The Golf Club at Black Rock will turn twenty years-old on the 4th of July this year. Since the opening, there have been a number of changes – Club ownership, and the additions of a number of new amenities such as the popular Pool Bar and “The Corral” event center, to name a few. During that time, one thing that has remained the same, and frankly, the thing that put Black Rock on the map in the first place, is the golf course.
I thought it might be fun and informative to catch up with the golf course designer, Jim Engh, and discuss the golf course – now twenty years-old. Jim has been a member at the Club since the opening, where he and his family have spent their summers in North Idaho every year. (For those that may not be aware, yours truly, was the first Golf Pro at Black Rock in those days). Like the golf course, our conversation twisted and turned from re-living the Golf Digest rating process, to Jim’s golf course design philosophy, to contemplating getting older, our history together and friendship, to his thoughts on a number of topics….
G: In a way, you and I are the de-facto “historians” of Black Rock. We’ve both been around here since the beginning. I think a lot of the cool stories of the construction of the course don’t get told as often anymore. Either we’ve grown tired of sharing them, or they don’t seem as relevant now that the course has aged. But I thought it would be important to record some of the challenges and cool surprises that came out of the design and construction process. So, for posterity, let’s go back in time a bit here and discuss some of the highlights of how the golf course came to be…
Black Rock was named by Golf Digest as the Best New Private Golf Course in America (considered the “Academy Awards” of the golf industry at the time) in 2003. Honestly, we don’t hear much about that any more given the passing of time, and I think we have a lot of new Club members that may not know much about that process or what a big deal it was to us then. From the time you first visited the Black Rock site, was it your goal to design a course that would be ranked #1?
J: Certainly, that was the goal. However, with 200-300 new courses being opened every year in those days, that was a tall order. Fortunately, we had won three previous No.1 rankings, in 1997, 2001 and 2002, so we had an idea of how to best-present the course for the panelists. You (Greg Rowley) were a really significant part of that success. Your attention to detail enabled us to show the course in the best possible light. Thank you, by the way.
G: I remember shutting down all construction around the golf course any time there were panelists on property to play and rate the course. You had told us that they don’t like to hear the distraction of hammers and saws, so we would put a halt to all construction.
J: [chuckling] I had forgotten about that, but I did know that we had tremendous competition that year and that every small detail would benefit us. We were competing against some big names like Dallas National (Dallas, Texas) and Friar’s Head (Baiting Hollow, New York). It was all-hands-on-deck.
G: I’m aware that a number of other designers submitted routings for consideration for Black Rock. What did you do differently that ultimately landed you the job?
J: I’m aware that the main reason I was hired was because I was going down the valleys and off the edges and into all the crazy places to find the most fun golf course. I was told that I submitted the only routing that went down below the cliff line for holes #11 through #14. The other guys were all going up on the prairie, and Marshall (the owner at the time) realized that my plan was good for development land. He said “I can’t put houses in the valleys…” and said, “I like this one.”
G: How did the final golf course differ from your original routing?
J: When I drew up the first routing, there were quite a few of us in town all staying at a house down on Rockford Bay. The original developer, my team, and others. I went downstairs and used a pool table; Frank Vaught (land planner) went upstairs and used the kitchen table. We agreed what we were trying to do, I scratched out a golf course layout in 5 or 6 hours, he scratched out roads and lots, and we melded them together. Ultimately, there was only one modification we made to the very first routing. #3 was going to be a par 4, and #4 was going to be a par 5.
G: When you design a course, how much thought is given to the order/sequence of the holes? Are you intentionally keeping the player on a string, playing with a golfer’s emotions? Tough hole, tough hole, then a breather. And so on. I think the easiest tee shot on the course is #1. I assume that’s intentional. But then you get punched in the mouth on #3.
J: Definitely. In that way, I was. There’s a certain sequence of holes that I’ve determined… music concerts have determined, people who know more about psychology have determined, about how to go to highs and lows. The back nine, the run of holes #10 to #14, is my favorite run of any holes anywhere on the planet. It’s just such a cool feeling. You get a little breather on #12, but yet you really don’t, but yes, there’s very intentional sequencing there.
I’ve been criticized in the past. I want the golf holes to be the best holes. So, I’ll make them fit the land. I do what the land tells me to do and put the holes in that right spot. If I have a par 3 as the second hole… you know I caught pretty good grief for that? I want the best holes. That’s all I wanted.
There were wetlands on #2, #8 and #16 that already existed. There was a golf course that had already begun construction up there previously. And I think they are the ones who either used them or put them there. The Corp of Engineers wouldn’t let us touch them. So, I used them.
That’s why #16 green sits the way it does. It’s why that bunker is so narrow. I wanted to give a little bail out before you go in the water. And you look behind that green, and you’re right up against another wetland there. So, we just had that little sliver to work with there. But that hole is too cool, and those trees are so perfect. (laughs)
To me, the fun about golf is to do something different every time. And typically, the second shot on a par 5 is the most ho-hum shot in golf, so I went out of my way to try to make the second shots on the par 5s at Black Rock not ho-hum.
G: I agree with you that holes #10 – #14 are an amazing run of holes. All of them are dramatic and scenic. What’s interesting, is that nearly every one of the Golf Digest panelists back in 2003 said they liked hole #15 the best.
J: Really? That’s interesting. I don’t think you ever told me that… I call that a “glass of milk” hole. You’ve just had about 14 pieces of chocolate. So how’s that tall glass of milk tasting now? It washes it all down.
G: Now, as the salesman of the properties at Black Rock, I get asked all the time by buyer-prospects to describe the golf course, and how I compare it to the other elite courses in the area. I say the same thing every time – that I wish there was a more sophisticated word or description to use, but Black Rock is just FUN to play. Maybe I’m biased, but I think it’s the most-fun golf course on the planet.
J: You are right… that’s the ONLY word to describe it. FUN is the perfect word. It’s the only word I use. I tell people if you’re in my business, and the goal is not fun, then you’re in the wrong business. I call it the “fun factor.” In fact, I think they’ve begun to incorporate fun factor in the course rating process. To me, the only measuring stick I use to evaluate a golf course is how much fun it is to play. How much fun I had, and how much I giggle when I play. Of course, achieving my vision of “fun” involves implementing some “funky and weird” design elements. Essentially, I’m trying to invoke the feelings that I have when playing golf in Ireland.
G: A number of shots at Black Rock immediately come to mind. Probably number one on that list is the tee shot on hole #11. How is that shot and that hole representative of your design philosophy?
J: Yeah, that’s a good one. You get to hit it off of that rock ledge, and you don’t care where the green is. Is it a dogleg left or right? Who cares? If you can’t see the green from the tee… that’s not a blind shot to me. Why does it matter if you can’t see the green? To me, you know where to go, and when you get there, it’s like opening another door to the fun house.
I’ve never tried to telegraph where the hole is going. Hit it there. And then figure it out. That’s another step along the element of processing what you’re doing. That’s why golf is fun. I consider bowling as the opposite side of that concept. Bowling is a true game of skill, yet has limited aesthetic experience. There’s not the same type of mind-play.
Touring professionals are so damn good. And generally, to be that good, they have to focus to such a degree, that they may not be able to fully take in the aesthetic experience. That’s why (former Black Rock member) Rich Beem and I got along so well. He’s one of the few touring pros that I know who “got it.” He understood the fun of it, he understood what I’m trying to achieve. Most courses in today’s game try to make courses longer and longer and longer. These guys are so good and so strong. I feel that to challenge them, designers need to get in their heads just a bit. Force them to think creatively and come out of the tunnel of focus.
Tom Weiskopf told me once that when he was on all these great courses and “he never really experienced them.” He was just so focused on each shot. To play that well, you have to play with blinders on. And later, Tom said… “Wow… I see now what I missed.”
The experience we’re trying to give is to make it a step-by-step thing. Make it weirdly interesting. Make them question what they’re doing. I think my design style makes it harder to stay in a “cone of focus”. Some don’t appreciate that.
If you play in Scotland and Ireland, it’s a game against nature. When golf was invented, it was guys walking from St. Andrews out to sea to go to work. They got bored. They picked up a stick and hit a rock, and golf began. I believe that golf is a game against nature and that nature doesn’t know what is fair or unfair to golf. Figuring out the path in front of you is the joy of the game.
The first course wasn’t designed. It was “found.”
G: Let’s talk more about some of those “crazy places.” Give me the story of how a few of the more-extreme holes came to be. Going back to #11…
J: I remember standing up on that rock where the back tee was built. I’ve got a topo map in my hand. I’m looking out over it and there’s nothing… just trees and a hillside. But on the map, I see this little squiggle contour line kind of where the landing area is now. I get my scale out to see if the distance worked, and thought… So if that’s there, I think I can fit a fairway down there. I get out a machete, and start hacking my way through the brush and the forest. I told my partner Mitch, I’ll meet you guys down over there. You guys go around. And I headed straight down and was hacking my way through the woods, and get down there, and find the most perfect flat spot. Man, that was fun.
G: And per the original routing, the green was not intended to be where it is now, right?
J: Yeah, the cap rock on the right side of where the green is now was just poking its head up. And I thought… well that’s cool. Let’s put the green on the right side of that cap rock. But then I got in there and started poking around, and found the cap rock that’s on the left side of the green. It was barely visible, just sticking out of the ground a little bit, with the top barely showing. I thought, this just might work out. We thought we would have to do some blasting… but we didn’t. We kept digging and digging and digging. The green setting was just there. We had to undercut it by 6’ or so to get all the piping in there.
Then we got on the pond part. We had it on paper and had it all figured out how to make it work. My excavator called me and said we have these big rocks. We’re calling them “goonies.” They popped up in the middle of the pond. We had to decide what to do with them. The excavators were ready to blast them out of there, but I said… just wait a minute. I jumped on a plane and came back to the site to see the goonies, and decided oh no… no… we’re leaving those!
G: As long as we’re on the topic of the holes with the waterfalls, walk me through the creation of the #13 green setting.
J: We were working off of topos, and running around in atvs, and we were on horses one day. The topos didn’t really have a picture of the rock wall. Then we were out on a boat one time, and looked up, and could see what was over there. There was no blasting needed. We just went up to the wall and scraped it all down. If you notice, the tree to the right side of the green wasn’t touched. So, we worked off that crown… excavated everything to the left of the tree, and filled everything to the right of the tree, and the level of that green was 100% determined by keeping that tree.
The interesting thing about hole 13, was that the property line went right through the middle of the green. After he stopped yelling at me for needing more land (laughs), he negotiated 150’ of land to the right side so that we could create that hole.
G: I remember that well. We used to say that “Engh was given 650 acres to design a golf course, and it wasn’t quite enough.” One more crazy place… what was the most difficult/challenging hole to build?
J: It was #3. I remember we were standing on the top… and that thing is all blast. At the bottom of the first landing area, the valley was literally about an arm’s length wide. It just went straight up on both sides. And I’ve always had the belief you can take an area like that and just fill it up to where it’s wide enough, then you’re done. So, we started by blasting the rocks off of the teeing areas. Those tees are on top of massive boulders. The first time we blasted up there, we were standing on the green, they blew everything at the tee, and we were getting showered by rock shards down on the green! We just kept blasting and shoving. Blasting and shoving. The second landing area has over 65’ of fill.
G. Did you have an over-arching “theme” that you wanted to execute in the design of Black Rock, specifically, or any of the courses you’ve designed, in general? In that way, do you draw from other courses as inspiration?
J: You know… that’s not how I do it. I don’t try to bring back pieces of other sites verbatim…. Sites, grass, climate, dirt, everything is different. I’ve always tried to convey the emotional feeling I get when I’m playing over there (Ireland). There’s a certain feeling you get in your whole body when you’re over there playing. It’s a matter of soaking in what’s out there. Nature puts something out there that could be the most aesthetic piece of property – and if I can place a golf course within it, that’s just cool.
Like I said before, it’s a game against nature. You’re all playing the same course, number one. You play against whatever nature throws at you. It doesn’t know what’s fair and what isn’t in golf. You know, a hazard… where do bunkers come from? Sheep dug into the side of a hill during a windstorm, walked out, and the whole thing is filled with sand. That’s how the original pot-bunkers got there.
Ireland showed me where the edge of the envelope was to have fun that could be maintained and played without pushing it too far. That’s definitely what formed my belief that golf had to be fun.
G: There’s an expression in golf that when you swing a club, you can be an artist or a scientist. The right-brain vs left-brain thing. I imagine there’s a fair amount of both in design work as well. Would you consider yourself more of an artist, or…?
J: A lot of guys will get on a dozer and start moving dirt around until they think it’s done. It’s a lot of work, and it’s probably a lot of moving dirt more than you need to. On the other end of the spectrum are guys that are extremely detailed. They’ve had the mantra that they are engineers.
And then there’s guys like me…. Blessed to be able to envision topography drawings in true form. I see exactly what it is. Sometimes you work with it. Sometimes you blow it up and start over. Some companies have an image of a golf course and what a hole or course should be. And they’ll recreate the land to fit in their idea of a golf course. On the other side… like the valley on #3 at Black Rock, you have to work it a little bit, or in the end, you have to work it a lot – but not destroying the natural character of it. My goal is to use what’s out there.
I would have to come up with a crazy idea, like running a hole down the valley of #3, and then figure out how to do it. And then put it on paper. And then come up with another crazy idea. And then another solution. So, I would jump in the space of that much room on a paper [hands a couple inches apart] working contours back and forth between creativity and problem solving. Boom, boom, boom. Create a problem. Fix it. Create a problem. Fix it. Create a problem. Fix it. And it’s the creating of the problem that allowed us to have the really cool stuff. That’s where I was a bit different than most.
I was part of an interview panel for a magazine one time with a couple big name golf course designers where we were all asked if golf course design is more art or engineering. Every one said engineering. And I said… it is pure artistry. Engineering solves the problem you create by being creative. Every one of them said engineering. It blew me away. I guess that makes me weird.
G: I know I’ve told you previously that I’ve been very envious of your career. If I could go back in time, I may have taken college a bit more seriously and wish I would have tried to do what you’ve done. How did you become a golf course architect?
J: Had I known what the chances were of being successful, I wouldn’t have done it. No way. I was told by a local course designer in Colorado, Dick Phelps, the “road map” when I asked him, “how do I get into the business?”
You have to get a landscape architecture degree, he told me. I was already in the architecture program, because I wanted to do buildings, so that worked. He said, you have to get a turfgrass science minor. Then, go out and get a shovel, and get on a dozer and you have to work for years in construction. So I did exactly that. I followed the path and got a couple of breaks, and followed my own sense.
The break that I got was when Monie (Jim’s wife of 36 years) and I moved to England in ’87. I got to travel all over and see courses in Scotland and Ireland, but mostly Ireland, and just get blown away. I found the edge of the envelope. I learned that I can do anything this side of that edge.
I can tell you for certain that if not for Monie, I would not have found success. She was not only our office manager, but more importantly, was my rock and guiding compass. Thanks honey.
I worked for IMG with Berhard Langer and others. I did the design work for Langer. For their entire stable of guys, really. I got to hang out with a lot of tour pros, mostly Europeans. I got to know Nick Faldo. I got to do cool stuff like that and see the world. I got to make a lot of mistakes on somebody else’s nickel. And get some confidence. And then I met (Dave) Liniger, and he threw The Sanctuary site in front of me, which a few guys told him couldn’t be done. I said I knew a project we did in Asia that was a bit similar, and maybe I was stupidly naive, but was willing to be a bulldog and get it done. Sanctuary won Golf Digest, Best New Private Course in 1997.
G: In 2004 (I think) you were named by Golf Digest as the inaugural Golf Course Architect of the Year. Did you know that was coming?
J: The story goes, as it was told to me… we won (Best New Golf Course) in ‘97, ‘01, ‘02 and ’03. And again, remember this is when there were 350 new courses a year. We had just won three years in a row. I was told that one of the higher-ups at Golf Digest said “we need to make a big deal out of this.” So that’s what they came up with. And it kinda came out of nowhere.
Black Rock was the third in that run of three in a row…. ‘01, ‘02, and ‘03. The Sanctuary in ‘97, we got second in ‘98, ‘01 we won with Redlands Mesa, and in ‘02 with Tullymore. ‘03 with Black Rock.
And honestly, it got a lot of guys’ ire up, thinking that I had just stumbled into it. Where I had spent my entire life, especially in Europe, paying my dues. Working on construction projects, shoveling dirt, running dozer, whatever it took. I paid my dues. Most people didn’t know about it because I didn’t come out of a more established office here in the States. There were some tough feelings from my competitors. I’m not complaining about it though… I think the goal in any industry is to be the guy that your competitors are taking shots at.
G: On a personal note, how have you and your life changed since we opened Black Rock twenty years ago?
J: A lot has changed in the last five years. In 2018, I had some health issues. My back got to the point that I could barely walk. I was about to make a deal with the devil or the other Guy… just let me be a 15 handicap again so I can be out with my friends. That and a couple other things all hit at the same time. There’s just no way to keep traveling around Asia, plane rides, crazy sites, hours and hours bent over the drafting table. I just wasn’t physically able to do it any longer. So I sold the office, found work for my guys, and hung it up. (Although, I do have a new course in Mexico that should open this summer.) You know, we did well. It’s been a really nice life.
It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be to walk away. I’m not going to make myself any more unique than anyone else. I just got tired of it. Every business has its challenges, mine did too, maybe more than other industries. My buddies and I would talk about who was the better salesman (laughs). I claimed that I had to sell a vision of a vision and that my competitors were living legends (laughs again).
I finally just got too tired of roaming around Asia trying to cold call finding projects because there was nothing happening in the U.S. after ‘08. It just wears you out.
I don’t have any remorse about it. I had a good run. I got a view from the top of the mountain. That’s all anyone could ask. I’m good with that.
I just really haven’t looked back. I enjoy playing golf here in the summer and scuba diving and playing a little golf in the winter. To be honest, I enjoy playing golf more now than ever. I haven’t gotten mad one time since my back started hurting. I just appreciate being out there. There’s no place I’d rather be than Black Rock in the summer with all of our good friends.
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I had a chance to go to Ireland for 10 days with Jim Engh and his design team plus some friends in 2004. We were there with Jim while he consulted on the construction of a new 9-hole course at Carne, in Belmullet. The plan was to play Carne every day of the trip. But there was a catch. We were only allowed to bring 7 golf clubs, so that we could Fed Ex the clubs. Initially, I wasn’t on board with this, and was very frustrated to travel halfway across the globe with only half of my golf bag. But ultimately, I “got it,” and loved it.
On the final day of the trip, we played a different course on the outskirts of Sligo called Strandhill. It was wild and weird. Nearly the entire course was dotted with mounds like ski moguls. Nearing the end of the round, our group was finishing up on one of the holes and Jim was nowhere to be found. Looking back, he was sitting in the middle of the severely-sloped fairway in what appeared to be a deep trance. Eventually he snapped out of it, finished the hole and caught back up to us. But I always wondered what mad-science was concocted in that moment, and how whatever had caused that moment of inspiration would manifest itself in a golf course design somewhere else someday…
Thank you, Jim, for taking the time to share some insight into how Black Rock golf course came to be. I believe I can speak for everyone that has played, it truly is a ‘FUN’ course in some of the most beautiful country there is.