Packard on the first tee at his famed Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort

Interview With Larry Packard - Legendary Golf Course Designer

A Light Hearted Golf Q & A Interview

By Brian Weis

Below is an interview with Larry Packard, legendary course designer. Best known for his course creations at Innisbrook Resort in Florida, where the Copperhead Course is a favorite on the PGA TOUR, and The Eagle Ridge Resort in Illinois, Larry Packard has designed and worked on over 600 golf courses throughout his career.

Packard began his career in golf course architecture in 1946 with an entry-level position in the firm of the famous course architect Robert Bruce Harris where he got to know already accomplished architect Robert Trent Jones. By 1970 Packard was President of the American Society of Golf Course Architects where he made significant expansions to the membership and was instrumental in changing the face of this organization while preparing its first written policies. Packard also established the American Society of Golf Course Architects and organized their first conference on the use of affluent water for golf courses.

During the next 50 years, Packard designed over 350 new golf courses and did redesigns on over 250 existing courses with his work reaching throughout the world including Egypt, Japan, China, South Korea, El Morrow (Island off the coast of Venezuela), Guatemala and Costa Rica, in addition to the United States. In 2002, Packard worked with author Mickey Rathbun to write a book on key parts of his life and work entitled "Double Doglegs and Other Hazards."

The following are a few traditional and non traditional golf centric questions that I love to ask influential people in the golf industry.

What is your favorite golf destination and why?
That's impossible! There are so many great courses and for many different reasons. There is a very good reason why I made Innisbrook my home for so many years. You get four great courses here that are all very different and unique and there is no better setting in Florida. Copperhead can host the PGA TOUR and be tough for them, but you and I can also enjoy a round on this same course from a different tee position. It's all in the design.

If you could golf with anyone in the world who would round out your dream 4 some.
I would want to play golf again with my first wife of 51 years and the mother of my children, Dorothy Seddon.

If you could change one thing about the game, what would it be?
Golf is supposed to be fun. The average player needs to learn to just enjoy the game and not worry so much about the score.

What is your proudest accomplishment
Toda,y I couldn't be more proud to be here celebrating my 100th Birthday with my family.

Special thanks to Ramona Hurley, Media Relations at Innisbrook, A Salamander Golf & Spa Resort

Revised: 11/16/2012 - Article Viewed 32,139 Times

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.