Robert Trent Jones was the most prolific and influential golf course architect of the 20th century and became the archetypical modern golf course designer. Jones spread the gospel of golf by designing courses in 42 US states and 28 countries, and 20 U.S. Opens have been contested on Jones-designed courses. Biographer James R. Hansen recounts how an English immigrant boy arrived in upstate New York in 1912, just as golf was emerging as a popular pastime in America.