44 Not every golf architect becomes a household name, but all who have been in the profession for any length of time have interesting stories to tell. Bill Amick became a golf designer in the 1950s, and set up his own practice in 1959. Since then, he has designed more than 75 golf courses, several of which hosted PGA Tour events. Amick became a member of the American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA) in 1966, the same year as Pete Dye, and he is still a regular at ASGCA meetings, though he is retired. One might call Amick a journeyman golf architect. Yet his story is fascinating; a child of the Depression who discovered golf as a youngster and made it his career. It helps that he is a charming and garrulous man; few can have spent time with Bill and not left the conversation smiling. “My father was in the US Army during the Second World War,” he says. “His last duty assignment was at a camp near Durham, North Carolina, where I attended one of Byron Nelson’s 11 straight PGA Tour victories in 1945, at the Donald Ross-designed Hope Valley CC. Also near there was a municipal course where I played my first round of golf, and became hooked on the game. “After my father was discharged, we returned to Columbus, Ohio, where I caddied and then had a junior membership at the Donald Ross-designed Wyandot municipal course, previously Wyandot Country Club. I played on my high school and college golf teams yet had no idea what I wanted to do as a future career. That is until I was in my Ohio Wesleyan University’s infirmary as a junior with the flu. There to pass some time I picked up a copy of an old New Yorker magazine containing an article about Robert Trent Jones. Reading it, either despite or perhaps Bill Amick has had a long career in golf design. Now retired, he remains active in the American Society of Golf Course Architects, of which he has been a member for almost 60 years. Adam Lawrence spoke to him about his life, and his attempts to encourage golfers to play shorter courses. Long calling for short BILL AMICK INTERVIEW “ I told my wife – only partly in jest – that even if she and I starved, I could still say that I once called myself a golf course architect”
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