Brian Silva’s father, John Silva, was a feature shaper who was really handy operating a D4 bulldozer in the light construction business. Brian was only 8 or 9 when he was sitting on his dad’s lap while he worked on projects for architects like Geoff Cornish, George Fazio and Phil Wogan.

He thought he would follow in his father’s footsteps but his dad realized such people in the golf business don’t get enough credit for what they did, despite their undoubted talents, so he encouraged Brian to go up another level and become involved in golf course design.

Architect Geoff Cornish urged him to combine turf management and landscape architecture in his study program so he worked on maintenance crews during the summer while attending the Stockbridge School of Agriculture and Turf Management at the University of Massachusetts.

He graduated in the mid-1970s, just as the golf course business was going through a slack patch, so he returned to education for another two years of graduate study in plant and soil sciences. Whilst at university, Brian took over from one of the professors who left for another position was and enjoyed it so much he took up a similar job in Florida.

His three-year teaching stint at Lake City Community College combined classroom instruction with on-site visits to projects his students were undertaking and in 1981 the Florida Turfgrass Association awarded him its highest honour, the Wreath of Grass.

Silva then returned to New England, where he became the first USGA Green Section agronomist assigned to the region. It was during a site visit that he bumped into Geoff Cornish again, who offered him a job with his design company.

Brian joined Cornish and his partner, Bill Robinson, who was moving to the West Coast, in 1983 and he remained with the company until 2000, when he left to establish his own design practice.

Further biography details to follow…

Extracts:

The Architects of Golf by Geoff Cornish and Ron Whitten: “An unabashed fan of Donald Ross, Silva studied the architect's works extensively over the years and authored a comprehensive critique of the man. A spirited and tireless worker, it was once said facetiously that Silva was the first person to find twenty-eight hours in a day.”