The world of golf lost one of its finest gentlemen and most accomplished architects in February when Geoffrey S. Cornish, 97, died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Amherst, Mass.
A man of extraordinary energy, vision, generosity and kindness, Cornish designed over 200 golf courses in his lifetime, a majority of them in New England. His name will live forever on the golf playing fields he most artfully created.
Cornish and his longtime associates … Bill Robinson, Brian Silva and Mark Mungeam … were responsible for New Hampshire courses such as Grantham Country Club, Bretwood Golf Club and Sunningdale. He added holes to or renovated Abenaqui C.C., Hanover C.C., Wentworth by the Sea C.C., Beaver Meadow G.C. and Province Lake C.C.
In Massachusetts his most popular layouts include The Pines Course at The International Golf Club, Cranberry Valley G.C., Captains G.C. on Cape Cod, Stow Acres G.C., Nashawtuc C.C. and Trull Brook G.C. in Tewksbury.
Born in 1914 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Cornish began his golf career in 1935, with famed Canadian golf course architect Stanley Thompson, as a construction supervisor, and worked on many of Canada’s greatest golf courses.