In the Fall 2010 edition of By Design magazine, Forrest Richardson and Bill Yates, founder and developer of Pace Manager Systems, comment on the tension that often exists between golf course design and management in regards to pace of play.How can a spectacularly designed course with impeccable conditioning produce an indifferent or even a bad playing experience? 'It took forever to play; we had to wait on every shot,' players grumble as they hurry from the eighteenth green to the parking lot and then to the exit gate, checking their watches. Will these players ever return? Maybe. But an opportunity to gain loyal customers has certainly been missed.

Forrest Richardson has spent the past 20 years focusing on a variety of project types, perhaps more diverse than most other practicing golf architects. There have been high end resort courses, but also the public courses for small towns. There have been noted restorations, such as the Wigwam Resort in Arizona where the once-thriving design strategy of Robert Trent Jones, Sr. had all but vanished below too many trees and incredible shrinking greens. And, not to forget, there have been the rebuilds where Richardson has taken long-forgotten layouts and replaced them with highly creative and revenue producing re-makes, each embodying his flair for creative greens and unusual holes. Now he turns yet another diversity — expanding his work beyond North and Central America.

In 1999 the City of Monticello, Utah took action to create The Hideout, an 18-hole course set at the foothills of Blue Mountain. Four Corners Golf arranged an interview with golf course architect Forrest Richardson to discuss the history and some of the subtleties of the renowned layout. Richardson co-designed The Hideout with his mentor, the late Arthur Jack Snyder.

The sea of Cortez is a vast water way separating the Baja peninsula from mainland Mexico containing plants and sea life unique in the world the closest we get to the life on display in the Galapagos Island without traveling to the equator. Along her coast line stretching over 2,000 miles are flawless sandy beaches, coves and bays. Near the apex of the Sea of Cortez is a fast growing resort destination called Puerto Peñasco just south of Arizona's border with the state of Sonora, Mexico, a mere 3.5 hour drive from two major metropolises' in Arizona, or as I call this weekend getaway, Phoenix Beach or Playa de Tucson.

"Golf is a game for everyone, not just the talented few," Harvey Penick once said. From the casual to the serious-minded, millions of golfers play a game steeped in tradition and history. Not everyone appreciates the artistry that goes into crafting a golf course. Golf course architect Forrest Richardson, who has worked on designs for more than 70 golf courses and has authored sevaral books on the subject, continues to dream up new ways to challenge, inspire, and entertain players. After studying golf course design in Dundee, Scotland, he studied under the tutelage of the late Arthur Jack Snyder in Phoenix, Arizona. His firm Forrest Richardson & Associates not only creates golf courses from scratch but restores old ones to their former glory. From the deserts of the American Southwest to Hawai'i to Asiatic Russia to Mexico, Richardson's work is known all over the world. His artistry is rare in that people can interact and walk the grounds of his imagination.

Dan Bergman loves old urban munis. The kind you line up for at 4 a.m. to get a tee time. Where the regulars come from all sorts of demographic and ethnic backgrounds. Where the golf courses, even if they're on the short side and a little (or a lot) worse for wear, have quirky features that favor players with local knowledge.

Award-winning Mexican resort club, The Links at Las Palomas, is enjoying especially cool weather this winter. "Frankly, you could make yourself believe you were in Scotland if you stayed away from the tequila and cold beer," says Forrest Richardson, golf architect of the 18-hole seaside course.

In the high desert of Northern Arizona, Polidori Development is obtaining approvals for a short 9-hole course to be a hybrid of natural turf and artificial turf green surfaces. The project, The Orchard Club, involves approximately six acres as part of a private caravan park. Integral to the design is the use of the revolutionary golf ball: The P.3 Ball manufactured by Almost Golf of California. (www.almostgolf.com )

Golf marketing professionals tend to have a fairly free and easy way with words. Terms like 'championship course' and 'signature hole,' it seems, have no meaning other than what the writer of a press release wants them to mean at any given time. But few words are so roundly abused as the simple term 'links.' Look at a selection of golf course websites, and you would be forgiven for thinking that a links golf course can be built on any old piece of land. Links doesn't have to be by the sea, it doesn't have to have sandy soil, it doesn't have to have dunes. If some golf marketers are to be believed, a links course is defined by the absence of trees: try telling this to a member at Formby!