Todd Eckenrode, ASGCA
Principal
Todd Eckenrode is a principal and co-founder of Todd Eckenrode-Origins Golf Design with his partner W. Charles Davison. As lead golf designer, he oversees all design related issues for the firm. Todd has created some incredible new course designs and become one of the “go-to” architects for restoration and renovation of timeless classic golf course designs as well.
Growing up in Santa Cruz, California, he was fortunate to learn the game of golf
at the revered Pasatiempo Golf Club, a Dr. Alister MacKenzie design. He played collegiate golf at the University of Arizona, and U.C. Santa Barbara, earning second team all-conference honors. He continued in amateur competition, having played in the U.S. Amateur and British Amateur Championships and winning U.S. Public Links Medalist honors in 1998.
Todd later received a B.S. in Landscape Architecture from Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo as well, launching his career. While at U.C.Santa Barbara, further exposure to MacKenzie’s work at The Valley Club heavily influenced his design style of utilizing a site’s natural features to promote a strong and natural “sense
of place” and to form a network of strategy and variety for the golf course.
Todd is a proud member of the ASGCA, the American Society of Golf Course Architects. He has also judged the Lido Competition, jointly conducted by Golf Digest and the Alistair MacKenzie Society, and Golf Digest’s Armchair Architect contest.
“ (To know) golf architecture one must know golf itself, its joys, its sorrow, its battles… one must play golf and love it.”
– George Thomas, Jr.
FAVORITE COURSES
Cypress Point Club
The Valley Club of Montecito
Royal County Down
Royal Dornoch
The Old Course
Pasatiempo
INTERESTS
Coaching
Golfing
Photography
Royal County Down, Golf Club
Northern Ireland
Written and rendered by Todd Eckenrode
As published in Favorite Holes By Design - The Architect’s Choice, Compiled and Edited by Paul Daley, Full Swing Golf Publishing
Alister Mackenzie’s inspired use of ground contours
Written by Todd Eckenrode
As published in Golf Architecture - A Worldwide Perspective Volume One, Compiled and Edited by Paul Daley, Full Swing Golf Publishing.
Note the spelling of Dr. MacKenzie in the Australian preferred Dr. Mackenzie
“I’ve spent most of my life golfing – the rest I’ve just wasted.”
– Unknown
Todd’s multi-dimensional background has inspired him to success.
As a competitive player who has traveled globally to many of the world’s greatest golf courses, and as a father to a new generation of young golfers at home, Todd possesses a unique perspective on what it takes to design a course that is both challenging and enjoyable to play, and at all skill levels.
Todd's Sketchbook
