Diving Deep with Award-Winning Golf Architect, Philosopher, and “Interpreter of Nature”, Agustín “Auggie” Pizá

Andrew and I recently had the chance to connect with award-winning golf architect Agustín Pizá over Zoom. Pronounced like “Augustine” and known affectionately as “Auggie”, Agustín Pizá is a Mexican architect and “interpreter of nature” as he likes to say. He’s also the Director of First Tee Mexico. His work focuses on making golf accessible, and he’s known for bringing innovative concepts like “Wellness Golf” into reality. More recent projects include collaborations such as the Butterfly Effect and The NextLinks eGolf Arena concept.

He’s a heart full of fire and passion, unafraid to put some soul into his work. He also has a head full of knowledge, expertise, and ideas, so we considered ourselves fortunate to pick his brain on topics like the accessibility of golf, oneness with nature, and the future of the game.

Without further ado, our conversation starts “in media res” as they say about adventure tales like Star Wars and Homer’s Odyssey -- it gets right to the action.

We prefer the profound. Agustín isn’t too fond of casual chit-chat or small talk -- nor are we!

Pizá’s multipurpose golf facility: pitch and putt on steroids.

[Andre] I understand that you’re fond of gothic cathedrals, which we could say, try to communicate ideas of the divine, or the spiritual, or god through architecture. I’m wondering if that connects with your golf architecture at all. Golf is naturally connected with the mystical in a lot of ways.

[Agustín] It is! If you want to go into the layers. A lot of us are roaming around the world just sleeping and that’s the easy way, because the more you know the more responsible you are. I like where you’re going with that question because if we go back to that era, all the information was actually gathered and saved through religion.

The big churches like cathedrals in that era were made also to defy human scale. They were made to defy human scale so that you feel small when you’re in there.

So, in a way – if you want to compare – golf (and especially new golf) is intimidating and does cause that feeling, but I don’t personally like that. I’m not a fan of making the golfer feel “less than” or small. I want to make you feel a part of it. A lot of our work plays with scale, but we want to make you feel welcomed.

From everything I’ve read, it seems like accessibility is the major through-line of your work, both with your golf course architecture and as Director of First Tee Mexico. You have this concept of “designing for the non-golfer”. What are some of the ways in which you accomplish that?

I started thinking about that in 2018 to be honest. When you start maturing in any discipline you start questioning a lot of things. I was thinking, “why do we always design for the golfer”? What can we do to design for the non-golfer? A lot of people in the industry were talking about it and I wanted to do something about it. 

You don’t need a par-72 over-7000 yard facility to do something about it, and that’s freeing creatively. You reduce the footprint also. That’s how we came up with ideas for multi-purpose golf and wellness golf.

Golf didn’t start with 18 holes. Why does that number matter? Golf was designed by nature. Why would I, as a person, as a man, try to fix it if it’s designed by nature?  I can’t go against nature – or I shouldn’t anyway. I connect with nature. Let me be one with nature and if it’s 9, if it’s 18, if it’s 22, then fantastic.

Of course, if we have a design brief that’s asking for an 18-hole championship golf course, then so be it, that’s the brief… but if it’s open, then it’s our responsibility as architects to connect with nature.

And that was one of my other questions. You’ve talked before about a practice in which you connect with nature by finding a tree to communicate with -- or it communicates with you. What is your role as an architect in facilitating that same connection between golfers and nature?

To me, the “signature” of my work is nature. There are no golf courses alike!

It’s maybe the only sport without a regulation-sized playing arena if you think about it.

Yes, no two courses look alike, and that’s because we interpret nature. It connects with the budget, brief, and business module, and you see those things when you’re a proper architect, but we know how to separate the science and the art. We know about technique, drawings, and engineering, but most people don’t know the principles of art. You have structure, balance, rhythm, proportion, among others, but we know how to combine the perfect balance of art and science in harmony with nature.

I was also curious to hear about your creative process. We’re all creators in our own way here, though you’re clearly the artist of this discussion. In my experience, the creative process is partially analytical and partially intuitive, and I was wondering if you view your process in any particular light. Do you have a structured process? Do you have routines or rituals you use to inspire yourself creatively?

I got rid of my superstitions a long time ago. No upside down flowers or anything like that, no I don’t do anything like that anymore…

I was thinking more like meditation or breath-work, you know, more “functional” superstitions…

I was just messing with you [laughs]. The only ritual that I have, which you brought up before, is that I learned from the Mayan culture when and how to ask nature for permission. I was in the rainforest on a retreat and I saw that the spiritual leader took his shoes off and connected with one of the ceibas -- the sacred tree of the Mayans. I approached him and asked what he was doing, and he explained that he asks for permission from nature to be one so that a mutual respect can keep us safe from pumas, spiders, and other dangerous things in order for us to cross the rainforest safely. And I loved that, so since then, I’ve adapted that ritual to look for a rock, or tree, or something distinctive on every site to connect with nature, be one, and have mutual respect. I never take a site for granted.

And I wanted to share, one of my favorite golf rounds of the past couple of years involved sideways rain and me playing barefoot on the back 9. I wasn’t playing very well and said, “you know what, to hell with it”, and took my shoes off to play the remainder of the round barefoot. I shot 1-under! So I don’t know if that was a lesson in detachment from expectations or what it was, but it was like I had this newfound level of connection, and that’s a part of the golfing experience I’d love to see more of. Is playing golf barefoot integrated with the wellness design at Chable Resort?

Yes, absolutely, and now it has one all sorts of awards. It was such a special and mystical place, so I wanted to offer something completely different through the site. People don’t need to necessarily understand it. Sure, we hear about things like meditation and know about it, people practice for many reasons, but that doesn’t mean you have to be deep into spirituality or “understand”.

So, why don’t we imagine the same thing for golf? Why don’t we go back 600 years and reinvent golf? We have that opportunity with every project.

Who says the best age of golf architecture is the “golden age”? Maybe it hasn’t happened yet!

And what do you think is the way forward?

I always have ideas, but wait for the right moment to express them in my architecture, either because it’s the right client or the right place. I’m going to keep doing my best to interpret – going back to that word – interpret nature.

I’ve felt that golf represents in many ways an integration of opposites... culture and nature, tradition and innovation.

Yes, and hopefully that’s how we’ll find something that will transcend. I’m someone who’s here to interpret. I’ve always been a critical thinker. How do we do things differently? Different without falling into the ridiculous. We just came up with the concept of the Butterfly Effect, for example.

The “Butterfly Effect” concept and golf course resembles the wings of a butterfly with four diverse quadrangles, each section features six-hole golf loops creatively positioned within the landscape, all surrounding an inventive multi-purpose short course. Photo Credit.

Going into a given project and the client having expectations, how do you manage potential disagreements, conflicts, or compromises on vision?

The first thing I always ask is “what is your purpose”? The “why” is always most important. If the client cannot answer, then I will help or adapt, and we’ll go for the regular stuff while putting the out-of-the-box ideas on the shelf. Now, we’re still gonna do something special no matter what, even if it’s a “regular” project.

Lately, we’ve been getting requests from clients. Now they’re calling us because of the other projects we’ve done that are not normal, as far as the industry sees it. We’ve landed our last two projects because of our out-of-the-box thinking and because of our originality and our passion.

One of them is our new Butterfly Effect, which provides 24 holes composed of four six-hole layouts so you can combine – you can play 6, you can play 12. The great ideas are out there! They’re floating us by all the time, but if you don’t have the sensitivity to bring those into reality and make them happen, well then you’re nothing but a theorist! There are a lot of theorists out there.

But technically the term “theorist” means “student of god”... [laughs … at self :(: ]

Yes, of course [laughs].

As you like to say, “do-out-of-the-box” rather than “think-out-of-the-box”. 

I’ve always been someone who does differently, all throughout my life. Now, with architecture, I like to call it magic. The magic begins when you have the technical knowledge and the experience to start really designing the exceptions. Though you also need the client that’s willing. Then we can design functional art. I want a significant other to open their curtain and say “wow, I love this!” Oh, and by the way you can play golf.

Well, that’s a lot to chew on! We’ve been really grateful for your time and your passion as well. I’ll be continuing to follow your work for a while. It’s really inspiring. One of the last questions I really wanted to ask you is who or what has inspired you the most? Whether architecturally, personally, spiritually, etc…

A lot of things have inspired me in my life... but I would say travelling. That’s the best investment that one can make -- to become sensible to other cultures and traditions. The more you travel, the more you question, the more you mature, the more you open... if you want to! That would be one aspect. If you ask about architecture specifically, I would say Le Corbusier, Bauhaus, Walter Gropius, to name a few. The Bauhaus movement is a huge inspiration to me.

If you asked me -- if I had my way -- I’m working on a movement in golf course architecture. I want people to say “this movement in the early 2000s” inspired this, this, and this, but of course we cannot control everything. We can only control what we do now.

I know Andrew and I would both love to see that for the industry more broadly – what can golf offer people in terms of facilitating deeper connections with each other and nature, and could it even be a way to heal people and nature through ecosystem services? On the people-side of golf, I also wanted to talk with you about First Tee Mexico. How does the mission of accessibility connect with your other work and the movement you want to see?

Firstly, I believe we’re all responsible to give back, and I also think the golf industry is an absolutely beautiful industry or line of discipline. 

I started really giving back in 2010. I donated a design in Peru called Golf Para Todos – “golf for all” – a proper but rugged 9-hole golf course where kids take turns playing in the grass and play golf for free.

Earlier in 2004-2005 I also started a program called “primer swing” – like a paint “primer”, it was meant to “prime” and protect underprivileged children with values through golf.

After the WGC came into Mexico in 2017 and because of Grupo Salinas we started a franchise in Mexico for First Tee. You can check us out at FirstTeeMexico.org or follow us on social media. Now we’re on our fourth year of First Tee Mexico. We’re connecting kids – because we don’t have any public courses or muni’s in Mexico. Everyone’s really embraced it and pitching in. There’s also been a good wave of Mexican golfers like Abraham Ancer, Gaby Lopez, and obviously starting with Lorena Ochoa, and hopefully we’ll see more stars coming out of Mexico.

Before we let you go, I have one more question that connects to the First Tee, which focuses so much on teaching principles of character growth to young people. My question is, what’s the most important life principle that golf has taught you?

That’s a good one, it’s been so much, especially because I also get to combine it with nature and architecture. Golf is a tool for life. It’s about attitude. If I had to add a word, I would say “attitude”. Life and golf are so similar, and I’ve come to the conclusion that the only thing we can control in life AND in the golf course is our attitude toward the situation that we’re in.