Golf Architects/Designers: John Sanford

John Sanford has 20 years of experience in golf course design, completing more than 60 new design and renovation projects in his career. He is a graduate of Louisiana State University with a Bachelors degree in Landscape Architecture. He spent five years practicing landscape architecture before landing his first golf course design in 1986. This experience allows him to integrate the course into the surrounding land uses while maintaining the natural character of the site. His design influence comes from playing courses by Dick Wilson, Joe Lee, Jack Nicklaus and Bill Mitchell.

Sanford founded Sanford Golf Design in 1987. The company has completed major projects in the United States, the Middle East, Asia, and the Caribbean. The Sanford team consists of golf and landscape architects, as well as construction management professionals. Sanford Golf Design has worked throughout the world in Asia, the Caribbean, the Middle East and the United States, designing courses on sites with diverse opportunities and constraints has given him experience and perspective that is unique to few architects.

Juliette Falls Golf Club in Dunnellon Ocala, Florida, is one of Sanford’s award- winning designs, recognized by Golf Digest and Golf magazine as one of the Top 10 new courses in America. Another award-winner is the Granite Links Golf Club which was included on Golf Digest’s Top 10 new upscale courses list in 2007, as well as being ranked No. 73 on the magazine’s Top 100 public courses in 2009. The Taba Heights Golf Resort in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula was a 2009 finalist for Golf Inc.’s International Development of the Year.