Golf Coast Man

Golf Coast Man

Gordon Lewis rode the golf-course building boom by designing

dozens of courses from Tampa to Naples. He's counting on renovations of these and other older courses to carry him through the downturn.

architecture by Jean Gruss | Editor/Lee-Collier

Gordon Lewis doesn't have email or a Web site.

But the Naples architect is well known for shaping some of Gulf Coast's best fairways and greens from Tampa to Naples. If you play golf, you've likely played on some of the 80-plus courses he's designed, including The Forest in Fort Myers, Spanish Wells in Bonita Springs and Beachview on Sanibel Island.

But as the real estate downturn grips the Gulf Coast, there aren't many new golf courses in the pipeline. Fact is, there's been a huge construction boom in golf courses in the last two decades. In Charlotte, Lee and Collier counties, for example, about 190 new golf courses were built in that time.

Lewis is unfazed. He's deliberately kept his overhead low, working from his Naples home and splitting the work with draftsman Jeff Argue. "I like to design; I don't like to manage," he explains.

Lewis considers email as a distraction and communicates only by mail and fax machine. "It took me a long time to get a fax machine," he chuckles. He doesn't use any computer-assisted-design software either, preferring to design all his courses by hand.

Despite being a two-man team, Lewis and Argue have never turned down any project. "Jeff and I are workaholics," he says. Lewis only has time to play the game about once a month.

As work on new courses slows, Lewis figures renovations on existing courses will carry him through the downturn. He estimates the slowdown will probably last another two years. New tees, greens and irrigation systems need to be replaced every 10 to 20 years.

A golfer's friend

Lewis is not cruel to golfers, making him a favorite among golf aficionados on the Gulf Coast. As a guide, he imagines building courses that his mother could play.

For example, Lewis won't pinch a spot with two traps. "There's always a path to get through," he says. He'll place mounds strategically behind and along the sides of greens so long balls will bounce inward. Putting greens can be tricky, but he'll design them with ridges or terraces so golfers can make those little putts that can be so maddening when short balls roll away on a slope.

Still, Lewis courses are designed to be challenging to good golfers, placing traps that humble players with power swings off the back tees. He prefers smarts over brute force. "You want them to think," he says with a smile.

For example, the fourth hole at Heritage Bay in Naples has a sharp dogleg that wraps around a wetland area. That gives golfers pause, as they must consider whether to shoot over or around it. Lewis says every hole presents golfers with four or five good scenarios to reach the green.

Lewis prefers natural barriers such as wetlands than sprinkling sand traps. "The best holes are made by God," he says.

Most likely to succeed

The 57-year-old Lewis grew up in Kansas, where he developed a passion for mechanical drawing in seventh grade. By age 14, Lewis became intrigued with golf course design and loved to play the game.

Voted by his senior high-school classmates as most likely to succeed, Lewis studied landscape architecture at Kansas State University. In his spare time, he worked at golf courses, mowing greens at municipal facilities.

Following graduation, Lewis worked as a surveyor for an architect who designed golf courses and other outdoor facilities, including the country's first wave pool. He moved to Naples in 1978, working for a contractor by day and designing golf courses at night.

He established his own firm shortly thereafter, managing on the income his wife Susette earned as a teacher. Lewis never borrowed any money to start or run his business. "I've kind of run it as a cash business," he says.

Lewis timed his arrival in Florida perfectly as developers were starting to build golf-course communities on the Gulf Coast. He built his business by word of mouth, designing courses one after another as his reputation spread. He had little competition. "It's always helped that I've been local," he says.

Lewis is known as a developer-friendly designer, working closely with them to help them sell homes that line the fairways. He does his own surveying and handles on-site inspections himself. "It's tough for a golf course to make it on its own, so it almost has to be associated with a resort," he says.

His prices are right, too. Lewis charges a flat $200,000 to design a new course while better-known peers such as Arnold Palmer charge $1 million or more. A Tiger Woods design reportedly costs $20 million, he says.

New grass every year

Keeping overhead low is now more important than ever as work on new courses slows. Lewis says Jack Nicklaus employs 15 designers, for example.

Lewis says renovations should keep him busy during the downturn, though it doesn't generate the revenues that a new course brings. Renovations cost between $1,000 and $60,000 depending on the job.

Older courses need to be restored to keep golfers coming back. That includes irrigation systems, new greens, tee boxes and bunkers. "They come out with a new grass every year," Lewis says.

Lewis says renovating old courses should keep him busy enough that he won't need to look for work further afield. Although he's designed courses in Taiwan and Belize, he doesn't seek work overseas. "I'm not really interested in doing a lot of traveling," he says.

Lewis acknowledges it will probably take some time before he designs many new courses on the Gulf Coast. The residential real estate market will likely continue to be slow for the next two years and it takes as long as three years to navigate a project through a permitting process that can be delayed by as many as 21 government agencies.

What's more, large tracts of coastal land for golf courses are becoming scarcer and municipalities are putting the brakes on sprawling suburban golf-course communities. "Until just recently I was so busy it didn't matter," Lewis says.

Maybe now he'll reconsider getting an email address.

Have you played

a Lewis course?

Here is a partial listing of the courses Naples golf-course architect Gordon Lewis has designed on the Gulf Coast.

• Spanish Wells, Bonita Springs

• The Forest, Fort Myers

• Kelly Greens, Fort Myers

• The Vines, Estero

• Worthington, Bonita Springs

• Lexington, Fort Myers

• The Strand, Naples

• Naples Heritage, Naples

• Highland Woods, Bonita Springs

• Heritage Greens, Naples

• Arrowhead, Naples

• Cypress Woods, Naples

• Valencia, Naples

• Shell Point, Fort Myers

• Forest Glen, Naples

• Spring Run, Bonita Springs

• Vanderbilt, Naples

• Copperhead, Lehigh Acres

• Copperleaf, Estero

• Grandezza, Estero

• Colonial, Fort Myers

• Vasari, Naples

• Palmira, Bonita Springs

• Ave Maria, Collier County

• Island, Marco Island

• Beachview, Sanibel Island

• Heritage Oaks, Sarasota

• Heritage Isles, Tampa

• Newport, Port Charlotte

• Burnt Store, Punta Gorda

• River Wilderness, Bradenton

• Maple Leaf, Port Charlotte

REVIEW SUMMARY

Architect. Gordon Lewis

Specialty. Golf-course architect

Key. Shunning expensive technology and keeping overhead low gives Lewis an advantage over other players.