Dick Wilson

Louis Sibbett “Dick” Wilson was born in Philadelphia in January 1904 and introduced to golf at a young age by his father’s business. A dirt contractor, the elder Wilson played a key part in the construction of Merion Golf Club’s West course (1914), for which the young Dick worked as a water boy. Wilson was a football quarterback during high school and enrolled at the University of Vermont to play. However, he dropped out in 1924 to join the golf architecture firm of Howard Toomey and William Flynn, based in his home city. 

Wilson worked variously for Toomey and Flynn as a construction superintendent and a design associate. Most notably, he assisted with Flynn’s expansion of The Country Club in Brookline (1927), redesign of Shinnecock Hills Golf Club (1931), and tweaks to Philadelphia Country Club’s Spring Mill course in preparation for the 1939 U.S. Open. After moving to Florida in the mid-1930s, Wilson oversaw renovation work at Flynn’s Indian Creek Country Club. As World War II approached, Wilson picked up a job as head professional and greenkeeper at Delray Beach Golf Club. When the U.S. entered the war, he was drafted by the military to construct and camouflage airfields.

After the war, Wilson formed his own golf architecture firm. Most of his first jobs were in Florida, laying out 18 holes at West Palm Beach Country Club (1947) and adding nine to his home course, Delray Beach (1950). In 1952, he hired University of Miami graduate Joe Lee as an associate, just as the National Cash Register Company enlisted Wilson to lay out two courses on rolling land in the southern suburbs of Dayton, Ohio (1954). The quality of the NCR Country Club courses, especially the South, vaulted Wilson to prominence. His next two designs, for exclusive clients on the north shore of Long Island at Meadow Brook Club (1955) and Deepdale Golf Club (1956), further established him as a rival to the preeminent post-war architect Robert Trent Jones.

A series of commissions followed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the heyday of Wilson’s career. These included Hillwood Country Club in Nashville (1956), three courses at Royal Montreal Golf Club (1958-59), Coldstream Country Club in Cincinnati (1959), Laurel Valley Golf Club in rural Pennsylvania (1960), the North Course at Wilmington Country Club in Delaware (1962), three courses at south Chicago’s Cog Hill Golf and Country Club (1963-64), Bidermann Golf Course in Wilmington (1964), the nine-hole Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage (1964), Bedens Brook Club near Princeton (1965), and two courses at La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad (1965). Wilson’s résumé in his adopted home of Florida is impressive, with original layouts at Hole-in-the-Wall Golf Club (1957), Cypress Lake Golf Club (1959), Pine Tree Golf Club (1961), Doral’s Blue Monster (1962), and the PGA Tour’s former home of BallenIsles Country Club (three courses, 1963-64). Outside of the United States, Wilson designed Lyford Cay Club in the Bahamas (1959), Lagunita Country Club in Caracas (1964), and Colinas de Villarreal (NLE) on the cliffs east of Havana, Cuba, where Fidel Castro took photos while playing. 

Also remarkable is Wilson’s portfolio of renovations, which includes Moraine Country Club (1955), Colonial Country Club (1956), Inverness Club (1956), Seminole Golf Club (1957), Winged Foot Golf Club (West, 1958), Metropolitan Golf Club (1960), Aronimink Golf Club (1961), Bel-Air Country Club (1961), Scioto Country Club (1963), and the East Course at Merion Golf Club (1964). However, almost all of his work at these historic clubs has since been altered by other architects.

An alcoholic for most of life, Wilson fell on the pavement, likely drunk, in June 1965 while walking home from Pine Tree Golf Club. He passed away in a hospital three weeks later. While Wilson’s life and design career were cut short, his legacy has been substantial. His associate Robert von Hagge became one of the most prolific and well-traveled architects of the late 20th century. Plus, the quality of Wilson’s work has made him one of the only non-Golden Age architects whose courses have been “restored.” In recent decades, Pine Tree Golf Club, Hole-in-the-Wall Golf Club, Coldstream Country Club, and Bidermann Golf Course have all completed historically informed projects.