NEWS

Cornell lands life's collection of plans and papers from Robert Trent Jones

By Associated Press
Published on

Cornell University has acquired 70 years’ worth of plans and papers of famed golf course designer Robert Trent Jones.

The collection was donated by Jones’ sons, Rees and Robert Jr., who also are golf course designers.

There are 325 Jones-designed courses around the world -- in 45 states, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and more than 25 countries on four continents.

The collection covers Jones’ entire career, from 1930 through the 1990s, and includes personal correspondence with Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Bobby Jones and other notable players. It also includes sketches, photographs, slides, contracts, account files and other financial records documenting every course.

Robert Trent Jones, a member of the Cornell class of 1930, died in 2000 at age 93.

Coincidentally, another university acquired a similarly large and important collection of golf-related documents about a week ago, when the University of Massachusetts’ Isenberg School of Management finalized a deal to house thousands of boxes containing letters, memos and other documents that help explain how the late Mark H. McCormack built IMG into the world’s largest sports management company.

McCormack founded IMG after a handshake agreement with Arnold Palmer, and soon had signed Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Bjorn Borg, Chris Evert, Derek Jeter and a host of other athletes and celebrities all the way through Tiger Woods.