Bill Coore: On the good ol’ days, course design, and Dormie Network
Bill Coore took, as he puts it, a circuitous route to becoming a golf course architect. “Most people like to have a plan for their lives, but I guess I didn’t qualify for that,” he laughs. As a young boy, he was introduced to golf by his neighbor in rural North Carolina. The pair played what Bill calls some very modest public courses, but occasionally, Bill got the opportunity to play at some of the state’s crown jewels in Pinehurst. “Those experiences really became the cornerstone of it all,” he says.
Then it was on to Wake Forest University to study classical Greek and play on the golf team. “I figured I’d probably be a professor of classical Greek studies and play some amateur golf on the side,” recalls Bill. “But Uncle Sam decided there was something I should do first.” After two and a half years of military service, Bill returned home in 1972 to North Carolina, where golf architect Pete Dye was designing Oak Hollow Golf Course near Bill’s hometown. “I saw the course,” Bill says, “and I thought: Well this is interesting. I wonder how you do this.” Curiosity won out, and he badgered Pete until he was offered a position on the construction team. Moving through the ranks quickly, Bill went from general laborer to equipment operator to representative in only a few years. After serving as superintendent at a golf course in Texas for four years, he designed a course on the coast of Texas. Then, in 1982, he formed his own design company.
A few years later, in 1985, Ben Crenshaw was coming off his first Masters win when he glimpsed Rockport Country Club—the Texas course Bill had designed. He knew the design was special, and a friendship quickly transpired. It was the beginning of a partnership that would produce some of the world’s most beautiful courses, from the rolling Sandhills of Nebraska to the cliffs of Hainan Island in China.
The Philosophy
Much like Bill’s route to golf course architecture, the Coore-Crenshaw design philosophy is meandering and open-minded, allowing natural forces to have their effect on the outcome. The duo make notations of dynamic natural features and let them ground the course’s overall design and aesthetic. In other words, the land influences the course, rather than vice-versa. Knolls, hollows, plateaus, swales, and saddles aren’t leveled but leveraged to encourage varied and challenging play. “With no preconceived notions we walk the site to get an understanding of what the land will give us,” says Bill. “We find the interesting elements and let those guide the design. They can be as subtle as a wrinkle in the ground or as sweeping and majestic as the ocean. What is interesting here? What am I drawn to?” he says.
To Bill, a great course compliments the landscape, which is precisely what makes each Coore-Crenshaw design uniquely breathtaking. “We let the natural landforms and features go together to be our guide, and we’ve learned that when we do that, each course comes out with its individual character and identity.” It’s the vision for every Coore-Crenshaw design: build courses that become integral to the landscape and its community.
The Process
Once the site’s highlights are identified, they’re used to guide the routing—an element that’s pivotal to a successful golf course. “It’s the bone structure, the foundation. If the routing isn’t great, the course can’t be great,” says Bill, and it’s no simple task; rather a complex puzzle that requires the piecing together of all sorts of contingencies, like flow and rhythm, the pace of play, drainage patterns, soil conditions, elevation changes, and more.
The next consideration is green construction, and Bill affirms the old Charles McDonald adage that greens are to golf courses what faces are to portraits. “If you mold interesting, inspired greens that have character and are playable and fun—that really adds to both the course’s aesthetic and experience,” says Bill, noting the importance of well-planned bunkering and echoing Golf Digest architecture editor Ron Whitten’s sentiment that sand is the consistent link throughout the history of golf.
These are just a few examples of the duo’s nods to the sport’s tradition, even as they continue to propel golf course architecture into the future. Take, for example, Hidden Creek Golf Club, just outside Atlantic City, New Jersey. Designed to resemble the heathland landscapes outside of London, the course’s soft, undulating dunes bridge the sport’s first coastal courses and the parkland courses of the U.S. Located in a particularly rugged section of the Pine Barrens (a name that refers to the area’s Pitch-pine-covered, incredibly sandy soil), Hidden Creek offers golfers a remote experience—one that’s strength lies in its subtleties. From the plateaued fairways to the lulling greens, the design works in absolute unison with the novelty of the region. Hidden Creek recently became part of Dormie Network’s portfolio of destination golf clubs. Bill, who had known the previous owners were looking to sell, was happy to hear they found the right owner to take the club into the future. “They told me: Bill, we finally found the right group. And it was Dormie Network. They didn’t want buyers; they wanted caretakers who understand what Hidden Creek was and what it’s meant to be.”
But perhaps the duo’s commitment to minimalism and tradition is best represented at Dormie Club, located in the heart of the birthplace of American golf—and in Bill’s home state. “Dormie Club was so personal for me,” Bill says. “The opportunity to work in the place that had such an influence on my understanding of golf was truly special. Ben and I felt that it was a site where we could create something complimentary to the history of golf in Pinehurst.” In a place where golf is king, the duo crafted a course that followed suit. The area’s unaltered, wooded beauty is complimented by minimal waste bunkers, sand cart paths, and the signature Coore-Crenshaw undulating greens.
It’s all about the golf at Dormie Club—a true testament to the sport and its history. Bill has high hopes that the intentions behind Dormie Club’s design will carry into the future. “Ben and I were both pleased and optimistically excited about the future for Dormie Club when Dormie Network took over,” he says.
Bill’s work on Dormie Club brought his journey to becoming a golf course architect full circle, and with nearly 50-course designs and renovations in the Coore-Crenshaw portfolio, he’s certainly had a substantial impact on the sport. Each of those courses has its own identity, and that’s precisely what makes the sum of Bill’s career truly impressive—and enduring. “Our courses aren’t trying to be anything else,” says Bill. “They’re being what they are.”
