Bill Kubly: Five decades in the dirt

Straight out of college, I joined a small golf course design and construction company. Other than the secretary, I was the only permanent employee. That was my start in the golf industry, in 1971.

In that era, there were probably 80 to 100 golf courses being built in the United States at any one time. I had graduated in landscape architecture from University of Wisconsin and studied golf course design in two semesters – so on my first day at the office I sat at the drawing board, ready for work as an architect. Then, a truckload of 40-foot pipe came in for a golf course that was being built. My decision to chip in to help unload it would prove crucial in shaping my career.

Golf course construction in those days was more a mom-and-pop business – small companies doing one or two golf courses. There were only a few bigger builders around.

By 1976 I had started my own company, Landscapes Unlimited, and began with a small irrigation project. In short order I got my first nine-hole golf course – Lakeview in South Dakota. The architect was Dick Watson, the owner of the company that hired me from college. He taught me how to build a golf course – and Lakeview made for a great early job for my own firm. I was lucky to have learned how to run a business from Dick. My recommendation to anybody that wants to get into the industry is to get a good base working for a builder or architect firm. Learn, and grow slow.

My early projects were mainly for regional designers. However, things started to change once I got my first job with one of the big-name architects: Tom Fazio. For someone from Wisconsin to go out to Oyster Bay on Long Island was a real experience. I have since constructed about 30-35 courses for Fazio, a good reflection of the success of our collaboration.

In my early days, I would move to wherever we were building a golf course. Those projects can be the most rewarding – living on a remote site in a location such as South Dakota for a year, where you can experience life a little differently, is a bit of a selling point for me. For the first five or six years I was in the business I would travel to jobs and rent an apartment where we were building a course. For my first Rees Jones project, the people in our building nicknamed us the vagabonds! Those days were some of the most interesting in my career.

It’s a much more professional industry now, because of the proliferation of golf in the late twentieth century. Of course, competition increased, but the cream rises to the top.

A lot of our success is down to collaborating well with architects and we’re proud of those relationships. Our collaboration efforts extend to the development side of our business – Landscapes Unlimited has owned over 30 golf courses in its history, and still owns 12. We are always developing one or two courses alongside a partner, and sometimes that partner is an architect.

One example is Sutton Bay in South Dakota. Architect Graham Marsh designed the course, and he became a close friend during this project. It opened in 2003 but within 10 years, the site was experiencing landslips where some areas were settling. The course was built on land overlooking Lake Oahe, a large manmade reservoir that was formed when the Missouri River was dammed in the 1960s. In response to the site’s instability, Graham, myself and founding partner Mark Amundson raised funds for a second course to be built on a more stable site. Landscapes still operates the club today.

A key project for Kubly and Landscapes Unlimited was the Sutton Bay course in South Dakota (Photo: Landscapes Unlimited)

Things slowed down after 2008. The United States went from building 300-400 courses a year down to 25 – that’s quite a change! The industry, therefore, has had to change. There is a lot more renovation work now, whether that be new greens, bunkers or irrigation, and we’re rebuilding those courses that were built 30 to 35 years ago.

I have built courses around the world, in places like Scotland, Portugal, Mexico and China. We constructed five golf courses in China, the first being Shanqin Bay on Hainan Island. Landscapes Unlimited actually helped designers Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw get the job! Bill spent well over 100 days in China designing that course, working with our shapers and locals. The highlight for me was not just building the course but meeting the local people and living and working out there in a completely different location than the typical American site.

The situation we find ourselves in now, after the pandemic and resulting boom in participation and projects, is one I don’t think will change too much. My prediction is that we’ll continue to see steady business for a long time and, even though there are a lot of builders today, there are enough projects to go round.

Shanqin Bay in China, one of Kubly’s overseas projects (Photo: Landscapes Unlimited)

I am very proud of the evolution of my career and am looking forward to seeing how the company presses forward. The firm started with one project at a time, then two, three and just kept on growing. To date, Landscapes Unlimited has worked on more than 3,000 golf projects, bringing the same expertise and relationship focus to projects and clients of all shapes and sizes. Our team of project managers are really good and will make sure we are in good stead for whatever challenges the golf industry meets next.