John Mellett, Principal, Professional Golf Course Architect.
John Mellett met fellow Cornell landscape architecture graduates, Tom Doak and Gil Hanse, while a studying at Cornell University. Doak introduced John to the minimalistic golf course design philosophy and the teachings of Alister MacKenzie, Charles Blair MacDonald, Donald Ross, and George Thomas. This interaction with Doak and Hanse was monumental for Mellett and laid the foundation for Mellet’s design thoughts and own design philosophy. After Cornell, John went on to build golf courses as a golf course construction operator and superintendent, and then apprenticed with multiple golf course design firms. During this period John passed his professional board exam and achieved “professional design” status continuing to work on golf course projects around the world, including restorations. It was at this time he evolved his own design philosophies with new ideas for the future of golf, turning these ideas into a professional practice of his own, Mellett Golf Course Design. The professional firm “thinks outside the box” and provides a new breed of exciting golf courses for the 21st century, promoting innovative environmental aesthetics, golf strategies, sustainability initiatives, and design palettes.
John grew up in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, a sandy pine forest landscape with sand dunes, perfect golf country. His passion for this particular landscape and golf developed at an early age, evolving into the captain of his high school golf team, caddying at premier golf courses including Pine Valley and Somerset Hills. Through caddying John developed a love for golf course design. He built his first golf course bunker at age 15 in the family garden… with a shovel and wheelbarrow. John then attended Cornell University, where he studied landscape architecture with turfgrass management, and played for the Cornell University golf team. John worked as an assistant golf course superintendent during his college summers at a great Donald Ross course called Mountain Ridge.
James McMahon, Design Associate, Marketing
James is a graduate of the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Ireland and has honed his design and construction skills at firms in Europe prior to joining Mellett Golf Course Design.