Sustainability by Design - Glimpses into Howard Swan's re-design of the KGA, Bangalore

“Sustainability by Design”
Glimpses into Howard Swan’s re-design of the KGA.
Meeting Howard Swan, a dapper gentleman of middle years, one is immediately aware of the energy, strength of purpose, candour and commitment, combined with the essential humility that surrounds the man. Spending an evening in his company proved to be an eye-opener for me and it was interesting to get a glimpse into the immense efforts which are going into giving us a “new-improved KGA”.
Swan Golf Designs was established in 1987 following Howard Swan’s 16 years of work in the field of international golf course design, architecture and construction. Indeed, his pedigree is impeccable - he is a second generation golf course designer-architect, since his father engineered and constructed almost all the courses visualized and designed by Henry Cotton, the great golfer of yester-years. Apart from his work at the KGA, his first in India, (with a few more to come), Howard is involved in golf course design-architecture-construction across the globe, from China, through Dar-es-Salaam, Russia, Slovenia, Portugal, the UK and Brazil.
“The Challenge must be to do as little as one needs, to create the golf course which is couched in nature itself” – Swan Designs motto and mission statement is indeed a commendable one, in these modern days of “high roller developers” and “instant gratification” where the indiscriminate use of heavy-duty machinery in golf course design, with little or no care for the surroundings and often fragile eco-systems, is the order of the day! Golf course architecture has largely lost its essential simplicity and has become needlessly complicated.
As Howard says, “The careful use of modern techniques and best practices in golf course architecture will become evident over time, when the course has been allowed to grow around the changes within it. With time and patience comes a certain mellowing and nature’s slow softening processes will result in an aesthetic, yet challenging course, for golfers of varying abilities. The responsible use of design and technology combined with high quality of maintenance will ensure first class presentation as well as a fair test.”
He calmly states (if a trifle tongue- in- cheek), that golf course architects have an unique opportunity to play with and mould the emotions of golfers, golf being an emotional game. Rather like the master conductor of a symphonic orchestra, the visionary golf course designer-architect, will bring one’s emotions to the fore and one’s heart-strings into play, alternately stoking, stroking and stimulating the emotions of fear, anger, relief and happiness, while one is playing the course. (Who would ever have thought that so many emotions entered into this sphere of activity, largely viewed by the majority amongst us, as an enjoyable leisure pursuit, over four and a half hours of communion with nature and the great open spaces?)
A well deserved word of appreciation here, for the foresight shown in the 1970’s by the original committee and founder members of the KGA, along with Peter Thompson, the original course designer, for the use of sewage water for irrigation and building a sewage treatment plant in those early days. Fantastic!
It is truly gratifying to see the fruits of Howard’s actual labour of love at the KGA, using the natural limitations and moulding the subtleties of the landscape by hand, into a more aesthetic, better laid out golf course, while not changing the essential clockwise progression of play, course routing and basic contours. He is most appreciative of the staff and workers, especially the ladies (all 600 of them), who have quite literally had “many hands” in helping him execute his vision into reality at the KGA. He commends their precision, attention to detail and the execution of it, because, as he says, “it will be destructive, to do too much”. “By Jove!” he interjects, “the workers are so interested in and committed to the activity around them and they do make the effort to see and understand why they are being requested to do what they are doing! “
Howard’s partner / associate David Whitaker, himself a highly competent Green-Keeping Consultant amongst other things, softly adds, “First steps, sorting out the persistent Water-logging problem by sustained functionality of the water resources, careful water management, minimizing wastage and improving storage. Next, raising the entire landscape by a metre and a half in some places, only 35mm in some, always according to the natural contours of the land, layering the course with the natural clay soil at first for the base, followed by red soil for firmness and fertility, with the top layer of fine white river sand (imported all the way from Kollegal near Mysore), to promote the growth of the fine Bermuda grass on the course, creating an excellent playing surface all year round as well as an open grassland area for the local flora and fauna.”



The fairways, semi-roughs and golfing roughs will have “Tiff-way 2419” grass, cut to 12-14mm, 25-30mm and 50-60mm respectively and which species is aggressive enough to overcome the depredations of the common “Dhoop” grass which it is replacing. The Collars and Greens will have “Tiff-dwarf” cut to 8-10mm and 3.5mm respectively, which will send the stimp-meter completely nuts and the unwary golfer scrambling all over the place to save his slithery putts!
Unlike some International Golf courses, especially the new fangled ones in South-East Asia, Howard is completely against the use of polythene to separate the different grades and varieties of grasses on the course, from tee, through fairway, through collar and through the green. He is very clear that with proper maintenance, timely, correct trimming and weeding, there will be no cross- migration between the different species, grades and varieties at all.
Knocking off some of the middle aged eucalyptus trees on the back nine was a necessary step, because they were planted there at a time when the golf course was carved out of a water logged semi-swamp, in order to drain away the excess water. Now that the course character has been morphed, heightened and raised, the issue is to conserve, re-use and nurture water as a fast-dwindling resource. The eucalyptus trees have thus in a sense outlived their functionality. They will however, be replaced by extensive bougainvillea on the periphery which will thrive on the sandier soil while providing the function of a hedge or boundary with a colourful visual aspect as well as helping to contain top-soil erosion with their strong shallow roots.
With the deepening and enlarging of all the tanks, reservoirs, canals and the system of waterways within the course, water will actually be made to irrigate the course at night and via an ingenious system of gravity, bolstered by pumping, be forced to recycle, renew and aerate itself by day, while being exposed to sunlight, which is very healthy.
Each tank and reservoir has been re-designed to quite an extent, with a sloping shoulder packed tight with the local granite to prevent soil erosion, the introduction of a safety shelf/ collar just below the slopes and deepening considerably below that to provide and facilitate adequate gravity led storage.
The ingenious thing is, that all the water bodies, while providing a lovely visual treat and contributing a great deal to the local eco-system, flora, fauna and the various avian species who make it their natural habitat, can also be sluiced out if necessary at the time of the monsoons, into the feeder canal outside the course, to drain away excess water, lower the levels and then function as fresh rain water catchment areas.
A cart-path will wind through the slightly re-designed garden towards the 9th tee and become like a pit-stop there. There is also a St. Andrew’s inspired “Swilcan” – like grey stone bridge giving access to the 9th fairway which looks rather pretty and quaint. No doubt, over time, this will acquire some of the character of the original, at least by inference, if not much else.
“Golf course design-architecture isn’t just about making a visual and playable treat of a golf course; it is also about things executed properly and sensibly, with close attention to responsibility, environmental and otherwise. It is about building something of lasting value, for future generations to enjoy and revel in.”
At the end of it, we will see a superb, all-weather course, which will not be closed off in the monsoons!
With its new length of 7150 yards (Par 72) and with a choice of 5 sets of tees on each hole, the course will surely be more testing. The KGA will be of International Championship Standard, most definitely and will also conform to the recent requirement for Ladies Championship Course yardages to be more than 6000 yards.
Indeed, with the deepened water bodies and changes like the semi-island 8th green, we had better watch out for mis-hits, because there will be slim hope of retrieving the ball without proper aqualung equipment!
One can heave a small sigh of relief for there won’t be any cross-bunkering and the new layout will provide a reasonable view of every potential hazard- no blind approaches with hazards lurking just around the corner to trap the unwary or over-confident. Also being addressed are the potential safety hazards along the front nine and the periphery, with first class, high fencing, preventing chaos on the roads outside.




It is important to note that Howard’s and David’s work doesn’t stop with the design-architecture and re-construction of the golf course. They are even creating a Vision document for the KGA, which outlines Course Policy, procedures for conservation, recycling, maintenance and indeed, “green keeping education”, a subject which is sorely lacking in knowledge and expertise in India at the moment.
(After all, as we all know, every club has the same number of green keepers and course maintenance experts as it has members, but it is important and necessary, for the greater good of the greater number, to maintain discipline.)
The processes and best-practices, which are what Howard is trying to establish through his vision document, MUST (as all of us in the corporate world know), outweigh the opinions of any individual or group of individuals, to ensure a common benefit to everyone.
All these steps will go a long way to making the KGA truly an International, Championship, All-Weather Golf Course, propelling it rapidly to five, maybe ten years ahead, as a benchmark for all the other golf courses in India.
Maybe very soon, we can even expect the INDIAN OPEN and other such tournaments of International importance and prestige, to be played at the KGA instead of remaining concentrated around the North and West of India. Truly, when this comes to pass, as it surely will, sooner rather than later, it will be a matter of great pride for the KGA and for the rest of Bangalore!
Experiencing, listening to and imbibing this “bottom-up” vision in golf course design; straight from the horse’s mouth so to say, has given me a whole new insight and perspective of the KGA.
Having seen Howard’s actual work on-the-ground at first hand, I, for one, look forward very keenly, to play and experience the course once the re-design and re-construction project is completed.