Bruce Borland

Bruce Borland was a golf course designer who worked for Jack Nicklaus. He died in the 1999 South Dakota Learjet crash on October 25, 1999 while traveling with golf Hall of Famer Payne Stewart.

Bruce was raised in the Peoria, Illinois area. He took a fascination with golf at an early age, building and maintaining a putting green in his parents' backyard, tending to it tediously. Bruce went on to graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, with a degree in Landscape Architecture, then moved to Chicago area and began designing golf courses for several firms.

In 1989, he opened his own design firm, ProDesign, just a year later he was offered a design position with Jack Nicklaus at Golden Bear International. Bruce had the privilege to work on many of the famous Jack Nicklaus "Signature" golf courses, including the nationally-acclaimed Collection River Plantation in Hilton Head, SC, as well as other stateside and Indonesian courses.

At the time of Borland's death, many experts outside of the golfing circle had no knowledge of the significance, sacrifice, and generosity that the Peoria native brought with him on the fateful day. Bruce made four visits to Coyote Creek before his death and was scheduled for another visit the day after the plane crashed. Coyote Creek was his first signature course -this is the pinnacle of any golf course architect's career - designed in his own backyard.