Restoration and Renovation

Based on his appreciation and admiration for the work of legendary golf course designer Donald Ross, it seems only fitting that John captured the 1977 U.S. Amateur title on a Ross course, Aronimink Golf Club near Philadelphia. These days, however, when one finds John roaming a Ross course, he's more likely restoring a Ross classic than tackling one of Ross' traditionally tough par-3 holes.

In 2004, John and his team completed a widely acclaimed restoration of Pine Needles Golf Club in Southern Pines, North Carolina, where the goal was to maintain the intent and integrity of the original Ross design from 1928, and restore the shot values that have been changed by today's technology. Moreover, John spent countless hours at the Tufts Archives in Pinehurst (N.C.), conducting exhaustive research on Ross and his timeless approach to designing a golf course. There, John compared aerial photography of Pine Needles over a 30-year span to determine how the course had evolved from its 1928 debut.

"My job was trying to figure out exactly what Mr. Ross was trying to do," says John, keenly aware that restoring a classic course requires an architect to resist imposing his own views. "I love his work so much, and I studied it so closely, that it wasn't a problem for me to try to think what he would have wanted to instill."

Beyond restoring classics, John has been hired to renovate numerous courses in virtually every part of the U.S., including The Farms at Rancho Santa Fe, near San Diego; Phoenix Country Club, the downtown Phoenix, Arizona course steeped in history; and the Country Club of Jackson, with its three nine-hole layouts, in Jackson, Mississippi.

John's passion and love for the game shines through, whether when he was actively playing - in 1979 he was the PGA Tour's Rookie of the Year after winning tournaments in consecutive weeks - or today as an architect, where four of his courses are ranked in the "Top 100" (Golfweek - Modern) and his Pine Needles restoration was singled out by Golf Digest as a "Best New Remodel" for 2005.