Tom Doak

Tom Doak is a golf course architect. He has 6 courses ranked among the top 100 in the world according to the "Top 100 Courses in the World" March 2021 list compiled by Golf Magazine. These include Pacific Dunes in Oregon, Ballyneal in Colorado, Barnbougle Dunes in Tasmania and Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand. Doak lives in Michigan.
He was a student of golf course designer Pete Dye, although perhaps his greatest influence comes from Alister MacKenzie (about whom Doak wrote a book), designer of Cypress Point, Royal Melbourne, and consultant to Bobby Jones at Augusta National. In 2007, Doak restored Alister MacKenzie's home course, Pasatiempo, a Golf Magazine Top 100 course located in Santa Cruz, California.
Doak is the author of The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses which is a guide to famous and obscure golf courses around the world. The original version of the book was intended for a select group of friends and golf course architects. The sanitized version became a coffee table book which also included Doak's photography. Despite being toned down, the book includes several extremely critical reviews of golf courses and alienated several well-regarded golf course architects. For example, in his entry for Talamore Golf Club in Pinehurst, North Carolina, designed by Rees Jones, Doak wrote that the "dull layout" made him "want to spit."
Education
Doak attended Cornell University after a semester at MIT where he studied Design and Landscape Architecture. After graduating Cornell, he won the Dreer Award from the Department of Floriculture and Horticulture. He used the Dreer Award to travel to Great Britain and Ireland, between 1982 and 1983, to study their best golf courses. He caddied at St. Andrews during the summer of 1982.
Career
Doak is a "minimalist" designer. Minimalism is a school of golf design that focuses on concentrating the design of a golf hole (or routing) around the natural features of the land. His most successful courses have been built on sand dunes, taking advantage of the sandy soil for drainage and also allowing for the reuse of native elements.
Doak's first course, High Pointe Golf Club near Williamsburg, Michigan, opened in 1989. The course closed in 2008 and is expected to reopen in 2024.
Doak credits most of his accomplishments and success to golf course designer Pete Dye. Doak worked with Dye to learn how to construct golf courses during graduate school. Doak was exposed to several different schools of design on multiple continents in a variety of conditions. Jim Urbina taught him how to run a bulldozer allowing Doak to think in three dimensions and how to use the materials around him.
In 2015 he announced he would spend a significant amount of time during the ensuing few years, researching for a new edition of his book, The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses.
Books
Doak has written four books about Golf Course Design:
The Anatomy of a Golf Course Independent Book Publisher | Publish | Book Publisher (1992).
The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses (1996)
The Life and Work of Dr. Alister MacKenzie New Pop Music, Pop Music Videos, Pop News - Clock Tower (2001) by Tom Doak, James S. Scott, Raymund M. Haddock, Ray Haddock, and James Scott
Tom Doak's Little Red Book of Golf Course Architecture (2017)
Getting to 18 (2020)
The Making of Pacific Dunes (2021)
Courses
Public and resort courses
Aetna Springs Golf Club; Pope Valley, CA; Closed
Apache Stronghold Golf Club; Globe, AZ; Closed
Atlantic City Country Club; Northfield, NJ
Barnbougle Dunes Golf Links; Bridport, Tasmania, Australia
Beechtree Golf Club; Aberdeen, MD; Closed
Black Forest at Wilderness Valley; Gaylord, MI Closed
Cabot Highlands, Scotland (Future)
Cape Kidnappers Resort; Napier New Zealand
Charlotte Golf Links; Charlotte, North Carolina; Closed
Common Ground Golf Course; Aurora, Colorado
High Pointe Golf Club; Williamsburg, MI; Closed
Memorial Park Golf Course; Houston, TX
Old Macdonald, one of the courses at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort; Bandon, Oregon
Pacific Dunes, one of the courses at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort; Bandon, Oregon
Pasatiempo Golf Club (restoration); Santa Cruz, CA
Pinehurst No.10, Aberdeen, NC
Quail Crossing Golf Club; Evansville, IN
Riverfront Golf Club; Suffolk, Virginia
Sand Valley (Lido), Wisconsin
St Patrick's Links at Rosapenna Golf Resort, Ireland
Streamsong Golf Course Blue; Central FL
The Golf Club at St. Andrew's Beach; Rye, Victoria, Australia
The Legends Golf Club; Heathlands Course; Myrtle Beach, SC
The Loop at Forest Dunes, Roscommon, MI (Reversible 18 hole golf course)
The Rawls Course at Texas Tech University; Lubbock, TX
Private courses
Ballyneal; Holyoke, CO
Dismal River; The Red Course; Mullen, NE
Grand Saint-Emilionnais Golf Club; Gardegan et Tourtirac, France
Lost Dunes Golf Club; Bridgman, MI
Rock Creek Cattle Company; Deer Lodge, MT
Sebonack Golf Club; Southampton, New York (with Jack Nicklaus)
Sedge Valley, Wisconsin (2024)
Stone Eagle Golf Club; Palm Desert, CA
Stonewall; North Course; Elverson, Pennsylvania
Stonewall; Old Course; Elverson, Pennsylvania
Tara Iti; New Zealand
Te Arai North
The Renaissance Club; Lothians, Scotland
The Village Club; Sands Point, New York
Tumble Creek at Suncadia; Cle Elum, WA
Golf Course (Restoration/Renovation)
Bel-Air Country Club, Los Angeles, California
Camargo, Ohio
Commonwealth, Victoria, Australia
Dornick Hills, Oklahoma
East Potomac, Washington D.C. (Future)
Pasatiempo, California
San Francisco Golf Club, California
Valley Club of Montecito, California
Washington Golf & Country Club, Arlington, Virginia
References
External links
Golf by Tom Doak
Palm Spring Life interview
Renaissance Golf Design
Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences alumni
Golf course architects
American landscape architects
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)