Graham Marsh
- Full Name
- Graham Vivian ‘Swampy’ Marsh
- Website:
- Visit Website
- Year of Birth
- 1944
- Place Born
- Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
“Our portfolio of Golf Course Projects is currently represented throughout sixteen countries. These include the very traditional inland links of Sutton Bay in the USA, to the serene parkland golf courses of Hua Tang in Beijing and Jura in Germany, the beautifully manicured Resorts such as Fairways and Bluewater in the Philippines and Sutera Harbour in Malaysia.” From the Graham Marsh Golf Design website.

Graham Marsh, nicknamed “Swampy,” was a fine cricketer as a young man – his younger brother Rodney was a batsman/wicket-keeper for Australia from 1970 to 1984 – and he trained as a mathematics teacher at Claremont Teachers College after graduating from the University of Western Australia.
He turned professional in 1969 and was a leading player on the Australasian, Japanese and European tours during the 1970s and 1980s, winning over sixty tournaments – including the Heritage Classic on the PGA Tour in 1977 – during a successful playing career. Graham also competed on the Champions Tour, claiming victory in the 1997 US Senior Open.
A former chairman of the PGA Tour of Australasia, Graham was awarded an MBE in 1984 for services to golf. Two years later, he formed Graham Marsh Golf Design and his new career as a golf course architect was soon up and running. In 1987, Ross Watson and Cameron Sinclair joined Marsh's newly formed company and they remained as associates until leaving to form their own company, Sinclair in 1990 and Watson a year later.
The company’s early projects during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s were concentrated in Australia, and new designs such as Secret Harbour, Terrey Hills and The Vines are still as well regarded now as when they were first introduced to the golfing public more than twenty years ago.
Marsh has also worked extensively in China and Japan, with around ten courses to his name in those countries. A similar number can also be found in southeast Asia, primarily in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Undoubtedly, Graham’s most high profile designs are in the United States, where he fashi...
Graham Marsh, nicknamed “Swampy,” was a fine cricketer as a young man – his younger brother Rodney was a batsman/wicket-keeper for Australia from 1970 to 1984 – and he trained as a mathematics teacher at Claremont Teachers College after graduating from the University of Western Australia.
He turned professional in 1969 and was a leading player on the Australasian, Japanese and European tours during the 1970s and 1980s, winning over sixty tournaments – including the Heritage Classic on the PGA Tour in 1977 – during a successful playing career. Graham also competed on the Champions Tour, claiming victory in the 1997 US Senior Open.
A former chairman of the PGA Tour of Australasia, Graham was awarded an MBE in 1984 for services to golf. Two years later, he formed Graham Marsh Golf Design and his new career as a golf course architect was soon up and running. In 1987, Ross Watson and Cameron Sinclair joined Marsh's newly formed company and they remained as associates until leaving to form their own company, Sinclair in 1990 and Watson a year later.
The company’s early projects during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s were concentrated in Australia, and new designs such as Secret Harbour, Terrey Hills and The Vines are still as well regarded now as when they were first introduced to the golfing public more than twenty years ago.
Marsh has also worked extensively in China and Japan, with around ten courses to his name in those countries. A similar number can also be found in southeast Asia, primarily in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Undoubtedly, Graham’s most high profile designs are in the United States, where he fashioned the cliff top course at Sutton Bay in Agar, South Dakota, overlooking the tranquil waters of Lake Oahe. This layout opened in 1999 and within a year the architect had picked up another couple of US assignments, fashioning courses at Old Silo Golf Club in Kentucky and Wild Marsh in Minnesota.
His next American design took a while to arrive, appearing in 2010 at The Prairie Club in Valentine, Nebraska a decade later. The golf facility lies within a huge property in Snake River Canyon with 18 holes designed by Tom Lehman and Chris Brands (the Dunes), 18 holes from Graham (the Pines) and a 10-hole par three track laid out by Gil Hanse and Geoff Shackleford.
In Europe, Graham has only completed a couple of projects: Habsberg in Germany in 2003 and Kuneticka Hora in the Czech Republic four years later. More recently, he redesigned the floodlit course at Ras Al Hamra in Oman which opened in 2016 and he co-designed the Al Houara course near Tangier in Morocco with Vijay Singh in 2019.
Extract:
From Planetgolf.com: Australian tour player turned golf architect, Graham Marsh is best known internationally for having designed the beautiful Sutton Bay Club in South Dakota and the Pines Course at the Prairie Club in Nebraska.
Both Sutton Bay and Prairie Club were remarkable design projects, and Marsh poured his energies into crafting the finest courses he could out of land forms that threw up endless possibilities
His first course at Sutton Bay is sadly no longer in play, a subsequent layout was created for the club later on higher, more stable ground. Neither course displayed quite the routing sophistication of sandhills standouts like Sand Hills and Ballyneal, but both were good and compare favourably to other layouts in the area.
In Australia, Graham Marsh has designed a number of solid 'championship' courses, with the likes of The Vines and Secret Harbour near Perth, Twin Creeks and Terrey Hills in Sydney, Paradise Palms and Robina Woods in Queensland and Eynesbury in Victoria all decent layouts.
Featured courses designed, remodelled and added to by Graham Marsh
Gosnells
17th
Founded in 1945 at Canning Vale, Gosnells Golf Club is one of Perth’s finest courses that somehow glides silently under the radar. Why? We’re not sure, but if you are looking for a quality test on a layout that drains well and plays as firm and fast as most sandbelt layouts, look no further.
Growling Frog
51st
Opened for play in 2004, the Growling Frog Golf Course was Graham Marsh’s first design in Victoria. Fairways are routed around mature River Red Gum trees within an expansive 300-acre property that offers spectacular views of the Dividing Ranges.
Kalgoorlie
5th


A primitive course was established by Goldfields Golf Club members in 1899 and the club is still going strong, operating nowadays from the new Graham Marsh-designed Kalgoorlie Golf Course, which opened in 2010.
Kingfisher
2nd

Situated on a spectacular stretch of Saipan’s eastern shoreline, Kingfisher Golf Links is a glorious Graham Marsh design that caresses the outline of the coast...
Kuneticka Hora
19th
Laid out on a plain beneath Mount Kunìtická, a cone-shaped hill topped by a 15th-century castle ruin, the Kuneticka Hora fairways spread out round three large lakes on an imposing 350-acre site.
Maroochy River
21st
Horton Park Golf Club upped sticks from Maroochydore in 2016 after drafting in Graham Marsh to fashion a layout at Bli Bli on the banks of the Maroochy River. Hey presto, a brand new links-inspired course opened for the fledgling membership of the Maroochy River Golf Club.
Graham Marsh Leaderboard
Rank | Name | Courses Played |
---|---|---|
1 | Brendan James |
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= | Kevin P |
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3 | Geoffrey Steer |
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4 | Wayne Moriarty |
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5 | Scarlett |
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= | Peter Wood |
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7 | Brad Allen |
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8 | Paul T Armstrong |
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9 | Ian Pemberton |
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= | Tyson Flynn |
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