大象传媒

In an episode first broadcast in April 2019, Ashley Ahearn visits the rugged wilderness of North America鈥檚 Pacific North West to take a walk with David McLay Kidd: golf course designer, storyteller, and sculptor of landscapes in their wildest form.

David is a revolutionary in the field of golf design: an artist who dared to shun the manicured parkland and neatly-trimmed grass of the typical American golf course to bring the sport right back to its roots.

His designs work in harmony with nature 鈥� creating symphonies of wind, sand, and raw coastal landscapes familiar from his Scottish homeland. It鈥檚 all about the thrill of adventure 鈥� a visceral experience that plunges the player deep into the essence of a place - involving them in a challenge that walks a tightrope between intoxicating鈥�and maddening.

鈥淚鈥檓 a sculptor on a big scale鈥�, David says. He鈥檚 also part landscape architect, part visual artist, part project manager and chief engineer鈥�and above all, a storyteller.

Bandon Dunes is the course that made David McLay Kidd鈥檚 name more than two decades ago, and it鈥檚 there that Ashley finds him as he prepares to make alterations in advance of the US Amateur Championships in 2020.

As David takes us through his creative process 鈥� in both his wild outdoor 鈥渟tudio鈥�, plotting bulldozers with his head greenkeeper, sketching with pencil and paper in hand indoors 鈥� it becomes clear that the relationship between golf course design and the natural environment is more complex and symbiotic than one might have ever imagined.

Produced by Steven Rajam for Tandem Productions.

(Image: Golf course designer, storyteller, and sculptor David McLay Kidd, with kind permission)