About
Bruce Hepner was a driving force in the Golden Age restoration movement and helped reintroduce the design-build approach now popular in modern golf architecture.
Bruce Hepner is a renowned golf course architect, celebrated for his influential role in shaping modern golf course design in the United States and internationally. Born in 1959 in Detroit, Michigan, Hepner earned a degree in civil engineering from Michigan Technological University before embarking on a career that would leave a deep mark on the game of golf. Early in his profession, he worked with Ron Forse, gaining valuable experience in restoration and classic architecture. He then joined Renaissance Golf Design under Tom Doak, serving as Vice President and Lead Design Associate from 1993 to 2010. During this period, Hepner contributed significantly to acclaimed projects such as Pacific Dunes (Oregon), Ballyneal (Colorado), Cape Kidnappers (New Zealand), and Old Macdonald (Oregon). In 2010, he founded Hepner Golf Design and continued to lead restoration and new build projects across the U.S. and abroad. Hepner is recognized for advancing the restoration movement and the design-build method, impacting some of golf architecture's most important modern trends.
