golf course designers

Our Philosophy

Burns Golf Design is committed to excellence in the design of golf courses. We strive to create the best golf course possible to meet our client's needs and desires, as well as their budget. Our goal is to create a golf course that is at once extremely memorable and challenging, yet very playable for golfers of all abilities. Through attention to detail and careful placement of hazards, we are able to obtain that goal. Our courses are well respected and award-winning, but unlike many firms, we do not bankrupt our clients to win awards.

We believe in a hands-on approach to design. Only by spending a great deal of time on site can an architect create a truly great course. On site, we can solve problems and make subtle refinements to the design, as necessary, to tailor the course to the site, and enable it to live up to its full potential. These on site refinements can make the difference between an average and a spectacular golf course. Many firms crank out large numbers of generic courses that all look alike, because they draw them up on paper and then forget about them. We spend a great deal of time on site, because we believe that each course should be an individual, appropriate to its site. We desire no trademark style--all our courses will be different.

The only thing that can be said of our courses, taken as a group, is that they all appear very natural on their respective sites. This is not to say that no earthwork or sculpting has taken place--possibly, quite a bit has, but it was done in such a way as to appear natural. Many of the spectacular hills, valleys, dunes, and marshes that appear to be native to our golf course sites may have, in fact, been created. We can take a dull site and make it beautiful, and take a good site and make it spectacular. The secret to this is the ability to recognize the true natural character of a site and develop it to its fullest.