Rees Jones

Interview With Rees Jones President Rees Jones, Inc.

A Light Hearted Golf Q & A Interview

By Brian Weis

Below is an interview with Rees Jones, the President at Rees Jones, Inc.. The following are a few traditional and non traditional golf centric questions that I love to ask influential people in the golf industry.

Can you provide our readers a brief biography?
Rees Jones is the son of legendary golf course designer Robert Trent Jones and the younger brother of golf course designer Robert Trent Jones, Jr.

His first exposure to golf course design came as a boy when he would accompany his father surveying courses. After attending Yale and graduate studies at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, he joined his father and older brother at Robert Trent Jones Incorporated. He helped his father on numerous courses until forming his own firm in 1974. He has designed or redesigned over 170 golf courses in his career.

Jones continues to design courses and currently resides in his hometown of Montclair, New Jersey. He has also served as the president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects. A noted environmentalist, he has been a vocal champion for the cause of environmentally friendly golf courses.

Jones received the 2004 Old Tom Morris Award from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, GCSAA's highest honor.

This spring, The American Society of Golf Course Architects will present the Donald Ross Award to Rees for his positive contribution to the game of golf and golf course architecture.

When did you start golfing and who introduced you to the game?
I started playing golf before I started going to school. My father, Robert Trent Jones, would take me out on the golf course at the end of the afternoon.

I remember the first time I heard a nearby golfer yell "Fore!" I shouted back, "I'm 4 too!"

What is your current home course?
Montclair Golf Club, Montclair, New Jersey. My father was a member, so I have been a member my entire life.

To date, what is your proudest golf accomplishment?
Restoring and upgrading the first publicly-owned golf course to host the U.S.Open, Bethpage Black. It was a great thrill to do that work and be on the team that made that championship, which I called "The People's Open," such a success.

What is your biggest golf pet peeve on or off the course?
Waiting. Waiting for slow players and waiting in long lines.

What is your favorite club in your bag and why?
The driver. I hit it well because I have more lattiitude with this club.

What is your favorite golf destination?
If I'm in the UK, it's St. Andrews. Not only the historic golf course, but the town and the people. I can say the same about Pinehurst...great golf courses and a town that has a long and strong connection to golf.

What course is on your bucket list that you have not played yet?
Royal Melborne in Australia

If you woke up tomorrow and could play one course you played before, where would you play?
The Old Course at St. Andrews, which I first played with my father when I was 16 years old.

If you could change one aspect, rule or thing about golf, what would it be and why?
I would like to see a stronger program, in both public and private clubs, to educate new golfers to the rules of golf and to appropriate conduct on the golf course

Dream foursome (living)?
My good friends Vinny Giles (former U.S.Amateur, former British Amateur and former U.S.Senior Amateur champion)and David Fay (former executive director of the USGA) and two avid golfers that I know and much admire, George Bush, (41, with whom I've played on several occasions. Now there's a man who plays fast!) and Tom Cousins (the man responsible for the resurrection of the East Lake Golf Club and community in Atlanta)

Dream foursome (living or deceased)?
Bobby Jones, the great amateur golfer, A.W. Tillinghast, whose work I much admire, Ben Hogan whom I met at the 1950 U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club when I was 8 years old, and Francis Ouimet, whose victory at the 1913 U.S. Open at The Country Club, got Americans interested in golf. I could almost feel his presence on the course as I did the restoration work in preparation for the 1988 U.S. Open there.

18 Rapid Fire, Off The Cuff Questions

1) Hitting Long Drive OR Sinking Long Putt?
Sinking long putt!!!

2) Having Round of Life OR Hole in One?
Having the round of my life, which I did at The National Golf Links of America years ago

3) Golfing at the crack of dawn OR twilight?
Twilight in Scotland, which is often after dinner!

4) Hit a power fade OR power draw?
Power draw...it goes farther

5) Beverage cart OR halfway house?
Halfway house - more variety

6) Bathroom OR bushes?
Bushes! It's faster. Maybe we need more bushes on the courses!

7) Hot dog OR wrap?
Hot dog. There was no such thing as a wrap when I was growing up.

8) Around the green, being in sand OR thick rough?
Neither!

9) Walking OR riding?
Walking

10) Do you carry traditional 3 iron OR hybrid?
Hybrid. This club is easier to hit

11) Do you prefer long par 3 OR long par 5?
Long par 3. I can usually hit those in regulation

12) Pants OR Shorts?
Shorts

13) Palmer OR Nicklaus?
Both. They have both done so much for the popularity of the game

14) Beatles OR Elvis?
Beatles

15) Play for fun OR play for money?
Fun

16) Bump and run OR flop shot?
Bump and run

17) Lay up OR gamble?
It depends. That's the greatness of the game...you have to think about this decision before you hit. I like to put this risk/reward strategy into my golf course designs. It makes you think your way around the golf course.

18) 18 holes OR 36?
I like to have lunch and play 18 in the afternoon

Revised: 02/19/2013 - Article Viewed 31,023 Times

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.