Robert Trent Jones, Sr

Architect Profile

Robert Trent Jones (1906-2000) Born: Ince, England

Robert Trent Jones, Sr. has surely earned a place in golf’s pantheon. Over a period spanning seven decades, Robert Trent Jones, Sr. has designed (or re-designed) some 500 golf courses in over 40 states and 35 countries. It is not only the quantity of his work that impresses, however; it is also the number of enduring golf courses he has created, and the fact that he never tires of turning them out.

Born in Ince, England, on June 20, 1906, Robert Trent Jones, Sr. was 6 when he accompanied his parents to East Rochester, N.Y., where he later caddied at The Country Club of Rochester. Robert Trent Jones, Sr. soon developed into a scratch golfer, and was the low amateur in the 1927 Canadian Open. Around that time, Robert Trent Jones, Sr. met and was inspired by Donald Ross, the Scottish golf architect who was designing Oak Hill in Rochester. At Cornell, Robert Trent Jones, Sr. studied surveying, agronomy, landscaping, horticulture, architecture and sketching.

Just as Robert Trent Jones, Sr. was ending his studies in 1930, however, the course design open in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API pdfcrowd.com business ground to a halt thanks to the Depression. Robert Trent Jones, Sr. formed a partnership with Canadian architect Stanley Thompson and helped on two of his most famous projects, Capilano in Vancouver and Banff in the Canadian Rockies. Robert Trent Jones, Sr. also did six low-budget courses on his own that incorporated W.P.A. labor. The partnership ended in 1938, but it was not until after World War II that Trent’s work flourished. Along the way, he and his wife, the former lone Teftt Davis, had two children, Robert, Jr., in 1939, and another son, Rees, in 1941. Robert Trent Jones, Sr. made his reputation after World War II with a handful of high-profile projects. Robert Trent Jones, Sr. worked with Bobby Jones on Peachtree (1948) in Atlanta, a course that launched the broad-shouldered, heavily sculpted power golf look that defined the postwar years. Robert Trent Jones, Sr. also worked on Augusta National, transforming the 11th and 16th holes from indifferent to bold and memorable. And he became a national celebrity in 1951 owing to his complete redesign of Oakland Hills-South Course for the U.S. Open that year. While retaining Ross’ routing and his green sites, Robert Trent Jones, Sr. filled in all of Ross’ fairway bunkers at Oakland Hills, moved them back to the 230-270 yard range off the tee, and created “a Monster” out of what had been a much more modest if always sound layout.

Bobby Jones said that Robert Trent Jones, Sr. was the best golfing golf course architect he ever encountered. For better or worse, Robert Trent Jones, Sr. 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. Robert Trent Jones, Sr. was the first architect inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Robert Trent Jones, Sr. was a founding member and a former president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects and the first recipient of its Donald Ross Award. Robert Trent Jones, Sr. was the author of “Golf’s Magnificent Challenge” and edited “Great Golf Stories,” an anthology.

Robert Trent Jones, Sr. reputation was made. He became “The Open Doctor” – the man to whom clubs turned in prepping their course for a U.S. Open. In quick succession, he worked such major venues as Baltusrol-Lower Course, Olympic-Lake, Southern Hills, Oak Hill and Congressional.

Robert Trent Jones, Sr. understood early 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 trembling shot across water on all three shots. Robert Trent Jones, Sr. 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.

Robert Trent Jones’s won the first Donald Ross Award for outstanding contributions to the industry and was also the first architect inducted into the Golf World Hall of Fame in 1987.

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