Tom Doak is a golf course architect. He has 6 courses ranked among the top 100 in the world according to the "Top 100 Courses in the World" [1] March 2021 list compiled by Golf Magazine. These include Pacific Dunes in Oregon, Ballyneal in Colorado, [2] Barnbougle Dunes in Tasmania [3] and Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand. Doak lives in Michigan.
He was a student of golf course designer Pete Dye, although perhaps his greatest influence comes from Alister MacKenzie (about whom Doak wrote a book), designer of Cypress Point, Royal Melbourne, and consultant to Bobby Jones at Augusta National. In 2007, Doak restored Alister MacKenzie's home course, Pasatiempo, a Golf Magazine Top 100 course located in Santa Cruz, California.
Doak is the author of The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses which is a guide to famous and obscure golf courses around the world. The original version of the book was intended for a select group of friends and golf course architects. The sanitized version became a coffee table book which also included Doak's photography. Despite being toned down, the book includes several extremely critical reviews of golf courses and alienated several well-regarded golf course architects. For example, in his entry for Talamore Golf Club in Pinehurst, North Carolina, designed by Rees Jones, Doak wrote that the "dull layout" made him "want to spit."
Doak attended Cornell University after a semester at MIT where he studied Design and Landscape Architecture. [4] [5] After graduating Cornell, he won the Dreer Award from the Department of Floriculture and Horticulture. He used the Dreer Award to travel to Great Britain and Ireland, between 1982 and 1983, to study their best golf courses. He caddied at St. Andrews during the summer of 1982.
Doak is a "minimalist" designer. Minimalism is a school of golf design that focuses on concentrating the design of a golf hole (or routing) around the natural features of the land. His most successful courses have been built on sand dunes, taking advantage of the sandy soil for drainage and also allowing for the reuse of native elements.
Doak's first course, High Pointe Golf Club near Williamsburg, Michigan, opened in 1989. [6] The course closed in 2008 and is expected to reopen in 2024. [7]
Doak credits most of his accomplishments and success to golf course designer Pete Dye. Doak worked with Dye to learn how to construct golf courses during graduate school. Doak was exposed to several different schools of design on multiple continents in a variety of conditions. Jim Urbina taught him how to run a bulldozer allowing Doak to think in three dimensions and how to use the materials around him. [8]
In 2015 he announced he would spend a significant amount of time during the ensuing few years, researching for a new edition of his book, The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses. [9]
Doak has written four books about Golf Course Design:
Wild Dunes is an oceanfront resort on Isle of Palms, South Carolina, United States. It is 1,600 acres (6 km2) on the north end of the island and has controlled-access gates.
Rees Jones is an American golf course architect.
Alister MacKenzie was an English golf course architect whose course designs span four continents. Originally trained as a surgeon, MacKenzie served as a civilian physician with the British Army during the Boer War where he first became aware of the principles of camouflage. During the First World War, MacKenzie made his own significant contributions to military camouflage, which he saw as closely related to golf course design.
Donald James Ross was a professional golfer and golf course designer. Ross was born and raised in Scotland but moved to the United States as a young man. Ross designed dozens of courses across North America and is generally regarded as one of the top golf course designers of all time.
Bridport is a small town on the north-east coast of Tasmania, Australia. It is part of the Dorset Council and takes its name from Bridport in Dorset, England. At the 2016 census, Bridport had a population of 1,715.
Paul Dye Jr., commonly referred to as Pete Dye, was an American golf course designer and a member of a family of course designers. He was married to fellow designer and amateur champion Alice Dye.
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Barnbougle Dunes Golf Links is a golf course located near the seaside village of Bridport in Tasmania's North-East. The 18 hole championship layout was designed by course architects Tom Doak and Mike Clayton, and is set among sand dunes overlooking Bass Strait. The course has been highly rated since opening in 2005, recognised as Australia's number one public access course, and fifth best course of any sort in Australia. Barnbougle Dunes is the first new Australian course to enter the World's Top 100 courses since rankings began, coming in at 49 after its first appraisal. It has since improved to be ranked the 35th best course in the world, and is ranked the 12th best links course in the world.
St. Charles Country Club is a private country club in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It features three 9-hole golf courses, each with a distinct style that reflects the golf course designer responsible for it.
Pasatiempo Golf Club is an 18-hole golf club on the West Coast of the United States, located in Pasatiempo, Santa Cruz County, California.
Pasatiempo is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, California, United States, located along State Route 17 between Scotts Valley and Santa Cruz. Bus service is provided by Santa Cruz Metro and the Highway 17 Express. Pasatiempo sits at an elevation of 394 feet (120 m). The 2020 United States census reported Pasatiempo's population was 1,093.
Mike Strantz was an American golf course architect based out of South Carolina. In 2000, he was named as one of the "Top 10 Greatest Golf Architects of All Time" by Golfweek magazine.
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Brian Curley is a golf course architect. He was raised in Pebble Beach, California where he played, caddied and worked at the area’s iconic courses. He currently resides in Scottsdale, Arizona. Curley is a member of the American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA) and currently serves on its Board of Governors.
There are 75 golf courses in Hawaii.
Gilbert Hanse is an American golf course designer. Hanse, along with his business partner Jim Wagner, was selected to design the Rio 2016 Olympic Golf Course, the first Olympic venue to host golf since 1904.
The Lido Golf Club was a golf course in Long Beach, Nassau County, Long Island, New York.
The Lido Prize was a competition first held by the British Country Life Magazine in 1914, inviting sports enthusiasts to create a design for a golf hole. It was named after the Lido Golf Club constructed on Long Island, which was designed by Architect Charles Blaire Macdonald. He was also the sponsor of the competition.