Donald Ross (1872-1948) was one of the most significant golf course designers in the history of the sport. He was born at Dornoch in Scotland, but spent most of his adult life in the United States. Golf is a game where individual players or teams hit a ball into a hole using various clubs, and is one of the few ball games that does not use a fixed standard playing area. ... Location within the British Isles The Royal Burgh of Dornoch is a burgh and seaside resort in Sutherland, Highland, on the east coast of the Scottish Highlands, and the north shore of the Dornoch Firth. ... Royal motto: Nemo me impune lacessit (English: No one provokes me with impunity) Scotlands location within the UK Languages English, Gaelic, Scots Capital Edinburgh Largest city Glasgow First Minister Jack McConnell Area - Total - % water Ranked 2nd UK 78,782 km² 1. ...

Ross served an appreticeship with Old Tom Morris in St Andrews before investing his life savings in a trip to the U.S. in 1899 at the suggestion of a Harvard professor named Robert Wilson, who found him his first job in the America at Oakley Country Club in Watertown, Massachusetts. In 1900 he was appointed as the golf professional at the Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina, where he began his course design career and eventually designed four courses. He had a moderately successful playing career, winning three North and South Opens and two Massachusetts Opens, and finishing fifth in the 1903 U.S. Open and eighth in the 1910 British Open. He later gave up playing and teaching to concentrate on course design, running a substantial practice with several assistants and summer offices in New England. Tom Morris, Sr. ... Named after Saint Andrew, the Royal Burgh of St Andrews is a coastal town in Fife, Scotland, and the home of golf. ... Seal of Watertown, MA Browne House. ... Pinehurst Resort is an upmarket spa resort in the U.S. state of North Carolina which is well known as a tournament golf venue. ... Official language(s) English Capital Raleigh Largest city Charlotte Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 28th 139,509 km² 805 km 240 km 9. ... The United States Open Championship is an annual mens golf tournament staged by the United States Golf Association each June. ... The Open Championship logo The Open Championship (sometimes referred to as the British Open to distinguish it from other national opens), is the oldest of the four major championships in mens golf. ... First Flag of New England, 1686-c. ...

Ross's most famous designs are Pinehurst No. 2, Seminole, Oak Hill and Oakland Hills. He was involved in designing or redesigning around 600 courses. In some cases he didn't even visit the site, but on the courses where he was most closely involved he displayed great attention to detail. Often he created challenging courses with very little earth moving; according to Jack Nicklaus, "His stamp as an architect was naturalness." His most widely known trademark is the crowned or "turtleback" green, most famously seen on Pinehurst No. 2, though golf architecture writer Ron Whitten argued in Golf Digest in 2005 that the effect had become exaggerated compared to Ross's intention because greenkeeping practices at Pinehurst had raised the centre of the greens. Pinehurst Resort is an upmarket spa resort in the U.S. state of North Carolina which is well known as a tournament golf venue. ... Oak Hill Country Club, located in Pittsford, New York, a suburb of Rochester, has a rich history of great golf. ... Oakland Hills Country Club, a private golf club in Bloomfield Township, Oakland County, Michigan, has hosted many prestigious professional golf tournaments throughout its history. ... // Jack William Nicklaus (born January 21, 1940 in Columbus, Ohio), also known as The Golden Bear, was a major force in professional golf from the 1960s to the late 1990s, and is regarded as the greatest golfer of all time. ... Golf Digest is a monthly golf magazine published by Advance Publications in the United States. ...

Ross often created holes which invited run-up shots but had severe trouble at the back of the green, typically in the form of fallaway slopes. In the 1930s he revolutionized greenskeeping practices in the Southern United States when he oversaw the transition of the putting surfaces at Pinehurst No. 2 from oiled sand to Bermuda grass.

Ross was a founding member and first president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, which was formed at Pinehurst in 1947. He was admitted to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1977, a rare honour rarely awarded for anything other than playing success. His brother Alec won the U.S. Open in 1907. The World Golf Hall of Fame [1] is located in St. ... Alexander Ross, generally known as Alec Ross and sometimes as Alex, was a Scottish golfer. ...

External links

• Donald Ross Society