Franz Creating Legacy on the Links
Part 1: Q&A With Kyle Franz
With his ongoing improvement project at Southern Pines Golf Club, architect Kyle Franz is coming full circle renovating a variety of Donald Ross-designed golf courses in North Carolina’s Sandhills region.
At Southern Pines Golf Club, architect Kyle Franz continues restoration work on a variety of historic, Donald Ross-designed golf courses in North Carolina’s Sandhills region.
Franz also played a key role as an onsite representative building the 2016 Olympics Course in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for Gil Hanse Golf Design.Currently, Franz’s restoration at Southern Pines Golf Club is being performed in two stages. Depending on weather, the 18-month improvement plan is expected to be completed in late August or early September 2021.
After that is when I started talking to Kelly Miller and the family about doing the project at Mid Pines. I got to know Kelly during the renovation of No. 2 a year and change before that. Kelly’s such a great guy and we always had so much fun together. That was about 2012 or so.
“Pinehurst really became home immediately after that. After we finished Mid Pines, I had already committed to help Gil on the Rio Olympics project, where I was going down and shaping for him and what-not. So, I took a sabbatical from my solo career to go back to working for Gil on that project. That was such an interesting and fun experience — really a great cultural experience. We were very lucky to work on such a great piece of property. We were working on sand and we were able to do something pretty cool.
“After that, I started to pick up other jobs. Kelly had hired me to work on Pine Needles and I was starting to talk to the Country Club of Charleston by then, about helping them, and a few other places up north.
“So about then, around 2014 or so, is when I really got serious about becoming a full-fledged restoration business. Then, the offers began coming in fast, so I said, ‘I can give this a go.’ Kelly offered me a place to work there at the resort, he gave me an office and I’ve just lived around the neighborhood there ever since. So, I’ve called Pinehurst home off and on since 2010-11 and permanently since 2014.”
“I remember just really wanting to get a job working for Tom (Doak). I had read all of his stuff in GOLF Magazine and Golf Digest, and all his books to that point. He had all the right ideas about what we should be doing in the industry. I was very fortunate that Tom gave me a shot, when I was only about three hours away from where I grew up and where I was going to school, and I was really familiar with Bandon. So, I was able to help out in some ways that allowed me to contribute immediately. I was able to do a lot of stuff that was second nature to me, having grown up out there and spending a lot of time in eastern Oregon and knowing the bunker work.
“And then I had Barnbougle (Dunes) as my third project down in Australia. I was pretty lucky out of the gates to work on two unbelievably good projects so early in my career. (Barnbougle Dunes) might end up being the second- and third-highest rated courses built in the last 80 years. I got some pretty lucky breaks for that three-year period. That led to me getting to know Ben (Crenshaw) and Bill (Coore), working at Bandon Trails around the summer of ’04. I had some time between Barnbougle and Stone Eagle for Tom, and had helped them out (at Bandon Trails), which in turn led to me working with them on No. 2 several years later. I’ve been very, very fortunate.
“I’ve just learned so much from those guys right out of the gates. I was 19 years old when I started with Tom at Pacific. So, I got a grade-A education. For somebody that wanted to go into architecture, and specifically minimalism and classically oriented architecture, it was pretty much a dream come true and a perfect 10 in terms of education.”
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