The Arizona Beta Chapter of
Sigma Phi Epsilon
The University of Arizona
Brother Charlton was initiated in 1976 and graduated with honors and a degree in landscape architecture in 1980. Bruce represented Sig Ep as Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC) rep in 76/77 while serving two terms as IFC President in 78/79. He received the 1980 Robert L. Nugent award for outstanding leadership and citizenship at The University of Arizona.
The fourth hole at Manchester Golf & Country Club, in Bruce’s hometown of Manchester, Iowa, is a short par four that runs along a country road across from cornfields. Each of the nine holes was designed in 1927 by one of the club’s founding members. Local attorney Shannon B. Charlton designed number four. And while the hole has remained virtually unchanged for 80 years, it has been remodeled numerous times in the mind of Charlton’s grandson.
“It seems that golf course design was in my blood before I was born,” says Bruce Charlton, President and Chief Design Officer of Robert Trent Jones II (RTJ II). Although he might have been expected to follow in the line of Charlton family lawyers spanning four generations, Bruce Charlton knew from the time he was a teenager working as an assistant golf course superintendent, exactly what he wanted to do.
“I would be on the course the first thing in the morning, and then again late in the evening,” Charlton recalls, “and I thought, ‘This is as close to heaven as I can be.’ If you talk to my high school golf team buddies, they will say that I told them back then, ‘I am going to become a golf course architect.’”
While Charlton and his teammates were able to lead their high school team into the state tournament for the first time, college golf was another matter. Charlton tried out at Arizona, where his consistent rounds in the 70s simply weren’t good enough. Still, the climate beat Iowa’s, and Charlton focused on his studies (Sig Ep brothers may question that), combining classes in turfgrass, business law, and real estate.
As a future golf course architect he always paid close attention to the land. “The most important factor in being a good golf course architect is understanding what the land is doing,” Charlton says. “The flow of the land is the inspiration on any given site.”
Brother Charlton joined RTJ II after graduating. He honed his skills under Robert Trent Jones, Jr.’s tutelage and has grown into a highly respected architect in his own right. Charlton is a member of the executive committee of the prestigious American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA), and served as ASGCA President in 2008/2009.
Bruce’s body of work with the RTJ II team is global, and has won countless awards and accolades. His more than 75 golf course designs include Trans Strait Golf Club and Yalong Bay Golf Club in China; The Marshes Golf Club in Canada; Bro Hof Slott Golf Club in Sweden, Skjoldenaesholm. Lubker Golf Resort and the Scandinavian Golf Club in Denmark; Bjaavann Golfklubb and Holtsmark Golf Club in Norway; Terre dei Consoli Golf Club in Italy and Sky Hill Jeju Country Club in South Korea. He has also designed courses in Australia, South America, and Japan.
Bruce’s domestic creations include the U of A’s own Arizona National Golf Club in Tucson; The Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe and Rancho San Marcos Golf Course in California; Raven Golf Club at Sandestin in Florida; Osprey Meadows at Tamarack Resort in Idaho; Prairie Landing Golf Club and ThunderHawk Golf Club in Illinois; Southern Highlands Golf Club in Nevada; University Ridge Golf Course in Wisconsin; and Chambers Bay in Washington. Chambers Bay has the distinction to be the first NEW golf course in over 40 years to be selected to host the US OPEN – upcoming in 2015.
Brother Charlton lives in Los Altos, Calif., with his wife Maridee and their daughter Casey. His golf designs live in many countries on most of the world’s continents.