Thad Layton Preserves Arnold Palmer Design Legacy, Establishes Own Name
Thad Layton is out for a Sunday evening, solo nine at Fasano Las Piedras in Punta Del Este, Uruguay, a course he co-designed in 2013. It’s quiet, so he has plenty of time to talk over the phone between shots and discuss how tough have these last five and a half years been since his boss passed away.
His short-but-sweet LinkedIn page tells the happy story of a man who has only ever had one job. Unlike many 46-year-olds who list numerous positions at numerous different firms, Layton has been with the same company since graduating from Mississippi State University 22 years ago.
Shortly after completing his Landscape Architecture and Turfgrass Management studies, he joined Arnold Palmer, and his partner Ed Seay, at the Arnold Palmer Design Company in Ponte Vedra, Florida. And he’s never had any reason to move. Not even in September 2016 when Palmer suffered serious complications from heart problems and died at the age of 87. Seay had died in 2007.
Since that sad day when golf lost one of its most revered figures and Layton lost his hero, friend and boss, he has experienced only two of the five accepted stages of grief. But lest you think he still has three to go, Layton met with the first — denial — and then bypassed the middle three before heading straight for the last — acceptance.
"I was probably in denial for a while," says Layton, who serves as senior golf course architect and vice president at Arnold Palmer Design Company. “Arnold was an old man and obviously going downhill physically, so we knew it was just a matter of time. But, despite the fact we’d made contingencies, I still wasn’t ready for it. It was hard to watch a lion become weak and not trust his old powers anymore."
While the anger, bargaining and depression parts never really happened, Layton does acknowledge a moment of sadness crept in during the funeral in Palmer's hometown of Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Jim Nantz gave a eulogy that made Layton tear up.
“And I got pretty emotional afterwards when Mr. Palmer’s co-pilot, Pete Luster, performed a fly-past in [Palmer's] Citation X,” Layton says.
As Layton continues to walk the course he designed together with his boss, Layton rattles off a few memories that highlight the special relationship they had, and it’s eerie how his recollections mirror those of his colleague, fellow senior golf course architect and company vice president Brandon Johnson.
Both stress how down to earth Palmer was — he’d sing along to the same country music CDs in the car that they did and he’d happily eat dinner in a truck stop with the crew at the end of a hard day. Though, if there was any chance, Palmer would try to get home to Bay Hill in Florida, his home for over 45 years, for a bowl of chili in his own kitchen rather than stay another night in the no-doubt fancy lodgings he had been given. (OK, that usually meant flying his own jet home, which doesn’t exactly scream common man, but the chili’s the important point).
Most of the stories are familiar, but a couple are new. Hired by owner Mark Parsinen to build the second course at Castle Stuart on the banks of the Moray Firth in Scotland, Layton got to spend 10 days with Palmer just walking and imagining golf holes.
“I’d done it numerous times before," he says, "but doing it in Scotland was so special. I could see what designing a course in the home of golf meant to Arnold. And the site was amazing. It was going to be our Bandon Dunes."
Then there was the time Palmer burst into the Orlando office with a set of plans and said he needed help. ”I knew it was going to be good,” says Layton. “Sure enough, they were plans for changes to Pebble Beach prior to the 2010 U.S. Open.”
The conversation shifts to how hard he and Johnson have worked since 2016 to maintain the company’s reputation and assure owners, developers and clubs they are more than capable of meeting their needs. In 2018, Layton moved his family — wife Stephanie and sons Jake and Hank — to Colorado to establish the company’s West Coast office. And though the Palmer name still carries much cachet, Layton will tell you it comes with no guarantees anymore.
“I’ve learned never to make assumptions," he says. "Clubs change — pros, members, presidents, boards — they all come and go. So even though Arnold may have designed the original course, it’s definitely not certain Brandon or I would be hired for a renovation. And the sort of developer who might have signed Mr. Palmer without worrying too much about the course they were getting certainly doesn’t hire us without a great deal of vetting, interviewing and research."
Take Seattle Golf Club, for instance. The historic club, founded in 1900, hired Palmer to create a masterplan and renovate its beautiful course, 9 miles north of the Space Needle, in 1996. The members enjoyed a close relationship with Palmer, who always said the layout was “one of the most outstanding in the Northwest, if not the nation,” but there was nothing to say his young associate would get the nod earlier this year when the club began to implement parts of the masterplan.
"I knew I was competing for the work," Layton says. "Of course we had a foot in the door, but I still had to prove I could be relied upon.”
Kipp Johnson, the club's general manager, confirms Layton was the club’s first, but by no means only, choice. “Out of due diligence, we did entertain other options,” he says. “But after meeting with Thad, evaluating the positive results from previous work, observing his professionalism and knowing how respectful of the club he would be, we knew he was the right man for the job."
And even though Palmer signed a contract at Fasano Las Piedras nine years ago, ensuring APDC would design the second nine if, indeed, the developer ever wanted it, Layton is still going above and beyond what would typically be expected of a lead designer.
He plans on being on-site for at least 150 days and will play a considerable part in actually building the course, having become proficient on nearly all course construction vehicles.
"The industry is obviously evolving into design/build,” he says. “It’s hard work, but I really enjoy it as it lets you be creative throughout the whole process instead of sticking rigidly to plans."
Layton’s talent, experience and dedication (as well as that of Johnson) ensured the Arnold Palmer Design Company successfully weathered the storm of its patriarch’s absence. Perhaps it’s time, therefore, to consider changing the name.
"You mean to ‘Johnson and Layton’?” he asks. "We've never really thought about it. I’d never say never, but for now we’re comfortable holding on to APDC. It might be foolish to change as we don’t know how the market would react."
It’s a fair point. Would it be seen as disrespectful and prove ruinous? Possibly, but it is fairly certain Palmer himself would give the move his blessing. Having watched his young employee operate these last few years, the King would surely look down, smile, nod and raise an approving thumb.