Donald Ross

Donald Ross was a golf course architect and professional golfer, born on November 23, 1872 in Dornoch, a town in the far north of Scotland. He learned the game on the links at Royal Dornoch, served a year at St Andrews under Old Tom Morris, four times the Open champion, and then became Royal Dornoch’s first professional and greenkeeper. As a player he finished fifth in the U.S. Open of 1903, won the North and South Open three times — in 1903, 1905 and 1906 — and took the Massachusetts Open twice, in 1905 and 1911.

In 1899 he sailed for America with two dollars to his name and found work at Oakley Country Club, outside Boston. The following year he was invited to Pinehurst, the North Carolina resort, as its golf professional, and before long the design of the courses was placed in his hands as well. He laid out the first four courses there, and no course held him longer than Pinehurst No. 2, which opened in 1907 and which he went on adjusting for the rest of his life. No. 2 has staged a great many championships, the U.S. Opens of 2014 and 2024 among them. His work is known for its crowned, raised greens and wide fairways, drawn from the links of his native Dornoch.

Between 1900 and 1948 he laid out or remodelled some 400 courses, and Seminole in Florida, Oakland Hills near Detroit and Oak Hill in New York State are counted among his finest. In 1947 he was a founder member of the American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA) and served as its first president. He died at Pinehurst on April 26, 1948, and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1977.

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