Welcome to Golf Club Atlas

Living in the sand hills of North Carolina, Ran Morrissett is the co-founder of Golf Club Atlas. Growing up in Richmond, Virginia, Ran’s passion for golf began as a family affair with his father, Ed, and two brothers, Bill and John, at the James River course at the Country Club of Virginia, where he met Harry W. Easterly, Jr. After meeting Easterly Jr., Ran took a job at the USGA headquarters two days after graduating from the University of North Carolina. It wasn’t until Ran’s mother gave his father the World Atlas of Golf as a Christmas gift in the 1970s that his passion for golf architecture truly began to take shape.

As a result of a bubbling passion for golf architecture, Ran and his brother John began writing course profiles, distributing them to friends via mail. Naturally, the discussion began to take shape of forming a website to be able to post these course profiles to, host a discussion board to open dialogue around golf architecture, and host feature interviews for interesting figures in the game. As such, Golf Club Atlas was born.

Since then, Golf Club Atlas has evolved into the preeminent site to discuss and research golf courses, with over 200 course profiles, twenty-five years of featured interviews and opinion pieces from some of the game’s most interesting minds, and thousands of hours of unique and interesting threads.

Aside from Golf Club Atlas, Ran Morrissett is also the co-author of Tom Doak’s re-printed series The Confidential Guide to Golf Courses, in which he, alongside Doak, Masa Nishijima, and Darius Oliver, have published four of five volumes covering golf courses across the globe. Further, Morrissett is the current Architecture Editor of GOLF Magazine.

To read the latest articles from Ran Morrissett, click here.

Born and raised in Lethbridge, Alberta, Andrew lived in a variety of places like British Columbia, Arizona, Texas, and Montana before settling in Toronto, Ontario where he currently resides. Having grown up with a love for competitive golf and a desire to play more, much of his love for the game in the early years revolved around playing and competing in junior and amateur events.

That drive led to numerous trips to various interesting tournament venues, but it was Banff Springs that opened Andrew’s eyes to golf architecture, lighting the passion to learn more about golf architecture and travel. Following his maiden voyage to Stanley Thompson’s Banff Springs, drewharvie.com was born as a personal blog to voice opinions on golf courses, tournament results, and the world of golf at large. He began writing about golf courses—largely in-and-around Southern Alberta—while also aquiring golf architecture books such as The Spirit of Saint Andrews by Alister Mackenzie, The Anatomy of a Golf Course by Tom Doak, and A Difficult Par by James Hansen. It was the COVID-19 pandemic, however, that launched the concept of a re-brand to include other voices in a focus on golf in Canada. As a result, Beyond The Contour launched in November 2021 and becoming a leading resource to read and learn about golf architecture in Canada and beyond. As of its completion in late 2024, nine total contributors make up nearly 600 individual posts.

In November 2024, Andrew Harvie and Ran Morrissett made the merger between Beyond The Contour and Golf Club Atlas official, with Andrew taking over the day-to-day operations of the newly minted Golf Club Atlas with goals of re-establishing its dominant and industry-leading presence in the golf industry.

To read the latest articles from Andrew Harvie, click here.

Inquiries, Forum Access, & More

We pride ourselves on developing and fostering a community. Do not hesitate to reach out!

Golf Club Atlas is built off the idea of being a thought-provoking, open website to discuss golf architecture at the highest level. For any article submissions, ideas, or inquiries, please fill out the contact form and our editorial staff will be in touch.

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For media inquiries related to using content displayed on the site, image approval, or inquiries related to Ran Morrissett or Andrew Harvie, please use the contact form and we will get back to you. All content on-site belongs to Golf Club Atlas, Inc. unless otherwise mentioned, cited, sourced, or stated.

Golf Club Atlas would not be the website it is today without individual supporters throughout the years. Thank you to all those who partake in the forums, have written content throughout the years, and have put up contributions for the site. For a full list of supporters, including donors and contributors, please click the button below.

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