b'There was a little uphill slope from the back porch, he recalls. I would smack those into the cornfield and imagine I was out on a golf course; I would use the farm as a template all the way through the process of getting through the round.Bridges schoolmates, who told him that golf course design was not a real job, were not his only naysayers. After graduating from Gatton Academy of Math and Science, he enrolled in Western Kentucky Universitys Early Credits Program, designed for precociously intellectual students. He then transferred to the University of Kentucky to pursue landscape architecture, emphasizing golf course design. His professors tried to steer him elsewhere. It was the 2008 recession and a couple of professors told me they didnt think another new golf course would be built again in America, he says. Fortunately, course architect and former Wildcat, Drew Rogers, came and spoke about hisBridges (on right) is a design associate career as part of an alumni speakerworking for David McLay Kidd (left) and Kidds design partner Nick Schaan (second series. It was the most importantfrom left). lecture I ever attended.Inspired, Bridges graduated with a Bachelor of Science in landscape design. He began cold-calling golfAs a design associate, Bridges course design firms to inquireresponsibilities span the spectrum about jobs. Someone advised him toof course construction. He follows join a golf construction crew, so hea site visit by producing readings got on with the PGA Frisco projectof topography, laying out holes in Texas.with coordinates, drafting concepts I did anything that was asked ofto put together a full set of me, from hauling rocks to surveyingBridges flies to projects around theconstruction sets, and composing fairways and laying seed, he says.country in Kidds plane, with Kidd asa variety of sheet sets. Theres also When DMK Golf Design calledthe pilot.soil testing, water runoff, and native offering Bridges a job, he packed his carvegetation to consider. and left for Bend, Ore., the next day.We also pay close attention I tell every kid who calls who wants to be me to giveto sustainability, says the 34-year-old, who worked it up and find a different dream, Kidd says. The oddson QuickSands, the short course at Gamble Sands in of success are so incredibly slim I try to dissuade themBrewster, Wash. all I can. Some I cant. AJ was that kid. He houndedBridges still cant quite believe hes in the golf course us, was persistent, and had a drive to be seen and adesign business. motivation to succeed; we hired him largely because ofI think Ive fulfilled my fantasies about what this job that drive, although he is pretty darn smart, too. Whenwould be, he says. I was determined to do this, and my peers and I eventually hang it up, it will be AJ and aevery moment of clarity about what Ive accomplished few others who will fill the void. puts a smile on my face.MAR 2025|PACIFIC NORTHWEST GOLFER17'