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"A Classic George Cobb
Design"
George W. Cobb
(1914-1986) ASGCA
Born: Savannah, Georgia / Died: Greenville, South
Carolina at age 71
George Cobb attended the University of Georgia,
graduating in 1937 with a degree in Landscape
Architecture. He was employed by the National Park
Service as a landscape architect until 1941, when he
entered the U.S. Marine Corps as an engineering officer.
The
Marine Corps recognized in Cobb, a landscape architect
and scratch golfer, the makings of a golf course
architect. So he was assigned to design and build a golf
course for Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Unsure of his
abilities, Cobb asked and got permission to retain Fred
Findlay as course architect, for, as he later put it, "I
didn't want to be court-martialed if it turned out bad."
Cobb acted as construction superintendent on this and a
second layout was built by Findlay at Camp Lejeune.
Cobb’s first solo project at the Cherry Point (N.C.)
Marine Corps air station in 1946. He entered private
practice as a golf architect in 1947 but was recalled to
active duty in 1951. Following his second tour in the
Marines, Cobb reentered private practice as a golf
architect and land planner, opening an office in
Greenville, S.C. in 1956. In the 1950's and 1960's he
served as design consultant to Augusta National GC, and
developed a close friendship with Bobby Jones. When the
club decided to install a nine-hole par 3 course, Cobb
was asked to design it. When Jones authored an
autobiography (Golf is my Game) in 1959, Cobb
drafted the attractive hole-by-hole diagram of Augusta
National used as illustrations.
Though several of his designs were used as professional
tournament sites, Cobb prided himself in providing
attractive, playable layouts that resort players found
enjoyable, not frustrating. |
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