Born in 1910, the son of a publican, Eddie Hackett is widely regarded as “the father of golf course design” in Ireland, though he never formally trained as an architect and only really became involved in laying out courses when he reached his late fifties.

His influence on the game cannot be underestimated. As 

 has said, “Eddie is the unsung hero of Irish golf. At a time when there was no money, he travelled the highways and byways of Ireland. Half the people playing golf in Ireland are doing so because of Eddie Hackett.”

Eddie had spells in hospital with tuberculosis as a youngster – he also spent nine months in bed with meningitis during the 1950s – but he took up golf as an amateur at Hermitage Golf Club on the advice of his doctor, who thought the game would be good for his health.

Starting out as an apprentice professional at Royal Dublin, he worked under legendary clubmaker Fred Smyth then ventured abroad twice in his early professional career.

He spent five months with Henry Cotton at Royal Waterloo in Belgium then a year with Sid Brews at Houghton in South Africa, before returning to Ireland to become the professional at Elm Park then the Head Pro at Portmarnock in 1939.

During the war, Eddie wrote a newspaper column in both the Irish Press and the Irish Independent and he helped to arrange exhibition matches which raised hundreds of pounds for good causes. He was an expert clubmaker but it was his skill as an instructor that was most in demand during the 1940s.

He was made honorary secretary of the Irish Professional Golfers’ Association in 1948 then retired from professional golf a couple of years later to “take part in an ill-advised business venture” with his brother which didn’t work out as expected.

After re-instatement as an amateur, Eddie played out of Foxrock Golf Club for a while then re-joined the professional ranks in the early 1960s, offering his services to the Golf Union of Ireland as an instructor, coaching the children of affiliated club members for free. It didn’t take long for him to be regarded as the leading teaching professional in the country.

It was around this time that he was approached by clubs at his teaching clinics for advice on the construction of new golfing layouts. Eddie had already set out small courses for the students at Rockwell College and Clongowes Wood College before being asked to create his first 18-hole course for Letterkenny Golf Club in 1967.

His efforts in Donegal (and at all his subsequent designs) were focused on routing holes through previously uncharted territory to come up with a challenging course that offered the minimum interference with its surroundings. Money was tight at the time, so his ability to produce a quality product for a reasonable price soon made him the architect of choice in Ireland.

It’s reckoned that Eddie Hackett was involved in more than a hundred golf projects across the country – his 100th course was at West Waterford in Dungarvan, where the Spratt family commissioned a championship-standard layout on 150 acres of rolling terrain – and although the vast majority of these layouts are inland tracks, it’s the links courses that quite rightly receive the most praise.

Links of Heaven: Golf Journeys in Ireland

, by Richard Phinney and Scott Whitley, the authors have this to say about the architect: “Every one of his links courses is enormously enjoyable, even thrilling to play, with at least a half-dozen holes that will stop you dead in your tracks in admiration.

The admiration is always as much for Mother Nature as for the architect, however. Hackett never draws attention to himself. There are no bizarre sand traps, ostentatious ledges, artificial mounds or strangely shaped greens so common in modern design.

Because Hackett’s layouts are so sensitive to the natural terrain, there is always a consistent style and rhythm to his links that takes its theme from the specific natural surroundings. Nothing seems artificial or imposed. Hackett would have been horrified to think his courses looked like one another.”

Eddie used to tell clubs not to hire him, saying: “I told them that if I was in your position, and I wanted to make some money, I wouldn’t use Hackett, I’d use a 

.” Some clubs, like Ballybunion and Tralee, did just that.

Waterville chose to bring in another American, Tom Fazio, to upgrade what Eddie had done but, thankfully, most clubs had the good sense to employ the self-effacing man who single-handedly did more than anyone else to shape the modern game of golf in Ireland.

, author Keith Cutten had this to say in his Eddie Hackett profile: “Some reviewers have lacked generosity when appraising his design legacy; levelling the back-handed compliment of ‘simplistic’ against Hackett’s courses. Yet, these people may be unaware of two important design principles that Eddie adhered to: a disdain for both ‘blind’ shots; and hidden hazards. Clearly, when eliminating those linksland elements, and working on a shoestring budget, any layout can appear non-sophisticated.”


“Over the years my very busy designing life has brought me to every corner of Ireland. The highlights of my thirty three years designing would have to be the good fortune to have been commissioned to design ten courses on exquisite links land, extending along the West Coast of Ireland:

Waterville and Ceann Sibeal in County Kerry
Connemara, County Galway
Enniscrone and Strandhill, County Sligo
Donegal at Murvagh, County Donegal
Carrigart Hotel and Rosapenna Hotel, County Donegal
Greenore, County Louth
Carne at Belmullet, County Mayo”

, published in 2002, to Eddie Hackett. An edited excerpt follows:

“I was aware of a certain aura surrounding Eddie Hackett. And having walked, photographed, and played his wonderful creations on links terrain, I increasing yearned for a first-hand telling of his experiences.

The opportunity came about in 1995 through the good offices of Stan Craig, then captain of The Island Golf Club. Stan, who was a friend of Eddie’s, phoned the great man and told him of my photographic activities and general interest in his links design work.

The upshot was that Eddie had us as guests for lunch at his home in Dublin the very next day. I was stunned: what a treat this was, to be a house guest of Ireland’s most respected golf course architect, a veritable legend in his own lifetime.

Eddie recounted how he overcame the scourge of tuberculosis during his childhood before embarking on a career in golf. Born in Dublin in 1910, he was guided into golf by his father during the early part of the 20th century, when it wasn’t easy for a Catholic tradesman to gain access to the Royal and Ancient game in the environs of Dublin.

Associates always speak or write reverentially about Eddie, making a point of highlighting his integrity and humility. There was a true sense of purpose to his golfing achievements in Ireland, in that he often had to work with modest budgets on difficult terrain. Yet at places like Waterville and Belmullet, he succeeded magnificently.

So it is hardly surprising that I should recall lunch with him as an enriching experience, especially when observing his remarkable insight and listening to his gentle words of wisdom. On all matters of golf, he conveyed the simple, clear message of a true believer.

He spoke of simplicity in design and the importance of visible fairways, hazards, and greens. In his understanding of the fragile nature of linksland, he recognised the dangers of careless earth-moving among majestic dunes.

‘I’ve been very lucky in my life, while most people never get to design a links, I’ve done ten. And when I’m out on the course, I pray to the Lord to give me the light to do what is right.’ In his varied and distinguished work, there is rich evidence of answered prayers.”

As Eddie Hackett reflected on a commission in 1970 to design the splendid Connemara links at Ballyconneely, he felt moved to remark: "They had no money, you know. I told them if you're that keen on golf, I'll go down and I'll put a stone in for a tee and a pin in for a green and you can pay me when you can."

Irish golf journalist Dermot Gilleece wrote in 

“As Eddie Hackett reflected on a commission in 1970 to design the splendid Connemara links at Ballyconneely, he felt moved to remark: ‘They had no money, you know. I told them if you're that keen on golf, I'll go down and I'll put a stone in for a tee and a pin in for a green and you can pay me when you can.’

Thirty years later, I made a return visit to Connemara to look over an additional new nine which he designed along the coast. ‘Oh, Eddie was a saint, you know,’ said Fr Peter Waldron, secretary of Connemara GC Ltd. ‘He was totally self-effacing and had more integrity than almost anybody I ever came across. And he worked for pennies.’

Hackett's response to this was: ‘I know I've charged too little all my life, but starting out, I didn't have the confidence in my abilities.’

On a visit to his wonderful creation at Carne in Belmullet, I remember being staggered by his skill, despite the constraints of a tight budget, in finding a routing through its formidable duneland. Afterwards in the charming clubhouse, one of the staff pointed to a chair and table strategically positioned for a perfect view of the links. ‘That's where Mr Hackett would sit on his visits here,’ she said with quiet respect.

Carne remains arguably the most stunning ‘discovery’ I have made in golf. Situated on the wild Atlantic, locals will tell you that on a good day by the 13th hole, ‘you can see them going home from work in New York.’ Naturally, such remarks are richly embellished for the benefit of visiting Americans.

Towering duneland has become something of a cliché in describing links courses but here, the splendour of the terrain makes the term seem almost inadequate. I suppose one's surprise stems from the fact that the site, all 270 acres of it, has been revealed to outsiders, only since the official opening of the golf course.

When one of his great mentors, Jack Mulcahy, died in September 1994, Hackett wrote me a charming letter recalling the wonderful times the two men had experienced together, building Waterville, which he described as ‘a beautiful monster’. He wrote of a phone call he had received from his prospective employer with the blunt instruction: ‘I want you to design for me the best golf course in the world.’

Though Waterville’s current well-being owes much to the upgrading skills of Tom Fazio, it remains a splendid monument to Hackett's original design. And while an enduring respect for Mulcahy was also true of all his clients, he retained a special place in his heart for the south Kerry links.

That he survived so long was remarkable in itself, given how frail he was when visiting The Old Head of Kinsale in July 1991. His objective on that occasion was to examine the feasibility of building a course there involving an outlay of several million pounds. Yet his expenses for the trip from Dublin included the item: two nights' accommodation in Kathleen Humberstone's Bed and Breakfast £34.00.

This was the sort of thoughtfulness for his clients' resources which made him a unique figure in Irish golf-course development. Money was always a secondary consideration: his prime concern was to do justice to a site at an outlay which would fit the client's pocket.

Despite fragile health from an early age, Hackett remained extremely active until his death until his death in December 1996 at the age of 86. Indeed, only two months before his passing, he travelled to Wentworth to be awarded a silver medal from admiring peers in the British Institute of Golf Course Architects. No award was more richly deserved.”

 by Richard Phinney and Scott Whitley (1996) In the introduction – under the heading “Saint Eddie” – one of the authors interviews Eddie Hackett shortly before he died.

by Fred Hawtree (2008) includes an essay in golf design in Ireland from Eddie Hackett.

Writing in The Architects of Golf, the authors commented as follows: “Eddie Hackett worked as a golf professional for nearly fifty years, beginning as an assistant at Royal Dublin… he designed his first golf course in 1964 and over the next twenty years designed and remodeled scores of Irish layouts.”

Eddie Hackett

Eddie Hackett is regarded as “the father of golf course design” in Ireland, though he never formally trained as an architect and only became involved in laying out courses when he reached his late fifties.

Tom Fazio was born in Norristown in the northwestern suburbs of Philadelphia and was educated at nearby Lansdale Catholic High School. He “entered the business of golf course architecture as a teenager in 1962,” wrote Geoff Cornish and Ron Whitten in 

, “assisting his uncle George in course construction. His on-the-job training and experience gave him intimate knowledge in engineering, landscape design, soils, accounting and business. By the early Seventies he became a full partner with George and the partnership became one of the nation’s leading course design firms.”

Tom commented as follows in the foreword of his book, 

: “I was fortunate in getting an early start in the golf course design business with my uncle, George Fazio, and learning about golf from George and the great masters who were his contemporaries, men like Byron Nelson, Jimmy Demaret, and Sam Snead. As the business and golf grew, I was lucky in my choice of competitors, too, people like 

, and many others who became friends, as well as competitors. I’ve learned from all of them...”

“When I started in golf design, I remember listening to recognized golf architects and well-known professional golfers talking about “classic” designs, whatever they are, and of building holes styled after the original Redan Hole at North Berwick, the Postage Stamp at Troon, the Road Hole at St Andrews, and other famous places. And I always had the same reaction to such statements: Why would you want to do something that’s already been done? Those are certainly wonderful holes, and stand as historic monuments of the game, but I have no interest in trying to copy them.”

Tom Fazio’s early designs were mainly collaborations with his uncle George, and their first high-end course (Jack Rabbit) was built in 1964 at Champions Golf Club in Houston, followed in 1967 by Edgewood Tahoe in Nevada. But it was their 1970 ensemble at Jupiter Hills in Tequesta, Florida, that blazed the trail for the uncle and nephew team. Top-class designs followed at Butler National (1972) and The National Golf Club of Canada (1974).

In 1972, Tom established his own design firm in Jupiter. According to lore, his uncle George often credited his nephew with vitalizing his own career in golf course architecture. The pair continued to collaborate through the first half of the 1970s prior to Tom setting out on his own.

Accolades are important to Tom Fazio. He’s proud to have been named the top American golf course architect in a poll conducted by 

 in 1991, and he also won a separate award recognizing excellence in golf course design in 1993 and 1995 from the same magazine. He even maintains a dedicated awards section on his website, whereby he states he has fifteen courses in 

’s 2017-2018 US Top 100, “more than any other designer”.

There are currently no Tom Fazio designs in our World Top 100, but there are four Fazio courses in our 2020 US Top 100: Gozzer Ranch, Wade Hampton, Shadow Creek and Victoria National, so there’s no doubt that his creations are still relevant more than fifty years after he started out in the business of golf course design.

Tom’s son, T. Logan Fazio, has been working alongside his father since the mid-1990s – Logan is now President of Fazio Design. Tom’s nephew, Tom Fazio II, also has his own design company, so the Fazio architectural dynasty is future-proofed.

 by Tom Fazio: “In the past, the site was the most important thing we looked for in evaluating a project because the land was the key to creating great golf. In the golden age of golf during the 1920s, this was undoubtedly true. But no more. I’ve heard it said that Tom Fazio only selects good sites and good clients, that he only takes the cream of the crop. Maybe, but only in the sense that the most important thing in choosing a new project is not the site, but the client. It’s important because the golf course that emerges will be determined as much or more by the client’s commitment as it will be by mine, or even by the quality of the raw land. We look for clients who have a commitment to quality golf.

The competition among owners and designers to gain instant recognition is probably the principal reason for the current trend toward grander and more dramatic golf courses. So much is written about golf courses and golf design that stories and press accounts now have become part of this competition. In the past, clients were satisfied with, and golfers were content to play, a course that had three or four memorable holes. Now every new course has to have eighteen ‘finishing holes,’ each of which can be the subject of a spectacular photograph for a magazine advertisement or the front cover of a tournament program. Is that a good thing? I won’t judge either way, it’s just the way things are.

Good friends and casual acquaintances alike have asked me to describe the (design) philosophy I follow and, frankly, all the theories and philosophies seem to me nothing more than pleasant, but idle conversation. The truth is, I don’t really have a philosophy. Granted, we need to follow certain principles and know what our priorities are when designing a golf course, but I don’t believe we can allow them to dictate what fits on the site most naturally. I’ve always believed that that the best approach to designing golf courses is to take the conditions and the priorities and fit them to the site. To do otherwise would be fighting the land.

The classic tension in golf course design is not between risk and reward, but between playability and difficulty. Each day, every hour, we make decisions that affect how hard a golf hole will play. In my opinion, golf should not be easy, nor should it be overly difficult. We try to hit a middle ground between hard and easy so that, depending on how the course is set up, it can be made to play either fairly hard or fairly easy. I believe golf courses should be designed along that middle ground because it is the one most likely to bring the greatest enjoyment to the greatest number of people. That’s an old idea in golf, and one of the best.

Twenty years ago, I was asked by a client to draw up a list of the most important criteria to look for when choosing a site for a golf course. The list I provided included seven elements. They were: sandy loam soil, rolling terrain, reasonable tree cover, a lake or stream, good access, water recharge availability, and good drainage. Today, that list of essential elements would be a lot smaller. In fact, we’ve come to the conclusion that only one item on the list is indispensable for golf: access to a sufficient water supply to irrigate the turf. Even if the land were without features, we could create them by moving enough earth. If the property were without tree cover, we could plant trees, even bigger ones. We can create just about anything today, but without water, you can’t have golf.

When a golf designer finds a spectacular site, it’s natural to say wonderful things about what might be created there. But talk is cheap; the only thing that counts are results. What comes out at the end is not an accident, and it’s not luck. What matters most are all the old clichés, like hard work, commitment, dedication, and finally just getting the job done. We can get lucky once, maybe twice, or even three times. But when we do five or six golf courses a year, as we do every year, the luck wears off quickly.

Part of the enjoyment of golf lies in the visual experience of wandering through a fine landscape and feasting our eyes on the natural scenery. For this reason, we pay attention to the placement of greens and especially tees that offer attractive, long-range views. As much as we can, we want to draw the beauty of the surrounding areas into the golf course by revealing it to golfers particularly in those spots where they pause while driving or putting. Often we will find an attractive natural feature like a lake or stream that is not even part of the property, but with a little effort we can make it a visual focal point for the golf course.

has this to say about the architect: “In a career spanning more than forty years, Tom Fazio has designed, or reworked, more than 200 golf courses worldwide. Interestingly, though, Tom does not live for design. He performs his role, satisfies his clients, and is not known to get bogged down on matters. More than most architects, Fazio thrives on non-design pursuits. In 1993, wanting more out of life and keen to make a difference, he and Sue Fazio, his wife, set up the Boys and Girls Club, Henderson County. This is but one of numerous charities supported by the Fazio family.

It is no secret that the Fazio name moves real estate in a big way; even more so than other ‘signature’ designers. Tom Fazio’s design style is ideal for this arrangement, as his emphasis on aesthetic value suits the marketing needs of most developers. Similarly, his style has displayed well on the covers of the industry’s top magazines. This free publicity has improved his stocks, and those of the courses he has created, frequently leading to higher rankings.”

Shadow Creek: From Barren Desert to Desert Oasis

“Golf shouldn’t be overly difficult, but it shouldn’t be easy.” So says Tom Fazio, who believes that the classic tension in golf course design is not between risk and reward, but between playability and difficulty.

Tom Fazio

Born in the northwestern suburbs of Philadelphia, Tom Fazio entered the business of golf course architecture as a teenager in 1962, assisting his uncle George in course construction.

Kerry

Women's Home Internationals

Irish Women's Close

Ireland

The town of Waterville is a famous angling centre, located on a strip of land that separates the Atlantic Ocean from one of the most beautiful lakes in Ireland, Lough Currane. The name Waterville, or An CoireÁn (Little Whirlpool), is the premier coastal tourist centre of South West Kerry. Every year, Charlie Chaplin came to Waterville with his family, and they have named the annual two-day AM-AM after him. The AM-AM has been held since 1984, a two-day golfing extravaganza involving teams from all over Ireland. It also involves a certain amount of merriment!

Golf at Waterville started around 1889 with a modest 9-hole course, laid out on the eastern section of the present course. In the 1950s, the club folded until Jack Mulcahy (an Irish American) bought the links in the late 1960s. Mulcahy commissioned Claude Harmon, his friend and the 1948 Masters champion and Eddie Hackett, Ireland’s most prolific architect, to design a new course. In 1973, the “beautiful monster” course at Waterville opened for play. Tom Fazio was subsequently commissioned to update the course.

Waterville plays on a promontory surrounded by the sea. It’s a stunning, remote location with views to the northeast of the Macgillycuddy’s Reeks mountain range and to the southwest across the beautiful Ballinskelligs Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The fairways are gently undulating, the front nine plays across relatively flat ground whilst the back nine weaves its way through avenues of tall dunes. The view from the elevated 17th tee, an excellent par 3 called “Mulcahy’s Peak” after the founder Jack Mulcahy, is simply breathtaking.

There are few courses that can boast such a fine collection of unique and great golf holes. Waterville has three outstanding par threes and three excellent par fives, the par fours are pretty good too. The 11th is a heavenly short par five with a rippling fairway protected on both flanks by towering dunes. The 366-yard par four 16th was once called “Round the Bend” because it follows the natural curvature of the Atlantic coastline. It was here that Liam Higgins, the local pro, had a hole-in-one on his way to setting a course record of 65. Fittingly, the hole is now called “Liam’s Ace”.

The remote location of the Waterville links has precluded it from hosting any big competitions, but many famous golfers find their way here and they all leave with the feeling that Waterville is a very special place.

Payne Stewart was due to be Honorary Captain of Waterville in 2000. Tragically, in October 1999 he died when his private jet crashed in South Dakota. A bronze statue pays tribute to him and his affiliation with Waterville.

Waterville

Ballybunion (Old)

Britain & Ireland

Waterville Golf Links plays on a promontory surrounded by the sea. It’s a stunning, remote location...