Did he actually make golf more difficult for everybody, not just the touring pros?
Rees: One thing that Dad did that I’ve followed in designing for championship courses is he created a very rigorous examination for the elite golfers but then by cutting the rough, widening the fairways, and taking the speed out of the greens, he could give the course back to the members as an enjoyable facility. Of course, a lot of these courses today are hard for everyone. Bob: He wanted the game to be fun for everyone, but he knew that where you got the most publicity was championship golf. So he could remake a US Open course, or make a new course that would host the Open such as Bellerive or Hazeltine, very hard. He was definitely into hard. He made all the design elements tough and challenging. And he was current with the relevant sciences and technologies of his time – and even thinking ahead with some of them, such as agronomy, civil engineering, and construction? Bob: He taught me how to use a slide rule back at a time before computers. He was capable of doing all the elements
