The phrase “he has many strings to his bow” seems appropriate when discussing Clive Clark, the golf course designer who was named the “Hottest Golf Architect” in a 2001 U.S. golf magazine. Clark, 81, is a man of many parts, who has designed 33 golf courses in the U.S. and the U.K. and is currently redoing the Celebrity Course at Indian Wells in California.
His path to becoming a golf course designer was not the normal one. Born in England, he took art at the A (advanced) level at school and went on to attend art school where he also studied architecture. This marks him out from many golf course designers. So does the fact that he played in Walker and Ryder cups, finished third in the 1967 Open Championship and commentated on golf for BBC TV and CBS.
Clive Clark (right) with Jack Nicklaus after the final round of the 1967 Open Championship.
R&A Championships, getty images
Clark needs little encouragement to reminisce about the 1965 Walker Cup at Five Farms in Baltimore, Maryland, just as he looks forward to this weekend’s Walker Cup, the 51st, at Lahinch in the Republic of Ireland.
The U.S. team 61 years ago was dotted with well-known names – Bill Campbell, Downing Gray, Deane Beman and Billy Joe Patton among them and one that wasn’t so well known though it’s a good name nonetheless – Hopkins, Mark Hopkins. Five of the U.S. team were over 40.
Somewhat against the run of form because the U.S. had never lost a home match (and indeed won the 1928 and 1961 matches by the resounding score of 11-1), Great Britain & Ireland led after each of the first three sessions of play. Before the fourth, the second day’s singles, Clark, who was out last, remembered a conversation with teammate Michael Lunt. “Wouldn’t it be something if it all came down to the last match?” Lunt said. Clark thought to himself: “That would be interesting.”
That is precisely what happened and it was interesting. Clark was 2 down with three holes to play against Hopkins, the man he had beaten, 5 and 3, the previous day. He birdied the 16th to get one hole back.
As he watched Hopkins shank his tee shot on the 17th into adjoining trees 30 feet below the putting surface Clark must have thought to himself “this is my hole. All square going down the last.” But Hopkins somehow got his ball to within 30 feet of the flagstick and then rammed in that putt for a half to remain 1 up.
Clark’s second on the 18th ended 33 feet from the hole; Hopkins hit his third, a bunker shot, to 6 feet from the hole.
COURTESY CLIVE CLARK
“By now there was a massive gallery watching us because we were the only match left on the course,” Clark remembered. “I had been putting well and the great thing when you’re putting well is you expect to hole your putts. It was on line so as it made its way towards the hole I was hopeful it would go in. When it did I threw my hands and my putter in the air.” Thus did the match end in an 11-11 tie. (In those days halved matches were not accorded a half point).
As Clark casts his mind back to that historic day, his thoughts are of the friendships he made from that Walker Cup team almost as much as the putt he sank. “Deane Beman came out to the desert recently,” said Clark, who lives in Palm Springs. “He is still as sharp as a tack. Peter Townsend is living in Norway and has trouble with his eyes. He plays bridge. I tried to meet Sandy Saddler [nicknamed the Forfar Baker because that is where he came from in Scotland and what he did] but we didn’t manage it.”
Clark would not cavil if amateurs from mainland Europe were included in future Walker Cup teams to bolster GB& I’s chances and thus make the amateur event more like the Ryder Cup. “It would be nice if it was a little more competitive and it all came down to the last match,” he said, and given his experience in 1965 he should know.
Back in England, Clark turned pro in December 1965 and soon became first the playing professional and then head professional at Sunningdale Golf Club, among the best known of all English golf clubs, before starting to work as an on-course commentator for BBC TV alongside Peter Alliss. He also did occasional work for CBS.
A phrase of Alliss’ from this time became famous: “How’s it lying Clive?” he would ask during a transmission. In 1988 the two of them formed Peter Alliss and Clive Clark Golf Design, which was responsible for 22 courses including Alcaidesa in southern Spain, Château de la Tournette in Brussels and the Manor House Golf Club in the 13th-century village of Castle Combe, Wiltshire, in England. When work in Britain started to dry up, Clark moved to La Quinta, California, in 1994 and opened a course-design business there.
Clive Clark
Among course architects, he is unusual though far from unique in having been such a good golfer and one who can draw well and do a grading plan for example. “I am not a designer who does 10 golf courses a year but I think because I spend a lot of time on each course and I come from an artistic background … I have a good eye for that type of thing and photography so my mind works in three dimensions which is fairly unusual,” Clark told Golf Destination.
“As a golf pro you tend to be watching the golf ball and where’s my swing at the top rather than the design so … a lot of my work is cosmetic design. Sure there’s strategy, there’s build, there’s maintenance to be involved but I think compared to many designers that is added value.”
Clark’s pride and joy in the U.K. is Dumbarnie, a brawny, thought-provoking and sprawling links laid out on land 11 miles south of St Andrews. “Nearly every hole has views of the Firth of Forth from different angles,” Clark said. “We look straight across at Muirfield with North Berwick to the left and Edinburgh to the right. I was lucky to have such a magnificent piece of land.”
Dumbarnie has won a slew of awards and you sense that if Clark’s work were to be judged on the success of one of his 33 courses Dumbarnie is the one he would choose. “It’s a thinking man’s course," he said and you could hear the smile in his voice as he, a thinking man's course designer, thought of the challenge he has presented to golfers and how hard he has made them think.
Top: Clive Clark tees off on No. 1 at Dumbarnie Links.
courtesy clive clark
