(Quoted from Arnold Palmer Design Company Website)

My interest in golf has long extended beyond just playing the game. When I was a student at Wake Forest, and later during my time in the U.S. Coast Guard, I built my first golf courses. They were basic, but the students and officers enjoyed them. Before that I had my hands in the dirt helping my father alter and improve Latrobe Country Club.

Eventually I went to work with Frank Duane, the former ASGCA President. Together we built Myrtle Beach National and the Bay Course at Kapalua, in Hawaii. When work with Duane started winding down, I met the man who would go on to be one of my best friends and a great business partner, Ed Seay. We founded the Arnold Palmer Design Company in 1972 on a handshake, and formalized the principles by which it would be guided.

Sadly, Ed died in 2007. But his legacy lives on both in our company’s work and in its heart.

We design the courses our clients request, not just courses to satisfy ourselves. That means that all of our courses are a little bit different, reflecting the personalities and wishes of their owners/developers while also meeting our own high standards.

We do not have a design trademark, nor do we want one. We do, however, strive to design all of our courses so that they look beautiful, are constructed soundly, on time, and within budget. Moreover, we always make sure they’re fun to play.

My basic philosophy—and that of everyone at APDC—is based on straightforward design. This produces courses of lasting quality that are exciting and enjoyable for golfers of every handicap. The designs are founded on strategies of the game, and are sensitive to the land.
APDC Website