Mike Strantz

Mike Strantz originally enrolled at Miami (Ohio) University to pursue his passion and gift for visual art. However, concerned about the financial viability of an artistic career, he transferred to Michigan State University’s turfgrass management program. Having worked summers on the maintenance crew of Chippewa Golf Club, southeast of his home city of Toledo, he dreamed of becoming a golf course superintendent.

Yet Strantz’s career trajectory changed once again when, on the grounds crew of the Inverness Club, he met Tom Fazio, who had been hired to alter the course in preparation for the 1979 U.S. Open. Fazio was impressed with Strantz and hired him soon after Strantz graduated from MSU. Strantz’s first project under Fazio was the North course at Moss Creek Golf Club (1978) in South Carolina. He assisted Fazio with many other important designs in the American Southeast, such as Wild Dunes Resort (1980), Lake Nona Golf and Country Club (1986), Wade Hampton Golf Club (1987), and Black Diamond Ranch (1987). During his time with Fazio, Strantz and his wife moved to Mount Pleasant, outside of Charleston, South Carolina.

Strantz left Fazio in 1987 and formed his own business in 1988, teaming up with former PGA Tour pro Forrest Fezler to form an architecture firm called Maverick Golf Design. The firm’s first projects were to reconstruct Fazio’s Wild Dunes Resort after Hurricane Hugo virtually demolished the course in September 1989, and to help construct Dunes West with Arthur Hills (1991) in Strantz’s adopted hometown.

Strantz was given his first original design project at the Legends Golf Resort, when he replaced Tom Doak as the lead architect of its Alister MacKenzie and George Thomas-inspired Parkland course (1992). His first chance to develop an individual style came at the nearby Caledonia Golf and Fish Club (1994), arguably the most original modern Carolina Lowcountry golf course yet built. Off the strength of this course, Maverick Golf Design was commissioned to lay out two more new courses east of Richmond, Virginia, in close proximity: Royal New Kent Golf Club (1996) and Stonehouse Golf Club (1996).

Strantz returned to Pawleys Island to build True Blue Golf Club (1998), next door to his debut design, but in an entirely different style. Meanwhile, he designed Tobacco Road Golf Club (1998) in the North Carolina Sandhills, arguably his magnum opus and the course for which he is best known today. Another inland North Carolina layout followed at Tot Hill Farm Golf Club (2000).

Back in the Lowcountry, Strantz laid out yet another bold design at Bulls Bay Golf Club (2002), complete with manmade dunes and an artificially elevated clubhouse. That same year, Strantz received a serious tongue cancer diagnosis, and Bulls Bay ended up being his last solo new build. Before his tragic death, Strantz completed two projects in California: a renovation of a Ted Robinson original at Silver Creek Valley Country Club (2002), and, more notably, a complete redesign of the Shore course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club (2003). Deep into cancer treatment, Strantz put his heart into the Monterey project, knowing it would be his last, with Fezler on site to carry out the work that Strantz couldn’t. The course became one of his best-regarded works.

Strantz lost his battle with cancer in 2005, aged 50. Although the untimely death of such a unique, artistically talented architect is one of the great tragedies in the modern history of the industry, Strantz’s courses are rightfully respected, even revered by many enthusiasts and architects today.