Hale Irwin
During his nearly four decade career as a touring professional, Hale Irwin has amassed 20 PGA TOUR, 45 Champions Tour and eight international victories. A three-time winner of the prestigious U.S. Open and a two-time winner of the Senior U.S. Open, Irwin was a member of the victorious Ryder Cup team in 1971. He began his professional golf career after graduating with All-American Academic honors from the University of Colorado, where was a two-sport scholarship athlete – competing as a member of the golf team and as a two-time All-Big Eight Selection as a football defensive back. While on the golf team, he helped his team earn 11 NCAA titles, and was the 1967 NCAA individual champion.
With experience playing many of the great golf courses around the world, Irwin’s foray into golf course architecture was a natural progression. In 1986, he and his son, Steve – who also played on the University of Colorado golf team – formed Hale Irwin Golf Design, an endeavor that has yielded 18 golf course design projects, with eight projects currently underway, including The Coves at Round Mountain in Collettsville, North Carolina, Lodestone Golf Club in Colorado and Hokukano Ranch in Hawaii.
Hale Irwin Golf Design focuses on creating high-quality, playable golf courses that are classic in nature and maximize the existing terrain to influence strategy: An approach exemplified at TPC at Wakefield Plantation.