Architect Profiles

Biography Perry Maxwell was born in Kentucky in 1879 but moved to Oklahoma at an early age, partly to recover from tuberculosis. After college, Maxwell pursued a successful career in banking where he would remain until his mid-30’s. In 1913, Maxwell built his first course, Dornick Hills, on family land in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Maxwell’s design…

Biography Albert Warren Tillinghast (aka Tillie) was born in 1876 in Philadelphia to a prosperous rubber-making family. He was a student of the game and a good player at a young age. In 1896, Tillinghast traveled to St. Andrews and spent time with Old Tom Morris. Between 1905 and 1912, he played in three U.S.…

Biography Devereux Emmet was born in 1861 in Westchester County, New York to a wealthy family who were one of the earliest families in America. Emmet graduated from Columbia University in 1883 and became deeply enamored with the game of golf after a trip to Scotland in 1884. Emmet was a great player in his…

Biography Seth Jagger Raynor was born in 1874 in New York and attended Princeton University. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Raynor did not have a background in golf and rarely played the game during any point in his life. He pursued a career in engineering upon graduation, helping design and build roads and waterworks, before…

Biography Donald Ross was born in Dornoch, Scotland in 1872. He got his first job at Royal Dornoch, where he would eventually become the club pro, and apprenticed under Old Tom Morris in St. Andrews, where he learned greenskeeping and club making. In 1899, Ross headed across the pond to the U.S. where he worked…

Biography Pete Dye, a successful amateur golfer who won the 1958 Indiana State Amateur and Indianapolis District Championship, was born in 1925 in Urbana, Ohio. His passion for golf course design began after his father built a nine-hole course on the family farm where Pete worked and played for years. Pete and Alice Dye met…