NT24 - Architects list and key traits

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Seth Raynor
The Protege

• Used Templates on every course but often with unique twists.
• Geometric shaping of surfaces.
• Flat Bottom Bunkers with steamshovel back face.

Notable Courses: Camargo Club, Chicago Golf Club, Fisher’s Island, Shoreacres, Yale

Donald Ross
The Machine

• Creative and varied routing often around natural features.
• Creative greens that carry a strategy from tee to the pin.
• Gave players multiple routes to reach the green.

Notable courses: Aronimink, Inverness, LuLu CC, Pine Needles, Seminole

Alister Mackenzie
The Good Doctor

• Artistic Bunkering.
• Use of natural features to camouflage strategic attributes.
• Bold Greens.
• Master of strategic Short Par 4’s.
• Will route creatively around natural features and often use the feature at multiple points in the routing.

Notable courses: Alwoodley, Crystal Downs, Cypress Point, Pasatiempo, Royal Melbourne (West)

Thomas Mitchell Morris
Old Tom

• Built a lot of the first historic links courses in the UK.
• Used existing land without much technology, moved very little dirt.
• Blindness was a common attribute.
• Sod lined bunkers are a bad idea. Research 1890’s links bunkers.

Notable courses: Askernish, Cruden Bay, Nairn, Prestwick, Royal Dornoch

Pete Dye
The Geometrist

• Heavy use of preferred angles in hole strategy.
• Unique and artistic bunker shaping.
• Longer holes promote shot shaping in one direction off the tee and in the opposite direction on the approach.
• Heavy use of risk/reward shots where you take on hazards now (drive) or later (approach).
• Difficult short Par 4’s.

Notable courses: Blackwolf Run, The Dye course at White Oak, The Golf Club (New Albany), The Honours Course, Teeth of the dog

George C. Thomas Jr.
The Captain

• Would employ alternate fairways or unusual green shapes to enhance strategy.
• Rarely employed severe green contours.
• Would often use alternate tees and pin positions to create “courses within a course” for different set ups.
• Disliked hazards that penalized shorter hitters more than longer hitters.

Notable courses: Bel-Air CC, Los Angeles CC (North), Ojai Valley Inn and Spa, Palos Verdes GC, Saticoy Regional

Bill Coore & Ben Crenshaw
The Modern Minimalists

• The Land guides the hole designs; their courses often look found.
• Course elements blend in with the topography.
• Masters of routing courses that are varied and treat the landscape and environment as a journey to be experienced.
• Typically make very walkable courses.


Notable courses: Bandon Trails, Cabot Cliffs, Friar’s Head, Sand Hills, Old Sandwich

Harry S. Colt
The Trailblazer

• Strategic hazard placement which would challenge the good player whilst allowing the lesser player a safe route to the green.
• Wide variety of gentle and severe green contours.
• Often incorporated natural landforms in his designs as strategic elements as they were (do not overdevelop them).
• Used links playing characteristics in more inland courses.

Notable courses: Muirfield (Redesign, 1925), St. George’s Hill, Swinley Forest, Sunningdale, Utrecht de Pan

A.W. Tillinghast
Tillie, Tillie the terror

• Placed a high value on approach shots.
• Emphasis on angles and favoured sides of fairways and greens.
• Lively green contouring.
• Intricate Bunker shaping.
• Famous for his ‘Great Hazard’.

Notable courses: Baltimore CC (East), Philadelphia Cricket Club (Wissahickon), Quaker Ridge, San Fransisco CC, Somerset Hills CC

Perry Maxwell
The Muffin Man

• Superior green sculpting, with his trademark Maxwell Rolls and ‘muffins’.
• Always in harmony with the natural surroundings, minimal land movement.
• Fanatic minimalist.

Notable courses: Dornick Hills G&CC, Prairie Dunes CC (original 9), Oklahoma City G&CC, Old Town Club, Southern Hills CC

Stanley Thompson
The Toronto Terror

• Employed open entries to his greens wherever possible.
• Designed 5 par 3-holes on most courses.
• Adventurous routing which would take you on a journey over the best land features.
• Often used artistic bunkering, sometimes used bunkering to visually mimic the surrounding land.

Notable courses: Capilano, Fairmont Banff, Highland Links, Jasper Park, St. George’s (Ontario)


Mike Strantz
The Abstract

• Artistic use of surfaces and planting.
• Courses have been described as “sensory overload”.
• Used much less modern technology to build holes then believed, would pick natural feature and accentuate them to push the boundary of natural and fantasy.
• Quirky Hole designs, but always with a purpose.

Notable courses: Bull’s Bay, Caledonia Golf & Fish Club, Tobacco Road, Tot Hill Farm, True Blue GC

Walter J. Travis
The Old Man

• Loved to employ extreme, and sometimes outright absurd green contours on his courses.
• A master at bunker sculpting.
• Used hummocks often as a design feature as well as a strategic one.
• Liked to make each hole “present a new problem” to the golfer.

Notable courses: Canoe Brook CC (North), Cape Arundel, Ekwanok, Garden City, Hollywood GC

Tom Doak
The Bold Minimalist

• Presents the player with challenging shots, which utilize creativity from the player.
• The greens are usually bold.
• Looks to incorporate big, natural features as an integral part of his hole designs.
• Design style and features really vary based on the location and style of course.

Notable courses: Ballyneal, Cape Kidnappers, Pacific Dunes, Rock Creek Cattle Company, Streamsong (Blue)

C.H. Alison
The Globalist

• Enjoyed a high risk/high reward style of design.
• Strategic angles - rewarding Heroic Shots with direct approaches into greens.
• Disliked the use of in-play water hazards and OB.
• Grandiose and exceptionally deep bunkers.
• Simplistic green contouring.

Notable courses: Davenport CC, Hirono, Kawana (Fuji), Royal Hague, Milwaukee CC

William Flynn
The Nature Faker

• Excelled at blending natural features with more heavily engineered areas.
• Loved to use natural mounds and slopes as defense.
• An early proponent of short grass surrounding the greens.
• A non-believer in template holes.

Notable courses: Cherry Hills CC, The Kittansett Club, Lancester CC, Rolling Green GC, Shinnecock Hills GC