His Early Years
Thompson and the WPA
Post-War Success
The Open Doctor
“The Sun Never Sets…”
Extending the Jones Brand
Born in Ince-in-Makerfield, England, Robert Trent Jones accompanied his parents to the United States at the age of five. The family settled in East Rochester, New York
As an aspiring teenage golfer, RTJ breaks the course record at Genesee Valley Park in Rochester, NY, shooting a 69. An ulcer keeps Jones from pursuing competitive golf but he becomes the professional at Sodus Bay Heights Golf Club at 19. This allows Jones to meet professionals of his era, including Gene Sarazen, a lifelong friend and supporter.
Jones attended Cornell University, where he designed his own course of study to become a professional golf course designer. While at Cornell, he designed the back nine of Cornell’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Course.
Attending a frat party at Cornell, Jones meets Ione Tefft Davis from Montclair, NJ. They would marry in 1934.
“Robert Trent Jones, Sr. did not invent golf course architecture, it only seems that way. In a career that spanned nearly 70 years, Jones built or rebuilt some 400 courses in 45 states in the U. S. and 35 countries worldwide.”
- Ron Whitten, Golf Digest-
While competing to design Midvale G&CC, Stanley Thompson and Jones hit it off, and form the partnership that allows Jones to learn from the Canadian master.
Throughout the Depression, Jones pitches and lands projects to build public golf courses using public relief funds. This starts a trend towards professionally designed golf for the masses that would carry into the post-war golf boom.
Working for Thompson, Jones surveys Capilano, providing the routing and green complex sketches for western Canada's most iconic course
Jones redesigns Green Lakes State Park Golf course to immediate success. Because he negotiated the club house concession business into his payment, this sets Jones on the path to prosperity amidst the lingering Depression.
Now mature in his design philosophies, with a growing list of clients and benefactors, Jones creates the business of golf course design. This year he publishes his landmark manifesto titled “Golf Course Architecture”.
“In the spring of 1930, when Jones was 24, he completed his course of studies, confident that as a golf course architect he had everything he needed except clients ”
- Author James R. Hansen, A Difficult Par-
RTJ is introduced to the immortal Bobby Jones. The two become lifelong associates collaborating on details small and large throughout the South, culminating with their joint design of Peachtree Golf Club, a perennial Top 100 classic.
The Association of Golf Course Architects (AGCA) is founded, with Jones as its youngest charter member. RTJ helps draft its constitution, by-laws and code of ethics. The AGCA elevates golf design to a true profession.
RTJ reinvents the par 3 16th at Augusta by damming Rae’s Creek and lengthening the hole. His redesign and later changes to #11 became part of the iconic imagery of Master’s Sunday in the televised era.
Heroic “signature” golf comes into vogue with designs such as 16th at the Hampstead in Long Island (“Lido”) and the iconic dogleg par 5, 13th at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club in Myrtle Beach. The Dunes help seal RTJ’s reputation in the post-war golf boom and the advent of golf tourism.
“Our choice was Robert Trent Jones… on the basis of courses of his that we’ve seen… and the fact that his conception of golf course architecture so perfectly agreed with our own”
- Bobby Jones-
After the death of Donald Ross, Trent offered his services to update Oakland Hills, in Detroit. Scrapping Ross’ remodeling plans, Jones created a monster course “conquered” by Ben Hogan in the 1951 Open.
Herbert Warren Wind writes a flattering article about Robert Trent Jones in the New Yorker. The article lays out a modern view of golf course design with Jones as the preeminent practitioner
Challenged to defend his redesign of the 4th hole at Baltusrol (Lower), Jones gets a hole-in-one. “Gentlemen”, he said, “I think this hole is eminently fair.” To this day, the 4th is considered one of America’s best par 3’s.
Jones teams up with Laurance Rockefeller to build Dorado Beach in Puerto Rico. Their friendship, and others, enables Jones to build resort courses at premier sites throughout the world.
As the decade draws to a close, Jones singlehandedly created a new class of championship-ready courses, such as Point O’Woods, Old Warson, Bellerive, Duke University and Otter Creek.
“Wind was explaining to American golfers (in his article about RTJ) why golf course architecture should be vitally important to their understanding of the game”
- Author James R. Hansen, A Difficult Par-
Jones enters the European market with the master plan community near the Costa del Sol, building the epic Sotogrande with revolutionary irrigation systems and new turf grasses to withstand the dry coastal climate. Valderrama would follow and become the premier venue in Europe, hosingt the first European Ryder Cup in 1997.
RTJ builds Mauna Kea for Laurance Rockefeller over lava wasteland on the island of Hawaii- another first. He invents new methods to grow and maintain turf to create an oasis against the black rock and harsh conditions. In the process created the jewel of the Hawaiian coastline
Spyglass Hill opens to immediate acclaim along the Monterey coast. Featuring some of the best opening holes in golf, Spyglass remains a perrenial Top 10 public access course alongside Pebble Beach.
Jones befriends the King of Morocco and builds 45 holes near the African coastline. In 1970, Jones opens a European design office, headed up by Cabell Robinson.
In response to Alan Shepard hitting a six iron on the moon, Walter Cronkite tells his CBS audience "soon we'll have a Robert Trent Jones golf course on the moon for Al to play."
“Wind was explaining to American golfers (in his article about RTJ) why golf course architecture should be vitally important to their understanding of the game”
- Author James R. Hansen, A Difficult Par-
Jones is inducted in the World Golf Hall of Fame, the first living architect to be honored. He joins Donald Ross.
Sons Bobby and Rees start their own design firms, extending the Jones legacy with gems such as Cascata, Poppy Hills, Chambers Bay and numerous RTJ Snr redesigns. Both would also become president of the SGCA and receive numerous accolades in their own right.
Roger Rulewich and RTJ work with the state of Alabama to create the largest golf construction project ever- the RTJ Trail. Now boasting 26 courses, the Trail provides a huge economic impact throughout Alabama and revolutionizes golf tourism- again.
Robert Trent Jones Senior dies in Ft Lauderdale, FL after completing his final course, Southern Highlands in Las Vegas with son Bobby.
“Wind was explaining to American golfers (in his article about RTJ) why golf course architecture should be vitally important to their understanding of the game”
- Author James R. Hansen, A Difficult Par-
