Golf architecture aficionados generally acknowledge that the second Golden Age of course design began with the 1994 opening of Sand Hills Golf Club in Nebraska. Soon after the inland links that Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw fashioned came online there, others of a similar ilk appeared. First Bandon Dunes, which David McLay Kidd crafted in the late 1990s. Then Pacific Dunes, a Tom Doak creation at that same Oregon resort. Together, those designers – and their patrons Dick Youngscap at Sand Hills and Mike Keiser at Bandon – rekindled interest in, and appreciation of, Old World golf. At the same time, they led the game into a new era of architectural greatness that included not only modern-day masterpieces but also brilliant restorations of original Golden Age gems.
Nearly 30 years later, that renaissance continues to flourish. And though the artistes who ushered in that period are as active and imaginative as ever, the next generation is also making its mark. Among the most accomplished of those is 45-year-old Andrew Green. Though he has been running his own firm for just less than a decade, the Virginian has earned raves for his work, which to this point has largely entailed renovations of classic courses, at original Donald Ross layouts at Inverness and Scioto in Ohio and Wannamoisett in Rhode Island, for example, and also the Blue Course at Congressional Country Club near Washington.
Among Green’s most recent efforts involved the revamping of yet another Ross layout, the East Course at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York. And his work on that track, which this week is hosting its fourth PGA Championship and also has been the site of three U.S. Opens and a Ryder Cup, is being widely heralded.
A few weeks before competitors started arriving at Oak Hill, Green spoke with John Steinbreder of GGPBiz about the changes the Virginia Tech graduate made to the East Course. He also discussed how a golf-obsessed neighbor introduced him to the game as a boy; the things that drew him to course architecture; his love of being outdoors, whether shaping bunkers with a backhoe or bagging a white tail from his deer stand; the reasons why he hung out his own shingle in 2014 and the challenges that come with running his own business; and the things he loves most – and least – about his occupation.
What follows, in Green’s words, is the latest edition of the 19th Hole:
I grew up in the western Virginia town of Daleville, about halfway between the city of Roanoke and the Homestead Resort. My dad was a farmer and then made his living selling livestock feed. Mom was a schoolteacher. I was the youngest of two sons, and my older brother, Sam, is in the golf business, as well. He was the course superintendent at Eagle Point Golf Club in Wilmington, North Carolina, for a while and is now president of a company called Aqua-Aid Solutions, which offers ways to improve plant and turf health.
My parents were not golfers, but Sam played a little bit. I got into the game when I was in middle school, thanks to a neighbor who hit balls in his back yard most every evening. I shagged balls for him and then started hitting some myself. Eventually, he took me to play my first round, and I fell deeply in love with the game.
I played soccer and baseball as a kid, but there was something about golf that really spoke to me. You didn’t need a team to play it. You had the challenge of the course as well as that of trying to score well and beat a personal best. The game as a whole had so many moving parts, some of which went beyond simply playing it.
I played golf at Lord Botetourt High School, and by that time had gotten my handicap down to 5 or 6. As a member of that team, I played for free at a semi-private club nearby. I worked there, as well, as a cart boy and doing other golf operations stuff. Eventually, I moved to the course maintenance side. There seemed to be more of a purpose to that work and more of a sense that you were creating a product.
Looking back, I see how that move really led me to where I am today.
I started getting interested in course design when I was in high school. I’d doodle golf holes in my notebooks. I’d produce computer renderings of entire courses. As I thought about college, I came to really like the idea of designing and building golf courses and how a career in that involved different things that I loved, like golf and drawing and also the outdoors. I met with the people at Virginia Tech, which has great landscape architecture and turfgrass management programs, and they said they’d help me with my vision, my quest. At the same time, they counseled me as to how difficult it would be to do that, but I was undeterred.
I graduated from high school in 1996 and then enrolled at Virginia Tech. Five years later, I graduated with a B.S. in turfgrass management.
I also met my wife, Jennifer, at Virginia Tech, and we were engaged while we were both studying there. Today, we have three children, two boys and a girl, and they are all teenagers.
While I was at Virginia Tech, I worked the 1997 U.S. Open at Congressional as a volunteer on the course maintenance crew. The experience really opened my eyes to what went into preparing a course for a major championship. And it was there that I met Chip McDonald, of McDonald & Sons, which is based in Maryland. It’s one of the best golf course construction companies in the country, specializing in course renovations and working largely in the Mid-Atlantic region. Chip and I stayed in touch, and I went to work for him after graduating. In fact, I started there the Monday after I was done with school.
You also have to have a level of faith in yourself and believe that you can prosper at what you do. You also need to feel that if it all ended tomorrow, you could find another way to make a living.
McDonald & Sons was a great experience. I enjoyed the team aspect of the work as well as the sense of purpose. I also learned that the job was way more complicated than what I had anticipated. In many cases, we acted as both architect and contractor, and I learned the value of every line you draw on a plan and how you then apply that to what you actually do on the ground. By the time I left to start my own company, I was running three different projects and handling design and construction as well as permitting and communicating with the clients. I had also experienced both triumphs and pitfalls.
At that point, I felt ready to go out on my own.
My No. 1 goal when I started was to make sure I built a layer of protection for me and my family. There is a fear for anyone in this business of everything grinding to a halt one day. Then, there was the matter of taxes and insurance and all the backroom things that come with running your own business. And of how to manage risk and be smart of how much to take on with each job.
You also have to have a level of faith in yourself and believe that you can prosper at what you do. You also need to feel that if it all ended tomorrow, you could find another way to make a living. What could I do outside of course design? I’ve often thought I could get into woodworking and make cabinets.
Away from golf, I love deer hunting. There is something so soothing about sitting in a tree stand in the fall. Turkey and upland bird hunting, too. I also enjoy largemouth and smallmouth bass fishing with my father-in-law.
What’s the easiest part of my job? Getting out of bed and being excited about whatever that day is going to present. Traveling is the toughest part, especially being away from my family.
The creative process is what I love the most. Imagining a project, doing the research on a particular course or architect or piece of ground and appreciating what the designer was trying to do and what we need to do now. Working hard on the job with a team of people and then seeing how the end product turns out. That is a lot of fun, and so is sharing that accomplishment with those who helped you.
What I like the least? The complexity of regulatory matters. And trying to deal with the supply chain issues of the past couple of years and getting what I need when I need it.
I still play golf when I can. I am about a 10 handicap these days, and that means I can shoot anywhere from 75 to 95. I play some with my middle son Patrick who’s a high school freshman and who likes the game. I play for work, as well, and also try to take an annual golf trip with some friends. I especially love going across the pond, to Ireland and the British Isles. I find that part of the golf world inspiring, relaxing and therapeutic. Educational, too.
Generally speaking, I am a big fan of the Golden Age architects and all they did a century or so ago. I cannot get enough of their courses and how great the game is when played on the ground.
My favorite courses? Royal Dornoch, due to the combination of the dramatic ground, the history and the fact that Donald Ross and his brother Alex come from there. In the United States, I love Shinnecock Hills. Also, Augusta National. The architecture there is so good. Alister MacKenzie and Bobby Jones made such great use of the ground, and you have to hit every kind of shot during a round.
Generally speaking, I am a big fan of the Golden Age architects and all they did a century or so ago. I cannot get enough of their courses and how great the game is when played on the ground.
The Oak Hill job was a lot of fun. The club has a tremendous history, and I also enjoyed the challenge of restoring much of what Ross had done there originally while making sure that the East Course was able to host a major championship in the modern era. We took down hundreds of trees, returned the greens to their original character and recontoured the bunkers. We also brought back a version of Ross’ original par-3 sixth hole behind the current fourth and eliminated the old sixth, which was the site of four holes-in-one in the second round of the 1989 U.S. Open.
I cannot wait to see how it plays.