Featured architects
Willie Dunn Jr.
The Scot who laid out America's first great links
- Born
- 1864, Musselburgh, Scotland
- Years active
- c. 1889–1910s
- Works
- Some 30 early American layouts
- Era
- Founding Era
Why the name endures
Sixteen years younger than his brother Tom, Willie Jr. learned greenkeeping and course building alongside him, served as professional at Westward Ho! and designed the Chingford course near London before years at Golf de Biarritz. There William K. Vanderbilt found him and brought him to Long Island, where his work at Shinnecock Hills helped begin American golf architecture.
Design principles
- Links craft learned by hand rather than by drawing board
- Holes set into the existing dunes and hollows
- Greenkeeping and design treated as one discipline
Surviving work
Courses to see
Shinnecock Hills
New York, USA
His original layout underlies one of the founding clubs of the USGA.
Golf de Biarritz
Biarritz, France
Where he worked with his brother Tom and where the Biarritz green took its name.
Chingford
London, England
An early English commission before he sailed for America.