Perry Maxwell

Perry Duke Maxwell (June 13, 1879 – November 15, 1952) was an American golf course architect. He was a founding member of the American Society of Golf Course Architects and was an inductee into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame in 2012. He was known as the "father of Oklahoma golf".

Perry Duke Maxwell was born on June 13, 1879 in Princeton, Kentucky, to parents of Scottish descent. He moved to Ardmore, Oklahoma, in 1897 after two forays at college where he studied classical literature. In 1902 he found the love of his life, Ray Woods, and they married that same year. Poor health temporarily curtailed his collegiate studies but he finally graduated and settled into a banking job and eventually became vice president of the Ardmore National Bank where he would remain into his mid-30s.

In 1913, on land he owned that was the site of a former dairy farm, Maxwell built the first nine holes of Dornick Hills Golf & Country Club in Ardmore. The remaining nine holes would not be completed until 1923. Maxwell—along with other fine golf course architects of this period such as Herbert Strong and Donald Ross—was not formally trained in golf course architecture. Most golf course architects who worked in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries were immigrants from Scotland and England whose sole qualifications were their knowledge of golf and ability to play the game.

Maxwell is credited with many of the great layouts in Oklahoma and throughout the United States and is commonly recognized as one of America's great golf course designers. One of Maxwell's first courses was Dornick Hills Golf & Country Club in Ardmore, Oklahoma, which hosted the 1952–1954 Ardmore Open as well as the 1954 LPGA Ardmore Open. Maxwell also built Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa (the site of several PGA Tour events and the U.S. Open in 1958, 1977 and 2001). The Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club and Prairie Dunes Country Club also appear on Maxwell's résumé. He made major contributions to such revered layouts as Pine Valley Golf Club, Augusta National Golf Club (home of the Masters), Colonial Country Club, Crystal Downs Country Club, and Merion Golf Club. In total, Maxwell is estimated to have designed 70 courses and remodeled about 50 others.

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