An exciting new chapter for Canadian golf designer Trevor Dormer begins with King and Collins partnership

“Rob and I have been really good friends going all the way back to 2007 when we first met out at Wildstone (Golf Course) in Cranbrook, B.C. He was the design co-ordinator for Gary Player Design at that point. We stayed in touch over the years and I decided to help the guys out when I had time between working for Bill and Ben,” Dormer added.

There are a couple of items on Dormer’s to-do list before he transitions into his new world at King Collins Dormer.

“Most of my time has been here in Nebraska working on Old Dane, but I’ve also been travelling back and forth to Torch Cay,” explained Dormer, who is also a consultant on Purcell Golf, a public facility near his home in Kimberley, B.C. “Everything is ready to go right into King Collins Dormer Golf Design, but I wanted to make sure I fulfilled my obligations with Bill and Ben and on Old Dane. Those projects were on the books before I partnered with Tad and Rob.”

Reduced travel is one of the upsides of this opportunity. King, Collins and Dormer all have families. Having three principals looking after the day-to-day instead of two benefits everyone for scheduling and project time management.

“My boys are seven and nine and up until this year they’ve been living with us on the road,” Dormer said. “When we finished Cabot St. Lucia my wife told me that she’s had enough travelling around and that the boys needed to be more home-based in the Rockies. The timing for this could not have worked out much better, to be honest.”

King and Collins are thrilled to add Dormer’s fresh perspective to their business.

“He is incredibly talented on both the design and construction side,” said Collins of Dormer in a company release. “I think he’s as good as anyone out there. He has a great mind for design and is highly skilled at operating equipment. He is young — he will add longevity to our operation — and he has the perfect skill set for our company, as we are a design-build firm.”

Currently, King Collins Dormer is in the planning phase for 7 Mile Beach in Tasmania and 21 Golf Club in Jackson, S.C., and is set to begin construction on Bounty Club, a new course on the outskirts of Nashville.

“We’re getting inquiries every week to 10 days,” Dormer said. “We also have a lot of things in the pipeline so I’m pretty excited. And I’m ready. It’s going to be pretty cool to work alongside those guys.”

Adding Dormer as a partner also raises the potential for the firm to take on projects north of the border.

“We talked about that. The thing about new builds in Canada is they’re going to be put under more of a microscope than in the U.S. because there are so few new projects,” Dormer explained. “I’d want to make sure anything we do in Canada is notable and not just a project for the sake of taking it.”

That said, Dormer dreams of making an impact on the Canadian golf landscape.

“I don’t want this coming off as arrogant or cocky because it’s not meant to be, but Canada has some of the best land in the world for golf and, in some ways, I don’t think we have the golf that reflects that,” he said. “My hope is for us to do something fun and cool up there. Whether that’s tomorrow, 10 years or 30 years from now, I’d like to build something great on Canadian soil. It would be the highlight of my career.”