By Jeff Lawrence, ASGCA – Lawrence Golf Design
Hiring a golf course architect is one of the most important steps a club or owner can take when planning a renovation or redesign. Whether your course needs a full master plan or targeted updates, understanding what to expect from the process helps ensure a successful partnership. One that delivers value, beauty, and long-term performance.
Across the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States, from Florida and Georgia up through the Carolinas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and into Pennsylvania and New York, courses face a wide range of climates, soils, and maintenance challenges. Experience and regional understanding are essential.
Lawrence Golf Design, led by Jeff Lawrence, ASGCA, guides clubs through every step of the process, from initial evaluation to final grow-in, with a clear focus on sustainability, playability, and operational efficiency.
Every project begins with a conversation. The architect’s first role is to understand the club’s goals: what’s working, what’s not, and what the membership hopes to achieve.
During an initial site visit, Jeff Lawrence evaluates the course’s strengths and weaknesses, considering everything from drainage and turf health to strategy and visual presentation.
In the Southeast, that might mean addressing sandy soils in Florida or clay-heavy terrain in North Carolina. In Tennessee or Kentucky, it may involve managing rolling topography or seasonal drainage. For northern projects in Pennsylvania or New York, freeze–thaw cycles and bunker integrity play a larger role.
This regional awareness helps ensure that early recommendations are practical, climate-appropriate, and sustainable.
Once goals are defined, the architect creates a comprehensive master plan — a roadmap for the course’s future. This plan includes conceptual drawings, design rationale, and prioritization of improvements.
A well-prepared master plan helps clubs across South Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia make decisions that are consistent over time. It gives boards and committees a clear vision for renovation phases, budgeting, and communication with members.
At Lawrence Golf Design, Jeff Lawrence develops these plans collaboratively, balancing design vision with agronomic needs, maintenance logistics, and member experience.
After the master plan is approved, the next phase focuses on detailed design and budgeting. This includes grading plans, green contours, bunker detailing, and drainage strategy, all carefully coordinated with the superintendent and chosen contractor.
Thoughtful design saves money by avoiding surprises during construction. Because Jeff Lawrence has managed projects across Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas, he understands how regional soil types, weather windows, and construction costs affect timelines and budgets.
That real-world perspective helps clubs stay on schedule and within budget without sacrificing design quality.
Superintendents play a vital role in every renovation. Their local knowledge and day-to-day experience ensure that design decisions are grounded in operational reality.
Throughout each project, Lawrence Golf Design works closely with superintendents — from Greenville, South Carolina, to Naples, Florida, to Hickory, North Carolina — to align turf choices, mowing patterns, and bunker maintenance strategies with available resources.
This partnership ensures that new features are maintainable and efficient, especially important in regions where weather extremes and labor challenges are common.
During construction, the architect provides on-site oversight to maintain design integrity. Adjustments in the field are often necessary as shapers refine contours or unexpected conditions arise.
Jeff Lawrence takes a hands-on approach, frequently walking the site with contractors and superintendents across projects from Alabama to Pennsylvania. His background in both design and construction allows for quick, informed decisions that preserve quality and intent.
In humid climates like Georgia or the Carolinas, this level of involvement is essential to address soil variability, rainfall, and drainage performance in real time.
When construction concludes, the grow-in phase begins, one of the most critical stages of any project. The architect supports the superintendent during this time to monitor turf establishment, surface firmness, and overall playability.
Lawrence Golf Design maintains long-term relationships with clubs throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, offering post-renovation reviews and ongoing consulting to ensure the course performs as intended for years to come.
This commitment to long-term stewardship is a hallmark of Jeff Lawrence’s approach, blending design artistry with operational responsibility.
Golf courses in the Southeast and surrounding regions experience vastly different environmental pressures:
Because Lawrence Golf Design has managed projects across all of these conditions, the firm brings practical, regionally adapted solutions to every client. That’s what ensures the renovation investment pays off — not just visually, but financially and functionally.
Working with a golf course architect is about more than design; it’s about partnership, trust, and shared purpose. The right architect listens carefully, plans strategically, and delivers results that fit the land, the climate, and the club’s mission.
From Florida to New York, Lawrence Golf Design continues to help private clubs, resorts, and communities modernize their courses with creativity, efficiency, and care.
When clubs know what to expect and choose an architect who understands both design and regional realities, renovation becomes a foundation for decades of success.