Arthur Hills: Value-Adding Visionary

Success as a golf course designer, most would agree, requires
at least a grounding in the field of landscape architecture. Arthur
Hills, the globally renowned designer from Toledo, Ohio, had
much more than that.

Though a skilled golfer who had played varsity golf at Michigan
State, Hills did all his training in landscape architecture and
chose that profession. He was well established and providing
for his growing family when, on a whim, he put a listing in
the phone book as "golf course architect" …and the calls started
coming in. That was 1967, and his phone has been ringing ever since.

Either on his own or later in partnership with Steve Forrest, Hills
has created beautiful, playable and well-engineered golf landscapes.
His ability to make a course flow softly  into the surrounding
homesites makes him an ideal choice to design golf communities.

GEORGIA: The Landings

Proof of the value Arthur Hills can bring to a gated development
is revealed in his “repeat engagements.” Twice he has been
asked to build a second 18 in a community where one Hills
gem had already been up and running.

Developers of The Landings at Skidaway Island, where Hills
had built Palmetto (his first-ever residential layout, opened in
1985) brought him back three years later to design the community’s
Oakridge course. Hills’ earlier contribution, Palmetto, was known
for its tournament-level difficulty and its well-sited specimen
oaks and pot bunkers. Oakridge is a more moderate-length course
routed along quiet marshes and timber-reinforced ponds.

FLORIDA: Quail West

Quail West, the Naples, Fla. community where the PGA
Champions Tour plays its annual ACE Group Classic, is
another double-dip Hills offering. Both the Preserve course
and the Lakes course there retain the sinuous contours and
lush appearance of their original designs. However, their
conditioning and setup have been tweaked repeatedly to make
them play extra tough come tournament time.

FLORIDA: Ranch Colony

In his ability to combine painterly beauty with a strategically
difficult routing, Hills has few equals—many would consider
him on a level with Tom Fazio in that regard. The two form a
robust pairing in the 36-hole Old Trail neighborhood of
Ranch Colony, in Jupiter, Fla., where the Hills layout features
water in play on six holes.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Dataw Island

Fazio and Hills are also the architects of record for Dataw Island,
where Hills’ tight-driving Morgan River course complements
the neighboring Cotton Dike layout crafted by Fazio.

KENTUCKY: The Club at Olde Stone

Hills, whose course at Inverness was employed for such blockbuster
events as the 1986 and 1993 PGA Championships, gets just as
big a kick out of seeing the youngsters battle it out on his layouts.
The American Junior Golf Association recently chose an original
Hills design, The Club at Olde Stone, in Bowling Green, Ky.,
to host its 2006 Houchens Industries Junior Open. Quite a vote
of confidence, given that the course had been open just a few
months before play began.

FLORIDA: Fiddler's Creek        Renaissance

Environmental sustainability is another Hills trademark. His Creek
Course at the much-admired community of Fiddler's Creek in
Naples “has the feel of a sanctuary,” Hills has said, with “beautiful
landscaping that frames nearly every hole.”

Hills was beginning work on Fiddler’s Creek when he was named
a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects—an
uncommon distinction for a career course architect. He applied
his diverse skills and to another highly successful project from
that era, the Renaissance club in Ft. Myers, with its broad,
palm-lined  fairways and interesting greensites, culminating in
the “punchbowl” 18th.

FLORIDA: Willoughby    Miromar Lakes Beach & Golf Club

Hills was honored in 1992 by his election as president of the
American Society of Golf Course Architects. Coming off a string
of well-received design jobs, including Willoughby
in the Treasure Coast town of Stuart, Fla., he took up the gavel
and guided the ASGCA ably.

Throughout his extensive portfolio of Florida designs, Hills
has continually added more diversity in the grasses, trees
and decorative plantings that line his fairways. He has
developed a particular skill in the technique of berming to
border and frame playing areas. Art’s 2001 course at
Miromar Lakes Beach & Golf Club uses both these design
elements to great effect.

CALIFORNIA: Vista Del Verde

In recent years, the Hills/Forrest firm has increased its
international presence extensively, designing courses in
Russia, Portugal and Germany, among other sites. In fact,
the firm’s portfolio may end up more heavily tilted toward
Europe than to the western U.S., where Hills/Forrest courses
are less plentiful, but no less celebrated. The Black Gold
Golf Club, for example, an amenity to the Vista Del Verde
community co-developed by Toll Brothers, shows the Hills design
touch at work in the rugged landscape of Yorba Linda, Calif.

To see a complete list of Arthur Hills-designed courses on
GolfCourseHome.net, click here.

Other Articles in the Golf Architect Series

I. The No. 1 Real-Estate Enhancer: Jack Nicklaus - Find out why this golf course architect adds the most value to the real estate surrounding the golf courses he designs: Click here!

II. Tom Fazio: Elevating Course Design--and Home Values

III. Arnold Palmer: His Brilliant Second Career

V. Robert Trent Jones II: Continuing the Legacy

VI. Bob Cupp & Tom Jackson: Veterans with Prime Portfolios

VII. Pete Dye: Lifelong Innovator (Part-Time Intimidator)