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“You have to provide an alternate route for them
over the hazard you’ve created for their husbands. A
lady would rather take al2 on a hole than lose a ball.
Golf clubs are more congenial if the ladies are
happy.”
Cobb sees the golf boom continuing because it
appeals to all ages more than any other sport, there
will be more people with more time to play in the
future and today’s society has more money than ever
before.
“Still I worry about something happening and
putting me out of work,” he says.
It really is not work for the Savannah, Ga., native
who is a 1937 graduate of the University of Georgia.
“I’m one of those fortunate people who has a hobby
for a job. I really like what I’m doing.”
He has done well, although it was somewhat by
accident that he became a golf architect.
After being graduated from Georgia, he went to
work with the National Parks Service. Then World
War II came along and in 1942 he was commissioned
to build a course at Camp LeJeune where he was
based. He’s been a golf architect since.
LOFTY CHALLENGE - The unusual course at Kingwood
Country Club near Clayton features Bent grass greens and a
natural challenge.
After the war he started his own firm and now is
one of the foremost architects in this country.
He has more than 17 courses under construction
and has either built or redesigned over 150 courses in
the last two decades.
Among the many courses he has built are the Par
Three Course at the Augusta National Golf Club in
Augusta, Sea Palms at St. Simons Island, Lakeside
Country Club in Atlanta and Doublegate Country
Club at Albany, where one of the hazards is a blue
spring hole similar to the famous Radium Springs
across the river.
He rebuilt the Capitol City Club course in Atlanta
and is presently building the Brown’s Mill Golf
Course for the City of Atlanta. Others to his credit
are the Green Island Hills at Columbus, Statesboro
Country Club and the course at Ft. McPherson in
Atlanta.
“We try to build a course in a development so that
we can get a maximum number of lots on the
fairways,” he explains. “The key thing is the golf
course. It has to be the focal point of the develop
ment.”
Not only must a golf architect have imagination
for creating golf holes and getting the maximum real
Vacation ’7O
estate value out of a resort site, but he has to have an
understanding for many things: grasses, trees, soils,
fertilizer, irrigation, climate and visibility for the
golfer when he stands at a certain point.
It doesn’t hurt if he knows something about wild
animals and reptiles on uninhabited islands. “On one
of the Hilton Head, S. C. courses I once had a boar in
front of me and an alligator behind me.”
He had alligator problems at Sea Palms on St.
Simon’s too, “but they were fairly friendly — at a
distance.”
Experience has been his biggest asset, he feels.
“You learn something every day in this business and
you actually learn as you work a course since you run
into different situations from one job to another.”
Traps and mounds are utilized by Cobb courses, all
of which characteristically have big greens and favor a
hooker.
“Traps are made to help the golfer... let him
know to stay away from dog-legs and trouble,” he
explains. He likes traps around greens “because it
gives readibility. Sand in front and back of the golfer
gives him better depth perception. Traps give a green
sophistication, too.”
Mounds are more natural and he takes advantage
of terrain for this purpose. He likes to “roll” fairways
from side to side and from tee to green.
“Actually I sometimes get a lot of credit for what
the Lord has done,” he says.
One of the advantages he feels he has in designing
courses is that he enjoys golf himself. At one time a
“scratch” player, he now has a handicap of two.
“I enjoy golf very much and always have. It is a lot
of fun to play a course you have built but it never
helps me very much with my score. I started playing
golf when 1 was eight years old and did win some high
school tournaments. Because of labs, though, I
couldn’t play when I was attending Georgia.
“Golf has been good to me and I appreciate what I
have had the opportunity to do. There’s a lot of
satisfaction in having someone such as Cliff Roberts
ask you to re-do some holes at the Augusta National
and to have Bobby Jones ask you to illustrate his golf
book.”
Considering his contacts and travels, he is one of
the best ambassadors Georgia could have.
WELCOME TO OKEFENOKEE - Rising dramatically from
the water like a soaring giant cypress knee the Welcome Center
is the focus of activities for the Okefenokee Swamp Park at
Waycross, Georgia. Walking from the Center into the park, you
soon are caught up in the romantic and mysterious charm of
the “Land of the Trembling Earth.”
James Loran Smith Jr.,
1962 graduate of the Henry
Grady School of Journalism,
University of Georgia, is busi
ness manager of the Bulldogs.
He has worked as sports editor
of the Athens Banner-Herald,
sports correspondent for the
Atlanta Journal and as staffer
for the Associated Press. He is
director of publicity for the
Atlanta Golf Classic and the
coaches All-America Game in
Atlanta, hi addition to his offi
cial duties, he does free lance
writing in his spare time.
A NIGHT TO
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ING 9 FASCINATING TOURS OF
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309 WALKER STREET, S.W.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30313
524-6086
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