The first president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, Gilman, Ill., native Harris worked as a landscape designer before he laid out his first course, the Hubbard Trail Country Club in Hoopeston, Ill., in 1927. After World War II, Harris devoted his career to golf course architecture and became a leader in the profession. By the 1950s, he was busy designing courses throughout the Midwest and the South. It is estimated that he planned or remodeled over 150 during his career, including Midwest Country Club in Oak Brook, Hillcrest Country Club in Long Grove, and Midlane Country Club in Wadsworth. Harris also trained a number of successful architects, including Lawrence Packard, David Gill, Richard Nugent, Kenneth Killian, Richard Phelps and William Spear. He was co-author, along with Robert Trent Jones, of the influential chapter on course design that appeared in the first edition (1950) of H. Burton Musser's “Turf Management”.
