The golf course architect has been pursuing his passion for 40 years and continues to discover greatness on the greens...
“I haven’t worked a day in my life,” Dana Fry tells me with unabashed enthusiasm.
Who is Dana Fry you ask? A quick google search conjures entries that read like the curriculum vitae of a very accomplished man. We meet for lunch on the clubhouse patio at Naples National Golf Club on a picture-perfect day. After talking for two and a half hours, I conclude that the first entry that answers my query proves to be a fitting description of the affable gentleman: “Fry is one of the most creative and successful golf course architects in the world.”
Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Fry participated in the usual childhood sports, but freely admits: “I was the biggest nerd.” A dominant golf figure in the 1970s and early ’80s was Tom Watson, also from Kansas City, a sports hero Fry grew up idolizing. Fry played high school golf and earned a partial golf scholarship; he attended the University of Arizona (UA) for three years, from 1980 to 1983, studying business. He played on the university’s golf team and considered himself a mediocre player: “I knew I wasn’t good enough to play on tour,” he admits. However, while on UA’s men’s golf team, Fry shot an impressive 64 at Randolph Park Golf Course in Tucson. It was a course record. Press and publicity followed.
In August 1983, Andy Banfield, a lead designer for Tom Fazio, recognized Fry from a newspaper photo one night in a Tucson bar. The two engaged in conversation. (Fry admits he did not know who Tom Fazio was.) After introductions and discussions, Fry, who was about to start his senior year of college, decided to take a semester off and accepted a job.
In the following months, Fry spent days flagging cacti for transplanting and assisting Banfield in the construction of the Ventana Canyon Golf & Racquet Club in Tucson. Fry remembers the grunt work: “I was taught all facets of the business—I even painted bunkers.” Eventually, Fry came clean with his parents about his decision to quit school and pursue a career in golf course design. They were “very upset,” he recalls. “I never graduated from college, but boy did I get a great education.”
Fry seemed to be in the right place to meet the right people at the right time to gain experience in the world of golf course architecture.
Read more:
https://www.naplesillustrated.com/staying-the-course-with-dana-fry/