Denis Griffiths

Denis Griffiths did not grow up in a golfing family and played numerous other sports as a youth. A knee injury prevented military service during the Vietnam War and altered his professional direction. He studied landscape architecture at Iowa State University, graduating in 1970. His first golf position was with Davis, Kirby & Player, a firm connecting technical architecture with Gary Player’s signature. When partners moved on, Griffiths continued working with Ron Kirby. The pair also completed behind-the-scenes assignments for the emerging Jack Nicklaus organisation. When Nicklaus proposed absorbing both men, Kirby accepted while Griffiths chose independence. In 1987 he purchased the original company and established Denis Griffiths & Associates near Atlanta. The firm worked throughout the south-eastern United States and internationally. The Georgia Club, Brasstown Valley, President’s Reserve at Hermitage, Fox Hollow, Chateau Elan and St Andrews Bay in Scotland are among its associations. Other assignments took place in Spain, South Africa, Japan and Thailand. Griffiths seeks maximum advantage from existing terrain. Routing follows landform, useful vegetation is retained and difficulty can be adjusted. Strong players should discover strategy while ordinary members retain enjoyment. This approach is especially appropriate to complicated sites with environmental, topographical or economic constraints. A former ASGCA president, Griffiths also trained or employed several architects. Later he concentrated more work around Georgia in order to visit projects frequently and remain close to construction. A living architect, he represents a less public but essential model: the independent practitioner able to manage landscape, client, construction and daily club operation. His full birth date is not reliably confirmed in public professional sources.