Jan Bel Jan grew up within a golfing family in the Pittsburgh area. Her father, George Bel Jan, was both professional and superintendent, while several uncles were respected PGA professionals. She therefore learned early that a course is not simply a setting for play: it is a workplace, an agronomic system, a business and a different experience according to each golfer’s power and physical capacity. She studied landscape architecture at West Virginia University and also acquired experience as an assistant superintendent. Practical training was supplemented by qualifications as a registered landscape architect and certified arborist. Bel Jan then joined Tom Fazio, holding senior responsibilities in design, construction and project management for more than twenty years. She participated in numerous private-club and resort projects, especially in Florida, learning to coordinate aesthetics, construction, vegetation and highly demanding client expectations. In 2009 she established her own firm. Pelican’s Nest, Jupiter Island, Old Collier, Gateway and Jonathan’s Landing are among principal associations through original work, renovation or continuing programmes. Her method does not rest on one instantly recognisable visual motif but on complete analysis of use. Tee position, approach angle, recovery space, circulation and trees must function for very different player profiles. Bel Jan has played a major role in accessibility. She advocates forward tees that are genuinely designed rather than appended at the end of a project, together with playing conditions appropriate for women, seniors, juniors and people with disabilities. Inclusion does not mean making the course uniformly easy; it means providing equivalent challenges from coherent distances and angles. Elected to the ASGCA in 1990, she served as president in 2019-20. She represented the profession with the National Alliance for Accessible Golf, taught and presented numerous programmes to club, professional and superintendent organisations. The USGA featured her in its Breaking New Ground exhibition concerning women in golf-course architecture. A living architect, Jan Bel Jan represents an essential change in the profession. She helped make women visible within a historically male field and, more importantly, broadened the definition of quality: a great course should be strategic and beautiful, but also ecologically responsible, economically viable and genuinely usable by its entire community.
Vision intégrée de la stratégie, de l’écologie, de l’arboriculture, de l’économie et de l’accessibilité; parcours réglés pour les femmes, les seniors, les juniors et les personnes en situation de handicap sans réduire l’intérêt des meilleurs joueurs.
No published course for this architect yet.
