Architect Bio: Bobby Weed

LAS VEGAS

Few golf course architects have been better prepared for the science and art of design than Robert C. Weed Jr., who as a precocious young teenager turned his father's soybean field into a driving range, and who later churned out fields of green for the PGA TOUR as its chief designer of Tournament Players Clubs.

Weed began playing golf when he was 10 years old. He studied agronomy in college, became an assistant superintendent at Amelia Island Plantation and apprenticed under Pete and Alice Dye beginning in 1980 at Long Cove Club in Hilton Head, SC. Two years later he became head superintendent at Dye's famous creation, the Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL. Three years after that, once he had undertaken to rework a bit of Dye's magic at the Stadium Course at Sawgrass, Weed was promoted to construction superintendent for the TPC network.

All of that led up to the job that brought Weed to prominence. In 1987, he became chief designer for PGA TOUR Design Services. In that capacity he created a variety of high-level layouts and collaborated with a number of players, including Raymond Floyd, Jack Nicklaus, Mark McCumber, Arnold Palmer, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Roger Maltbie and Fuzzy Zoeller.

With the help of Floyd, Weed cut a green swath through canyons and arroyos north of Las Vegas to create the TPC at the Canyons, which is co-host to the PGA TOUR's Invensys Classic at Las Vegas.

Among Weed's other credits in the TPC network include the TPC at Summerlin, also in Las Vegas, the TPC of Tampa Bay, the TPC at River Highlands in Cromwell, CT, and the Valley Course at the TPC at Sawgrass.

Weed started his own design and construction business in 1995. In addition to original designs, he has undertaken a number of restoration projects. Regardless of the task, Weed insists on courses of classical strategic value, which he learned from Dye, while stressing sound construction and maintenance standards. His company's motto is: "design complements maintenance and maintenance complements design."

He applies a minimalist approach to his golf courses, creating holes that fit the ground, the landscape and the surrounding environment. Wherever possible and feasible, he insists on building tees close to greens to promote walking.