The British Institute of Golf Course Architects and world wide turf machinery and irrigation products manufacturer The Toro Company have teamed up to produce “The Toro Student Golf Course Architect Award.”
Announcing the new initiative BIGCA’s president Howard Swan said that the award would be competed for by students studying on a two-year post-graduate diploma course in golf course architecture at Merrist Wood College. He said that the course, set up by BIGCA, is unique in the world and produced its first graduates last April. It is an international course with five students in the current intake coming from the USA, Japan, Germany and Scandinavia. New international students joining in February will come from as far afield as Chile and South Africa as well as emerging golf nations such as Slovenia and Croatia.
The first recipient of the award will be chosen from students who will complete their course in January 2000. An expert judging panel made up of representatives of BIGCA and Toro with the course’s educational manager will assess the young golf course architects on their academic achievement on the course, the standard of their presentation and project dissertation and by personal interview.
The prize is an all-expenses-paid visit to Toro’s headquarters in Minneapolis and its irrigation division in Riverside, California. There will also be visits to famous venues such as the Los Angeles Golf & Country Club and the Olympic Club in San Francisco.