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| Gordon Desmond Muirhead
The Picasso of Golf Course Architecture
 Desmond Muirhead is remembered for many things: his fully integrated course communities like McCormick Ranch in Scottsdale; the graceful artistry of the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills near Palm Springs; his bold experiments, like island fairways and alternate greens at Bay Meadows in Jacksonville, Fla.; his six-year partnership with Jack Nicklaus, which produced Muirfield Village and Kings Island in Ohio; and the overt symbolism of his holes at New Jersey's Stone Harbor. He was eloquent, thoughtful and provocative but did not design that many golf courses (around 35).
Muirhead was not a typical golf course architect. Where many have a long history of golf and love to play the game, Muirhead carried a high handicap and rarely played. What separates Muirhead from other golf course architects of note is that he is an artist and urban designer first, and golf course architect second.
Muirhead was trained as a land planner and architect, and did not get involved in golf course architecture until he worked on retirement communities in Arizona in the early 1960's – like McCormick Ranch in Scottsdale. He jumped at the opportunity to design golf courses along with his housing developments and turned out some quality layouts. His engaging personality found him an alliance with layouts. His engaging personality found him an alliance with Jack Nicklaus, and he worked with Jack on a number of projects until the mid-1970's.
Muirhead designed golf holes as art, mythology, and sculpture. He attempted to introduce "literal symbolism" to the staid world of golf. However, he was the first to understand the importance of a safe relationship between the golfer, golf course, and adjacent real estate and urban development – commonplace in newer courses today.
Playing a Desmond Muirhead golf course, a player may experience the game as environmental art. On the other hand, a golfer could well encounter a Muirhead hole as a primitive seaside dune with a hole and flagstick in it. That is why Muirhead's creativity and flair deserve our attention.
Desmond Muirhead was born in 1924 in England and died in May 2002 at age 79.
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