Michael Riley

Michael Riley is an American golf course designer and landscape architect who graduated with a degree in horticulture from Clemson University. From 1983 Michael worked as a design associate at Nicklaus Design, where Jack Nicklaus himself became his mentor as he witnessed firsthand how the new and up and coming master of golf designs wielded his magic on golf projects.

Riley also worked in Atlanta with Bob Cupp, assisting on renovations and updates of several golf courses in the area before he started his own business in 1992 – Michael Riley Design LLC. He remains the president and CEO of the company which is based out of Marietta, Georgia. Aside from golf design and architecture, the company also offers groundwater remediation, hardscaping, earthwork, and other services.

Michael Riley’s designs are notable for being unafraid of unorthodox structures and bold architecture. For example; in his work at Reunion Golf Club in Hoschton, he implemented a string of echelon bunkers across the middle of a grand fairway with two alternating putting areas separated by a chasm bunker. The design was considered too risky by many – but Riley was able to pull it off with his combination of experience and a classical aesthetic method.