It would be hard to argue that 2025 wasn’t a remarkable breakthrough year for golf course architect Kyle Franz.
Franz worked as an understudy for some of the game’s greatest architects — Tom Doak, Bill Coore, Ben Crenshaw and Gil Hanse — over the last two decades, but as he approached his mid-40s had yet to get his so-called big break in the competitive design world.
Sure, there were award-winning renovations of Donald Ross’ Mid Pines, Pine Needles and Southern Pines designs in the North Carolina Sandhills. Those placed Franz in many new development conversations, but that elusive solo project lingered like the “Best Golfer to Never Win a Major” label.
However, beginning with the January 2025 opening of the Cabot Citrus Farms Karoo Course in golf-rich Florida, to be followed by Broomsedge in South Carolina and Luling Sporting Club in Texas, along with several more top-tier renovation projects, Franz has certainly stamped his mark on golf’s next generation of design talent heading into 2026.
“Every young architect expects to get their big break at some point,” Franz says. “They just don’t necessarily come four or five at a time. I made the commitment that I was going to live on the road for a couple years and I was going to work, work, work, work, work — no social media, no side stuff — and just pound it all out.”
Franz estimates he’s slept in his own bed — which by the way is nestled amongst the tall North Carolina pines a pitching wedge from the 18th tee at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club — less than a dozen times over the last 18 months.
“It would be hard to say that I've lived anywhere the last two years,” says a joking Franz. “I have my moments when flights are delayed or something goes wrong where I'm like, ‘Oh man, this probably could be a little bit smoother.’ But honestly, it has been exhilarating, it has been fun. I wanted to be a golf course architect my entire life and I really got to have a pretty amazing run here, having all these projects going on at once. I just have sort of rode the lightning.”
Franz, 44, a native of Oregon who studied turfgrass at Oregon State University, began his career under the highly respected Doak, working on high profiles courses such as Pacific Dunes in Bandon, Oregon, and Barnbougle in Australia. “I noticed early on that Kyle definitely had the artistic temperament,” Doak says.
Franz really began digging into the Ross design philosophy and the Golden Age of golf course architecture when he migrated from the West Coast to North Carolina, and found himself on the shaping crew under Coore & Crenshaw on the Pinehurst No. 2 restoration project in 2010.
“Well, Kyle just sort of appeared,” Coore says. “He walked onto the course and we hired him. I kind of knew of Kyle and you could tell just from talking to him that he had a really good feel for what those original Ross bunkers and the sandy areas on No. 2.
“He was, at least from my perspective, unproven at the time. I used to spend a fair amount of time with Kyle when we'd be walking down the fairways, and we'd stop and talk about things like converting what was then all Bermuda grass into these sandy roughs and wire grass and bunkers and little mounds and ridges. He was very good, and as we say, ‘Had an eye for it.’”
While in town for weeks on end, Franz found his way to the Tufts Archives in the Village of Pinehurst to study the works of Ross. He poured over dozens and dozens of drawings, reading as many stories as he could of how Ross worked the land and poured his heart and soul into his designs, coming up with unparalleled strategies for golfers of all skill levels.
While in the Sandhills, Franz met Kelly Miller, who at the time was president of Pines Needles and Mid Pines resorts and is now the managing partner of Mid Pines Development Group. The sister courses are both iconic Ross designs in their own rights, and Franz got in the ear of Miller and vice-versa during a golf outing. One thing lead to another and the young Franz was hired to renovate Mid Pines.
Franz completed Mid Pines in 2013 and it was named Best U.S. Renovation of the Year by Golf Magazine. That helped lead to Miller hiring Franz to renovate Pine Needles, and then a third Ross relic — Southern Pines — most recently in 2021.
Those three projects, maybe even more than working with Hanse on the Rio Olympic Golf Course in Brazil in 2016, placed Franz on the radar of developers looking for a dedicated architect with fresh ideas — and a flair for the dramatic.
“Kelly Miller gave Kyle that opportunity at Mid Pines, and as they say, his work there kind of speaks for itself, and one thing led to another and another,” Coore says. “Kyle has made the most of his opportunities, but he has the talent to back it up.”
In the infant stages of his solo career, Franz has made a promise to himself to build holes that have distinctive styles and individual merits.
“I love my mentors and I totally respect what they have done. And I respect it enough that I'm not going to try and build the exact same style stuff as them,” Franz says. “I'm going to try and progress into some cool different areas because nobody's ever beaten them at what they do. I want to do some of my own stuff; I want to find my own path.”
Franz has gotten off the road somewhat, returning to the Sandhills this winter to begin restoration work on Whispering Pines, a 36-hole property that was designed in 1959 by Ellis Maples, who himself began working under Ross as a teenager.
“The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Kyle is his passion,” Miller says. “He has an incredible passion for the game, and knew what he wanted to do at a young age. He literally bugged the heck out of Tom Doak to give him a job back in the day. And the other two things about Kyle are his knowledge and his desire to learn.
“And Kyle is an uber-talented guy. I think he's going to become the guy, or certainly one of them if he's not already. Not as many people in the industry are fully aware of Kyle — they think of Hanse or Doak or Coore and Crenshaw — but Kyle will at the head of the next generation of architects, amongst that top tier.”
