By Design - Summer 2018

20 | By Design I n his senior year of high school, new ASGCA President Jeff Blume was a pretty fair golfer. Good enough, in fact, to draw attention from the golf coach at Methodist College in North Carolina. That’s when Blume’s father sat him down for a father-son talk. “He asked me if I really thought I could make money one day as a golfer,” Blume said. “I told him, ‘No, probably not.’” Methodist’s loss became golf course architecture’s gain. Blume’s personal and professional path has not always been a straight road, but rather one influenced by numerous people and places. The son of a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot who would ultimately retire as a two-star general, Blume moved nine times before graduating high school, including living five-and-a-half years on German air bases. Having been introduced to golf by his dad and grandfather, Blume often played at Woodlawn Golf Course in Ramstein, Germany. Whether he always paid the greens fees is another matter. “I’d throw a bag over my shoulder, sneak under the fence and play as many holes as I could before sneaking back out and returning to base,” he said. Blume’s grandfather played golf for seven decades. One of Jeff’s prized possessions is a photo (see left) featuring four generations of Blume men on the course together; grandfather, father, Jeff, and Jeff’s then six-year-old son, Keaton. Blume followed his father in attending Texas A&M University, where he studied Landscape Architecture and met his wife, fellow-Aggie Judlyn. Committed to golf course architecture, Blume’s professional life was influenced by two successful but quite different men; ASGCA Past President Jeff Brauer and golf course architect Robert von Hagge. Nearing graduation, Blume continued a friendship he had struck up with von Hagge and was nearly hired. “But Bob needed a guy before I graduated,” he said. Blume made enough of an impression that von Hagge wrote on his behalf to a number of architects—including ASGCA members Jack Nicklaus and Tom Fazio—before Blume eventually joined Brauer’s firm. “Jeff is the one who taught me everything I know about how to design a golf course,” Blume said. “Technically, he is as good as it gets; a great teacher.” Blume thinks of Brauer each time he approaches a new design. “Jeff is a technical guy. He taught me to grade out those greens at scale and get it right, or else you will do it again…and again…and again. You need to understand the science and engineering to know how it will work, and in the field the artistic stuff takes place.” Blume learned the “artistic stuff” from von Hagge, who he joined after four years with Brauer. International flavor, from the heart of Texas INTERVIEW Jeff Blume brings a world of experience to his clients, and the ASGCA presidency. Marc Whitney finds out more.