground on this spring.  One is the Lake Memphrémagog Golf Club, right near Georgeville in the Eastern Townships on an awesome, completely forested site, with maple, beech, yellow birch and hemlock forest.  There’s no lake frontage on the course, as it’s protected environmentally, but the site is perfect, right on a sloped bench overlooking the lake, and we’re finding, as we clear the trees, some terrific views of the lake, and of Owl’s Head and Mount Orford at either end.  It’s also going to be a very private club, one of the most private courses in Canada with just 100 members, the Redtail of Quebec.

And we’re also doing a couple of courses for Intrawest. The first is near Collingwood, around the top of the mountain past Craigleith toward Thornbury, and it’s called Lora Bay. We’re doing that course with Tom Lehman – we’re co-designers on that one, which has been a lot of fun. And the third one we’re doing is out in Kelowna, in the Okanagan Valley, which will be a residential community called Talon Ranch. It’s an exceptional ranch-style piece of property, with heaving, rolling contours, big views, and a big sky. Not a lot of trees there; it’s sort of in the foothills of the mountains.

GTI: How have you found, specific to Lora Bay, I guess, how working with a professional player has impacted the design process?

TM: Well, actually, in addition to Lora Bay… we’ve started working on a new course for the Four Seasons in Orlando, Florida, which will be my first course in the States.  We can talk a little bit about it – I’m doing that one with Seve Ballesteros.  It’s very interesting for me, professionally, just to learn what these guys bring to the table and see how legitimate they are in their approach to the design process.  The gamut ranges from Jack Nicklaus, who has had a legitimate design office for a couple of decades now, to guys who only sell their name to certain courses for marketing purposes.

I’ve really enjoyed working with Tom Lehman.  It’s been interesting, because what the public perceives of him, is that he’s very workmanlike and honest, and I think he brings a sincerity and a unique perspective to the design process.  He brings an approach which is part of him and part of what he’s learned as a touring professional, which is an understanding of what a championship golf course feels and plays like.  One thing I’ve learned from Tom is that he really focuses on setting up landing areas for top players and he brings a different approach to fairway bunkering.  It is not decorative, but thoughtful and strategic.  He doesn’t want to bother average players.  He really likes to funnel drives.  It’s an absolute reflection of the way he plays the game and he tends to favour the way he plays the game, being a slight draw.  Historically, you can say the same about Nicklaus and the courses he has built, with sharp-angled greens and the need to find those pins with high long irons.

The 15th hole at Royal St. Kitts

GTI: And you have a course in St. Kitts now as well, right?

TM: Yes, that course is open now. We opened it around Christmas time this year. It’s at the Marriott there. I think it’s a natural instinct for a golf course designer to want to take your name and your instincts abroad as far afield as you can, but you need to do it in a controlled way. I’m not in any hurry. I’ve chosen to stay small in this business, and I like it that way so I can say totally engaged in the design and the construction process.

GTI: Do you see yourself expanding more internationally?

TM: In the Caribbean and the European markets, definitely. I’m not sure how much the demand is in the States, because the market is set for all the talent that is already down there, but I think there are a lot of opportunities in Europe, particularly. We’re looking in Sweden right now, in fact, to build a course for Mats Sundin in Stockholm, where he will be the lead equity. I’m heading back over in June, actually, to look at a couple of pieces of property for that.

GTI: Can we talk a little bit about some of the courses that you personally have a soft spot for, as a designer and as a golfer?

TM: As I’ve said, in terms of having role model and so on, I’m a huge Stanley Thompson fan. I’ve been a member at St. Georges (in Toronto) for a number of years, and it’s a terrific piece of land and a terrific golf course. All great courses start with a great piece of land. If Thompson had a weakness, and as designers we all have weaknesses -- Thompson’s weakness was that he struggled to build great courses out of ordinary pieces of land. St. Georges, Capilano, Cape Breton Highland Links – they’re terrific pieces of land. I used to visit Highland Links back when we were building Bell Bay, before they renovated it, before they even had irrigation, and it was terrific, it was burnt out and dry and bump-and-run, and today it doesn’t reflect what the course was, and what it ought to be.

Internationally, I just love the British courses. I’m a huge fan of the old British courses, and I’ve been going over once a year for the last 15 years to play, and to observe. Every one is very unique, they’re so natural. There were no big budgets involved with them. They were just great pieces of land, and you note how well the Old Tom Morris’ and Thompsons and Willie Parks understood the game. They didn’t move any land. They just found the green sites and the tee sites and understood how those courses would stand up to time… it just blows me away.

GTI: Reverting back to talking about your own work, are there particular holes that you’ve designed that stand out as favourites?

TM: Well, let me give you a par three, a par four and a par five.  

My favourite par three right now is probably the 15^th at St. Kitts Marriott, where we employed a unique kind of bunkering motif to mimic and reflect the white caps in the ocean behind the hole. The hole plays from atop a bluff right out toward the sea, and the symmetry between the waves and the bunker design is truly unique.  It’s a great hole both aesthetically and strategically.           

In terms of my favourite par four, I’d have to say the 11^th at Lake Joseph (in Muskoka), which is a great risk-reward hole.  It’s a long par four that doglegs right to left around a marsh, where you’re tempted to take off as much as you can.  At the green – and I try to do this with at least two or three holes on each course I design – it’s bunkerless.  From tee to green, it offers multiple lines of play that offer up a great risk-reward strategy.           

And really, that’s also one of the great qualities of my favourite par five, which is the 12^th at Deer Ridge, in Kitchener.  There is a great risk-reward element to this hole as well, where one is forced to make decisions on both the tee, and on the second shot, to set up the best approach.  There are many different ways to play the hole, which I think makes for a strong and interesting design.

GTI: Now, we haven’t discussed this course yet, but I know it was a very important one in terms of both the growth of your career and your portfolio. Can you discuss how Crowbush Cove (on Prince Edward Island) fits into your career trajectory, and is that one of the best properties you’ve had the pleasure of working on?

TM: I mean, yes, Crowbush Cove was just an awesome site on the water in Atlantic Canada, and one of the great things was that it reflected an underlying environmental ethic that we hold in Canada. And, I think, that it was also sort of the beginning of the construction of some great golf in Atlantic Canada as well. For us, it led to Bell Bay, and to the renovation of the old Algonquin course and the Cape Breton Highlands.

GTI: There’s no question about it. Now, you’re obviously fond of your work in the East, and it has received the accolades and acclaim it deserves, but is there a design of yours that you feel is underrated?

TM: Well, let me just say this. Ratings, as we’ve discussed, are simply one measure of how a course should be judged, and it’s not always an accurate one, but one of my designs that I feel is, collectively, highly underrated is Rattlesnake Point in Milton (a 36-hole private ClubLink property northwest of Oakville. There, we had a fairly dull, uninspired landscape of old farmland; I mean, we essentially were building on cornfields there, and I think we shaped two great golf courses there, although I personally prefer the more links-style Sidewinder course a little better. And within the ClubLink model, it’s been a huge performer for them, so all in all I think it’s a great property. Ultimately, what it needs is a significant event like the Canadian Open to gain it some exposure, and it’s one of very few sites in Canada that can handle the logistics of a major event.

GTI: In terms of courses you didn’t design, do you have any personal favourite courses in Canada?

TM: As we’ve discussed, most of Stanley Thompson’s work holds a special place for me, but in terms of courses designed in the modern era… I think Taboo is a very good golf course. You know, in Muskoka, it’s very easy to build a beautiful golf course, but it’s quite difficult to build a playable one, and I think Taboo has accomplished that. It’s a great addition to the Muskoka region. Another that comes to mind is Devil’s Paintbrush, which I think is a great expression of links golf. That said, I’m partial to the classics.

GTI: As we are too. Tom, we thank you for your time, and look forward to talking with you again soon.

TM: Thank you.