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.
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:
Willoughby
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.
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)
VIII.
Greg Norman: Still a Champ and Competing, But on a Larger Golf Landscape
IX.
Heroes of the Southeast: Byrd, Jackson, Johnston and Lee
X.
Rees Jones Took a Legacy and Ran With
It: Woodside, Viniterra, Others Are Examples