Sad news for the Pacific Northwest golf industry.
John Harbottle III, architect of Gold Mountain’s Olympic Course and Palouse Ridge in Pullman, died Thursday in California. He was 53.
The Tacoma News Tribune first reported on it Thursday night.
Here’s a press release from the American Sociery of Golf Course Architects.
Harbottle was among the friendliest, most accommodating golf architects in the business. He worked for Pete Dye before going off and making a name for himself.
He recently talked to the Northwest Golf Media Association about his re-modeling of White Horse Golf Club in Kingston. Here’s that story.
Wow, this is sad news indeed. My sympathies to his family. John’s talents were matched by his unaffected and friendly disposition to all. I’m grateful to have had the pleasure of talking to him at some length at last year’s Junior Am. We will not be able to enjoy as much of his work as we would have liked – Palouse Ridge and the Olympic are masterpieces of playability and design. We will miss him. I see in another report, BTW, that he apparently suffered a heart attack.
Very sad news in deed,having spent some time with John and his family recently after relocating to Tacoma I can attest to Johns passion for his family surpassing all.