Geoffrey Cornish
Geoffrey Cornish
Category: Builder – Golf Architect
Inducted: 1996
Born: August 6, 1914
Place of Birth: Winnipeg, Manitoba
Death: February 10, 2012
Geoffrey Cornish, one of the legendary Stanley Thompson’s protégés, fashioned a career in golf course architecture that would rank him as one of the best that Canada has ever produced. With a career that included more than 200 golf course designs or remodellings, Cornish turned his attention towards chronicling the history of his field. He collaborated with Ronald Whitten on The Golf Course and The Architects of Golf, two internationally-acclaimed books on golf course architecture.
Publications:
- Co-Authored The Golf Course (1981) and The Architects of Golf (1992)
- Both of these books are ground breaking research materials on the architects of golf around the world.
- Golf Course Design with Robert Muir Grave. 1998, John Wiley and Sons. Standard textbook at college level.
- Eighteen Stakes on a Sunday Afternoon. 2002, Grant Books (U.K.)
- Classic Golf Design. 2002, John Wiley and Sons
- Golf Course Design: An Annotated Bibliography and Highlights of its History, with Dr. Michael Hurdzan, ASGCA. Grant Books (U.K.), Publication Pending (Late 2005)
Other items of note:
Major in the Canadian Army 1940 – 1945, served in Europe
1975-1976 President of the American Society of Golf Course Architects
Designed some 200 courses
Operated three architecture Firms: Cornish; Cornish and Robinson;
Cornish, Silva and Mungeam
Awards:
- 1981 GCSAA Distinguished Service Award
- 1982 ASGCA Donald Ross Award
- 1984 N.G.F. Outstanding Service Award
- 1991 Metropolitan New York GCSAA John Reid Lifetime Achievement Award
- 1992 Canadian GCSA John Steel Award
- 1996 Golf Course Builders Association of America Don Rossi Humanitarian Award
- 1996 Silver Medal of the British Institute of Golf Course Architects
- 2004 Distinguished Alumnus Award, University of Massachusetts
- Distinguished Service Award of the US National Golf Foundation