L
arry Packard, a Past President and
Fellow of the ASGCA, died on January
28, 2014. He was 101 years old.
Packard began his golf architecture career
in Illinois in the 1940s with Robert Bruce
Harris, one of the founders of ASGCA.
Packard then started his own firm in 1954
with Brent Wadsworth, who went on to
forge a successful career as a golf course
builder and received the ASGCA Donald
Ross Award in 1993.
Packard’s work included Innisbrook Golf
and Country Club in Palm Harbor, Fla.,
where he designed three 18-hole courses in
addition to a nine-hole layout; Turnberry
Country Club, Crystal Lake, Ill.; Lake
Barrington Shores, Barrington, Ill.; and
Countryside Country Club, Clearwater, Fla.
Since his passing, golf industry leaders
and ASGCA members having taken note of
both Packard’s design work and his legacy
of service to ASGCA and the profession of
golf course architecture.
“Larry Packard was a pioneer in the game
of golf,” said ASGCA President Rick Robbins.
“Those who influenced his work date back to
the 1800s, and the courses Larry designed
still stand today and will for decades. Those
who play the game will be positively impacted
by Larry Packard for generations to come.”
Ron Whitten wrote on GolfDigest.com
of Packard’s specialty, the double dogleg
par-5 shaped like the letter S, highlighting
the famous 14th at Innisbrook Copperhead
as well as an “unheralded Packard gem,”
saying: “I defy anyone to play the mammoth
live oak-lined par-5 11th at Cypress Run
without feeling outside one’s comfort zone”.
Whitten adds: “if I were developing a low-
budget public golf course today, I’d be smart
to incorporate some of Larry’s principles into
the design. Make it pretty but not lush. Shape
it to be mowed mechanically, not by hand.
Provide some easy holes and a few strenuous
ones to keep things interesting. Larry Packard
is gone now, but his architecture remains.”
For more on the work of Larry Packard,
review the article ‘A century of service’ that
appeared in Issue 14 of
By Design
DIGEST
07
Golf Channel profiles Hanse
E. Lawrence Packard
2016 Olympic Games
The Golf Channel TV network has given
viewers an exclusive glimpse into the
preparation of the 2016 Summer Olympic
Games golf course in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
through multiple interviews with the
course’s designer Gil Hanse, ASGCA.
An hour-long episode of
In Play with
Jimmy Roberts
, which first aired on
February 24, profiled Hanse and his work
on the Olympic golf course. For the past
two years, Golf Channel cameras have
captured the development process of the
course, including Hanse’s initial visit to the
proposed site in 2011, his winning bid to be
architect and course designer in 2012 and
the current shaping of the course.
“I don’t know that we will ever get to
build a more significant golf course,”
said Hanse in the program. “It is the
opportunity of a lifetime.” In interviews,
Hanse also opened up about family
stresses during the construction process—
his family moved to Rio in January
2013—his frustrations with the delays of
the course development and how he, his
family and his management team have
overcome these struggles and are moving
forward with a scheduled completion of
the course in 2014.
Search for ‘Gil Hanse’ on
to view the program
ESPN launches
Falling for Golf
ESPN is giving some of
world’s top golfers a chance
to say how they fell in love
with the game in a new
feature on its site. “Every
golf fan has a story, and so
does every golfer,” ESPN
says on its site. “That’s why
we posed the question to
many of the world’s best
players.” So far, ESPN
has profiles on 12 players
including Justin Rose, Stacy
Lewis and Kevin Streelman.
Toro unveils zero-
turn bunker rake
Toro has launched a new
zero-turn mechanical rake
that aims to assist golf
course professionals by
significantly cutting daily
bunker grooming time and
labor. The Sand Pro 2040Z
features a new flex tooth
rake with a patent-pending
Lift in Turn system that lifts
the inside rake during
a tight turn, leaving no
unraked teardrops or tire
marks behind.
Albanese &
Lutzke turns 10
Albanese & Lutzke, the
construction management
firm of Paul Albanese,
ASGCA and Chris Lutzke,
is celebrating its 10th
anniversary. “Over the
past decade, our firm has
garnered many awards
and recognition of which
we are very proud,” said
the firm. “We have many
notable accomplishments
and developed valued, long
standing relationships with
our clients and colleagues.”
Industry pays tribute
to pioneering architect
