EarthGolf

The previous article on female golf course architects was a hit, if statistics don’t lie. (Don’t be afraid to comment!) In any event, Kari Haug has done what several golf course architects have done in life - started in one field totally unrelated to golf course architecture, and switched later in life.

After high school, Haug went to Southern Methodist University and played golf for the Lady Mustangs but “not very well”, she claims. She worked 15 years as a physical therapist mainly in sports medicine. But she said it got to be more paperwork than one-on-one work with patients.

Disenchanted with the health-care bureaucracy, she went back to college and in 2004 received a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from the University of Minnesota.

After presenting her thesis in three weeks — the design of a neighborhood and eco-friendly Scottish golf course — she will complete her year-long studies for a Master of Golf Course Architecture from the Edinburgh College of Art.

The golf design diploma will amplify her landscape design business. She figures she will be among the very few women in America who is both a golf-course architect and her own boss.

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