51 REES JONES to have such high-quality people on my team. We’re really co-designers on most of our projects.” And that’s not the only collaboration on his resumé: Rees is co-credited along with some of the most famous professional golfers. “When I designed Golf Santander in Madrid, Spain, for the bank of the same name, I did it for Seve Ballesteros’s father-in-law, Emilio Botín, who ran the bank,” he explains. “Because of Mr Botín’s relationship with Seve I was fortunate that he was able to contribute to the design. Recently I have had the pleasure of collaborating with Hideki Matsuyama on the Taiheiyo Club’s Gotemba course in Japan. He was very helpful because he had played the golf course often while it hosted the Taiheiyo Masters.” Rees has worked all over the world, including, more recently, on several highprofile projects in Japan, starting with the West course at the Ibaraki club in Osaka, whose East course was touched up by Hugh Alison during his trip to Japan in 1930. At Ibaraki, Rees removed the two greens per hole system used on so many Japanese courses to cope with the radically different summer and winter weather. The redesign was so well received that the course was chosen to host the 2024 Japan Open. He has since worked on a number of other high-end Japanese courses. “I’m very proud of our work, because I think we are helping to transform the style of Japanese golf,” he says. In his long career, Rees has seen a lot of different trends in golf architecture. He says that the key to remaining successful is a resolute focus on the most important aspect of the job: playability. “The more you do, the more you learn, and you have to keep learning,” he explains. “I’ve been fortunate to work on some of the best sites in golf. I think the reason I was selected to work on so many premier projects is that I try Photo: Jeffrey Bertch The course at RedStick Golf Club is one of 11 original Rees Jones designs in the state of Florida and more than 100 worldwide “ The success of the company is because I was fortunate to have such high-quality people in my team”
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