Understanding the particularity of Pete Dye’s work became the lit of the flame of Tom Doak’s passion in golf Architecture, that he further developed by reading the books written on the subject by architects of the past, such as George Thomas’ “Golf Architecture in America”, Robert Hunter’s “The Links”, Alister Mackenzie’s “Golf Architecture”.

The work of Dr. Mackenzie, one of the first architect who brought the shaping of a golf course to an artistic level, helped him understanding the importance of golf features’ placement on the ground, not only from the game’s point of view, but also from the aesthetical one.
The deep study of one of the Mackenzie’s masterpiece, “Cypress Point” became the burning flame of his passion. The way in which Mackenzie routed the course, changing landscape character area many times and the ability in finding the optimal backdrop for every green on the site, together with a brilliant bunkering, made the passionate student, as Tom Doak was, understand the importance of taking into consideration the nature of the site.
He therefore decided to apply for the Cornell University’s course in landscape architecture and after his first year of studies he definitely realized that designing golf courses would be the job of his life [3].

After college, he spent one year studying abroad in England and Scotland. This experience was very important for him. Being in the cradle of the game taught him the philosophy of golf: the fact that it was a natural and an affordable game and not merely a business.
He then started travelling and visiting all famous courses in Scotland, England, and Ireland where his ideas of golf-design started being shaped. He studied the placement of hazards, the layout of holes and the best use of existing feature on the site.
At that time he spent two months caddying at the St. Andrews’ Old Course where he saw many players of different levels and began to understand the game of real customers of the golf-architect work, how golfers of different skills interpret the hazards, and the different features of the courses.
He also travelled to other parts of the world seeking for the best courses ever built.

After his trips to continental Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand Tom Doak returned to the United States and started sending applications for a job as golf architect to many golf-architects’ company. The first and one of the few, that replied to him was Pete Dye. And so he started to work for his company being paid the princely sum of $4.50 per hour. His first assignment was to work with the crew at Long Cove. He was then involved mainly in the building phase of the courses During this time he learned how construction is inseparable from design, and how the architect has to be in charge of each project on the field as it is the only way to make sure that he gets everything as he wants for his project [4]. He also learned how to run a bulldozer, how to create an irrigation system and the agronomy part of the job.