He was born in 1906 in Ince, England, a town on the Trent
River - from which his middle name derives. Actually he added the “Trent” to his
name to avoid confusion with the great player Bobby Jones, reportedly telling
the Amateur Champion, “There is only room for one Bobby Jones.” He
came to the
States in 1911 and settled down in East Rochester, New York. A fine golfer in
his own right, he held a few jobs as club pro and teacher and even competed in
several professional events. He became the first person to
study expressly for a
career as a golf designer. He fashioned his own program of study at Cornell
University, drawing upon courses in landscape architecture, agronomy,
horticulture, hydraulics, surveying, public speaking and economics. Just as he
was ending his studies in 1930, however, the course design business ground to a
halt thanks to the Depression. Trent made his reputation after World War II with
a handful of high-profile projects. Jones created a putting green at the White
House for Dwight Eisenhower and a hole with three different tees at Camp David,
the president's weekend retreat and helped found the American Society of Golf
Course Architects in 1947. He worked with Bobby Jones on Peachtree (1948) in
Atlanta, a course that launched the broad-shouldered, heavily sculpted power
golf look that defined the postwar years. Trent also worked on Augusta National,
transforming the11th and 16th holes from indifferent to bold and memorable. He
became a national celebrity in 1951, owing to his complete redesign of Oakland
Hills-South Course for the U.S. Open that year. While retaining Ross' routing
and his green sites, he filled in all of Ross' fairway bunkers at Oakland Hills,
moved them back to the 230-270 yard range off the tee, and created 'a Monster'
out of what had been a much more modest if always sound layout. Trent's
reputation was made. He became 'The Open Doctor' - the man to whom clubs turned
in prepping their course for a U.S. Open. In quick succession, he worked such
major venue as Baltusrol-Lower Course, Olympic-Lake, Southern Hills, Oak Hill,
and Congressional. In the stuff that legends are made of, reacting to critics
that said the 4th hole at Baltusrol was too difficult after his redesign for the
1954 U.S.Open, Jones marched to the 4th tee and promptly hit a hole-in-one on
the 185-yard, par-3. As he turned and made his way back to the clubhouse, he is
reported to have said, “See gentlemen, it’s not that difficult." Trent Jones’s
won the first Donald Ross Award for outstanding contributions to the industry
and was also the first architect inducted into the Golf World Hall of Fame in
1987.
He was born in 1906 in Ince, England, a town on the Trent
River - from which his middle name derives. Actually he added the “Trent” to his
name to avoid confusion with the great player Bobby Jones, reportedly telling
the Amateur Champion, “There is only room for one Bobby Jones.” He
came to the
States in 1911 and settled down in East Rochester, New York. A fine golfer in
his own right, he held a few jobs as club pro and teacher and even competed in
several professional events. He became the first person to
study expressly for a
career as a golf designer. He fashioned his own program of study at Cornell
University, drawing upon courses in landscape architecture, agronomy,
horticulture, hydraulics, surveying, public speaking and economics. Just as he
was ending his studies in 1930, however, the course design business ground to a
halt thanks to the Depression. Trent made his reputation after World War II with
a handful of high-profile projects. Jones created a putting green at the White
House for Dwight Eisenhower and a hole with three different tees at Camp David,
the president's weekend retreat and helped found the American Society of Golf
Course Architects in 1947. He worked with Bobby Jones on Peachtree (1948) in
Atlanta, a course that launched the broad-shouldered, heavily sculpted power
golf look that defined the postwar years. Trent also worked on Augusta National,
transforming the11th and 16th holes from indifferent to bold and memorable. He
became a national celebrity in 1951, owing to his complete redesign of Oakland
Hills-South Course for the U.S. Open that year. While retaining Ross' routing
and his green sites, he filled in all of Ross' fairway bunkers at Oakland Hills,
moved them back to the 230-270 yard range off the tee, and created 'a Monster'
out of what had been a much more modest if always sound layout. Trent's
reputation was made. He became 'The Open Doctor' - the man to whom clubs turned
in prepping their course for a U.S. Open. In quick succession, he worked such
major venue as Baltusrol-Lower Course, Olympic-Lake, Southern Hills, Oak Hill,
and Congressional. In the stuff that legends are made of, reacting to critics
that said the 4th hole at Baltusrol was too difficult after his redesign for the
1954 U.S.Open, Jones marched to the 4th tee and promptly hit a hole-in-one on
the 185-yard, par-3. As he turned and made his way back to the clubhouse, he is
reported to have said, “See gentlemen, it’s not that difficult." Trent Jones’s
won the first Donald Ross Award for outstanding contributions to the industry
and was also the first architect inducted into the Golf World Hall of Fame in
1987.