Donald Ross
With more than 400 courses connected to his name, including Pinehurst No.2 and East Lake Golf Club Atlanta, Donald Ross was one of the most respected and prolific golf architects of his generation. This is what you need to know about the former apprentice of Old Tom Morris.
The Michelangelo of Golf. Ross is so-called not just because his course designs are works of art, but also, like Michelangelo, he was prolific. The Donald Ross name is associated over 400 courses around the world. That number would have been significantly higher but for World War II. Also, Ross never ‘phoned it in’. According to golf course architect, and Ross aficionado, Kris Spence, “His courses and holes seldom look alike due to the way he connected each and every hole to that piece of property.”
The Apprentice. In 1893, Old Tom Morris, the single most influential figure in the history of golf, took on Ross as apprentice greenkeeper at St Andrews. Morris was a four-time Open winning champion but also designed more than 100 courses, as well as holes 1 and 18 at St Andrews, and was said to be a major influence on Ross.
Anger management. Ross then became the club professional at his local club, Dornoch (this became Royal Dornoch in 1906). The role also included greenkeeping, which he hated. “But, as it turned out, that was the best training I could have had for what turned out to be my future,” he later said.
A valuable lesson. Harvard professor Robert Wilson was on holiday in Scotland having taken up golf. He stopped off in Dornoch to get lessons off the club pro. Wilson was impressed by Ross’s teaching skills along with his recommendation for a local tailor. Wilson told Ross that he could make three times as much money teaching golf in America. He arrived in the States with $2 to his name, but Wilson helped secure him a job at Oakley golf course, near Boston.
A course of events. Call it luck, fate, or divine intervention, but Oakley had failed to renew its lease on a patch of land. Several holes had to be rerouted, and the course architect was ill. So, Ross stepped in. When it reopened in 1900, Oakley wowed players including James Walker Tufts, who made his fortune in soda fountains and owned a resort in North Carolina called Pinehurst.
Oh brother. Both Donald and his brother Alex, who had also moved to the US, were hired by Tufts to become pros at Pinehurst. Donald also worked on modifying the course and when Tufts decided he wanted to build a second course there was only one man for the job.
Sibling rivalry. Donald was a fine golfer in his own right. He managed four top 10 finishes in the US Open and was best-placed eighth in the British Open, but had to play second fiddle to Alex.
At the North and South Open in 1907, Donald had a four stroke advantage over Alex with six holes to play. What could possibly go wrong? Taking 7 at the 16th hole. That’s what. Alex would eventually beat Donald in a playoff. Later that year Alex won the US Open. Meanwhile Donald was putting the finishing touches to Pinehurst No2 which also opened in 1907 and instantly became the course that everybody wanted to play.
All shook up. Legend has it that in Ross shook hands with Bobby Jones, and they agreed that Ross would design a course close to Jones’s home in Atlanta, Georgia. When Jones surprisingly lost his first round match in the 1929 US Amateur Championship at Pebble Beach he had some time to kill. So, he played a new course nearby at Cypress Point. It was love at first tee, and Jones asked its creator, Alister McKenzie, to design that course near Atlanta, which would become Augusta National. The incident spurred Ross to reevaluate Pinehurst No.2, and make it even better than before.
Rough Justice. Why is Pinehurst considered to be his masterpiece? When you play the first hole, you may think to yourself ‘this isn’t so tough’. From there, it’s a layout that makes you think in the way that virtually no other golf course does especially when you get within 100 yards of the hole. Also, from a players perspective, there’s no waist-high rough and you shouldn’t lose many balls - often a hidden cost of playing a championship course. Credit for this should also go to Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw who more recently modified Pinehurst No.2 for the US Open in 2014.
An eruption of joy. Ross is the designer most closely associated with the volcano hole, often found on par 3s and short par 4s. It’s not because you’ll erupt when you pitch on the green and then the ball rolls off (although you may do that anyway). It is so-called because the green is elevated, either on top of a knoll or raised from the ground, and if your tee shots fails to stay on the dancefloor, you will probably be facing a steep uphill pitch.
Stats all, folks! No other designer has any many courses associated with his name listed in the World’s Top 100 including Pinehurst No.2, Seminole, Oaklands Hills and East Lake). The 2024 US Open will be held at Pinehurst No.2, making it the 11th USGA championship to be hosted by the club and the 10th in the last 35 years, more than any other site in the US.
The Masters
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