Thomas McBroom
A conversation with Thomas McBroom...
The Thomas McBroom signature is synonymous with premier golf courses across Canada and around the world. In the past 20 years, the 55-year-old native of Toronto, Ontario, has created a collection of modern classics distinguished by their attention to detail, craftsmanship, strategic intrigue, and great beauty. Acknowledged as one of the game's finest modern architects, McBroom talks about his latest masterpiece, Tobiano in Kamloops, British Columbia, his design philosophy, and the game of golf.
What were your thoughts the first time you walked on the property at Tobiano?
My first thought was just how powerful the site is from a drama and a beauty point of view. I've said it many times, but Tobiano has to be the best site that I've ever seen in terms of that beauty and that drama. With the mountains in the background, and Kamloops Lake and the fissured landscape, it is literally as good as it gets.
It's hard to describe just how powerful that landscape is. It just seems to combine a number of different elements all in one very powerful package. That's a combination of Kamloops Lake, a really long lake that goes all the way from the town of Savona to the west down to Kamloops. and it really forms a visual backdrop to everything that is there at Tobiano. That lake is visible from all 18 holes and from all of the residential areas. Just the way it sits in there against the lake make the property just a totally unique piece of land.
How did you come up with your routing for Tobiano?
That's a creative exercise that I love. I love the art of routing a golf course and it takes a lot of time, a lot of patience, and a lot of creativity. You have to think of it as a giant jigsaw puzzle. There are 18 pieces in that jigsaw puzzle and you have to ask how does it all fit together? What is the best fit with the landscape? Before we routed the course, it was just a dramatic piece terrain with a rumpled topography, a fissured landscape with gullies.
It all made for a golf course I knew was going to be good right out of the gate because I had the perfect pallet to lay out that golf course on. And then the fun starts. The fun starts with deciding what the best fit is, sequencing the holes, and situating the clubhouse. I looked at two or three different locations for the clubhouse. And then everything was further complicated because Tobiano is a real estate development and our client Mike Grenier wanted to accomplish some goals in regard to real estate.
But both Mike and I understood that what was going to drive the bus, if you will, on the success of Tobiano was the quality of the golf course. The golf course had to lead and it does lead the parade. Mike said to me; "Make sure this golf course is world class and that it will in no way be compromised by any of the residential component."
As you can imagine those are magic words that I like to hear from an owner.
How many routings did you do?
About 20 to 24 different routings, different combinations of the way it could work. I knew right out of the gate that the best golf course on that land was hard up against the Kamloops Lake. The more holes that we got running along those high bluffs and along the hoodoos that was going to create the great golf course. At the end of the day that's what it is.
There are a couple of residential pockets sprinkled throughout the property, but in no way do they impact the quality of the golf holes. I think at the end of the day we've got a string of 18 holes that's beautifully sequenced through the landscape taking advantage of the strong views, taking advantage of the topography and all of those natural features.
There are a few holes out there that I have never seen the likes of before. For instance, a holes like number three, which Mike Grenier and I affectionately call Ballybunion, because it was virtually a hole I didn't have to do anything to create other than grade out a little green and a set of tee boxes. The contours were already there.
The fourth hole is the only bunker-less hole at Tobiano. I remember thinking this hole doesn't need a bunker it is so strong. And it's the setup off the tee that allowed me to design the hole that way. We hit over some badlands to a pretty wide receptive fairway. The fairway is angled so you do have to take some calculated risk to get in position to hit the green. And the green site was just sitting there. I don't remember even moving a yard of dirt to build that green. It was really just planting the seed on the ground. Those holes are magic for me. It's magic when I 'see' holes like that and I'm able to capture them.
You were also able to create holes like number five that follows the natural terrain of the land as it moves down and into the gully.
I was stunned when I saw that hole and how closely it paralleled some of the great holes I've seen in Scotland and Ireland. It reminded me of many of the holes that go through that kind of a fissured valley, very much like Ballybunion.
Tobiano's number 5 is a very unique hole in British Columbia golf.
Absolutely. I don't think there's anything close to that kind of look anywhere in B.C. They actually call those lands 'badlands.' That's land you can't even grow grass on because it has very fine clay topsoil that won't permit grass, or trees. or any kind of vegetation. So that land has just been sitting there in its fissured state for millions of years.
We obviously had to bring in bring in topsoil and just laid it in that valley and then we irrigated it. That enables us to grow great quality turf grass for golf and 'voila' we've got a drop-dead gorgeous golf hole.
The golf course sits in a sensitive environmental area. You can see in the design where you have left many areas untouched.
Yes, and that actually plays well to many of the themes of good environmental golf course design because the golf holes are buffered from one another and they are also buffered from the lake. The normal environmental issues surrounding golf courses are usually related to nutrient runoff or sedimentation during construction. All of that is mitigated by the natural landscape at Tobiano. The buffer strips between fairways and the lake are naturally wide enough that there is no environmental risk of runoff.
The fissures and gullies carved through the property look as though a lot of water comes through there at times.
There's not a lot of torrential rain in Kamloops. It is one of the driest sites in B. C. and is virtually comparable to desert golf. The annual rainfall in Kamloops is only about six or seven inches. There really aren't a lot of natural rain events there. The interesting thing about that is it enabled us to build Tobiano relatively quickly. It was about a year in construction. We started in November of '05 and basically put it to bed with seed in the ground in November of '06. The course was open to limited play in July of '07. My point is that we did not lose one construction day to rain and that has never happened before in my experience.
Construction of the golf course went fairly quickly but from start to finish this project has taken a few years.
It has taken a few years. My involvement here with Mike Grenier and Tobiano has been about eight years. That was a combination of length of time in the planning process but also a consequence of timing. The market was just not ready to embrace Tobiano six or seven years ago. But now it certainly is.
There is not only golf here at Tobiano. There will be homes, an equestrian centre, marina, village, and much more.
It's a true destination. Tobiano is a destination community and resort all wrapped up into one. But the flagship of that destination will be the golf course. That will be the major attraction to bring people to live here and to play Tobiano.
Where does Tobiano rank in your estimation among all the other courses you have designed and built around the world?
I certainly have been fortunate to having been able to work on some great sites. I would certainly say that this is probably top three, and I wouldn't rule it out as the best one I've ever had.
When you think of some of the sights I've had, like Crowbush Cove on Prince Edward Island that has 'to die for' dunes land on the shoreline hard up against the Atlantic Ocean, that's pretty hard to beat.
But again, I am not going to rule out Tobiano because it is multi-dimensional with the desert landscape, the lake, the mountains, the fissures, the gullies, the hoodoos. It's very, very powerful. There is no place like it in Canada. I don't know where you would find someplace so strong.
It's very photogenic, too. We've noticed in post-construction that is pretty hard to take a bad photograph out there.
I think the weather at Tobiano will be the real ace in the hole. The fact that they have a limited amount of rainfall each year so for West Coasters, particularly the folks from Vancou- ver and from Vancouver Island, it's kind of a treat to go out and play in dry conditions in bright sunshine.
When you get a great site like Tobiano do you enjoy the construction process anticipating how golfers are going to react, visualizing what golfers are going to be doing here years in the future?
Always. I spend a lot of time on the site when we are building my golf courses. That's what I do. I anticipate how golfers will play the hole; how they will react to it. I have to make calls on how golfers will hit their shots, good shots and, of course, where they will hit their bad shots. That's a big part of golf design: anticipating where people are going to miss and making sure that when they do hit those bad shots, for the most part, they are able to get out of trouble. Now, that is not always the case at Tobiano where there are a few spots where you don't want to hit it.
During the design process was there a particular hole that you felt simply had to be in the rotation?
The great thing about Tobiano is that I think every hole is in some way unique and special and differentiated from the next one. I think it's probably the most memorable course I've made. I have a crisp view of every single hole on the golf course and I'm hearing that from golfers that play it too. The memorability factor is very high because every hole is – I know it sounds clichéd – but every hole is a signature hole.
But certainly some that stand out. The par three seventh is utterly unique: hitting over the gully to the green that's perched on top of this razor back knoll.
And then the drive on number eight over the gully next door. It's a terrific risk-reward shot. There's a great angle you can play but it involves taking more risk over the gully on the right side. Of course if you can hit that shot it opens up the view to the green and possibly you can hit that green in two.
How have you been able to defend Tobiano against today's top players and their modern equipment?
Certainly we have. Tobiano is a long golf course from the back tees. We did design it to play long, and we know that in the Kamloops area the ball goes a little bit farther, too. The air is dry so we had to bring that into account when we designed the golf course. That's why it's one of the longest golf courses in British Columbia. We're 7,328 from the back tees.
Now having said that, we know that most people have utterly no capability of playing a 7,300 yard golf course. But that golf course is designed for the top players in the game today who typically can play 7,300 yards with relative ease. They're hitting mid irons and short irons into the greens, even at that length.
Some players should not be on the back tees and that's why we have designed Tobiano with five sets of tees. There's a huge length differential between the front tees and the back tees; it's more than 2,000 yards. From the front tees we are only 5,289 yards, so the difference between the front and the back tees is over a hundred yards per hole. So when you think about that, that's quite a differentiation between tee boxes, and of course, there are three tees in between. Tobiano truly has been designed for every level of player, which you must do in good golf course design today.
The Tobiano greens seem fairly large and receptive.
The greens generally are mid-sized to large and I have designed them for speed. There is gentle to undulating contour on them and depending on how the greens are cut I think they will play fair. We want to have them at 10, 11 or 12 on the stimpmeter. The faster they play the more curl there will be. There's not a lot of dramatic, heaving undulation on them. I would call them more subtle contours.
They are fairly large because Tobiano will be greatly influenced by the wind. In keeping with that the theme – it can be thought of as almost a links style – and when the wind is up, the greens should be bigger targets.
They are tightly guarded and many greens are bunkered on both sides or have a lot of fallaways or short grass fallaways into deep hollows, little benches and plateaus. There is a premium on approach shots into Tobiano requiring you to either hit the green or there is trouble on all four sides. It would have been a mistake to make the greens too small and I think they are the right size for a property of this scale.
What grass was used on the tees and fairways?
The fairway grass is the same as the tees and greens. It's bent grass and I believe its one of the few pure bent grass golf courses in the province. Certainly on the coast you can't grow bent grass, but I always feel that the Thompson Okanagan area has perfect bent grass growing conditions. Bent grass is that grass you can cut very, very short for the greens and tees. So far so good. The quality of the turf is extraordinary. We have a great greens keeping staff and I like what I see.
Is there something that is unique to Thomas McBroom and your design? Is there a signature that is Tom McBroom?
In recent years I have been shifting my bunker style and trying to work on bunker style and theme. I've been working on concepts that really go back to the golden age of golf design back in the '20s and '30s when the scale of bunkers was a little larger; the bunkering theme more robust and gnarly, windswept and natural. I really like that approach to bunker design.
I like to take advantage of a site's natural features; to make it feel right and to make it feel natural; to make the golf course feel like it has been there for a hundred years; that it is lying naturally on the land and that it doesn't feel imposed in any way. I think my style has evolved in that direction in recent years.
You get the sense that Tobiano was really laid on the land. It wasn't built with machines and bulldozers; rather it really fit into the land in a very elegant and graceful way. In a way that you can't really tell what I did. It's just a seamless connection between the artistry on the course and the way it fits on the land. It is something I have been trying to perfect in my craft for several years and hopefully with some success.
You occasionally mention links courses of Great Britain that have obviously left an impression on you as a designer.
I have been an aficionado of the old courses in Scotland and Ireland and England for many years. I usually make a pilgrimage over there at least once a year to reconnect with the old courses. I love the playing experience over there. I love the way those golf courses fit and connect with the natural landscape and I try and learn from that and bring that into play in my work.
What are your top five courses you have played in the world?
I don't want to put one of my courses in my top five, although I will say that Tobiano I think going down the road will be highly regarded. I just do. I think it's that strong.
Courses I love are Shinnecock on Long Island (NY). I usually get there every few years. Shinnecock is just a work of art and an extraordinarily well-designed golf course. I love Cypress Point down on the Monterrey Peninsula. I love Pine Valley in New Jersey; just a unique site and a unique piece of work and terrific golf course. We've talked about Ballybunion. That would be in my top five and the other would probably be Muirfield in Scotland. The first returning loop golf course ever done in the old world and home of several British Opens in the last thirty or forty years or so.
Golf is your life.
Golf is my life. That's what I do and I've been very fortunate that I have been able to make a career of golf design. I'm a player, so I love to play and I play all over the world. I'm a fortunate guy that I'm able to combine a love for the game and to turn it into a career making great golf courses.
Obviously from your work you have an understanding of the game as well.
I think I do and that's an essential part of being in the golf design business. You have to understand how people play the game. You have to have an innate sense of how people hit golf shots, how they play, how golfers are challenged, and how they receive enjoyment. There's such a diversity in the way people play the game. The skill levels of today's player is so good it is utterly shocking how well they strike the ball and how well they play the game. You contrast that with average players who go out and play once a week and then again contrast that with high handicap players of no skill and imagine how they play the game in contrast to the top players. And then you ask, 'How do you design a golf course that is going to give these people the right level of enjoyment?' Simply put, highly-skilled players like a difficult golf course because that's the only way they can be challenged and they need to be challenged to have fun. Yet on the other hand, for an unskilled player really it's just enough of a joy for him or her to put the ball in the air and to find some nice grass to hit the next shot off. It's a very different set of expectations.
Yet at the end of the day, I've got to marry that all together and make sure that these golfers get that right level of challenge and enjoyment in the course of a round.
How do you think golfers will react to playing Tobiano?
I think one of the reactions will be, and I hope it's one of their first reactions, is that it may be one of the most unique golf experiences they've ever had in their lives.
I think the property is that strong and that unique. I think they will have real trouble trying to think of a comparable facility that they have ever played in their lives.
I sure can't think of one, and that's what makes me very proud of Tobiano, knowing that there is really nothing else like it anywhere in the world.
