56 “I decided that I would work harder than everyone else and prove to the world that I could do it. I went to Virginia Tech and studied both landscape architecture and turfgrass management. This meant two full degrees in five years, never taking fewer than 18 credits a semester. The knowledge and support I received from those two programmes gave me the foundation I use every day. I did not have the greatest sense of golf architecture at the time, but I had a deep desire to learn everything about how golf courses worked and why different golf courses were adored.” Once out of school, Green went to work for McDonald & Sons, which was primarily a golf course renovation and construction company. “I started on the construction side of the business but was able to design small projects along the way,” he says. “I soaked in the opportunity to work around some very talented people and on some significant projects. Over time, my role grew into full masterplan designs. The stress and learning curve when you design something, communicate that vision to a client, then have to build it with zero outside help made me a better architect.” Green says that this unconventional route was one of the best things that could have happened to him. “I learned how ideas on paper actually translate into dirt. I learned equipment, drainage, grading, grassing, sequencing, budgets and, probably most importantly, how decisions made by an architect affect the people who have to build and maintain the golf course. “There was certainly a trade-off. I wasn’t working under my own name, so the public credit for the work wasn’t necessarily mine. But I was given opportunities at a relatively young age that I probably would not have received in a traditional architecture office. I wouldn’t trade that experience. It gave Green achieved widespread acclaim for his restoration of the Donald Ross layout at Inverness Club ANDREW GREEN
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