Welcome to the Wayne Stiles Society. The site features many modern and historic course photos, information, correspondence and plans, in addition to those included in the book. Also featured will be news and notes about restoration efforts, developments at Stiles and Van Kleek courses and new publications featuring Wayne Stiles and other golf and landscape architects. Visitors to this site are encouraged to provide any information, photos or plans they may have and are welcome to download and share content for themselves and their golf clubs.

In the spirit of the history and traditions of the game of golf, and in recognition to the lasting contributions of Wayne E. Stiles, Bob Labbance and I researched his life and work. Our goal was to honor a relatively unknown Golden Age American golf architect. Unlike Donald Ross, A.W. Tillinghast, Walter Travis and Charles Blair Macdonald, to name a few of his contemporaries, Mr. Stiles left behind virtually no writings and little had been written about him. Although Bob never designed a golf course, unlike Mr. Stiles, he left us with an extensive body of writings about the game of golf and its architects. Mr. Stiles was not inclined towards self promotion, was rarely photographed and primarily focused on pleasing his clients and designing enjoyable golf holes. His training as a landscape architect prior to his competitive golf years and subsequent golf design career gave him a strong understanding of the role of trees, sight lines and shading that would influence the long term strategic implications associated with course maintenance as well as the placement of trees, shrubs and grasses on golf courses. At many courses, much of his work has been preserved or restored; at others, virtually no Stiles features remain. The same is true for the plans, drawings and correspondence associated with the various projects he and John Van Kleek undertook. Our goal is to increase recognition of Stiles' and Van Kleek's work, and to encouraged their clubs to preserve and ideally restore original design features, while allowing for modern elements not envisioned during the Golden Age of American golf architecture, among them golf carts and CAD-designed adjustable weight drivers.



Recent Publications Featuring Wayne Stiles

Shaping the American Landscape
The TCLF Golf Course Website

After several years in the making, the National Park Service and the Cultural Landscape Foundation released the latest volume in the Pioneers series in the fall of 2009. The book contains profiles of 151 people who quite literally, shaped America’s parks, gardens and most notably, golf courses. Included are Kevin Mendik’s profiles of Wayne Stiles, Charles Blair Macdonald and A.W. Tillinghast. Stuart Bendelow profiled his grandfather Tom Bendelow and Willie Park Jr. was prepared by Doug Pulak. Numerous connections become apparent as the book is perused; among them Butler Sturtevant who was an associate of Stiles and Van Kleek, as well as Annette Hoyt Flanders, who designed the formal gardens at Ballyshear, Macdonald's residence overlooking National Golf Links.

Further information about the development of golf in America, definitions of the key periods of its development, and course profiles of illustrative examples can also be found at the website of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, www.tclf.org by clicking on What’s Out There and searching for golf.

Golf Architecture: A Worldwide Perspective Volume V

Golf Architecture: A Worldwide Perspective Volume V contains a section about Wayne Stiles, prepared by both Bob and Kevin for this book. Released in 2008, it features great examples of golf architecture and courses from around the world. Volume IV can be purchased through Amazon here.



The authors:



Bob Labbance - 1952 to 2008


Bob photographing re-discovered historic documents at The Course at Yale in 2004.
Bob at Ekwanok in May of 2004.
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Above: Stiles' orignal bunker between the 8th and 11th greens at Taconic installed during course restorations in the Fall of 2008


On June 8, 2010. The New York Metropolitan Area Golf Writers Association posthumously presented the 2010 Linc Werden Award for Golf Journalism to Bob Labbance . His wife Kathie Hickman accepted the award.

Obituary from the August 30, 2008 edition of The Barre Montpelier Times Argus, written by his wife Kathie Hickman.

ALS, the Disease - This link is provided for visitors to better understand the disease which took Bob from us. Please visit the site and contribute if you can to these wonderful communities helping to change people's lives.

A Tribute to Bob written by Kevin Mendik for the USGA, where Bob was a member of the USGA Museum & Library Committee

A Tribute to Bob's life and work which appeared in several New England Golf Magazines in 2008. Written by his long time friend and fellow golf writer David Cornwell.

A Tribute to Bob Labbance which appeared in the New York Post. Written by Ralph Wimbish, friend and fellow golf writer.

A Tribute to Bob Labbance (see bottom paragraph) written by Jim McCabe, formerly of the Boston Globe. More Globe links on Bob and the book can be found HERE...

Click here for GolfWeek's June 16, 2008 tribute to Bob's career.


Kevin Mendik


Kevin hitting out of the rough at Brae Burn while Randy Jensen looks on.
Kevin in familiar territory at the Myopia Hunt Club.
Into the Wind at Fishers Island.


Kevin is a pure hickory golfer who plays exclusively with vintage hickory shaft clubs from the early 20th century; the same type of technology available to Golden Age golf architects and players. He sits on the Grounds and Greens Committee at his home course, the Pine Brook Country Club in Weston, Massachusetts. For more historical and modern information about Pine Brook visit the Featured Courses section on this website. He has written numerous golf articles for state, regional and national golf publications, and is a Rater for GolfWeek.

Mr. Mendik has worked for the Northeast Region of the National Park Service since 1990 where he handles environmental compliance. Click here to visit the National Park Service website. Click here to visit the National Register Information System where you can search to determine golf courses and/or clubhouses that have either been placed on the National Register or designated as National Historic Landmarks. Please note that all listed golf courses and clubhouses are not contained in a single section, but Kevin Mendik will be compiling such a list for reference in the near future.

A paper entitled The Challenges of Restoring A Classic American Golf Course was presented by Kevin Mendik at Preserve and Play: Preserving Historic Recreation and Entertainment Sites, held in Chicago during May of 2005 and subsequently posted in its entirety on GolfClubAtlas.com