Ross found that the Oakley course would be a daunting task as it had been designed by people who had no understanding of the subtleties of contouring the approaches and putting surfaces to reward straight, accurate shots at all skill levels. He found geometrically square greens, some set down in such low hollows that a flag had to be raised to let those approaching know that the green was in use. Bunkers were too deep and too flat to allow an errant ball the possibility of rolling back down to a fair stance, so all balls tended to roll under the lip.

With the Scotch tradition of quiet determination, and within a week, Ross had put together a crew of fifty men using eight draft horses, three scrapers, and four hauling carts. Consider the enormity of his challenge. He was a young man with no formal education, thousands of miles from home, his Irish laborers had no idea of what a golf course should look like, and they thought that he was the one that "Talks funny.". Only Ross had a bred-in-the-bone knowledge of "Auld Country" golf. Upon completion, the club's reputation was immediately enhanced because of this look and feel of a golf course in the Scotch tradition. In 1903, the Oakley Country Club was invited to join the Massachusetts Golf Association, and in 1905 it hosted the first Massachusetts Open which Donald Ross promptly and fittingly won.

After eleven years, Donald Ross was invited to do the same thing at another course, the Essex Country Club. This club had many very wealthy Bostonians, and they offered to double the salary he was getting at Oakley. Perhaps the financial need for a larger house to allow for his daughter, Lillian, made him accept. This was a fortunate move as he came to know James W. Tufts, a soda fountain manufacturing magnate, who had a summer home in nearby Medford Massachusetts.

Tufts arranged for Donald and his family to spend the winter at Pinehurst, North Carolina, and eventually to become the professional and course designer for the family resort being built in that city. After co mpletion, Pinehurst #2 became the definitive Ross signature course, and his reputation quickly spread across America. The former overalled "keeper of the greens" from Dornach had come a long way, and in 1913, with his innate courage, he decided to devote full time to golf course design.

In the next thirty five years, Ross designed three hundred and eighty two more courses. He also remodeled, added to, or rearranged thirty six other courses.8 "Donald Ross Associates" ultimately kept over 3,000 employees and fifty construction foremen busy, and mentored and trained a team of several civil engineers. They were Walter Hatch, J. B. McGovern, George Alva, and Bert Ray.

The head of this team was Walter I. Johnson, whom this author considered the team leader that made Ross so productive. Donald Ross called them "the right hands of "Donald Ross Associates". The choice of the word- "Associates" in the company title was deliberately chosen by Ross as it implied that these men were more then just employees.

The following chart will clarify the contribution of Walter Irving Johnson. Please note that the number of courses built, remodeled, or added to each year multiplied as Ross hired other civil engineers and construction staff, (1919-1920), but increased exponentially after Walter joined the Ross organization. In early 1920, Walter started work for Ross using the latest technological measuring equipment, and made quick work of all the surveys needed to diagram the three year backlog of courses that Donald had contracted for.

The canny Scotchman, now a hard headed businessman, was bothered by the fact that of all the sixty-one courses seeking his skills that year, twenty-nine couldn't wait any longer and they defected to other architects leaving him with only forty-one courses to do. Walter Johnson's modern methods took an enormous load off the shoulders of the now 46 year old Ross who had been away from his home in the previous year for up to 250 days.

Also with Johnson's skill as an artist, Ross was able to see what the finished course would look like. Of the 41 new courses they worked on that year Ross didn't even visit twenty three. He just altered Walter Johnson's detailed presentation drawings, and artistic renderings, adding those characteristic Ross features of his, and he did it in the comfort of his home and office.

From 1932 and until 1938 the only civil engineer Ross kept working was Walter Johnson. In 1941 Ross was 59 years old, and, though physically demanding, had been doing his own surveys for the past two years. Competition from Pete Dye, George and Tom Fazio, Robert Trent Jones, Dick Wilson, and even Jack Nicklaus, meant there was little demand for his services, so he decided to take some time off and take it easy. He didn't resume designing again until 1945. In 1948, just before he passed away, the last work Ross did was a design only for the Moore Park Golf Club, Mooresville, North Carolina.

YEAR AND NUMBER OF GOLF COURSES
     THAT DONALD ROSS WORKED ON

YEAR-- COURSES
1900------2
1901------1
1902------1
1903------2
1904------0
1905------0
1906------1
1907------2
1908------0
1909------1
1910------8
1911------5
1912------8
1913------10
1914------14
1915------20
1916------20
1917------9
1918------6
1919------23
1920------26
1921------41
1922------22
1923------28
1924------18
1925------24
1926------19

The                        1927------41
Walter Johnson 1928------23
years                     1929------10*

1930------7
1931------4
1932------3
1933------1
1934------4
1935------4
1936------5
1937------2
1938------1
1939------2
1940------2
1941------0
1942------0
1943------0
1944------0
1945------5
1946------10
1947------9
1948------1

* Note:- 1929 was the year the stock market crashed, and started
the financial depression that dried up the money for new courses.

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