Jim Wagner and Gil Hanse have been design partners for over 20 years. Though Hanse’s name is on their courses, Wagner has been equally influential in their concepts and outcomes while overseeing a dedicated group of shapers and designers known as the Cavemen. In the last 10 years the two men have taken their small…
Brian Silva began working for iconic New England architect Geoffrey Cornish in 1983, building golf courses in the traditional way of the day. After a revelation concerning the essence of strategic golf he transitioned into golf course restoration, becoming one of the business’s most respected talents at renovating historic Golden Age-era courses. His particular passion…
Mike Clayton is a throwback to a bygone tradition of golf figures such as Willie Park, Jr., Walter Travis and Max Behr, top players who later became both architects and men of letters. Clayton won the Australian Amateur in 1978 and played the European Tour from 1982 until 2000. He’s written extensively for golf publications…
Not since Hugh Wilson at Merion has an architectural career been launched as brightly as David McLay Kidd’s. As a young designer in his 20’s, Kidd was tabbed by Mike Keiser to build the first course at Bandon Dunes. Kidd followed that spectacular success with a series of prestigious designs across several continents, becoming arguably…
A rundown of the best moments and most significant exchanges during the first full season of the Feed the Ball podcast. Highlights include thoughts on the current and future state of golf course architecture from Golf Digest architectural editor Ron Whitten, Golf Advisor’s Brad Klein and architect Ian Andrew; thoughts on Tiger Woods as designer…
Bruce Hepner began his architectural career in 1990 as an associate for Ron Forse, with whom he became one of the early advocates and influencers of historic golf course restoration. He returned home to Michigan in 1993 to work for Tom Doak, first as a shaper and later as a designer at modern masterpieces like Pacific…
Brian Curley began his golf course architecture career working on a number of Pete Dye courses for Landmark Land Company. There he met another Dye protégé, Lee Schmidt, and the two combined forces to form the company Schmidt-Curley Golf Design. Since the 1990’s they’ve built courses all over the U.S. and throughout the world, and for…
P.B. Dye began working on his father Pete Dye’s construction sites when he was a boy. Along with his brother, Perry, he’s had the closest and longest view of how Dye conceived of and built golf courses and was a primary assistant during several of his father’s touchstone courses, including Long Cove on Hilton Head…
On the north side of the property, steep foothills rise covered in rock and crumbling stone. Embedded into the upslope are remnants suggesting some kind of massive structure once towered overhead. The long chains of masonry and block-like pillars draping the mountain give no indication of purpose, but it’s clear this was a place of…
Ron Forse was an engineer who made a jump into golf course architecture in 1989, working on a project in West Virginia in conjunction with Dr. Michael Hurdzan. Though not necessarily his intent, he began taking jobs consulting with a number of historic club, guiding them through the process of renovating their old courses. Since…