Stephen Kay (architect)

Stephen Kay (born Stephen Kachmarchyk), (b. Sept. 9, 1951) is a golf course architect and member of the exclusive American Society of Golf Course Architects, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, and the National Golf Foundation. He has designed 20 golf courses and performed work at more than 300 other golf courses around the United States.

Early Life

Born in New York City, N.Y., Kay was educated at Flushing High School in Queens. He earned bachelor's degrees in environmental studies in 1973 and in landscape architecture in 1974, both from SUNY (State University of New York) College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse University. He also earned a certificate in Turfgrass Management from Michigan State University.

Awards

Kay’s golf courses have won many state and national honors. Those include:

The 2009 ranking of The Links at North Dakota in Williston, N.D., is ranked 53rd best public golf course in the country by Golf Magazine, and in 2008 as No. 78 on list of America’s 100 Best Modern Courses by Golfweek.

The 2009 rating of Scotland Run Golf Club in Williamstown, N.J., as 15th best golf facility in the United States by Golf World.

Also:

• Architect’s Golf Club in Phillipsburg, N.J., named to Top 10 New Courses in the Country by Sports Illustrated and Links Magazine in 2001.
• Harbor Pines Golf Club in Egg Harbor Twp., N.J., rated a 4-Star Selection in “Places To Play” by Golf Digest in 1998.
• The Links of North Dakota ranked 2nd Best Affordable Public Golf Course in the U.S. by Golf Digest in 1996.
• McCullough’s Emerald Golf Links in Egg Harbor Twp., N.J., voted in Top 35 new golf courses out of 360 in 2002 and in the top two municipal courses to open in 2002, both by GOLF Magazine.
• The Hamlet at Willow Creek in Mt. Sinai, N.Y., rated among the Top 5 New Golf Course Developments in the U.S. in 2005 by Golf, Inc. Magazine.
• Llanerch Country Club of Havertown, Pa., which hosted the 1958 PGA Championship, was voted in the Top 5 Renovations in the Nation in 2005 by Golf, Inc. Magazine.

• Glenwood Country Club in Old Bridge, N.J., was voted Top 5 Renovation in the Nation in 2009 by Golf Inc. Magazine.

Besides the many honors his golf course designs have earned over the years, Kay was presented The Traditions Award for lifetime service to the golf industry, from the New Jersey Golf Course Owners Association in 2007. Also, in an international design competition during Philadelphia’s 1987 celebration of the bicentennial of the Constitution of the United States, Kay and his artist partner were selected as one of 40 teams out of more than 1,000 global entries to have their creation exhibited in a museum. In their design, called “Whole in One,” a concrete pond represented a golf green and a sand bunker represented a cresting wave; a putting cup stood one-eighth inch above the water and contained a pin. Theoretically, the only way to play the golf hole would be to get a hole-in-one.

Career

After Michigan State, Kay was a golf course superintendent and grew in Willow Creek Golf Course outside Detroit, part of the Metro Parks System. He then worked with a small golf construction company before joining William Newcomb Associates, a golf course architectural firm in Ann Arbor, Mich. Kay worked with Bill Newcomb (who was the first architect to work with Pete Dye) from 1979-83. Kay then moved back East to form his own firm in August 1983, adding Douglas Smith as vice president in 2002. Smith became senior design partner in 2008.

Among Kay’s other golf course designs of note are Blue Heron Pines Golf Club in Galloway, N.J., site of the 2003 U.S.G.A. Public Links championship; The Links at Union Vale in Union Vale, N.Y.; Manhattan Woods Golf Club in West Nyack, N.Y., designed with Gary Player; and Stanton Ridge Golf & Country Club in Stanton, N.J.

Meanwhile, Kay has gained a national reputation for his work restoring “Golden Era” golf courses and remodeling many others, including Van Cortlandt Golf Course in Bronx, N.Y., the first public course in the country. His work has spanned golf courses designed by such classic architects as Donald Ross, A. W. Tillinghast, Alex Findlay, Devereux Emmet and Charles Banks.

Most famed among these are Forsgate Country Club in Monroe Twp., N.J. (by Banks in 1931); Hampshire Country Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y. (by Emmet in 1927); Hartford Golf Club in West Hartford, Conn., in preparation for the 1996 U.S.G.A. Mid-Amateur (by Ross in 1914; Lakewood Country Club in Westlake, Ohio (by Tillinghast in 1920; Oyster Harbors Club in Osterville, Mass, (by Ross in 1927); Shackamaxon Golf & Country Club in Scotch Plains, N.J. (by Tillinghast in 1917); Sunningdale Country Club in Scarsdale, N.Y. (by Tillinghast in 1918; and The Seawane Club on Long Island, N.Y. (by Emmet in 1927.

Kay has taught at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., since 1985 in the Professional Turfgrass Management Program. Today he teaches Construction 1; Construction 2; Surveying; and Design, History and Principles.

Kay describes his design philosophy as echoing that of the great masters and adds, “We design and renovate courses that are memorable, visually stimulating, within the club’s time frame and budget, and that are enjoyable for all golfers.”

External links

• Siart, Jess. October 29, 2009. "ESF alumnus, golf course architect, reflects on successful career," The Daily Orange, p. 7. Available: http://media.www.dailyorange.com/media/storage/paper522/news/2009/10/29/News/Esf-Alumnus.Golf.Course.Architect.Reflects.On.Successful.Career-3817126.shtml.