Golf Pioneer, Course Designer. He was born on St. Gilbert Street in Dornoch, Scotland into the household of a simple mason, Murdo Ross. Leaving formal education at the age of 14, his golf education was at St. Andrews under legendary Old Tom Morris. There he was a caddy, keeper of the green, a carpenter who made golf clubs and 1894 he was appointed Head Professional, Clubmaker and Greenkeeper at Dornoch. Although he "hated" keeping the greens, the knowledge he obtained from this experience would later impact his life. He immigrated to the United States at the break of the Golden Age of Golf in hopes of a better life; over a period of a few years, seven other noted American golfers came from his hometown of Dornoch. Investing his entire life's savings to come to America, Ross walked off the boat in Boston in 1899 with only his golf clubs and a few dollars in his pocket. Thanks to Professor Robert Wilson of Harvard University, he had a job waiting for him at the Oakley Country Club in Watertown, Massachusetts. The following year, his younger brother, Alec, joined him in the United States and became a professional golfer in his own right winning the 1907 U.S. Open and other worthy awards. After Oakley Country Club, he was hired as the golf pro at Pinehurst Country Club in North Carolina by James Tufts, a land developer. Although he had no experience as a golf course architect, Ross was commissioned by Tufts to design Pinehurst's first four courses. At this point, his career skyrocketed leaving his legacy of over 413 personally designed courses including such gems as Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, Seminole in Florida and Oakland Hills outside of Detroit, Michigan. Over 100 U.S. National Championships have been played on his designs. Even while building courses, he continued his passion of playing golf. Alternating between Boston in the summer and Pinehurst during the winter, Ross won three North and South Opens, two Massachusetts Opens, finished fifth in the 1903 U.S. Open as well as eighth in the 1910 Open Championship at St. Andrews on a rare visit home. As his fame grew, he began to teach and play less along while focusing on golf course design. With his over 3,000 member staff and offices in Rhode Island along with North Carolina, his golf course design practice, known as Donald J. Ross and Associates, was making him a small fortune. Borrowing from what he learned from his years as a lad in Scotland, he made the Crowned or Turtleback Green his trademark. He was a detail man who took great patience to make sure every slope and break met his personal standards. His diaries, letters and blueprints document all these details. His bunkers did not look as if they were "manmade", but appeared to be made by the Hands of Nature and could be described as seamless and timeless masterpieces requiring very little earth-moving to construct. A man of both quality and quantity, he redesigned another 200 golf courses, tweaking each to meet his standards. He revolutionized greens-keeping practices in the Southern United States when he oversaw in 1935 the transition of the putting surfaces at Pinehurst No. 2 from oiled sand to Bermuda grass. Pinehurst No. 2, Ross' masterpiece, returned to glory as the site of the U.S. Open in 1999 and again in 2005. Besides courses in the United States, he designed courses in Scotland, Cuba along with ten courses in Canada. In 1921, he became a United States citizen. "His stamp as an architect was naturalness," American professional golfer Jack Nicklaus said, "He was, and still is, considered the Michelangelo of golf". In December 1947, he became a founding member and first President of the American Society of Golf Course Architects. The prestigious "Donald Ross Award", the ASGCA's highest honor, has been presented annually since 1976 to those individuals who have made significant and lasting contributions to the profession. He was inducted into the PGA World Golf Hall of Fame in 1977. As a testament to his architectural brilliance, Donald Ross course designs account for 11 of Golf Digest's 100 Greatest Courses in the United States. All of his architectural thoughts can be found in "Golf Has Never Failed Me", published in 1996, and largely based on a lost manuscript of his. Bradley Klein's 367-page biography 'Discovering Donald Ross: The Architect And His Courses' was published in 2001 after three years of painstaking research. It won that year's United States Golf Association's "Herbert Warren Wind Book Award".