Golf’s Grand Design

Examine the history and role of American golf course architecture and explore the unique relationship between the people who play the game and the places where they play. Golf's Grand Design focuses on golf course architecture from the 1880s through present day and highlights some of America’s best known and most influential courses, including the creative individuals who helped fashion them. The program also explores various eras and trends that affected course design and the game.

Tune in Friday, August 3 at 10:00 p.m. on WCVE PBS/WHTJ PBS

Golf’s playing fields have recognizable characteristics — fairways, greens, bunkers and water hazards —but golf is the only sport played on a field with no specifically defined dimensions. Golf's Grand Design highlights some of the best-known courses, including the National Golf Links of America on Long Island; Baltusrol in New Jersey; Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx; Augusta National in Georgia; The Dunes in South Carolina; Pinehurst No.2 in North Carolina; Crooked Stick in Indiana; Sand Hills in Nebraska; Shadow Creek in Las Vegas; and Bandon Dunes and Old Macdonald in Oregon.

Behind these unique courses are the colorful and creative individuals who helped fashion them. The rise of golf in America over the past 130 years is due in large part to the artistry of the people who design the courses. America’s earliest golf course designers came from Scotland, golf’s ancestral home. Golf's Grand Design traces the impact of historical figures such as C.B. Macdonald, Tom Bendelow, A.W. Tillinghast, Alister MacKenzie, Donald Ross and Robert Trent Jones, Sr. and features insightful interviews with contemporary architects Pete Dye, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Fazio, Tom Doak, Ben Crenshaw, Bob Cupp and Bill Coore, and golf architecture experts George Bahto and Ron Whitten.