Thierry Sprecher

My family is of Swiss origin, my great-grandfather was a chronometer manufacturer in Saint Ismier in the Swiss Jura. 

I attended the NATO International High School in Saint Germain, and benefited from regular contact with foreign countries. 
When it came to choosing a profession, wishing to live free and outdoors, I opted for the National School of Horticulture, the so-called landscape section, whose premises are located in Versailles in the King's vegetable garden. 
A visit to St Andrews in Scotland revealed golf to me, an ideal ground for my aspirations, a place where a game that reveals oneself is combined in a natural setting. This is how I chose golf as the subject of my DPLG landscaping diploma.

A decisive turning point was marked during a trip to Morocco where on the road to the Goulimine camel market in the far south, I met Théodor and Helen Muller, whose colorful taxi I shared. Ted Muller was an architect in Westport, Connecticut, United States. On the cushions of the old blue Chrysler driven by “Coeur joyeux” we talked and I was invited to come and work for a few months in his architectural firm. It was the discovery of another world, other ways of working and also golf.

Ted, a graduate himself; from MIT, urged me strongly to apply to Harvard University in the landscape department. We were at the start of the work on ecological planning, its application to land use planning, impact studies and citizen participation. 

Modern techniques were used intensively for data acquisition: photo interpretation, black and white, color, infra red for information processing with the computer and the first geographic information systems, for presentations in public… I graduated in 1972 with a master's degree in landscape design or a master's degree in landscape architecture. 
Then it was a second shock with the cooperation in Algeria with the national tourism agency.
My working life began in an urban planning office as nice as its name: BERU (which reminded me of the famous; character in a novel). In 1981 I set up on my own and since then have worked in the world of golf.

Matching keywords

• Golf de Servanes
• Golf du Château de Chailly