Our Roots

The Larkin Group has evolved from the success of the revolutionary Vineyard Golf Club on Martha’s Vineyard.  The Vineyard Golf Club is a private, Top-100 quality course that has disproved the once-held notion that it’s impossible to build and manage a golf course organically.

Construction of the cutting edge course began in 1999, with Owen Larkin as the Managing Partner and founding President, and Jeff Carlson as the construction manager and grow-in coordinator.

For more than a decade the Vineyard Golf Club has been managed with one of the most restrictive protocols in the United States, using no fungicides or herbicides and only a handful of organic pesticides. Today the beautiful venue stands as a model of sustainable golf, garnering international interest. The Vineyard Golf Club also provides an enjoyable, challenging test of golf for its members on its beautifully maintained 235 acres.

New Growth: the Larkin Group

Chairman and CEO Owen Larkin created the Larkin Group by bringing together the superintendent of the Vineyard Golf Club, Jeff Carlson, with other outstanding veterans in the sustainable golf industry.  The other members of our core team include  golf course architect Gil Hanse, turf scientist Dr. Frank Rossi, golf professional Bob Ford and LPGA Hall of Famer and course designer Amy Alcott. Each is an innovator in their area of expertise, and together they have the ability to take a foreword-thinking approach to golf course assessment, construction and management.

We are now pleased to be joined by David Fay, who served as Executive Director of the United States Golf Association for more than two decades.  Fay will act as a Special Projects Liaison for the Larkin Group as an ambassador to the international golf community.

Our collaboration with AECOM, one of the leading Design/Engineering/Consulting firms in the world, also gives us tremendous reach. With offices in 125 countries, AECOM’s breadth of talent includes a worldwide staff of more than 45,000 engineers, scientists, designers and management experts. Through the strength of this global partnership, the Larkin Group has the ability to execute on projects nearly anywhere, including those in the most stringent regulatory environments.