Background
Robert Muir Graves was born on September 24, 1930 in Trenton, Michigan, United States. He was the son of Orin Nelson Graves (1901–1980) and Margaret J. Muir (1902–1987).
president of the American Society of Golf
Robert Muir Graves was born on September 24, 1930 in Trenton, Michigan, United States. He was the son of Orin Nelson Graves (1901–1980) and Margaret J. Muir (1902–1987).
Graves studied at Michigan State University and graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Landscape.
Graves designed many golf courses, including golf courses in California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Malaysia. Graves was a multi-faceted man whose interests included flying—both for business and pleasure—music, and a wide range of sports including golf, skiing and horseback riding. Graves began his career in 1955 as a landscape architect before transitioning into golf course architecture.
His first project as a golf course architect was redesign of the Carmel Valley Country Club in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California and Big Canyon Country Club in Newport Beach, California.
He designed over 75 golf courses around the world, but his best-known work is located in the western United States. In 1972, he designed the Big Meadow course at Black Butte Ranch in Oregon.
His Sea Ranch Golf Links was opened in the early 1970s, and recognized as a "natural" and "minimistic" piece of golf course architecture. Graves also designed Portuguese Ludlow Golf Course and Canter Country Club in Washington state.
One of his masterpieces, completed in 1978, was the Championship 18 Course at Buffalo Hill Golf Club in Kalispell, Montana.
Graves became the President of the American Society of Golf Course Architects in 1974 and served until 1975. Furry Creek Golf and Country Club in Furry Creek, British Columbia, Canada
Sabah Golf & Country Club in Sabah, Malaysia
Kinabalu Golf Club in Sabah, Malaysia
Graves was married to Mirialice "Mimi" Graves (née Roland) and had three daughters, Victoria Graves, Elizabeth "Betsy" Mahan, and Kathryn "Katy" Yoder. He died on June 28, 2003 in Bend, Oregon.
