After spending three years working on construction projects for Pete Dye and his sons, learning how golf courses are built at the highest level, at the age of 26 he got the opportunity to design his first solo design at High Ponte in Michigan. This was a great experience for him, because he faced the real problems of the business, not just from the designer’s point of view, but also from the economic one, furthermore large part of the earthworks were made by him with a small bulldozer.
He then developed his second course in North Michigan, called Black Forest and from here on his career started to rise.