The Essential: Dick Wilson

These days, many define the post-war period in golf design as the “Robert Trent Jones Era,” but it’s sometimes forgotten that for nearly 20 years he had a rival matching him course for course. Louis Sibbett “Dick” Wilson, born in Philadelphia in 1904, dropped out of the University of Vermont (which he had attended on […]

Classic Course: Quaker Ridge

With its gently rolling terrain, stately trees, and intimate playing environment, Quaker Ridge epitomizes Westchester County parkland golf. The course’s routing is Muirfield-esque—the holes of the front nine run counter-clockwise around the club’s perimeter, embracing the clockwise homeward nine—allowing for a highly satisfying exploration of the property. Jimmy Demaret once said that Quaker Ridge could […]

The Essential: Tom Doak

Growing up in suburban Connecticut, Tom Doak would accompany his father on business trips to places like Pebble Beach and Harbour Town, where he caught the golf bug. He later traveled extensively throughout the British Isles on a Cornell University post-graduate scholarship, paying particularly close attention to the Old Course at St. Andrews, studying it […]

The Essential: Hugh Alison

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Charles Hugh Alison, who was known to the world by his middle name, was born in 1883 in the small English city of Preston, about 30 miles north of Manchester. A powerfully built and athletic young man, he played first-class cricket and earned his “Blue” competing for Oxford against Cambridge in the University Golf Match. […]

Highlights of Arnold Palmer’s Course Design Career

Arnold Palmer’s involvement in golf design was a lifelong pursuit. He was the son of a greenkeeper, after all, and was involved in hands-on course work during his youth at Latrobe Country Club in western Pennsylvania, at Wake Forest University, and even during his stint in the Coast Guard. Palmer’s legacy as an architect is […]

Alister MacKenzie’s Finest Works

Alister MacKenzie receives a fair amount of attention every year around April thanks to his central role in the creation of Augusta National. However, the home of the Masters represents only one thread in a design career—arguably the greatest of all-time—that spanned the globe. MacKenzie was born in 1870 to Scottish parents living in the […]

The Philosophy of Tom Fazio

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A painterly aptitude for melding golf with the landscape has made him the most commercially successful architect of our time