Ed Ault

Few golfers in our area may recognize the name of one of the most influential men in local golf history.

Architect Edmund Ault, who designed golf courses from the mid-1950s through the 1980s, is responsible for laying out more courses in central Pennsylvania than any other golf architect. Ault was a prolific designer, whose work can be seen across the county, including more than 50 course designs in Pennsylvania alone. His local designs include Sinking Valley, Iron Masters, Summit, Toftrees, Belle Springs, Clinton and Centre Hills Country Clubs.

Ault, a native of Washington, DC, fell in love with golf at a young age. As a teenager in the 1920s he excelled at the game, eventually becoming a scratch golfer who competed in state and national amateur events. After college, Ault settled into a career with the Maryland electric power company, got married and started a family. All the while, the game of golf remained a passion.

By the 1940s, he had sought out legendary golf architect Alex Findlay and would spend most weekends following the Scottish native to course-design projects in order to learn the intricacies of golf course architecture.

In 1956, after years of pondering, Ault left his comfortable, salaried position to try his hand at course design. The family dining room would be his office, and his wife would become a loyal assistant.

Ault’s first project would be the design of Sligo Creek Golf Course in his hometown of Silver Spring, Maryland. Other projects quickly followed.

Soon Ault was known as a no-nonsense architect who kept projects on budget. He was also known for his reasonable design fees. As his career progressed, Ault continued to shy away from multi-million dollar projects at exclusive country clubs. Instead, most of his designs involved public and municipal courses meant for the everyday golfer.

Ault’s eventual foray into central Pennsylvania began in 1960 when a group of Martinsburg businessmen banded together to build a golf course in southern Blair County. After extensive inquiries, Ault was finally selected as the architect for Iron Masters Country Club, a new 18-hole course on the 240-acre plot formerly known as the old Steward Farm.

Soon after completing that design, Ault was contacted by committee members in Tyrone who were looking to build a course of their own. Ault helped local businessmen like Harry Sickler, Tony Androski and Bill Glenn hand pick a site that would become Sinking Valley Country Club. Working together, Ault and new club members finished the project in time for a grand opening in 1963. So pleased was Ault with the outcome, he penned a thank you letter that was printed in the local paper.

“It has been a pleasure working with the different committees in bringing about the opening of the new course,” Ault said. “In all my years in golf course architecture, design and construction, I have never known a more determined group.”

Through the 1960s, Ault was prolific in the number of projects he took on, including courses all across the country. In central Pennsylvania alone, Ault would go on to design Great Cove Golf Course in McConnellsburg (1967), Summit’s new nine holes (1967), Lock Haven’s Belle Springs (1969), Toftrees in State College (1971), and the new nine holes at Clinton Country Club (1972). Ault’s firm was also responsible for the design of the newest nine holes at Centre Hills in State College (1992).

As Ault’s design company grew, a stand-alone office was finally secured, and by the early 1970s, Ault hired Penn State grad Tom Clark to join the company. Shortly after, Ault’s son, Brian, came to work for the firm. By the 1980s, Ault was one of the most respected architects in the country. Working on multiple projects each year, the company completed perhaps its most well-known design in 1986, TPC Avenel located in Potomac, Maryland, which hosted the PGA Tour’s Kemper Open for 20 years.

Ault passed away in 1989 at the age of 81, but not before completing more than 200 course designs. His design firm, now known as Ault, Clark and Associates, continues Ault’s legacy and is managed today by his son and close associates. In summing up Ault’s career in the seminal book, “The Architects of Golf,” author Geoffrey Cornish has high praise for Ault’s work.

“Ault was a pace setter whose ideas about the value of remodeling and master planning were ahead of his time,” Cornish said.