An Interview with Ian Cross
Ian Cross, of Pilot Productions the executive producer for the popular travel series Globe Trekker and host of the new APT Exchange program Adventure Golf shares his thoughts with APT ...
Q: Where did the concept for ADVENTURE GOLF come from? Are there any similarities between this program and Globe Trekker?
A: I think, if anything, ADVENTURE GOLF is a middle-aged version of Globe Trekker. I got the idea when I really started taking up golf at 40. I started playing and really got into it. Then, I started going away on golfing trips for long weekends with friends, once or twice a year. I enjoyed that, so I started organizing a couple trips myself to Northern France, Portugal and Morocco. I thought this wouldn't be a bad idea for a TV program because it's a combination of niche interest golf and travel. For instance, I'd organize the itinerary in Northern France where we'd play a course like Le Touquet, which is quite famous on the French coast, and then in the afternoon we'd go and look at the WWI battlefields. The next day, we'd drive down to the Loire Valley and we'd play a course like Les Bordes, and wine tasting in the afternoon. The guys that I took away loved it and they wanted to come back. And I thought that this might be a really neat TV format in terms of traveling and golfing — that mix. I pitched the idea to broadcasters and there was some interest. Enough people felt the show would be good enough because of our credentials making Globe Trekker, Planet Food and other shows. That's essentially how it came about.
Q: What do you mean by the term "a middle-aged version of Globe Trekker"?
A: It's interesting if you look at the film Sideways. That film is very evocative of the sort of angst, issues and problems that middle-aged men have to deal with. Middle-aged men are hardly the most popular strata of society. Their series of problems and complaints are reviled, laughed at. So, for a lot of middle-aged men, the idea of going on a golfing trip for four or five days is Nirvana. You've got to remember, these are groups of men who are stressed out, they are in the peak of their earning lives, they usually have lots of problems associated with stress at work and sometimes their family lives are complicated. The idea of escaping for a few days to play golf is something that appeals to them.
At the same time, this show has to also appeal to a non-golfer, someone who isn't necessarily interested in golf. I think the trouble with a lot of golfing shows is that they are kind of nerdy and they are of zero interest to anyone who doesn't play golf.
Q: How do you plan to hook the non-golfer into watching this show as well as the person who lives and breathes golf?
A: There are two ways we're trying to get them interested. One is the travel content, which is of interest to anyone, and the other is the stories about golf courses. It's important, at least once in the program, to play a really good course, one that is challenging, whether in the course design, its layout or the technical elements of the game. It's also important that we get a spread of courses that tell a different story.
We just came back from South Africa where we did a story there about the Durban Country Club just outside of Johannesburg. That's just an incredible story. Essentially it's about golf under apartheid and how black golfers are trying to establish themselves post-apartheid. It's a strong story that could appear in a
golf program, like ADVENTURE GOLF, or it could appear on 60 Minutes or something like that.
Q: Are there any other special stories that stand out in your mind from
taping?
A: I think in golfing terms, St. Andrews in Scotland. It's a historic city. It's been there since the Middle Ages and because it is the "Home of Golf" it's a spiritual pilgrimage for golfers. It's an interesting place because the golf course starts in the town, then goes out and comes back and ends in the town. Where else can you start a game of golf and end it in a town? That's unusual.
South Africa is probably the most recent experience so it's the freshest in memory. We went to the Hans Marensky Country Club, which is in a game park. So you do have giraffes, cheetahs and animals on the course. You have a game warden checking it every morning to make sure that you don't have a lion or hippo roaming around. In about eight years, they've only had one fatality. A woman was trampled by an elephant on the 16th green and killed. The elephant had broken onto the course.
Q: Did you run into any problems trying to get access to some golf courses?
A: A couple didn't want us to film. It's interesting what's happening in golf. Historically there's been the public course and the private course. The public course has often been a municipal course and anybody can play. We played the public course at Rancho Park in Los Angeles in our Southern California show, which rates itself the busiest golf course in the world. Then there are private courses which are for members only. One was Muirfield in Scotland and there was another one we tried to play in LA but people didn't want us to play
them. I think clubs are having increasing difficulties. Club memberships, as well as public courses, are being
overtaken by these "play and pay" clubs, which are essentially open to anybody as long as they can play and are prepared to pay more than a public course. A lot of clubs are finding it harder to retain membership-only status and are needing to attract outsiders. Similarly, what you are finding with golfers is that people just don't have the time. The idea of going down to the local golf club and living one's life within the club (while it still happens) is not as common as it used to be.
*This interview is available for use in the marketing and/or promotion of Adventure Golf(program guides and/or Web sites). No part of this interview may be used relating to any product or service, other than the program.
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