Who was Robert Trent Jones? Who was the 2024 Solheim Cup course named after?

The 19th edition of the Solheim Cup takes place between Friday, September 13 and Sunday, September 15 at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainseville, Virginia, the 19th different venue the tournament has been played at.

That fact that no course has event hosted the event twice will hold true for at least the next six years up until 2030. In two years’ time, the Solheim Cup will return to Europe, with the Bernardus Golf in the Netherlands chosen as the venue for the first time. In 2028, it will be the turn of Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, where the 2024 PGA Championship, won by Xander Schauffele, took place.

President Obama a member at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club

This week’s venue, Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, has previously held the Presidents Cup four times, as well as Tiger Woods’ Quicken Loans National on the PGA Tour in 2015. Additionally, former President of the United States Barack Obama became a member in 2017.

Located about 30 miles from downtown Washington D.C., the course was founded and designed by golf course architect Robert Trent Jones, who was born in England in 1906 but emigrated to the New York at a young age. He went on to work as a caddie and a local club professional, taking part in the 1927 Canadian Open.

As a youngster, he met Donald Ross, another golf course designer 30 years his senior, who assisted him in the early part of his career.

“The father of modern golf course architecture”

According to the golf club’s official website, Jones first became interested in the land on which the course sits in 1973 as he flew over it when looking at another potential piece of property. Construction eventually began 15 years later, with the course officially opening in 1991. “The terrain is aesthetically perfect,” Jones said at the time. “I don’t think we could have done anything better anywhere.”

Considered the “father of modern golf course architecture,” Jones designed the first ever golf course architecture program at Cornell University. By the time of his death at the age of 93 in 2000, he had designed or redesigned more than 500 golf courses in 35 countries.

That includes the 11th and 16th holes at Augusta National, the home of the Masters, the prestigious Congressional Country Club in Maryland, and Hazeltine National Golf Club, which has hosted two PGA Championships and the 2016 Ryder Cup.