William Henrichsen Neff

(1905 - 2001)

Born: September 22, 1905, Salt Lake City, Utah

Died: March 24, 2001, Holliday, Utah, at age 95

Died: Salt Lake City at age 95.

William Henrichsen Neff was the foremost golf course architect in Utah during the first boom of golf course construction in Utah from 1950 through 1980. He designed and supervised construction of three country club courses, Oakridge, Alpine, and Bloomington, and they remain three of Utah's most playable and enjoyable courses.

On the public side he designed and supervised construction of Bountiful Ridge, St. George Golf Club, Stansbury Park, Mountain View, the Canyon and Lake nines at Wasatch Mountain, the second nine at Davis Park, Cascade Fairways, Cottonwood Club, Fore Lakes, Westland Hills (later became Glenmoor), the mountain nine at Hidden Valley CC, the original nine at Park City, and Sweetwater.

A landscape architect for over 20 years, he shifted focus to golf in 1954 when he helped implement architectural changes to the Salt Lake Country Club under direction of architect William P. Bell. He also worked with architect Ralph Plummer and contractor Enoch Smith in the redesign at The Country Club in 1960 when the interstate was built through the club.

He became the on site contractor for architect William F. Bell in the construction of Riverside CC. In that capacity they became a team and built the second nine at Bonneville, and the courses at Mountain Dell and Rose Park. He then ventured out on his own and became Utah's premier home-grown golf course architect until he retired.

He was one of the early members of the American Society of Golf Course Architects and helped write the by-laws for the organization and reorganize it into a professional and purposeful structuring.