Robert Trent Jones (1906-2000)

Robert Trent Jones recognized his talent for golf course architecture at a young age and fashioned his life as a golfer, designer, salesman and ambassador for the game. Born in Ince, England, his family immigrated to the Rochester, New York area when he was two, and he grew up among the local Donald Ross courses. He graduated from Cornell University in 1931 with a degree self-fashioned to suit his design ambitions. Shortly thereafter, he joined Stanley Thompson, the respected Canadian golf course architect, and handled his firm's American work.

He parted with Thompson in the mid-1930s and struggled through the depression creating public courses as part of the Work Progress Administration (WPA). It wasn't until after WWII that Trent Jones (the name often used to differentiate him from the great Robert Tyre "Bobby" Jones) saw his career really take off.

His redesign of Oakland Hills GC for the 1951 U.S. Open became known as "The Monster," only subdued in the final round by Ben Hogan's still-miraculous 67. This coincided with an article by Herbert Warren Wind in the New Yorker, which brought fame to Jones and legitimacy to the profession of golf course architecture.

Trent Jones was a founding member and past president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects and recipient of the first Donald Ross Award. Hailed as the father of modern golf course architecture, Trent Jones' design career spanned seven decades and included nearly 500 new courses and nearly as many redesigns and remodels.

Bobby Jones said that Trent Jones was the best golfing golf course architect he ever encountered. For better or worse, Trent Jones let his fine golf game influence his designs.

On a visit to Baltusrol during the famed Lower Course's remodeling, he once demonstrated to the members the correct shot for a long par-3 by casually striking a hole in one.

During the 1950s he bristled at the thought that tour pros were routinely breaking 70 on his golf courses.

Suddenly, all his championship tracks were lengthened to 7000 yards, and he began to add more and more water to penalize the better golfers' mistakes.

Trent Jones provided relief to the average golfer by introducing multiple forward tees and pushing hazards back from the typical golfer's range of shots.

Trent Jones's early work was similar to the fine and quite flamboyant work of his mentor, Stanley Thompson. His later work evolved into the distinctly American golf course: big, tough, and long.

He seemed to fully understand the changes in golf equipment, turf conditions and disposition of the American golfer that resulted in more of a "target" sport rather than the low-to-the-ground hit-and-recover game that was practiced in the British Isles.

His use of then-modern earth moving equipment created large undulating bunkers and green shapes, yet often ironed out any remnant of the natural topography from the fairways.

A typical Robert Trent Jones course from his "Howard Johnson" period in the 60s and 70s appears a bit bleak by today's photogenic standards but remains tough and unforgiving to the better golfer and long for the weaker golfer.

His design of the Peachtree Golf Club outside of Atlanta in 1948 was an early showcase of his forward thinking. It featured immensely long tees, bunkers positioned to squeeze the better golfer's tee shots and huge undulating greens surrounded by hazards.

As the golf boom of the late 70s and 80s brought on a flurry of stylized attempts by golf course architects to outdo each other, Trent Jones courses began to look tired.

No longer 7000 yard "monsters," they were typical golf courses with oversized greens, bunkers routinely positioned 240 to 260 yards off the tee and too much water (he practiced during the pre-environmental era).

His new courses during the 80s became more refined and attested to his strong understanding of the heroic school of golf course design. This may be attributed to Roger Rulewich as much as Mr. Jones, Rulewich having presided over most of the design and construction of the firm's courses in the last two decades.

The firm was awarded the largest golf course design contract of all time, over a dozen public courses in several of Alabama's state parks. Called the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, these courses were funded by the state's public employee pension fund.

Trent Jones understood the potential of water to strike fear in the hacker and extract penalty strokes from the better golfer. Prior to WWII, moving enough dirt to make an artificial lake was not practical. Jones's famous horseshoe shaped par-5 at Long Cove requires a hair-raising play over water on all three shots.

He was the one who gave Augusta National so much water by damming up Rae's Creek at critical junctures and creating the par-3 16th with the pond in front of the green.

Noteworthy courses:

Ballybunion -- Cashen Course
County Kerry, Ireland (New Course, 1985)
Don't get this confused with the Old Course. I'm not sure if I want to play a Jones course in a fresh gale where the required high shot to the green is sure to end up in deep trouble.

Crumpin Fox Club
Bernardston, Mass. (first nine 1978, second 1989)
Not a well-known course on a pretty site; really an accomplishment of Roger Rulewich, his long-time associate.

Firestone Country Club
Akron, Ohio (North and South Courses, 1960)
Plays much better than it looks on TV. Big, tough layout with plenty of heroics required.

Hazeltine National Golf Club
Minneapolis, Minn. (1962)
Another 7000 yard plus Open course designed to hurt.

Mauna Kea Beach Golf Course
Big Island of Hawaii (1965)
The quintessential Hawaii course in the back of every golfer's mind. But probably too much big golf for your average tourist.

Oakland Hills Country Club
Birmingham, Mich. (major remodel 1950, revisions 1983)
It's still referred to as the Monster but I wish I could have seen the original Donald Ross design.

Real Club de Golf Sotogrande
Costa del Sol, Spain (1965)
Jones's first course in Europe, certainly a shock to Brits on holiday who found themselves pitching to soft greens over mosaics of bunkers and water.

Spyglass Hill Golf Course
Pebble Beach, Calif. (1966)
The first five holes are pure Monterey on the ocean; the rest seem to be uphill with a pond in front of every green.

Dunes Golf and Beach Club
Myrtle Beach, S.C. (1949)
An early design that has some very good examples of his "heroic" design.