Featured architects
Walter J. Travis
The Old Man: champion, editor, and green-builder
- Born
- 1862, Maldon, Victoria, Australia
- Years active
- 1900s–1927
- Works
- Some 30 designs and remodels
- Era
- Golden Age
Why the name endures
Travis did not pick up a club until his mid-thirties and then won three U.S. Amateurs and, in 1904, the British Amateur — the first overseas player to do so. He founded The American Golfer, wrote relentlessly about design, and built greens of a severity that still surprises visitors a century later.
“The putting green is the heart of the hole.”
Walter J. Travis
Design principles
- Greens as the primary defence of par
- Bunkering placed to punish the timid line
- Design informed by the demands of championship play
Surviving work
Courses to see
Garden City Golf Club
New York, USA
His revisions gave the course its teeth.
Cape Arundel
Maine, USA
Small, wild greens on a short and much-loved layout.
Hollywood Golf Club
New Jersey, USA
Restored Travis bunkering and bold interior contour.