Robert Trent Jones Sr
The most prolific golf architect of the late 20th century, the fingerprints of Robert Trent Jones Sr can be found on over 500 courses around the world. From railroad car draftsman to US Open Doctor, this is everything you need to know about the man who changed the golf design business forever.
Prolific. In a career that spanned 70 years, the eminent Robert Trent Jones Sr designed or re-designed courses in 45 US states and 35 countries. The rate at which he worked was unprecedented in his field – in his most productive years during the 1960s and 70s, he had a hand in developing, on average, one course every single month. Prolific is the only word to describe the breadth of his influence on the golfing world, so much so that he joked: “the sun never sets on a Robert Trent Jones golf course”.
A playing career cut short. Robert Jones was born to Welsh parents in Ince, Cheshire, on June 20, 1906, his parents emigrating to East Rochester, New York when he was six. Inspired by Rochester-born Walter Hagen, he learned the art of golf, playing off scratch by age 15, and at 16 set a course record in the Rochester City golf championship. In 1927 he finished the best amateur in the Canadian Open, but this promising career was cut short after he developed stomach ulcers, and was advised to stop playing the game. He briefly worked for his father as a railroad car draftsman, but golf would on return to his life, albeit in a different form.
A new passion emerges. With his burgeoning dream as a player behind him, Jones found a new passion in course design. After becoming friendly with the infamous Scot Donald Ross, the man behind Pinehurst No. 2 and East Lake, he decided that golf architecture was to be his future, devising a curriculum for himself at Cornell University to study the craft. As a result, he is credited as the first person to pursue course design as a lifetime career.
Midvale Golf and Country Club. Jones’ first design project in 1931 came while he was still taking classes at Cornell. It was overseen by Canadian designer Stanley Thompson, which proved to be the start of a professional partnership that lasted eight years. While the Midvale project ended in disaster – the club went bust and were unable to pay their architectural fees – success soon came in the midst of the Great Depression as they tapped into New Deal programmes that were funding public works projects to upgrade municipal courses.
The course the Joneses built. While the relationship with Thompson withered over time, Jones got his first big break when he was invited to team up with namesake Bobby Jones, the 13-time Major winner, co-designer of Augusta National and founder of the Masters.
While Bobby was the inspiration, it was Robert ‘Trent’ Jones (changing his name to differentiate himself from his partner) who was named as the architect of Peachtree Golf Club in 1947, the tall pines and azaleas giving it more than a passing resemblance to Augusta National. With its success, Bobby Jones would invite his new apprentice to the crown jewel itself.
Augusta adjustments. Along with Bobby, between 1946 and 1950 Trent Jones reshaped a number of aspects of Augusta National. Green complexes were his first task, taking on the 18th before returning to shape 8, 12, and 13. However, his most famous work came at the 16th, introducing the water hazard and a sweeping right to left green to create the one of the most iconic par three’s in golf and one of the great pieces of golf art. That was in 1947, and so popular was his creation that he was asked back again in 1950, this time to add a pond to 11, bridging the most famous three-hole stretch in golf, Amen Corner.
Daring designs. As his career continued, Trent Jones developed the belief that professional golfers needed stiffer competition. Rather than thinking spectators yearned for low scores, he believed that drama was the key to golf’s appeal, and as such designed his courses so that playing to par should be the goal. Strategically placed bunkers, tight fairways and water hazards became his trademarks, as well as his ‘runway’ tees, sometimes a hundred yards long, in order to cater for the leisurely golfer and make his courses more flexible.
The Monster. In 1948, the great Donald Ross passed away. He had been tasked with updating his own Oakland Hills design in anticipation for the 1951 US Open, the first time the USGA had decided to do this. With his passing, Trent Jones offered his services, throwing away Ross’ original redesign plans for his own, far tougher vision, and it certainly had an impact. The course played exceptionally tough – no player was able to break par for the first two rounds, with only one score to par on Saturday. Ben Hogan, the eventual winner, won with a score of +7 after a final round 67, famously saying in his acceptance speech: “I am glad I brought this course – this monster – to its knees.” From then, Trent Jones gained nationwide notoriety, particularly as a scourge of the pro.
Call the ‘doctor’. After this recognition, Trent Jones promoted himself to future venues as a ‘US Open Doctor’ and was soon drafted in to remodel a host of venues. Baltusrol, the Olympic Club, Oak Hills East, Congressional, Southern Hills and Hazeltine National were all adjusted with in the Trent Jones mould - in total, he worked on 21 US Open courses, plus courses that have hosted the PGA Championship on 17 occasions.
Global empire. From Old Tom Morris to Tillinghast, golf course design had been an art, but Trent Jones was the first to turn it into a thriving business empire. From the US he began to branch out across the world, from the Bahamas and Puerto Rico to France and Spain. In his later years, his last hurrah came in the creation of Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, a 26-course salute of championship-calibre courses, the greatest course building project ever attempted.
Eight million miles. Robert Trent Jones passed away in 2000, aged 93, after a lifetime of creating world-class golf courses. With such a vast array of projects across the globe it’s estimated he racked up close to 300,000 miles of air-travel in some years, totalling somewhere near eight million miles across his career. Trent Jones dominated the golf architecture space for so long, becoming a well-known figure in his own right, and his influence on course design and risk versus reward golf continues to be felt on courses across the world.
A Ryder Cup legacy. Back in 1997, Trent Jones’ Real Club Valderrama played host to one of Europe’s most famous Ryder Cup wins, Colin Montgomerie halving the final match with Scott Hoch to secure a 14.5-13.5 win for Europe. That win signalled the start of Europe’s dominance at home, still yet to be beaten in their backyard since, and it is at Adare Manor, originally designed by Trent Jones in the 1990s – albeit redesigned recently by Tom Fazio – that they will be looking to defend that record in 2027.
Stay and play at Ryder Cup 2027 host Adare Manor, and also enjoy Cashen by Robert Trent Jones Sr as part of Golf Traveller’s Irish Atlantic Coast experience.