Part of what makes golf such an entertaining sport for players is the charm that each and every golf course offers. When designed in a way that naturally embodies the natural beauty of the landscape, the experience can be quite captivating.
In this article, we have a look at a number of the best golf course designers and how they have moulded the sport for golf aficionados across the world.
Tom Doak
Tom Doak has been the talk of the golf world ever since his Oregon coast masterpiece Pacific Dunes generated worldwide attention. Golf is Bandon’s “raison d’etre” — and Doak’s bona fide links course is the shining star. The unorthodox layout features back-to-back par 3s and just two par 4s on the back nine. It’s absolutely no coincidence that Pacific Dunes has been ranked the best public-access course in the US (ahead of Pebble Beach).
Tom Fazio
Shadow Creek is generally considered to be Fazio’s finest design open to the public. The enjoyable layout sits at an altitude of more than 7 500 feet and provides breath-taking mountain vistas. Players are taken on a journey over open sage-covered hills, dense aspen forest and over a highland lake.
Alister MacKenzie
Seen as one of the absolute best golf course architects in golf, Alister MacKenzie’s legacy is quite evident across many of the golf courses which feature within the Top 100 Golf Courses in the World.
His artistic creativity is seen each and every year at Augusta National, which is the home of The Masters, where he combined his design flair with one of the game’s most revered golfers, Bobby Jones, to build a long-lasting masterpiece that often features as the #1 golf course in the world.
Arnold Palmer
With contributions to all aspects of the sport, Arnold Palmer is well known for being a world-class American golfer and course designer. Dubbed The King, he was one of the sport’s most popular players, forming part of “The Big Three” during the 1960s together with Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player. During the course of his career, he won 62 PGA Tour Titles and seven major championship wins including the Master’s Tournament, the U.S. Open Championship as well as The Open Championship.
As a golf course designer, Palmer has assisted with creating over 300 golf courses in 37 states and 25 nations. That’s a figure that would impress NZ mobile pokies developers no end. These include the Tralee Golf Club in County Kerry, Ireland; Tradition Golf Club in La Quinta, California and then his personal favourite, Old Tabby Links on Spring Island, South Carolina.
Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw
Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw were college golfers, although just Crenshaw would go on to play of the professional tour. Crenshaw would go on to triumph 19 times on the PGA Tour, in addition to two Masters wins and a runners-up at the PGA Championship and the Open Championship. In 1986, the pair teamed up to start building strategic golf courses. Their courses are renowned for being natural and emphasising the natural beauty while still creating challenging courses, and their influence on Hawaiian golf is especially strong.