GOLDEN VALLEY, MINNESOTA – Award-winning golf course architect and Golden Age golf course restoration expert, Keith Foster has been engaged to complete the golf course master planning project at the historic Golden Valley Country Club.
Golden Valley Country Club opened in 1914 and then in 1926 hired world-renowned golf course architect A.W. Tillinghast to renovate the course. Over the years, a number of modifications were made to accommodate the needs and desires of the membership, changing the original Tillinghast design.
“We are very excited to announce that Keith Foster has been commissioned to prepare a Master Plan for our golf course,” said Eduard Michel, president of Golden Valley Country Club. “With Foster’s guidance we will make our Tillinghast golf course a shining star among the wonderful golf courses that the Twin Cities and the state of Minnesota have to offer.”
Foster, armed with a deep appreciation of golf history and classic design has developed a strong national reputation for his work on Golden Age golf courses. His portfolio includes restoration or renovation work on golf courses that have hosted a total of forty National Championships. In 2013 he received Golfweek’s Best Course Renovation Project of the Year award for his work at Philadelphia Cricket Club. According to Bradley Klein, the golf architecture writer for Golfweek, Foster is “not into making headlines, just in bringing back creaky features that people thought were obsolete and that now prove to be fascinating and lovely.” Included in his long list of successful restorations, Foster has worked on three other prominent Tillinghast originals; Sands Point, Baltimore Country Club East, and the Philadelphia Cricket Club Wissahickon Course.
After touring the Golden Valley Country Club golf course earlier this season, and a subsequent visit with the Club’s Board of Directors and the Green & Grounds committee, Foster accepted the commission to develop a plan to improve the Club’s golf course in Tillinghast Fashion. Foster takes great pride in understanding Tillinghast’s design characteristics and intentions and tweaks them as Tillinghast would if he were able to be here today. According to Foster, his plan will provide the roadmap to “unveil the genius, spirit and boldness of Tilly and the uniqueness that is GVCC.”
The end results of Foster’s work at the Tillinghast courses mentioned above, and at other Golden Age architect designed courses that he’s worked on, have been nothing short of exceptional, each garnering high praise from members, professional golfers, and the media alike.
