After studying geology and majoring in history and American Studies at Yale (Class of 1961) and attending a year of law school at Stanford University, Robert Trent Jones, Jr. graduated into the family business.
It has led to a life’s work that has impacted the world of golf. A career that has spanned six decades, given the game more than 270 golf courses in 40 countries on six continents, earned countless awards, courses ranked among the best layouts throughout the world, with courses that have hosted tournaments on every major golf tour.
His earliest experience was working beside his father on the legendary Spyglass Hill in the 1960s.
After apprenticing with the senior Jones for several years, becoming vice president of the company, and assuming control of west coast operations, Jones, Jr. eventually expanded the company’s business to Asia with his debut international effort, Bangkok’s Navatanee Golf Course. This foray across the ocean represented the first of hundreds of international course designs he would create in the ensuing years as he matured into a great artist.
In 1972, the son left his father’s firm and set out on his own by founding Robert Trent Jones II Golf Course Architects, headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., where he has assembled what is arguably the most talented golf course architecture teams in the industry and helped launch the solo careers of several world-acclaimed designers that are part of the “Trent Jones Architect Tree.”
