Rees Jones was born into the game of golf. He learned to play as a youngster and competed as a junior golfer, in college and while in the army. He grew up traveling with his family to golf courses all over the world, working summers for his father. After college at Yale and graduate studies at Harvard, he went to work in 1964 as a principal in Robert Trent Jones, Inc., the golf course design firm of his renowned father. Ten years later, he founded his own company, Rees Jones, Inc., with offices in Montclair, New Jersey, his hometown.

In the last 30 years, Rees has become renowned in his own right, designing more than 100 courses, primarily in the United States. He is also well-known for his redesign of courses in preparation for tournaments, so much so that his nickname is “The Open Doctor”. His remodeling skills have been applied to 7 U.S. Open venues, 5 PGA courses, 3 Ryder Cups sites, and 1 Walker Cup redo, plus an original design for the 2001 Walker Cup. His redesign of East Lake will become the permanent Tour Championship site in 2004.

Among his notable original designs are Nantucket, Atlantic, Briar’s Creek, RedStick, Ocean Forest, Quintero, Cascata, The Bridge, Huntsville, Haig Point and Pinehurst # 7.

Rees has been recognized many times for his contributions to the game. His awards include the Metropolitan Golf Association’s Distinguished Service Award, the Metropolitan Golf Writers Distinguished Service Award, Golf World 1995 Golf Architect of the Year, Golf Digest’s list of top 5 architects, 2 awards from the International Network of Golf, The Robert Morris Award of the Welsh Society of Philadelphia, and he is currently #22 on the Golf Digest list of the 36 most powerful people in golf.