Cabell Robinson was born in Washington DC and grew up in the suburbs of Maryland. He attended the Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virgina then enrolled at Princeton University, graduating with a degree in history. He went on to study landscape architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, becoming friends with another student, 

“After a year together studying at Harvard, Cabell convinced Rees to leave Harvard, move out to California, and enter an undergraduate degree program in landscape architecture offered at the University of California at Berkeley… After the first year, however, Rees lost his draft deferment and was about to be drafted into the Army, choosing instead to go into the Army Reserves.

In 1965, following a year of training, Rees returned home, where he joined his father’s firm, soon taking over supervision of the East Coast office in Montclair. When Cabell Robinson graduated from the Berkeley program in June 1967, Rees persuaded him to come to work with him in New Jersey.

In 1970, with prospects for a number of Jones courses in Europe, 

 sent Cabell to Spain to organize a European office. Over the next seventeen years, Robinson handled most of the Jones projects done in Britain, Europe, and North Africa.”

In an interview before the one-off NH Collection Open at La Reserva in 2014, Cabell gave his version of the transition he made from the United States to Europe:

“I came to Spain in 1970. I’d started working for Robert Trent Jones in 1967 but after three years I told him: ‘I really like working for you but I want to move.’ I did not enjoy at all living in New Jersey. He asked me to open his office in Europe to which I responded: ‘No!’ So he said: ‘Why, have you ever been to Europe? No, you haven’t so don’t give me a stupid answer and go!’

At that time, Trent Jones had already done Sotogrande and Las Brisas and was working at Las Aves (known as Valderrama), where I was involved. I ended up opening the office in Fuengirola (Málaga), which Mr. Jones could never pronounce and used to call ‘Funny Gorilla’. I worked in all his projects in Europe until I went on my own in 1987.”

Although Robert Trent Jones Sr. is credited with designing more than a dozen courses throughout Europe during the 1970s and 1980s, you can bet your bottom dollar that Cabell Robinson also played a big part in their creation.

The list is impressive, including Continental Europe Top 100 layouts such as Troia in Portugal and Royal Park I Roveri in Italy. Other well-regarded courses include new build assignments at El Bosque and Los Naranjos in Spain, along with remodelling commissions at Geneva in Switzerland and Chamonix in France.

Robinson’s base on the Costa del Sol has served him well over the last thirty years or so, with more than half his output emanating from Spain and Morocco.

La Reserva (2004), Finca Cortesin (2007), and Las Colinas (2010) are the best offerings among the nine courses he has built in his adopted Spain, while the two 27-hole layouts at Golf Les Dunes in Agadir and Amelkis in Marrakech are probably the pick of his six layouts that lie across the Strait of Gibraltar in the Western Kingdom.

Elsewhere in mainland Europe, Cabell has designed several courses in France, in addition to setting out the highly regarded Praia D’El Rey on Portugal’s Atlantic coast. Offshore, he fashioned Palheiro in Madeira in 1993 and Aphrodite Hills in Cyprus in 2002.

Unhurried and deliberate in his speech, with an amiable countenance highlighted by the distinctive moustache that has remained with him all his life, and wearing an eye-catching, ethnic-style, silver-plated watch on his right forearm, Cabell doesn’t mince his words, giving a stern ticking off – albeit in a polite manner – to those designers who only think about money and not about doing a good job. “I’ve rejected commissions because the terrain wasn’t ideal, but not everyone does that,” he says.

Robinson’s ‘bêtes noires’ are top golfers who become designers. He considers all of them, in a certain way, to be interlopers in the world of design, due to their lack of a profound knowledge of the subject matter apart from their experience as players, although he does separate them into two categories: those who surround themselves with good design professionals; and others who allow themselves to be advised by amateurs in design matters. ‘None of them actually do the routing work,’ he notes.

Returning to his own teacher, he continues, ‘When Jones began in the 1930s, he had to do everything. These days no one does everything: I, for example, don’t design the irrigation, now that it is so technical, and it’s contracted out to an independent specialist. I don’t believe that golf professionals are properly trained to design golf courses. However, they have the name, the fame, and that competition is very tough for architects, especially in Dubai and places like that where they always seek out a top player.’"

“He has designs all over Europe and North Africa including in France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Switzerland, Cyprus and Italy. Having lived in Spain for over three decades, combined with his experience with other European cultures, allows him to have a unique understanding of the local culture. Cabell is firmly committed to environmental protection and believes that golf course architecture is more of an art form than a science.” ASGCA

Cabell Robinson

Robinson graduated from Princeton University with a degree in history and then studied landscape architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design, becoming pals with another student, Rees Jones.

Southern Spain

Spain

Santana Golf & Country Club is situated slightly inland from the Mediterranean coast between Mijas and Fuengirola. Set amidst 140 acres of oranges and avocados groves – part of the property was once an avacado farm – and with the backdrop of the majestic Mijas Mountains, Santana really is an outstanding natural beauty.

Designed by Cabell B. Robinson and opened for play at the beginning of 2004, it has taken a year or two for Santana to become recognised as one of the Costa del Sol’s leading courses. Measuring fractionally more than 6,200 metres from the back tees, Santana is not the longest course in the area but it’s a potentially dangerous layout, especially if you find yourself stymied behind one of the multitude of avocado pear trees which line many fairways.

The routing is intelligent and the bunkering truly magnificent with brilliant white crushed marble-like sand. The deep greens are devilishly tricky, some are unusually shaped and not a single one could ever be described as flat. Factor in the odd water carry and stunning tee to green conditioning and you have the recipe for excellence which is evident throughout Santana Golf and Country Club.

The gently rolling, former farmland makes for easy walking, unlike one or two other notable courses in the area, for example 

. Undoubtedly Santana is maturing rapidly into one of Robinson’s finest layouts and will soon be sitting at the very top of everyone’s must-play list. Keep your eyes peeled for the occasional Calzada (or Booted) Eagle which can be seen soaring on the warm Spanish thermals. But we suspect you won’t have time to spot one on the 4th hole as you’ll be unable to take your eyes off this incredibly spectacular long par five with its profound bunkering, ball gobbling stream and treacherously sloping green. The 4th is perhaps one of the best, if not the best par five in Spain.

Santana

Azata

Continental Europe

Designed by Cabell B. Robinson and opened for play at the beginning of 2004, it has taken a year or two for Santana to become recognised as one of the Costa del Sol’s leading courses.