About the Firm
Forrest Richardson is a golf course architect with a passion. The game was meant to be fun. He truly believes this. Scoring success, creative design and innovative thinking are at the forefront of every assignment.
The firm, which operates under the name Forrest Richardson Golf Course Architects, is based in Phoenix, Arizona and is incorporated as Golf Group Ltd.
Golf courses created by the firm have been awarded for their excellence, innovation and attention to detail. In the U.S., the firm’s work spans from Hawaii to Boston, with an emphasis in pacific and southwest states. International work has included planning and projects in Mexico, Central America, Canada, Sweden and Asiatic Russia.
Forrest’s philosophy is to create an overall golf experience — one grounded in tradition, enjoyment and suitability to the surroundings. Rather than a style or “look,” he believes that the design of a golf course should adapt to each site. That the needs of the owner, the membership and customers who will ultimately play the course are always a paramount consideration. His designs embrace the natural terrain, but his work has never shied away from creating exciting designs where no decent terrain existed.
Established in 1988 by Forrest Richardson, the firm evolved from Forrest’s longtime association with the late Arthur Jack Snyder. The two golf course architects collaborated for 20 years. Together, their work included more than 70 completed courses that range from multi-course facilities to short and intimate par-3 layouts. Today, Richardson continues the tradition of being at the cutting edge of golf design — yet without being caught up in trendy movements that rarely make the game better or more interesting.
The firm has completed celebrated projects for resorts, daily-fee golf developers, private clubs and municipalities. The firm has managed golf course projects on Superfund reclamation sites, solid waste landfills, and parcels with intense environmental constraints. The overriding approach of their work is to create courses enjoyable to play, exciting to promote, and affordable for the long-term. In a business that can often become complicated, they strive to make the process of planning, designing and building golf courses as simple and straightforward as practical.
The firm has been honored for their work, including nominations for the Best New Affordable Course (Golf Digest), Silver Award Resort Properties (Golf Digest) and Environmental Excellence Awards for their work at Arizona Grand Golf Resort in Phoenix, Arizona. The firm’s work at The Hideout Golf Club in Utah received Golf Inc’s Development of the Year in 2003. Renovation work at The Wigwam Resort in Litchfield Park, Arizona received Golf Inc’s Renovation of the Year in 2005. In 2006, The Links at Las Palomas received the International Development of the Year Award from Golf Development World. In 2018 The Short Course at Mountain Shadows received Golf Inc’s Top Development of the Year Award.