GOLF FAMILY
FIRST ARCHITECTURE
AMERICA’S OF
includes 20 PGA Championships, seven Ryder Cups (with two more on the docket), four Presidents
Cups, two Walker Cups, a redesign of Augusta National, and such as- sorted events as the World Cup, U.S. Amateur, U.S. Women’s Open and U.S. Senior Open. When Trent died just short of his 94th birthday in June 2000, 44 of his courses had been ranked in Golf Digest ’s “100 Greatest Golf Courses” listing, the most of any architect ever. Not just products of their father’s influence but outstand- ing creative architects in their own right, Bobby and Rees contributed outstanding, highly distinguished courses of their own. In 10 different countries Bobby built courses that Golf Digest came to rank as the best course in the land; and nine of his courses earned distinction of being ranked in Golf Magazine’s U.S. Top 100. In the building of the Jones reputation, Rees did more than hold his own. For his redesign of courses in preparation for major championships, he earned
Rees Jones’ renovation of Bethpage Black led to a pair of U.S. Opens, plus the 2019 PGA Championship and 2024 Ryder Cup.
the moniker “The Open Doctor,” originally given to his father for his revolutionary redesign of Oakland Hills Country Club (South Course) in Michigan for the 1951 U.S. Open. Rees applied his astute remodeling skills to seven U.S. Open venues, eight PGA Championship courses, five Ryder Cup and two Walker Cup sites, as well as the Presidents Cup at the Royal Montreal Golf Club. Other courses that he has redesigned served as FedEx Cup Championship sites, including East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, the permanent site of the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship. Such numbers are astounding,
truly never to be matched in the world of golf. But as fantastic as the numbers are, they do not do justice to the epic story of the Jones family and the historic significance of its three lifetimes of monumental achievement in the world of golf. Jones Sr. was a 6-year-old émigré
from England in 1912 who established himself in working-class East Roch- ester, New York. He managed
in the 1920s to get into Cornell Uni- versity without a high-school diploma, and developed a self-styled curriculum that trained him in landscape architec- ture. After surviving financial misery and spiritual exasperation during the Great Depression of the 1930s, he established a successful golf course design business. Following World War II, Jones boldly remade the face of modern golf throughout the U.S. and the world with his innovative design of championship golf courses. In all his efforts “Mr. Jones” was
not just a pioneer, but perhaps the premiere pioneer of American golf course architecture. As oldest son Bobby explains, “He came into the field at a time when the country was suffering through the Great Depres- sion, and he worked on public golf courses that were part of the New Deal public works programs in upstate New York. He was helping to open up the game to the public and move away from the old school of golf, which had essentially been for the social and
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NCGA.ORG / SPRING 2015
PHOTO: USGA
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