Brookfield, Wisconsin, United States: American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA) Past President Robert Trent Jones Jr has been chosen as the 2024 recipient of the ASGCA Donald Ross Award.

The award, given annually since 1976, is presented to a person who has made a significant contribution to the game of golf and the profession of golf course architecture.

It will be presented to Jones at the ASGCA Annual Meeting in San Francisco, on November 11.

Jones learned about golf at Winged Foot Golf Club in New York from the legendary Tommy Armour, who taught him the techniques of good golf form and captured his imagination with the game’s history.

After studying geology and majoring in history and American studies at Yale University – where he played golf – and attending a year of law school at Stanford University, Jones joined the family business.

His earliest experience was working alongside his father, ASGCA Founding Member Robert Trent Jones Sr, on Spyglass Hill Golf Club in Pebble Beach, California, and other projects in the 1960s. After apprenticeship with his father and running West Coast operations, Jones expanded into Asia with solo international efforts.

In 1972, he formed his own firm, Robert Trent Jones II Golf Course Architects, based in Palo Alto, California.

Known as an early advocate of environmentally sensitive golf course design, Jones continues to respect and embrace nature. His mantra is to ‘listen to the land’.

Jones has designed more than 300 golf courses in more than 50 countries on six continents, including: Chambers Bay Golf Course, University Place, Washington (host to the 2015 US Open); The Links at Spanish Bay, Pebble Beach, California; and Hanalei Bay, Kauai, Hawaii.

In 2024, Jones’ long-time efforts to secure copyright protection for the creative work of golf course architects advanced with the introduction of a bill in the US Congress, the Bolstering Intellectual Rights against Digital Infringement Enhancement Act (BIRDIE Act).

The bill would update the Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act of 1990, which provided copyright protection for buildings, to now extend the protections to include golf courses. The bi-partisan bill, HR 7228, continues to be discussed by the Judiciary Committee.

“Robert Trent Jones Jr is a living history of ASGCA and the profession of golf course architecture,” said ASGCA President Mike Benkusky.

“The courses he continues to design around the world will be played for generations to come, and his commitment to the environment and securing for golf course architects the copyright protection of their work will have a lasting positive impact on the golf industry. He has come a long way from his first ASGCA Annual Meeting, when his father brought him along to serve as bartender,” added Benkusky.

Jones becomes the third member of his family to be named Ross Award recipient. His father, ASGCA founding member Robert Trent Jones Sr, was honoured with the inaugural award in 1976 and his brother, ASGCA Past President Rees Jones, received the 2013 award.

The Donald Ross Award is presented by the ASGCA Awards Committee, co-chaired by ASGCA Past Presidents Steve Smyers, ASGCA, and Rees Jones, ASGCA Fellow.