Architect Nagle going solo after 25 years

Jim Nagle, the golf course architect behind the restoration of many historic tracks, including Lancaster Country Club, the site of this year’s U.S. Women’s Open, has launched his own firm after 25 years as part of Forse Design.

 

And Nagle Design Works is launching with a bang: Nagle announced two new projects — the restoration of Dick Wilson’s 1954 design of the North course at NCR Country Club in Dayton, Ohio, and the creation of a masterplan at Eagles Mere Country Club in northern Pennsylvania, whose creation in 1915 was one of William Flynn’s earliest golf design jobs.

“Like many designers, I entered the field with hopes of running my own shop,” Nagle said. “During my 25 years with Forse Design, Ron (Forse) and I have completed numerous great projects for many wonderful clients, and I have learned a tremendous amount about the sort of courses I want to design and work on in the rest of my career. I want to build courses that are steeped in risk and reward, and heroic design, intrigue and joy. Forse Design enabled me to make a name as a restoration specialist, and the great designers of the past will always inform my work. I am excited to forge this opportunity to create new designs from scratch.”

Nagle’s near-term schedule is fairly dense. This summer, he will wrap up a complete restoration of Flynn’s original design of the Spring Mill course at Philadelphia Country Club by rebuilding the back nine, including a redesign of the finishing hole, which is not original. In 2026, the course will host the stroke play rounds of the U.S. Amateur Championship. This follows on the heels of his original redesign of the club’s 9-hole Centennial Course and practice facility.

Other recent work includes his 20-year consultation with Lancaster Country Club, where he has restored Flynn’s design intent to the championship course by putting back most of his original bunkers while adding others to deal with the challenges of modern equipment. Nagle has also renovated the Highlands 9, originally designed by another architect, to more closely resemble the main 18, and has also constructed multiple practice facilities.

“Nagle has a gift for marrying the aesthetic and strategy of the Golden Age with the realities of the modern game,” Lancaster greens chair Rory Connaughton said. “His work on classic courses has ensured that they remain a challenge without compromising the strategic and aesthetic elements.”

Nagle’s major renovation of Bill Diddel’s design at Meridian Hills in Indianapolis will open in the late spring. 

Nagle has also signed up to deliver a new masterplan for one of Flynn’s earliest works: Eagles Mere in northern Pennsylvania.

“Eagles Mere is a step back in time,” Nagle said. “The course is routed through a wooded landscape, with greens played as intended with tricky swells and knobs still being used for hole locations because of the slower speeds. Rock debris piles from the original construction remain untouched sitting between holes. Fairways are pockmarked with small humps and kettles from the cuts and clearing of the forest to build the holes. A few holes provide mountain and peak vistas as far as the eye can see.”

Next year, Nagle will start restoration of Wilson’s North course at NCR Country Club.

“The North has really not been touched very much since Wilson built it in 1954,” Nagle said. “We will focus on peeling back 70 years of growth to revive the original shapes and strategies.”

In addition to the work at NCR and Eagles Mere, Nagle will be rolling over a recently signed Forse Design project with Westwood Country Club, a Hugh Alison design west of Cleveland. This comes after a highly successful restoration project with the venerable Alison-designed Kirtland Country Club elsewhere in the city, where Nagle has served as the lead architect for nearly 20 years. 

“The next few years are going to be very exciting,” Nagle said. “Ron and I will continue to collaborate on projects. I am enthused and I look forward to taking on interesting new original design, renovation, and restoration projects. These are good times.”

Nagle graduated from West Virginia University, where he earned a degree in landscape architecture, and has been practicing golf course architecture for more than 25 years.