45 because of my temperature of 102 degrees, I immediately decided that’s what I wanted to try to do as a career. After graduating I obtained a USGA graduate assistantship in turfgrass management at Purdue University. Then I served my required active duty in the US Air Force, where one of my duties was being in charge of the maintenance and operation of the Eglin AF base’s golf course in Florida.” Amick started his career working for golf architect Bill Diddel. A native of Indiana, Diddel designed several hundred courses, mostly across the Midwest, during his long career; he was one of the 14 founding members of the ASGCA and served as the organisation’s president twice. Amick then spent a few years working for a course designer/contractor, supervising course construction, before deciding to hang out his own shingle in 1959. Even in the go-ahead times of the Fifties in America, this was a brave move. “I didn’t really know if I could earn a living designing courses,” he says. “But 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. Fortunately, I obtained several courses to design, initially in northern Florida and a couple of other southeastern states – so she and I did survive! And following those I begin to obtain other courses elsewhere to design.” In the years between the creation of his practice and his effective retirement three years ago (more on that later), Amick kept busy. He recalls his career with affection. Asked which of his courses he likes best, he is evasive. “I assume most golf course architects get asked that question, and I assume others have given a similar answer,” he smiles. “Like parents with multiple offspring, I tended to say that I liked each course equally. But obviously, you know that some turn out somewhat better than others due to their site, budget and other vital matters. And certainly, some receive a lot more publicity than others. Killearn CC in Tallahassee, Florida, eventually held Bill Amick was inspired to become a golf course architect after reading a New Yorker article about Robert Trent Jones Photo: ASGCA
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