This rookie course designer’s advice for budding architects is ridiculously simple
Golf rewards early commitment. Many top players are incredibly talented who started young and committed, progressing from the junior circuit to college programs and then on to the professional game. Of course, a few deviate. But there is one highway, and it is long and narrow.
Golf course construction will not be much different. For every great designer who has taken to doodling golf holes while still in diapers, there are others who fall by the wayside on the field. Alister MacKenzie was a surgeon in the British army long before he did his first studies. Kye Goalby worked in finance. Bill Coore studied classics in college, with an eye toward becoming a professor.
Then there’s Mike Koprowski, among the most unexpected stories of all.
Although Koprowski played golf in high school, he never considered the sport as a career. At the University of Notre Dame, he enrolled in ROTC and, after graduation, served as an Air Force intelligence officer overseas. He went on to earn degrees at Duke and Harvard and built a resume in public policy and education. The construction of golf filled a quiet place in his mind: an obsession, not a plan, and certainly not a way to make a living.
Finally, in a move that felt equal parts reckless and inevitable, Koprowski turned his back on Beltway stability and emailed architect Kyle Franz, which led to an internship in the Sandhills outside Pinehurst. He learned the trade from the ground up — molding, clearing, studying the soil — and, before long, did something even more daring: He bought a sandy lot outside of Columbia, SC, and began building his course.
The result is Broomsedge, set in 197 acres of land, its fairways woven between native grasses and sandy scrub. It is, by any measure, an unlikely achievement.
A few weeks ago, the Destination Golf podcast team visited Broomsedge, where we recorded an episode of the course with Koprowski. You’ve heard of playing lessons. This was a play interview. During the round, Koprowski talked about his impossible construction process and the tough lessons that came with betting on him. There have been times, he admitted, when the bank balance was bleak and his pie-in-the-sky project seemed doomed. But the idea took hold.
Others have noticed. As Broomsedge develops and races to rave reviews, Koprowski points out opportunities for more work. One project, Candyroot – a resort operating on the edge of the Carolina sand belt – is still being wrapped, details to be revealed soon. For a boy who has wondered how one gets into this business without an inherited property or inherited wealth, the puzzle is not lost.
Koprowski says he almost chokes when someone asks him to quote a price for his services.
“I’m having trouble knowing how much I should charge, because I’m having a lot of fun, maybe I’d do it for free,” he said.
As for advice to aspiring architects? It’s easy to be disrespectful. Read design books. Go to see as many great courses as you can. Read down. Then, he says, offering advice that applies beyond golf, “throw caution to the wind.”
After all, life is like black golf. You only spin once. You can watch the entire episode on Spotify here.
