Arnold Palmer

While other players of his era dabbled in golf course design, Arnold Palmer jumped into the business with the same gusto that he swung a golf club. In 1971, when he was still winning on the PGA Tour and a threat in majors, he created the Arnold Palmer Design Company. More than four decades later, Palmer’s name is on more than 300 courses in 37 states, 25 countries and five continents. While longtime partner Ed Seay did much of the design work until his death in 2007, Palmer provided the broad brushstrokes, creating courses that “are not characteristic in any way,” he said. “They are individually designed.”

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Ralph Plummer

For a man who worked on over 100 courses and had a 40-year career in course design, Ralph Plummer deserves to be better known. Not just for his output, but for the sheer quality of his designs and his innate ability to work with landscapes. What really set Ralph Plummer apart from his contemporaries was the way he utilized natural features. He preferred to work with what was there, using trees instead of bunkers, exploiting gradient changes to provide challenges and site greens where they would be subject to crosswinds. He avoided the artificial, resulting in a style that is at once uncluttered and natural.

Tanglewood Resort became the first regulation golf course in the country to install the eco-friendly, Zoysia grass hybrid, Diamond Zoysia, on its greens. This type of green makes for a wonderful putting experience all year long. Dr. Milton Engleke and his team at Texas A&M, created this Diamond Zoysia hybrid that thrives in the Texas summer heat and dry conditions.

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