Pepe Gancedo: the power of concept

As a designer of golf courses across Spain and beyond, Pepe Gancedo stands out for his thoughtful approach…

A lot of course designers these days seem to work to a branded concept – flying in to recce the terrain in question but generally designing golf courses in a rather templated form that they call their signature style. While it’s great to discover the tell-tale touches of a particular designer on courses as wide apart as America, Spain and Thailand, the problem with such generic work is that it largely ignores the natural and cultural setting to create what can in the long run become rather bland and predictable.

Enter Pepe Gancedo, an unassuming and thoughtful Malagueño who shies away from big egos and personal styles. Instead, he studies the local terrain and surroundings in-depth before conceiving of a design for his courses. “As I walk around the proposed site, paper and pencil in hand,” says Gancedo, “I take notes of all the characteristics, adding them to the client’s brief, and gradually a design concept begins to take shape in my mind.” Later transferring these thoughts to the drawing board, he develops and refines the idea until a unique course design is presented.

Indeed, Gancedo is known for his ability to keep coming up with fresh ideas, as well as for his locally focused approach. “I do not believe it is right to move land excessively, just because we have the technical means to do so. From my point of view it is costly in financial terms and also damages and alters the natural environment far beyond the real requirements of a course. I think some designers are guilty of laziness, as a result of which they superimpose their ideas on the environment instead of getting to know the location and using its distinctive features to design a course that is both in sync with the setting and unique to it.”

This is exactly what he has done at Foressos Golf near Valencia, creating an 18-hole, par 72 course designed expressly for the pleasure of playing. “I suppose you could call it a player’s course,” says Gancedo, whose clever design and attention to detail have made this a course that tests skilled players while going somewhat easy on beginners. If there is one constant in his work it is this adaptability that he creates in his courses. “To do it right, you have to design a course on many levels, looking at it from the player’s point of view, the environmental point of view and also bearing in mind the people who are going to operate and manage the club.”

Courses such as Foressos are therefore laid out with maximum player appeal and minimum natural impact in mind, but the design process also incorporates consideration for maintenance, operating costs and player frequency. “At popular clubs the interval between tee-off times can be as little as 15 minutes or less, so it is important to design a course that can cope with this, be operated cost-efficiently and that requires as little short and long term maintenance as possible.” A course designer who takes all these things into consideration can truly be said to be on top of his game.

New post on at Friday, 9 July, 2010, 9:15 am and is archived in Lifestyle, People, Sport. Subscribe to answers with RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.