The American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA) will present the Donald Ross Award to Robert Trent Jones Jr. at its 2024 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California.

The award, given annually since 1976, recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the game of golf and the profession of golf course architecture.

In the 1960s, after studying geology and majoring in history and American studies at Yale University (where he played varsity golf) and attending a year of law school at Stanford University, Jones joined his father, Robert Trent Jones, in the family business of golf course design. One of his first projects was Spyglass Hill Golf Club in Pebble Beach, California.

After running his father’s West Coast operations, Jones did international work on his own in Asia before establishing his own firm in 1972. He designed more than 300 golf courses in more than 50 countries on six continents, including Chambers Bay Golf Course in Washington, The Links at Spanish Bay in California and Hanalei Bay in Hawaii.

Jones’ long-standing efforts to secure copyright protection for his golf course designs moved forward with the introduction of the Digital Infringement Protection Intellectual Property Rights Enhancement Act (Birdie’s Act) to the U.S. Congress in 2024.

Read more: Jones provided insight into what the proposed Birdie Law means for golf course architects in the Summer 2024 issue of By Design magazine.

“Robert Trent Jones Jr. is a living legacy of the ASGCA and the golf course architecture profession,” said ASGCA President Mike Benkusky. “The courses he continues to design around the world will be played for generations to come, and his commitment to the environment and ensuring golf course architects copyright protection for their work will have a lasting and positive impact on the golf industry. He has come a long way since the first ASGCA Annual Meeting, when his father took him on as a bartender.”