top of page
This site was designed with the
.com
website builder. Create your website today.Start Now

Ralph Plummer

With over 100 golf courses designed or redesigned in his career, including courses that hosted the US Open, Ralph Plummer has had a tremendous impact on golf course architecture in Texas. Plummer was born in Ft. Worth, Texas in 1900 where he would grow up and find his way into the game as a caddy at the notable Glen Garden Country Club where Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson would begin their journey some years later. Plummer began his career in golf course architecture under John Bredemus in 1927 and wouldn't work on another course till 1935 due to slow times during the Great Depression. In 1935, Bredemus hired Plummer to work on the famed Colonial Country Club alongside Perry Maxwell. While Bredemus and Maxwell receive much of the credit for the courses routing and design, many say that Plummer also played a large role in the design as well as later changes. The same could also be said about the design of Memorial Park in Houston. Bredemus is often noted as sole architect of the course and receives almost all credit for the final product. However, very little is mentioned about Plummer's influence especially in construction. After this, Plummer continued to work on courses such as Dallas Athletic Club, Champions Golf Club, Preston Trail Golf Club, Ridgewood Country Club, and plenty of other courses in the DFW area. He would also go on to join the American Society of Golf Course Architects in 1956 and would later become the president of the society in 1962-1963. His influence on the game of golf and architecture in Texas led to his induction into the Texas Golf Hall of Fame in 2011.

Plummer's design philosophy derives mostly from the financial limitations of the courses he was constructing. Plummer was known to work for next to nothing and taking advantage of what was naturally on the site. Arguably the most impressive characteristic of his designs was the routing. His ability to use variety, natural contours, and wind effectively rival that of some of the famous golden age architects. One such example is at Ridgewood Country Club in Waco, Texas. Players begin their round with the first two holes playing down toward Lake Waco and then come up to the third where they'll play parkland style golf through hole eight. Following that, players will play in a hill country setting with large rolling contours through the thirteenth where they'll head back toward Lake Waco. The closing holes encompass the contours and styles of play players have played to that point and end the round like its a final chapter in a book. To go along with the courses routing is the variety of holes. The par threes range from 130 yards to 228 yards with the four holes playing in three different directions. The naturalness of his courses aren't what many envision naturalness to be today with fescue grasses and sandy areas. Instead, it was minimal ground movement to get maximum enjoyment for the round. Plummer was often noted for using trees as a hazard instead of bunkers due to the expenses of constructing bunkers. While most golden age architects and fans of golden age architecture would contest that trees are generally bad course design features, its important to see how they could be deemed interesting and strategy driven features of a course. Plummer gets very little recognition for his work on the national stage. However, his impact on golf in Texas has been tremendous and nearly everywhere you go in the state you're never too far from one of his courses. Below is a list of courses designed or redesigned by Plummer that are open for play:

Squaw Creek Golf Club - Willow Park

Sources:

You Might Also Like:
bottom of page