Golf courses built by AI? How architects feel about this uncertain future

The most intriguing way AI can assist in golf course design is with routings, the process by which architects arrange 18 holes around a given property. In theory, there are uncountable combinations of holes, lengths, orientations and ways to use a given piece of land. AI has the power to analyze a topographical map and quickly produce the most optimal routing based on specific client desires (overall yardages and par, returning nines, etc.), saving architects days or weeks playing with configurations and trudging through the brush.

To date, however, AI is not proficient at it. There is no vast database of golf course routings and topographical maps for it to learn from, and no design firm has spent the necessary time feeding the written theory and instructions necessary for it to be useful.

This is what architect David Kahn, of Jackson Kahn Design, has discovered by experimenting with available AI systems. “I’ve fed it base maps with very detailed rules about how to arrange a golf course to see if it could do a stick-figure routing, and it falls flat on its face,” he says. “It’s not there yet. But if somebody dedicated a month to feeding existing routings and topo maps and refining the instructions, it would work, and it could be objectively great at it.”

From that point, AI would be only a few small steps from being capable of autonomously conceptualizing the blueprints for an entire course, tabulating grading plans, positioning bunkers and tees, and arranging hazards and contours. This leads to a larger question: Would golfers want to play a course that’s designed by computer algorithms, particularly at a time when an architect’s name carries cachet akin to a movie director or painter? Tom Doak, who has utilized advanced technologies to recreate holes in exacting detail at The Lido at Sand Valley and elsewhere, doesn’t think so, at least not yet.

“I don’t know why ‘AI-designed’ golf courses would be sought after by golfers,” he says. “Surely, the main attraction for developers would be that they didn’t have to pay the AI as much as they pay me. To me, one of the appeals of golf is that it gets us away from the phone and computer to spend quality time outdoors with our friends. I get the same enjoyment with my associates the way we build our golf courses, and I wouldn’t want to trade that in for an AI system. Personally, I’d prefer that AI design stick to simulator courses, but I’m sure it won’t, and someone out there will try to come up with a program that is better at design than anyone alive. I wish them nothing but the worst of luck.”

Where AI can currently help is in the role of super-assistant, completing existing tasks more efficiently. It used to take Kahn and partner Tim Jackson four or five hours to create presentation-worthy renderings of proposed holes for clients. “Now I can do an unpolished draft in 30 minutes that expresses our intent and creative process, and feed that into AI that will spit out a beautiful, fully articulated version in ten seconds,” Kahn says. The information in the drawing is still human-created, but AI is finishing the job. “That part is already here."

What comes next will be determined by how eagerly architects embrace AI as an asset or whether they view it as a threat.