Featured architects
Old Tom Morris
The man who laid the foundations of golf course architecture
- Born
- 1821, St Andrews
- Years active
- c. 1840s–1900s
- Works
- 70+ across Great Britain
- Era
- Founding Era
Why the name endures
At a time when courses evolved almost entirely through play, Morris formalised routing, hazard placement and the strategic use of ground that still define links golf. Every architect who followed built on foundations he set as keeper of the green at St Andrews.
“We were all born with webbed feet and a golf club in our hand.”
Old Tom Morris
Design principles
- Minimal intervention; let the land dictate play
- Strategic bunkering rather than punishment
- Embrace wind, firm turf and the ground game
Surviving work
Courses to see
The Old Course, St Andrews
Fife, Scotland
Shared fairways, double greens and bunkers named by generations of caddies.
Royal Dornoch
Scottish Highlands
Natural links golf at its purest, with raised greens that repel the timid shot.
Royal County Down
Newcastle, Northern Ireland
Towering dunes and blind tee shots beneath the Mourne Mountains.