The Golden Age greats are admired and applauded for the legacy they left the game. Deservedly so, as they brought us out of darkness and into the light. Sadly, within a few decades, the momentum was lost. Despite a period of enlightenment, golf had retreated into a second dark age. Then, the emergence of Tom Doak...
A French word meaning rebirth, renaissance could not be more fitting for the resurgence in strategic, minimalist golf championed by Tom Doak but also the period ushered in by him and his team since 1989.
Tom Doak will often point to his tutelage under Pete Dye as the genesis of the movement. He also counts Ben Crenshaw and Walter Woods as mentors. But make no mistake, Tom Doak (amongst a handful of others which we will cover in due course) set in motion a movement that has set golf on a heading back to its second golden age.
In this article, we look at Tom Doak's current projects, the portfolio that he and his team have created, and sadly, projects that no longer exist. (His restoration projects and consulting work will be covered in another article.)
A rare Tom Doak restoration. Walter Travis originally designed a reversible course in the 1920's - something he has pulled off before at Forest Dunes in 2016. As well, it's a municipal so there's a good chance you'll be able to play it. The finished project will also include a 9-hole executive course, a par 3 course, mini golf, and a practice facility.
Tom Doak's connection to Crooked Stick dates back to his days with Mr Pete Dye. Eric Iverson, one of Renaissance's principals, is helping out as well. All 18 greens are being reworked and is expected to reopen for play on schedule in 2025.
The second 18-hole golf course at Cabot Highlands, with the first being Gil Hanse' Cabot Highlands Castle Stuart. Will Old Petty challenge the new builds in Scotland for title of best yet?
A flat, sand-based site is the perfect canvas for template holes from Tom's favourite courses around the world. Holes from St Andrews, Muirfield, North Berwick, and Pine Valley make an appearance.
A sand-based site in the north-west of Texas with quartz dunes with a unique crescent shape.
Another Mike Keiser destination golf resort, the property will consist of 36 holes - 18 from Tom Doak and 18 from Coore & Crenshaw. 'Initially' is the key word here as 2400 acres are on hand for potential further development. Tom describes the property as resembling LACC, Pasatiempo and Pine Valley...
A peninsula with ocean on three sides. A very elite private club on a very challenging site make it a once in a lifetime opportunity.
CGI Courtesy Harris Kalinka
A restoration of 6 of Tom Doak's best original holes from 1989 along with 12 new holes.
The first 18-hole golf course at Pinehurst in the parcel of land known as the Pinehurst Sandmines.
Tom Doak pays homage to the London heathlands at Sand Valley.
Tom with PGA Tour player Zac Blair on a routing which was then built by Kye Goalby. It has been a rousing success with the masses, debuting in the USA Top 100.
Photo Courtesy Tree Farm/ Marsh
A public, 18-hole golf course sandwiched between Tom Doak's own Tara Iti and Coore & Crenshaw's Te Arai South.
Tom Doak recreates CB MacDonald's long-lost Long Island golf course. Boundaries were pushed in the making of the course - a triumph of engineering, technology, artisanship and skill.
One of Tom Doak's best, it was a long ambition to build a links in Ireland. Kilshannig in Ireland almost happened and then didn't... So good it has entered the World Top 100 in most rankings universally and then continued to rise.
A municipal golf course in Houston, Texas that also acts as a PGA Tour destination once a week a year... A tour player was involved again but not Jack - this time Brooks Keopka.
Tom Doak returned to Australia more than a decade after Barnbougle Dunes and St Andrews Beach.
Two courses for one with the reversible layout known as The Loop. Red and Black are played on the same course in opposite directions.
From Tom's stable at Renaissance Golf Design: Brian Schneider, Don Placek, Brian Slawnik, and Eric Iverson collaborated on the course that has escaped attention and fanfare in Renaissance's backyard.
A fescue playing surface in Bordeaux amongst heather and gorse. An affordable tee time on a Tom Doak design in the famous wine region of France.
Could this be Tom Doak's greatest design? He counts it amongst his 10 best and it is his his ranked golf course almost universally.
Photo Courtesy Ricky Robinson / Tara Iti
A new course with an old name. With coffers full following the Miracle at Medina, several holes were kept but the majority were lost in a re-route and a new set of greens.
One of the Renaissance top 10 best... as they see it. Contrasting with the Nicklaus design next door and lying west of Coore and Crenshaw's (and perhaps the greatest modern golf course in the world) greatest design.
The home of destination golf. Bill Coore and Tom Doak worked together on two 18-hole layouts before deciding which firm would build each one. A third Gil Hanse design would follow in 2017.
Designed in the style of CB MacDonald through a collaboration between Jim Urbina and Tom Doak.
A 'commoner's course' so to speak. A low green fee on a great golf course - in the spirit of Scottish golf - it's for the people.
A very private golf club in Montana. It is one of Tom Doak's best and the best within two states in either direction.
Photo Courtesy E Schiller
Tom Doak's first golf course in the shadow of Muirfield. His second links at Cabot Highlands will no doubt rival his first layout.
A quite unusual collaboration between Jack Nicklaus and Tom Doak. It was never going to be an easy road and perhaps a missed opportunity by Michael Pascucci. One of the most expensive memberships in the world, it lies beside NGLA and Shinnecock.
The golf course that Tom Doak calls perhaps his most fun. What has become a trademark (if he has one) of bold slopes and contours feeding the ball to the intended target are found here in abundance.
It wasn't a natural site for golf but the desert provides a striking landscape and canvas. It narrowly misses out on USA Top 100. Tom calls it his most complex and difficult job to date.
One of Tom Doak's few golf & residential developments in a state not known for golf.
For an architect known for his minimalist approach, this has been the most natural of all his projects. Just three holes were touched by earth-moving equipment and the rest were found...
One of Tom Doak's greatest works, it paved the way for Tasmania to become the destination golf capital of the southern hemisphere.
The most audacious land used for golf perhaps ever. The 400-foot cliff-top course is a marvel and is perhaps enjoyed most by those who have a minor understanding of designing golf where it probably wasn't destined to be... this is an architect's golf course.
Photo Courtesy Gary Lisbon
When you are a member of both Pine Valley and Merion, what else could you want? 36 holes from Tom Doak where full tee sheets are never an issue... The first 18 were delivered in 1993 before he returned for an encore in 2003.
The course that made Tom Doak an overnight success 20 plus years in the making. Tom Doak describes this site as perhaps the best site for golf since the 1920's. Only Sand Hills ranks higher with regard to modern golf courses worldwide.
Photo Courtesy Patrick Koenig
The Guggenheim family owned the estate from 1918 until 1953. IBM used it for corporate retreats until 1994. The Village of Sands Point bought the estate in 1994 and invited Tom Doak to redevelop the 9-hole Robert Trent Jones Sr 9-hole course into the 18-hole course that exists today.
A renovation of a historic classic. Evolution was the name of the game here with old holes improved and new holes found in land raised from the marsh.
The most complex greens of any design ever built by the Renaissance team. An early Doak design that flies under the radar.
Tom Doak says this is one of the best sets of greens and bunkers built by his team in an insipid landscape...
The cost for a green fee in 2024 was $24... Tom Doak's first golf and residential project.
36 holes of Tom Doak design on a single site. The first 18 were established in 1993.
Tom Doak's second design took inspiration from St Andrews Old Course. The minimalism seen here would later cement his legacy in the pantheon of all-time greats.
Lure in travelling golfers 90 miles north of Phoenix to play golf and unwind at the casino... that was the idea until it wasn't.
The natural, write-your-own-story layout was cannibalised for the new Coore & Crenshaw Sheep Ranch.
The only 9-hole golf course in Tom Doak's portfolio. The resort is scheduled to reopen in 2026 but no golf is mentioned...
Once a bustling golf resort, it was closed in 2018 reportedly due to unpaid taxes.
A land bank project, it served its greater good as a golf course before being developed at the end of its lease.
Tom Doak's only Chinese design, the project was ready to go and then the government stepped in and shut it down. Tom played it twice.
The clients wanted more profit than a Top 50 Public Golf Course in the USA could provide and repurposed the land for commercial development.
The first solo design of Tom Doak. The land made a more lucrative hop farm than it did as a golf course. Recently restored and elevated with new land, High Pointe has been reborn.
The global financial crisis and Mexico's drug war stopped this course was grown-in and ready to open when it was mothballed...
Yet another victim of the 2009 global financial crisis. The course was ready for seeding when the funding dried up. Could this be the only other Tom Doak design that could emerge from the ashes?
