Dick Wilson

Dick Wilson (1904-1965) from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was a leading American golf course architect. After leaving university he joined the team of Howard C. Toomey and William S. Flynn of Philadelphia. During the depression, Wilson got a job managing Delray Beach Golf Club and he was a course superintendent for a while, then during World War II, he worked on airfield camouflage.

After the war, Wilson became a golf course designer in his own right. The business was slow at first, but by 1952 it had picked up sufficiently for Wilson to take on an associate, Joe Lee, a 30-year-old graduate of the University of Miami.

Wilson's style of course design continued to develop and included broad fairways and large greens. He gave his bunkers a curvilinear form and in flat country, he developed a style in which putting surfaces were slightly raised, making them more visible and also helping with drainage. The axis of the green would be set at a 30 to 45 degrees diagonal to the fairway, with a large bunker guarding the approach. Wilson's courses typically included various artificial lakes, largely to provide fill for the elevated tees and greens, but also for the sake of adding challenge. His designs also reflected the emerging concept that the putting surfaces should be reached by aerial approaches which he emphasized by the use of ponds and bunkers.

Wilson designed or renovated at least sixty courses during his career, many later ones in partnership with Lee, several of which are still highly regarded.