Leaving an Imprint on the Globe and the Global Game

For more than 50 years, Robert Trent Jones Jr. has ventured around the world - from his modest base in Palo Alto, to Russia, China, Japan and now Vietnam and Argentina to build golf Courses.

When Gary Woodland won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links in June, he was quick to credit the hours upon hours of daily work required to groove his swing and go from a gifted athlete with unlimited potential to a trophy-hoisting worldbeater.  That was his job—a good-paying one, at that, if you can cut it—and arguably one of the most high-profile careers in golf.  

But professional golfer is just one of the many ways to earn a living in the golf industry, which directly drives $84.1 billion in economic activity across the U.S. in 2016, according to a study commissioned by the World Golf Foundation. That’s an eye-popping figure, indeed, and it tells a story at 30,000 feet.  But what does that mean for us? What are the careers in golf  right in our own backyard and who are some of the people that make up the almost two million jobs related to golf and involving 15,000 diverse businesses?

To bring it local and make sense of golf’s impact on our economy, we’ve highlighted various sectors and some of Northern California’s finest to present a slice of life in the golf industry.  What all of the subjects of the following stories will tell you is this: a career in golf is a labor of love.

For more than 50 years, Robert Trent Jones Jr. has ventured around the world – from his modest base in Palo Alto to Russia, China, Japan and now Vietnam and Argentina to build golf courses.  

But when talking about golf design, don’t expect the soon to be octogenarian (July 24) to dwell on greens, fairways and bunkers. He would rather talk about the poetry, the art and the opportunities of golf for the best of players and the next generation of youngsters who will  take up the game.

Wait, what? Poetry. Yes, the rhythms, rhymes, simplicity of working with the terrain and beauty that already exists when Jones and his 10-person firm take on projects. “I believe in creating beautiful poetry, where you actually engage,” Jones says.  “You walk into Monet’s garden, not just look at it.”

Jones excelled as a golfer in his youth growing up in New Jersey, and played in college at Yale University.  When he graduated, his mother told him it was time to get a real job and that since he talked a lot, he should be a lawyer. Off he went to Stanford Law School for one year until his father, famed architect Robert Trent Jones, made him an offer he couldn’t refuse – to set up a West Coast office in Palo Alto and join the family business.

“He said, ‘Your job is to find the business,’” Jones says.

He did just that and along with wife Claiborne have remained devout West Coasters ever since. Jones’ “gardens” now number more than 240, including the putting green on the south lawn of the White House, since he got his start more than 50 years ago working with his father on Spyglass Hill.  Meanwhile, Jones’ brother, Rees, remained in New Jersey, creating his own legacy in golf design. In 1972, Bobby left his father’s firm and set out on his own by founding Robert Trent Jones II Golf Course Architects.

Jones’ son, Trent, works in the Palo Alto office as chief operating officer, with Bruce Charlton, president and chief design officer, and Michael  Gorman, project architect. Other disciples that have set up their own shops in Northern California include Don Knott and Gary Linn and Jay Blasi, and noted course architects Kyle Phillips and Ron Fream have long been headquartered here. (Architect Brian Curley is a Bay Area native but works primarily in Asia and operates the U.S. business of Curley & Schmidt from Scottsdale, Ariz.)  

Staying on the West Coast positioned Bobby for the Asia/Pacific region, where he has built and rebuilt 85 courses, including seven in China and 22 in Japan. Yet NCGA residents don’t have to travel far to enjoy some of his finest works. Jones’ genius dots most of Northern California from Spyglass Hill, The Links at Spanish Bay, Poppy Hills (the home of the NCGA and host of the 2018 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship), Silverado Resort & Spa’s South Course and CordeValle (site of the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open).  Jones, a member of the California Golf Hall of Fame who was inducted into the NCGA Golf Hall of Fame in  2015, ventured further north to Tacoma, Wash., to create Chambers Bay, the venue of the 2015 U.S. Open.  

And he shows no signs of slowing down,  venturing south to the Sea of Cortez to create the golf club at the Four Seasons Resort Los Cabos at Costa Palmas. This project, Jones says, is more in tune with families, featuring a gigantic practice green where kids and parents (grandparents, too) can chip and putt, then have ice cream.  It’s the “ice cream social of golf,” he quipped.