PGA Golf Management Internship Conference

Born and raised in New York City, I caught the golf bug at the driving range as a teenager looking for something to do in the summer. When I could get a ride or eventually when I was old enough to drive, I headed out across the Met Area to play different public courses. There were a few courses that I liked, but I kept searching for something different. That is when I started analyzing golf courses. 

My “AH-HA” moment came during my junior year of high school. It was the Wednesday of the 2004 US Open at Shinnecock Hills that ignited my burning passion for golf architecture. The debacle at the 7th green captivated me and showed me that there was a lot more to golf courses than I had realized. That eye opening moment transformed golf into an obsession for me. For my high school honors project, I designed a new golf course on my boarding school’s campus and in college at Hobart I wrote my thesis on A.W. Tillinghast’s design theory. I now go back to Hobart College as a guest speaker for a seminar on golf course architecture and have consulted at Clifton Springs CC where the school teams play. 

After graduating college in 2009, I begged dozens of golf architects for a job, but most had recently let their employees go due to the downturn of the economy. I was supposed to intern for Tom Doak, but the project I was slated to work on fell through. I knew Tom and Bill Coore had upcoming projects in China so I figured if I spent the time to teach myself Mandarin and learn how to run a bulldozer, they couldn’t say no when the time came. I shipped myself off to Virginia to learn how to operate a bulldozer, got hired by a golf course contractor and studied Mandarin at night. Two years later, opportunity finally knocked when Tom Doak hired me.

My time with Renaissance Golf Design started with a place on Tom’s team for the Rio Olympic proposal and learning minimalism first hand working on the crew of Dismal River in the Sandhills of Nebraska in 2012. The next two years of my life were spent on a bulldozer and excavator turning a gigantic sandbox into a golf course on the Chinese island province of Hainan. The Mandarin lessons paid off! When I returned from China in 2014, I founded Proper Golf and quickly had the opportunity to take on my first solo project as the consulting architect for The Village Club of Sands Point, on Tom’s recommendation. 

While working with The Village Club and a small, but growing list of clients over the last few years, I spent 6 years restoring some of the games more revered courses, and creating exciting new ones with Gil Hanse. I am very lucky to have two of the games best architects as mentors. My time with Gil and his partner Jim Wagner allowed me to grow as an architect and shaper. Seeing their dedication to the craft, and the professionalism they bring to all their projects both in the planning and in the field is something I have model myself after. The years I spent working for them allowed me to take my passion for golf course architecture to a whole new level and gave me all the tools I need to be a successful architect on my own.

If nothing else I have worked tirelessly in building my career in architecture the old fashioned way, working in the field for the best architects, and studying hundreds of golf courses around the world. I am eager to bring my take on fun and artistic golf courses to interesting projects around the world. As a culmination of my relentless pursuit and passion for golf architecture, I hope Proper Golf can bring the thoughtful, fun, and artistic golf I love so much to your project.