OUR PROFILE
Philip Sparks and Richard Myers have combined their expertise to offer a unique service for Golf Clubs requiring Golf Course Architectural advice and planning. Both architects are passionate about conserving the integrity of older courses, taking great care to protect the ethos of the original architect, whilst updating some features (bunkers etc) to reflect the modern game.
They have renovated many traditional courses taking great care to respect the original architect’s ethos and yet make the challenges appropriate to the modern game. Sparks & Myers have renovated courses designed by Colt, Hotchkin, Hutchinson, Pennink, Braid, Hawtree, JH Taylor, Vardon as well as many other less well known architects.
PHILIP SPARKSCompany Director
Has over 30 years experience as a PGA Club Professional and was the first Golf Professional in the world to gain a Professional Diploma in Golf Course Architecture (European Institute of Golf Course Architects).
Not only did he gain the Diploma with a distinction, he also won the coveted Toro award for student of the year in 2000.
He has been involved in building and renovating golf courses since 1988.
" My main interest in Golf Course Architecture is the redevelopment of existing courses. I have a passion for modernising the older courses to make them once again play with the difficulty and intrigue that the original architect designed. However, when shorter holes cannot be lengthened, sometimes a new strategy has to be formed as the original one cannot be restored. The challenge is to make the revised hole fit within the style and flow of the rest of the course. I have lived and breathed golf for forty years and know how to challenge the best of players and yet make it fun and interesting for the lesser ones. I have a unique empathy for all golfers, having played the game at every level from high handicap to Professional standard."
Philip Sparks - Company Director
RICHARD MYERS Company Director
Educated in Landscape Architecture at the University of Greenwich, London, Richard spent seven years with the largest Golf Course Architecture Practice in the UK, Swan Golf Designs. With international projects from China to Florida, Richard specialised in the renovation and refurbishment of existing golf courses.
With an award winning Diploma from the European Institute of Golf Course Architects, Richard has been acknowledged as having become one of the top three renovation architects in Europe.
" The real challenge is to bring courses back up to challenge current player's equipment without changing the special character each older golf course possesses. Changing the course to challenge better players without penalising lesser golfers, whilst retaining historical golfing context, is a process that takes 5 – 10 years. All renovations need to be completed with modern maintenance practices in mind; the Course Manager and members both demand levels of playing surface quality that were unachievable 100 years ago.
There's no substitute for being on site. You're reputation is only as good as your last bunker. Whenever possible, I like to work with the course's Greenstaff because it is they who are left to look after the results, the attention to detail in construction is far more attuned. It is their course, their job and they care about it."
Richard Myers -
Company Director
