Rees Jones: The Open Doctor of American Golf

Some architects build a name through famous original designs. Rees Jones built his by being the call the USGA makes when an existing course needs to be ready for the world's best players. Over five decades, his firm has designed, renovated, or restored more than 260 courses, and the nickname that follows him through golf, "The Open Doctor," tells you exactly where he spends his time.

Stymie tracks 64 of his courses across 19 states, ranging from work on courses dating back to the 1920s through original designs as recent as 2002. The geography spans the Atlantic seaboard from Atlantic Golf Club on Long Island down through the Carolinas, west into Nevada and Arizona, and as far north as Michigan. Few American architects have left fingerprints in so many corners of the country.

The Family Trade

Rees was born in 1941 in Montclair, New Jersey, the second son of Robert Trent Jones Sr. He grew up walking courses with his father, attended Yale, and then went to Harvard's Graduate School of Design before joining the family firm. He worked alongside his father and older brother Robert Trent Jones Jr. through the 1960s and early 1970s, then opened Rees Jones, Inc. in 1974 to chart his own course.

His brother went west and built a reputation around routing on dramatic terrain. Rees stayed east, headquartered in New Jersey, and built a reputation around something else: making championship golf work in the modern era.

Earning the Nickname

In the mid 1980s, the USGA asked Jones to prepare The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, for the 1988 U.S. Open. The work he did there became a template. He stretched holes, restored bunker shapes, firmed up greens, and made the course defend itself against the modern long ball without losing the character its members knew. Curtis Strange won that Open in a playoff, and Jones had a new line of business.

The list since then is a tour of American major championship golf. Bethpage Black for the 2002 and 2009 U.S. Opens. Torrey Pines South for 2008 and 2021. Congressional's Blue Course for 1997 and 2011. He has prepared seven U.S. Open venues, seven PGA Championship courses, four Ryder Cup sites, and two Walker Cup hosts. When a classic course needs to host the world's best again, his phone tends to ring.

Original Designs With Range

The Open Doctor label sometimes obscures how much original ground-up work Jones has produced. Atlantic Golf Club, opened in 1992 in Southampton, is regarded as one of the best modern designs on Long Island, a windswept course that sits comfortably alongside its century-old neighbors. Cascata Golf Course in Boulder City, Nevada, finished in 2000, runs a literal mountain stream through the clubhouse and posts a 151 slope from the back tees, one of the steepest tests on Stymie.

Up north, Black Lake Golf Course in Onaway, Michigan, was built for the United Auto Workers in 1999 and plays at a 148 slope across pine and water country. On the Outer Banks, Currituck Club opened in 1996 and threads three distinct ecosystems, dunes, maritime forest, and sound-side wetlands, into a single round. Fiddlers Elbow's Forest Course in Far Hills, New Jersey, sits a short drive from his own offices and shows the parkland style he grew up around.

The Design Signature

Jones courses tend to share a few traits. Greens are firm and contoured but rarely bizarre. Bunkering is bold and visually clear from the tee, with sharp edges and clean shapes that show up well on television. Fairways are generous enough to invite play but penalize the careless approach. He builds for resale value, in a sense: courses that members enjoy at member length and that can be stretched out when a championship comes calling.

That commercial sensibility helps explain his volume. While younger minimalist architects have shifted the conversation toward restoration and sand-based naturalism, Jones has kept building courses that public clubs, private clubs, and resorts can run profitably. The result is a body of work spanning Kentucky country clubs, New Jersey daily-fee tracks, Florida resorts, and Nevada destination courses, all carrying a recognizable family resemblance.

Still Working

Now in his eighties, Jones continues to consult, redesign, and prepare championship venues. The arc of his career has tracked the arc of modern American golf, from the post-Palmer boom through the design oversupply of the 1990s into the restoration era of the 2020s. His firm adapted at each turn without losing what made it identifiable in the first place.

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