Cabell B. Robinson: Golf Designer Extraordinaire

Cabell B. Robinson has designed such top golf courses as Finca Cortesin, Santana, La Reserva de Sotogrande, La Cala, and Valle Romano, and is one of the world’s most prestigious golf designers in Europe. The North American now resides in Costa del Sol and continues to design renowned golf courses around the world, including the Aphrodite Hills Resort’s very own.

 “I love what I do. I have lost count of the courses I have designed. I enjoy working on site with the bulldozers, the machinery… don’t like to work on paper, that’s not for me. Golf courses should be designed modelling the land.”

Karma encounters

A legend in the field of landscape architecture, designer Cabell B. Robinson spent the 1963 academic year at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, before completing his degree in landscape architecture from the University of California in 1967. It was during his time at Harvard that Cabell met Rees Jones, son of legendary golf course architect Robert Trent Jones Sr., whose career spanned nearly 70 years. The close friendship between the two led to Cabell joining the Trent Jones office in Montclair, New Jersey, for full-time employment in 1967. He spent the next 20 years there, before serving as head of the European office in Spain, from 1971 – 1987. During those 17 years, Cabell was intimately involved with the design and construction of every Trent Jones course in Europe.

In 1987, Cabell Robinson broke away to open his own small design company, Cabell B. Robinson Limited, based in the southern Spanish resort town of Marbella, where he re resides to this day. Some of the most impressive layouts in Europe and North Africa carry the Robinson name, and he boasts designs in countries such as France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Switzerland, Cyprus and Italy.

Not your ordinary golf architect

With an established reputation in the Mediterranean region, Cabell is in high demand by anyone looking to develop an outstanding golf course, but he refuses to become a design factory. He selects each of his projects very carefully and designs and supervises construction from start to finish. He creates each design by taking into consideration the land, the local culture and the environment. None of his projects can be considered typical or run of the mill; rather, he takes great pains to create something special and memorable. Like any artist dedicated to his work, Cabell pours his heart and soul into every design he creates.

Aphrodite Hills Golf Course, the PGA National Cyprus

Along a rolling green hillside, overlooking the bay that gave birth to the goddess Aphrodite, stands the Aphrodite Hills Golf Course, a championship-quality, eighteen-hole golf course designed by architect Cabell B. Robinson.

The structural design of the course began in 1997, and much attention was given to the ecological impact the course would have on the area, as well as the preservation of the archeological sites that were subsequently discovered. Under Cabell’s watchful eye, Aphrodite Hills Golf Course has become the perfect mix of challenging bunkers, manicured fairways of lush Bermuda grass and generous tiered greens. Visually spectacular, the course expands through indigenous olive and carob trees and is built on two plateaux, separated by a dramatic ravine with outstanding views over the Mediterranean Sea. The staggering 130-meter gorge dividing tees at the 7th hole is an enticing challenge for all lovers of this beautiful game.

Today, 2023, the PGA National Cyprus is one of the top golf courses in the world.