A popular and respected figure on the Asian golfing scene for more than three decades, Michael Kahler passed away recently. As well as acting as Managing Director Asia/Middle East and Senior Designer with Robert Trent Jones II, Michael was among the original Board members of the Asian Golf Industry Federation in 2010. Robert Trent Jones Jr reflects on his colleague and friend.

Michael Kahler was larger than life. Many of you know the history of this big man from the big state of Texas so I’m not going to dwell on his education and migration to Asia. I will say, though, he was an adventurer by nature. 

Our firm became active in Asia in the late 1960s in Karuizawa Golf ‘72 Japan where Whitey Wardell from California, a supervisor, and Al Furber from Canada, a shaper worked. 

When the opportunity came to build Navatanee in Bangkok, Thailand, later host of the 1975 World Cup, Al Furber oversaw the work.  Al was persuaded to stay in Asia as our work expanded and where our firm established offices in Singapore and Manila.

Eventually Mike Kahler joined the office in Singapore. He and Al bounced around from Indonesia and Malaysia to mainland China. Don Knott and I knew Asia well and had wonderful working and personal relationships with them. 

When Al Furber suddenly died in 2000, Mike took up his duties and eagerly went to places such as Egypt and Dubai as well. Before that, when Al and Mike were finished working, they stayed late into the night drinking and talking. They were more than colleagues, they had become brothers.

During the growth of golf in mainland China I spent a lot of time with Mike pursuing work in Beijing with Wanda or on the site working from Fujian to Changbaishan. 

Mike would socialise with the Chinese over their long eating and drinking dinners well into the night. Because they respected him, Mike could demand and have his way on technical matters. He was bigger in life in China, too.

At one time, he had actually gotten bigger and decided to go on a strict diet. This was equally difficult for me who travelled with him through the airports in China as we passed by every delicacy you could think of without buying anything. 

This was an essential part of his character – when Mike decided to do something, he was all in.

Mike had many friends in Asia and elsewhere. Memory is an ephemeral state of mind. When you actually visit a site he worked on, Mike will be there, alive again.

*To honour Michael Kahler, please visit: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-bring-michael-kahler-home