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 […]
Does the Golf Course Architect Matter?
Ted Vassallo, a retired civil engineer from Vermont, says the identity of the golf course architect wasn’t a major factor when he and wife Jan were deciding which of the seven communities at The Cliffs to move into. “We originally intended building a house up in the mountains at Glassy, which has a Tom Jackson […]
A Long Golf Weekend in Michigan
By Graylyn Loomis My first visit to Michigan was a master class in course architecture in which I helped to rebuild one course, played another with the designer, and stayed at a third with the team that had built it. I made the trip to Canal Shores, Forest Dunes, and Stoatin Brae with LINKS contributor […]
Stoatin Brae – Michigan’s New Course from Renaissance Design
By Tony Dear In his 16 years with Tom Doak’s architectural firm Renaissance Golf, Erik Iverson has worked on numerous incredible sites. He was a design associate and shaper on the jagged, finger cliffs at Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand, the sandy knolls at Barnbougle Dunes in Australia, the beautiful Long Island coastline at […]
Golf Course Architects Discuss Firestone CC South
By Tony Dear The South Course at Firestone CC in Akron, Ohio, has hosted big-time golf since the mid-1950s. First came the Rubber City Open whose winners included Tommy Bolt, Ed Furgol, and Arnold Palmer. It staged three PGA Championships—1960, ’66, and ’75. From 1962 to ’98, it was the venue for the World […]
Golf Course Architects Discuss Firestone CC South
By Tony Dear The South Course at Firestone CC in Akron, Ohio, has hosted big-time golf since the mid-1950s. First came the Rubber City Open whose winners included Tommy Bolt, Ed Furgol, and Arnold Palmer. It staged three PGA Championships—1960, ’66, and ’75. From 1962 to ’98, it was the venue for the World […]
What’s Next for Course Architect Tom Doak
Tom Doak’s design firm is called Renaissance Golf Design and it not only describes his thought-provoking, minimalist designs with their rugged beauty, but it also describes the man himself. He’s a real iconoclast whose course reviews are must reads for any architecture aficionado. (See his unvarnished critiques in The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses, the […]
Less is More: Golf Course Tree Removal
Thanks to Oakmont’s influence, more and more clubs are undoing the wrongs of mid-20th century ‘beautification’ committees
Michigan Golf: Where to Play
Once the snow melts—and trust us, it does—Northern Michigan becomes one of the country’s top regions for public golf
First Peek at Tom Doak’s Tara Iti Golf Club
Need another reason to justify a golf trip to New Zealand? Here it is.