The Golden Age of Course Design, 1901 to 1940

Between 1901 and 1940, architects like Alister MacKenzie, Harry Colt, A W Tillinghast, Donald Ross, George Thomas and Stanley Thompson reshaped golf. They studied strategy, angles and alternative routes, producing Pine Valley, Cypress Point, Pinehurst No 2, Royal Melbourne West and Riviera.

Golf then paused for depression and war, and design grew blander for decades. The modern restoration movement, led by Coore and Crenshaw and Tom Doak, is largely a return to Golden Age principles..