Golf Course Architecture Quotes

I've never set up any golf course that would favor anybody. I try to make it exactly the opposite, which is what we did at Valhalla when we modernized it to accommodate the lengths players are hitting it today.

I have felt terribly from the beginning when I saw the problems and recognized that they would be ongoing. We were hired to put back the contours of the greens as closely as possible to George Thomas's designs and were real proud of what we did. It's a sad situation now.

Having played the Old Course many times since my first visit in 1981, I am now of the opinion it is one of the best and most beautiful tests of links golf anywhere in the world.

I enjoy hard golf courses.

I enjoy traveling and playing some of the well-known courses sometimes, but basically, I have a good time at Barton Creek.

The reason the Road Hole at St. Andrews is the most difficult par 4 in the world is that it was designed as a par 6.

I've had it with the USGA and the way they run their tournaments. The USGA loves to embarrass guys who play in their tournaments.

There are golfers everywhere who may never get a chance to play a links course in Scotland, a tree-lined course in America or the sand belts of Australia. Hopefully I can bring some of those elements into their backyards.

Somebody made the statement that Donald Trump has built or owns the greatest collection of golf courses, ever, in the history of golf. And I believe that is 100 percent true.

Golf's Holy Grail - a genius course.

It should almost be a prerequisite to play Castle Stuart before you're allowed to design golf courses nowadays.

There's more to be learned here [St. Andrews] about course design than anywhere. Collection bunkers, false fronts, bump shots. The fundamentals of design became fundamental because of what's here. And it happened accidentally. Or maybe accidentally on purpose.

Everyone I built a course for thinks they have the best golf course in the world and I'm very pleased and proud of that.

I understand golf is a game, and I've never treated it as anything else. Family is something that's very special, and so they all contributed to the room. They all contributed to what my life was, my career was.

If I had one golf course, from a design standpoint, one that I really love, it would probably be Pinehurst. There's a totally tree-lined golf course where trees are not a part of the strategy.

Well, I think that Augusta is not the same golf course that I grew up on. Bobby Jones' philosophy was giving you space off the tee; if you put it in the right side of the fairway, you ended up getting the right angle to the green.

I hate golf to be tricked up. To me it's a fun game.

A Nicklaus Design golf course is done by the guys in my company that I work with, that have been trained in my vision, and they do what they think I might do. They might come in the office and ask me questions and I'd certainly answer their questions, but I'm not involved in the site visits or anything else.

The USGA is terrific. I've designed my course in Bedminster to the highest standards of the USGA, and it's a very special course.

Pete Dye introduced me to golf course design back in the 1960's. He came to my hometown Columbus, Ohio to work on The Golf Club.

You try to figure out the two things that I use as the philosophy to do a golf course. The first is that most people are really interested in something being aesthetically pleasing and good to the eye. The second is that a good golfer likes good golf shots.

I love when architects build a golf course that compliments the landscape rather than intrudes upon it.