Remembering Arthur Hills: Toledo golf course architect created lasting legacy

May 23—An entrepreneurial spirit led to a Yellow Pages advertisement, and an ad became a celebrated career that spanned a half-century.

Toledo native Arthur Hills, who died Monday at the age of 91 from the effects of bladder cancer, was managing a family greenhouse in the late 1960s when he received a call via the city's Yellow Pages inquiring about adding nine holes to Orchard Hills Country Club in Bryan and building a residential golf course in Monclova Township.

Brandywine Country Club became Hills' first design in 1967, and he didn't stop working until just shy of his 90th birthday.

"The thing that I'm amazed by is that he had no pedigree and he got to where he got," said Hills' son, John Hills. "Many guys that are successful in his business — not all, but many — had a pedigree, either as a professional golfer, through a parent who worked in the business, or they worked for someone else first and used that as a jumping-off point.

"But dad just worked out of a little farmhouse in Toledo, Ohio, with an ad in the Yellow Pages, not in Southern California or South Florida. Everything he accomplished was from the ground floor up. Was he a golf course architect first or an entrepreneur? I think you could debate that. He would probably claim both."

Hills Landscape Company morphed into Arthur Hills & Associates. His canvass spread from Ohio to Michigan to Florida and around the globe — Puerto Rico, Mexico, Portugal, Sweden, Russia, Canada, Croatia, Thailand, Morocco. Hills designed more than 200 golf courses and renovated more than 150.

A man for all seasons

When you envision Hills golf courses, think Jose Oquendo or Ben Zobrist, a utility man for all seasons. Hills built championship courses, residential courses, municipal courses, resort courses, and general public-access courses.

"He had a definite impact on golf course architecture," said Ron Whitten, the recently-retired Golf Digest architecture editor. "Obviously, he produced a lot of great courses, but I think, more importantly, he produced a lot of great architects. It starts with Steve Forrest and Shawn Smith, and then there's Keith Foster, Drew Rogers, Brian Yoder, and I could go on and on. He had one of the great stables in golf course architecture."

Some of Hills' notable designs include Bay Harbor in Northern Michigan; Bonita Bay and Collier's Reserve in Naples, Fla., Bighorn Golf Club in Palm Desert, Calif.; Keene Trace in Lexington, Ky.; Chicago Highlands, which he deisgned with son Joe Hills; The Virtues in Nashport, Ohio; Half Moon Bay Golf Links south of San Francisco; The Landings in Savannah, Ga.; Palmetto Dunes and Palmetto Hall in Hilton Head, S.C.; LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Fla.; The Club at Olde Stone in Bowling Green, Ky.; Chaska Town Course in suburban Minneapolis; Newport National in Rhode Island; The Golf Club of Georgia north of Atlanta; the scenic Harbour Pointe north of Seattle; and Walking Stick in Pueblo, Colo.

Stone Ridge, Maumee Bay, The Legacy, and Stonebridge in Ann Arbor are his most lauded local courses. He designed more than 20 courses in Michigan and 17 in Ohio.

Hills considered Bay Harbor to be the best piece of land he ever worked on. Oitavos Dunes, located outside Lisbon, Portugal, was rated one of the 100 best courses in the world.

"He really evolved toward beauty more and more as his career went on," John Hills said.

Golf Digest and Golfweek's best-in-state lists feature several Hills layouts. Bay Harbor Links/Quarry and The Virtues are ranked among America's 100 greatest public courses by Golf Digest. The publication ranks the par-4 ninth hole at Chicago Highlands as one of America's best 18 holes built since 2000.

Golf Digest and Golfweek both rank Newport National as the best public course in Rhode Island. Golfweek lists Old Stone as the No. 2 private course in Kentucky; Bay Harbor Links/Quarry as Michigan's eighth-best public course; Glacier Club's Mountain Course as the No. 8 private course in Colorado; and Chicago Highlands as the 11th-ranked private course in golf-rich Illinois.

The Country Club of Florida, ranked No. 150 by Golf week among all U.S. courses built before 1960, is credited to Hills after he completed an acclaimed renovation.

"One of the key things that I always learned from Arthur was he always kept trying to improve," said Forrest, who began his career alongside Hills in 1979 and continues to operate the Hills, Smith, Forrest golf course architecture firm in Toledo. "He would ask, 'What's the weakest hole on this golf course? Let's take it and make it the best one.' There was a constant quest for improvement."

Presenting players with risk-reward shots was a Hills staple, along with elevated tees and green complexes, cross bunkers to test the best players, grass-faced bunkers, and smallish undulating greens.

Playability was at the forefront of Hills' design philosophy, offering multiple sets of tees with favorable landing areas.

"He was always a modest individual, and that came through," Forrest said. "He was always wanting to improve and never felt like he had arrived."

Making history

In 1991, The Golf Club of Georgia was named the best new private course in the U.S. and Harbour Pointe was named the best new public course.

"There have been so many great course architects the past four-plus decades — [Jack] Nicklaus, [Arnold] Palmer, [Pete] Dye, [Ben] Crenshaw, all the [Robert Sr., Robert Jr., and Rees] Jones boys, [Gary] Player, [Michael] Hurdzan, Toledo native Mike Strantz, to name a few — that a quiet, humble man like Art could sometimes get lost in the crowd," said former Blade columnist and long-time golf writer Dave Hackenberg. "But that changed in 1991 when he became the first architect ever to win two of Golf Digest's best new course awards in a single year. That vaulted him to the top of the profession."

Hurdzan, 77, is a fellow Ohio architect, an Ohio State graduate who, along with Dana Fry and the prolific Jack Kidwell, became a friendly rival to Hills.

"When it came time to deal with the state, a city or a county, it was quite a competition between Art and us," Hurdzan said. "And a very enjoyable one. We considered him a friend. It was kind of like Jack and Arnie going at it.

"Everyone had a great deal of respect for Art because he did things in a professional way. He did plans and specifications. He visited projects. He saw it from an elite golfer's standpoint and from an average guy who didn't have the same skill level. His image is especially projected in South Florida. It seems like Art touched almost every golf course in Naples."

Dye gave Hills the moniker "The Mayor of Naples" because he designed so many courses in the Southwest Florida golf haven. Bonita Bay spent several years as a top 100 course in the U.S. and Collier's Reserve was the first course in the world to be designated a Certified Audubon International Signature Sanctuary. Hills designed the first Audubon Signature Sanctuary courses in the U.S., Mexico, and Europe.

Courses designed by Hills have hosted USGA, PGA, LPGA, Champions, and European Tour events, as well as the NCAA championship. He made several alterations at Oakland Hills prior to the 1996 U.S. Open and 2004 Ryder Cup and touched up Inverness, where he was a member, on multiple occasions.

"When I think of Arthur, I think of a true professional with impeccable manners," said Fry, who has designed some of the best courses worldwide. "He was always very kind, generous with his time, and very upbeat about the golf design industry. He will be missed by everyone who knew him."

Beginning in the 1980s, prior to a full-fledged golf course building boom that lasted over a decade, Hills embraced residential courses, a market that he would own.

"In the 90s, he was certainly one of the top architects in the country," Forrest said. "Golf Digest proclaimed him as golf's hottest architect. We were one of the business firms in the country. Ultimately, we got up to a staff of 11 architects. That's quite a force."

Arthur Hills & Associates became Hills & Forrest in 1999 and Hills, Forrest, and Smith in 2010.

'Any architect would have loved to have had that career'

Hills was born on Feb. 7, 1930, in Toledo. He attended DeVilbiss High School before earning an undergraduate degree in agronomy from Michigan State, where he captained the golf team, and a master's in landscape architecture from the University of Michigan.

Hills was a past president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects and a member of the Ohio and Michigan golf halls of fame. In 2017, he was presented with a lifetime achievement award from the Michigan Golf Course Owners Association.

Hills is survived by wife Mary, eight children, 24 grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be at Reeb Funeral Home, Sylvania, from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m. Sunday. The Funeral Mass will be at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Sylvania, at 11 a.m. Monday.

"I always admired Art a lot," Whitten said. "He was always generous with his time. I'm sad to hear of his passing, but I think he had a great career. Any architect would have loved to have had that career."

First Published May 22, 2021, 9:00am