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ROBERT
VON HAGGE
President and CEO
Robert von Hagge was literally born
and raised on a golf course. For six years in the 1920's, his father,
Ben F. von Hagge, was associated with Donald Ross, the famous Scottish
golf course architect. Ben then became a country club manager and developer
of club facilities, in and around the Chicago area. He won the Chicago District
Golf Association Top Turf award seven times in a period of fourteen years
in which he competed, while simultaneously managing the various clubs with
which he was then affiliated.
Before his 17th birthday, Robert von
Hagge had worked as a caddy, a shop boy (cleaning and repairing golf clubs),
a caddy master, a golf course maintenance crewman, an assistant greens superintendent,
assistant golf professional, and as a commercial illustrator for sporting magazines.
After graduating from high school, he entered Purdue University Agriculture School,
and majored in landscape architecture. Additionally, he served in the United States
Navy's advanced V-12 O.C.S. program. While attending Purdue studying spatial planning
and design, he subsidized his student income by freelancing as a commercial artist
for outdoor magazines.
In 1955, Dick Wilson, one of America's foremost golf course architects, employed him as
an apprentice golf course designer. By 1959, Robert was being recognized within the
profession as a principal designer with the Wilson firm. By the year's end in 1962,
he had been involved in all or part of the design of 40 golf courses in the U.S. and
the Caribbean and four foreign countries. Late that same year, he resigned his affiliation
with the Dick Wilson Company in order to start his own firm.
To date, Robert von Hagge has created some of the
world's most outstanding and award-winning courses, and has been responsible for the
design, redesign or partial design of over 250 golf courses in the U.S., Caribbean,
and 16 foreign countries.
von Hagge, Smelek and Baril have created
internationally-recognized courses in over 50 cities including Paris, Milan, Buenos Aires,
Caracas, Mexico City, Sydney, Tokyo, Madrid, and Genoa to name a few. In the U. S. we have
courses in Miami, Philadelphia, Long Island, San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, Orlando, Naples,
Ft. Myers, Phoenix, Tampa, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Albuquerque, and literally
dozens more.
To view specific
information about each of the designers, please click their name
below:
Robert von Hagge
Michael J. Smelek
Richard A. Baril |
