Golf Course Designer Gil Hanse Is Reclaiming Green Space
Golf course designer Gil Hanse has found acclaim not only for his fresh designs, but also for restoring and renovating some of the game’s most famous old courses.
Bunkers are not a place you want to be on the golf course. “Not in the trap” is a mantra even beginners chant before a shot, so players rarely celebrate when their course adds new hazards. An exception to this rule: the membership of the exclusive Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, New Jersey. During restoration of their Lower Course, golf course designer Gil Hanse uncovered a pot of golden sand from the original 1922 design on the first hole. For playing members and golf geeks, it was a discovery on par with finding a Middle Kingdom sphinx in the desert. Members cheered, even though the unearthed pit will make the course tougher.
Hanse, 60, is quite good at finding and building things in the dirt. Like most kids, he started as a child with Tonka trucks. By age 11, he was already creating golf holes in his Babylon, Long Island backyard. A decade-plus later, Hanse had earned a master's degree in Landscape Architecture at Cornell. For the past 30-plus years, he’s been playing with real-life bulldozers.
Currently one of the most in-demand golf course designers in the game, Hanse has a reputation as thoughtful, meticulous, and fairly laid-back. Typically clad in pro-shop–chic golf wear and a steel Rolex, you might find him wearing a Grateful Dead “dancing bears” needlepoint belt, and get the impression that he’s just come off the back nine. But he works too hard to play much golf, and claims a modest 11.9 handicap.
Those dancing bears are not just an affectation. Hanse is an authentic Deadhead (since 1979) and jam rock fan. “On any given night, you really don’t know what you are going to get, and to me that is fascinating,” he says of shows in this genre. “The creative process and how it is impacted by any given moment resonates so deeply with me, since I am usually on a bulldozer, building and creating in the moment. I love to trust that process and see where it takes us.”
The existence of golf course architecture as an actual gig might come as a surprise to many, but fairways and greens don’t grow magically out of the grass. “There is a lot that goes into creating the playing field for the game of golf,” says Hanse. Every course is different, with its own unique features; it’s the architect’s job to get the most out of the location. “The best courses maximize the natural potential of the land,” Hanse says. Then the designer can establish the routing and layout of holes to give players shot variety, strategic options for scoring, and plenty of moments to use their creativity.
"Reclaiming green space that had been lost, and getting the greens to tie back into the surroundings, is always a special part of our restoration projects."
While some players pay no attention to architecture, others will geek out and lead with the designer’s name when recommending a course to a friend as a sort of secret handshake between self-diagnosed golf addicts. This latter group is unquestionably familiar with Hanse’s artistry and original designs at Streamsong Resort Black Course in Bowling Green, Florida; PGA Frisco’s Fields Ranch East Course in Frisco, Texas; and Cabot Highlands (originally Castle Stuart) in Inverness, Scotland. But it was his design of the 2016 Olympic Course and the fanfare around golf’s return to the games in Rio de Janeiro that elevated Hanse into a golfing household name. The project was so important that he actually moved his family to Brazil during construction.
Golf writer and broadcaster Shane Bacon admires Hanse’s desire to create courses that rely on natural topography rather than on over-sculpting the ground onsite. “I think Gil does an amazing job of working with what is in front of him,” Bacon says. “I've played a few of the original Gil designs in the past few months—Streamsong Black, Ohoopee [Match Club in Cobbtown, Georgia], and PGA Frisco—and all three are perfectly put together considering the land that they have to work with.”
For century-old clubs like Baltusrol, with revered courses that helped define the American game during the early 20th century, Hanse and his partner Jim Wagner have become the team to see for a tune-up.
Over decades, courses were tweaked as trends shifted, skewing the design beyond the original intent. Modern golf equipment fundamentally changed how the game is played, and bunkers, fairways, and tees were adjusted in order to welcome golfers at all levels. Tapping Hanse is so enticing, and his work so respected, because he offers what he calls a sympathetic restoration. The look, feel, and intent of the original architecture are preserved while still making concessions to how far players can hit the ball. “When we restore a course, our first and primary focus is on the work of the original golf course architect,” Hanse says.
Vestigial character coupled with contemporary relevance are part of what the United States Golf Association looks for when choosing a venue for their championships. Jeff Hall, the USGA’s managing director for the U.S. Open, says the group has been lucky to hold events on courses restored by Hanse and his team. “The painstaking research that is done to ensure that the finished product accurately reflects the original architect’s work allows us to present and set up the course in a manner that is true to the historical relevance of each venue,” Hall says.
This ethos is why Baltusrol, which has hosted 18 major championships, chose Hanse. “Gil was like, It's not my name on the scorecard; it's A. W. Tillinghast [one of the most influential designers of all time],” says Baltusrol’s Golf Club President Matt Wirths. “Some of the other architects we were interviewing tended to leave their fingerprints, and Gil's intention was not to leave any of his behind.”
Balty, as it’s colloquially known, is one of only four golf clubs designated National Historic Landmarks by the National Park Service for their architectural significance. The main goal of the restoration of Baltusrol was to return the layout closer to Tillinghast’s original design.
The bunker on the first hole was not the only discovery Hanse made. While excavating another sandy hazard on the fourth hole, he found an additional 1,200 square feet of green. While researching the eighth hole, Hanse unearthed enough evidence from press coverage of the 1926 U.S. Amateur Championship to determine that the green complex had been radically different from the ones members were currently using.
For Hanse, the green expansions were the most rewarding part of the project. “Reclaiming green space that had been lost, and getting the greens to tie back into the surroundings, is always a special part of our restoration projects,” he says.
Hanse currently has a number of commissions in the works, including a second restoration at Baltusrol, this time the Upper Course, due to reopen next year. But in what is sure to be one of the most important projects of his career, Hanse has been tapped to renovate The Links at Spanish Bay. Most non-golfers won’t recognize the name, but it’s generally known to be the weakest of the three seaside courses in Pebble Beach, California. (Spyglass Hill and The Pebble Beach Golf Links are the well-known other two.) Despite its location in what’s colloquially called “golf’s greatest zip code,” Spanish Bay seems to lack character. “I'm not sure there is a golf course in the world that is in more desperate need of a full renovation than Spanish Bay,” says Bacon.
Like Bacon, most of the golf world is excited for Hanse’s next reimagining. They can’t wait to see what he comes up with when he cranks the Dead bootlegs and hops into his bulldozer to play in the dirt.
