Donald Ross, a transplanted Scottish golfer and club maker, came to the United States in 1899 and began designing and building courses up and down the East Coast and in the Midwest.

In his lifetime, he laid out more than 400 courses, including Seminole in Florida and Oakland Hills outside Detroit. The jewel in his crown was Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, an area where he made his home. Our course at Lake Wales was designed and built in 1923.

According to Bradley S. Klein, author of a Donald Ross biography, Ross probably never even saw a third of the courses he worked on and another third he visited only once or twice. Instead, he drew up the plans in a cottage he lived in at Pinehurst based on topographic maps.

Ross was particularly known for layouts that required only a short walk from greens to tees, for his domed greens and for his punishing grass and sand bunkers.

Ross, who died in 1948, was a founding member and honorary president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects. He is also in the World Golf Hall of Fame.