Q&A with Tom Doak

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Interviewed By Matt Ginella

Illustration By Christoph Niemann

February 2009

TOM DOAK is a Pete Dye disciple who has built 26 courses in six countries. Doak and his partner Jim Urbina have been hired by Bandon Dunes owner Mike Keiser to design a fourth course along the coast of Oregon with inspiration from the father of American golf-course architecture, C.B. Macdonald. Ten holes of the Old Macdonald course will be open for play in the spring of 2009, and all 18 holes will be open in the summer of 2010. Doak was interviewed on Nov. 13, 2008.

How were you introduced to the game? Do you remember falling in love with golf or golf architecture?
Two things happened when I was 10 or 11 years old. One, they built a public course about a mile from my house in Stamford, Conn. It's called Sterling Farms, which had a junior program where I could play for a buck in the afternoon -- what golf is missing today. And that's in Stamford, which is not exactly the Midwest, where things are affordable. And then the other thing was, when I was 10 or 11, my dad didn't play a lot of golf. About the only golf he did play was when he went with his company once a year for three days to play with the guys he did business with over the phone all year. That became our family summer vacation when I was little, but when I was about 11, they started taking it to golf resorts. Harbour Town was the second golf course I ever saw. Then Pinehurst and Pebble Beach were in the first 10. The difference between those and Sterling Farms was distinct enough that I got interested in design.

I read that at one point you caddied at St. Andrews?
I caddied there for a couple of months right after I was out of college. I had a scholarship from Cornell to tour the British Isles and figure out course architecture. The first part of that, I was going to work on the maintenance crew, and they were in a deep depression, so I wouldn't have been a town employee, so that wouldn't have worked too well, so I was an independent contractor caddie instead.

What would you say is the key to a good score at the Old Course?
Listening to your caddie and not being confused and indecisive. The first couple of times I caddied there, I would try to explain to people some of the things they couldn't see, and then they would top it off the tee. After a little while I realized there was a lot of psychology involved, and it was, hit it at the church spire and don't tell them about the bunkers 140 yards off the tee.

What makes a good caddie?
Telling you what to do instead of what not to do. You listen to pro caddies and the last thing they always say is, "That's perfect."

What's the lowest handicap you've ever had?
Four.

And what's your current Index?
I think it's about a 10.

Do you gamble on the golf course?
Not for any real money. I play with my associates for a golf shirt. If we're visiting somewhere, someone gets a golf-shirt prize for having been the best golfer of the day.

When's the last time you played 18 holes?
I just played 20 holes. We played twice at the 10 holes of Old Macdonald. I've probably played 30 or 35 times a year on a bunch of really good courses, but it comes in spurts.

Tell me about Old Macdonald. Were you pleased? What was your impression?
I was very pleased. We had thirty or forty people playing because Mike Keiser loves feedback. At Bandon you can only build holes in the winter because in the summer you shape it one day and it blows away the next. In the winter it can still be windy but the rain keeps everything in play. You build golf courses like nine holes at a time over two winters, which leads to the interesting phenomenon of playing half the course while you're still just starting to build the other half. Usually it doesn't work that way. Usually construction is continuous from start to finish. You can kind of start hitting balls around the first couple holes as you're finishing the last couple. But, in this case, you get to play-test it a little bit at the halfway point and say, "OK, it's harder than I thought" or "The greens don't need to be that big," or whatever.

Is it going to play like St. Andrews?
It's very open. We had 40 guys playing 20 holes, and I heard about one lost ball. I think the conditions at Bandon are just like links golf overseas. All three golf courses that are there are really cool, but you don't really play that much bump-and-run stuff around the greens as you do at St. Andrews. I think we'll get a little more of that on this course.

I suppose it's different for you at Old Macdonald because you weren't asked to build your course, right?
We were asked not to build a replica course and so, my thought is, Macdonald is our starting point. Instead of trying to build stuff that looks like holes at Chicago Golf Club, or looks like a hole at the National Golf Links of America, I'm trying to be the Macdonald who came back from the U.K. having seen all of those holes, because I've seen them, too. And, you know, use that background and his love of those holes, but with the piece of land that we've got. I think that me thinking that way, with Jim and all the shapers who work with us, I've got a much better construction team than Macdonald had in 1908.