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Excellence in
Golf Course Design

With over 30 years of experience and more than 100 courses completed, we approach each project with passion, precision, and purpose. Our commitment to sustainability, playability, and client collaboration ensures every course we design reflects the unique character of its land and community. We strive to enhance the game of golf by shaping unforgettable experiences for players of all levels.​

Our mission

To create world-class golf courses that are strategic, beautiful, and enduring - the type of courses you want to play everyday.

Read about our Philosophy

BILL BERGIN, ASGCA

Founder

Bergin Golf Designs was established in 1994, and it is no coincidence that it started from the “ground up” as that is the essence of our design philosophy. Bill played the world’s best golf courses as a touring professional and gained an understanding of the ability of the everyday player as a teaching professional. As a result, Bill Bergin not only feels the quality of a golf course through his feet, but he also judges the character of his designs by how well they play on the ground.

Bill honors the timeless principles of classic golf architecture while addressing the needs of the modern game. His designs balance strategic challenge with everyday playability, offering thoughtful options and engaging aesthetics. With an eye for detail and a deep respect for the game’s heritage, Bill creates courses that are both memorable and relevant.

His career in design began under the tutelage of Bob Cupp in 1990, but prior to his work as a designer, Bill spent six years playing golf professionally, and three years as a teaching professional. During his playing days, the former Georgia Amateur Champion played in more than 250 professional tournaments worldwide with stints on the PGA, European, and Asian tours. Competing in two Open Championships and three U.S. Opens on courses such as St. Andrews and Pebble Beach, and teaching golfers of all abilities, have given him an astute awareness into the strategic quality of a golf course and how it affects all players. Highlighting Bill’s playing career was a tournament-low 66 in the third round of the 1984 Open Championship at St. Andrews, leading him to a 14th place finish among the best golfers in the world. Bill Bergin is a former Class A PGA Professional and earned a Business degree from Auburn University.

meet the design team

The Bergin team blends experience, insight, and instinct to ensure our courses are mechanically sound,
strategically enticing and designed with balance and beauty in mind.

Matt Bergin, ASGCA

Design Associate

Justin Killingsworth

Design Associate

Spencer Oliver

Agronomic Associate

Callie Bergin Powell

Marketing Associate

Mary Bergin

Business Manager

Albie

Road Warrior

Philosophy

Blending strategy, performance, and beauty into a seamless playing experience.

Great golf begins with thoughtful routing.

"The beauty and intrigue of golf that eventually captivates and even consumes an individual stems from the game's blending of the magnificence of nature with a mental and physical challenge in a constantly diverse environment."

With eighteen distinct holes on a golf course, fourteen different clubs to utilize, and various demands ranging from the effects of weather to the length and type of grass on which the sport is played, golf is a complicated game.

Laying out a golf course begins with an understanding of the movement of the land and is followed by a routing that flows between challenges and opportunities, both discovered and fashioned.

Form follows function.

By utilizing different compass points, lengths, angles, drops and climbs, diversity is achieved while simultaneously reaching the goal of balance. The land is shaped and blended with purpose behind every contour and feature, accentuating the lows and highs on a subtle property while softening the severity of pitch at times on a demanding piece of land.

The golf course must be designed and built for longevity. Conditioning and mechanical stability will be major factors in the overall quality of the course and our designs account for and consider all current and future maintenance issues.

Beauty should feel natural.

We don’t impose it, we reveal it. With a routing that touches all of the natural features a property has to offer, memorable holes are revealed and created. Newly graded areas will blend with the existing lay of the land, while water features and interesting landforms are exposed and enhanced. Mentioned as strategic components, elements such as bunkers, trees, water and slopes are all used to attract the eye and draw attention to the natural beauty of each hole.

Every course possesses its own unique character, and we look to match a great golf experience with the individual conditions found on each property.

Every element accounted for.

Detailed planning allows Bergin Golf Designs to provide the highest level of design services. Our plans are thorough, ensuring that all aspects of the design are properly documented, reducing and problems that may arise among the designer, the contractor, and the owner. Such detail is extremely important in accurately forecasting the construction costs and enabling the contractor to carefully execute our design vision.

Our budgeting process along with weekly construction supervision is integral to our philosophy of detailing all aspects of the project. Bergin Golf Designs is involved in all layout of features and takes great pride in getting the small things right.

Design doesn’t end with the drawings.

Our strategic knowledge and design backgrounds are exceptional. A golf course designed by Bergin Golf Designs will be strategically sound and designed with balance, beauty and efficiency in mind. Our passion for the work and the game of golf contribute to our ability to create exciting, thought provoking and rewarding golf courses that are enjoyable and memorable for players of all levels.

We believe the location of the flagstick, the severity of a slope, the direction and strength of the wind, inner fears and prior successes all merge together to present a wonderfully diverse experience - not just every round, but on every shot.

“ Every course we design starts
with one goal: to challenge the
skilled, inspire the everyday, and
reward thoughtful play.”

— Bill Bergin, ASGCA

Druid Hills - 17

It’s sometimes hard to fathom the impact of bunkering on a golf course and how it informs the overall look and feel of a green complex. With minimal disturbance, new bunkering combined with modest green surround shaping has given Druid Hills a big boost in the perceived quality of the course. 

Mary Bergin

Business Manager

Bergin Golf Designs is managed by Bill’s wife, Mary, who joined the company in 1999. Having worked in international auditing as well as commercial real estate, Mary brings the skills necessary to oversee administrative, contractual, and financial matters for the company. She earned her MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and bachelor’s degrees in economics and international studies from Miami University. Mary’s attention to detail and steady leadership ensure the efficient operation of Bergin Golf Designs.

Callie Bergin Powell, NCIDQ

Marketing Associate

Making our firm truly a family affair, Callie Bergin Powell joined the company in March, 2025. Following a successful tenure with Tryba Architects and Ware Malcomb in Denver, CO, Callie brings her design, rendering and marketing abilities to Bergin Golf Designs. In addition to her work at Tryba, Callie served on the Board of the International Interior Design Association as the Rocky Mountain Chapter’s Director of Digital Publishing, overseeing the organization’s website and social media accounts. Callie has an interior architecture degree from Miami University and earned her NCIDQ certification in 2022.

Albie

Road Warrior

A key component to everyday life and project management is Bergin Golf Designs’ not so secret companion, Albie. Seen traveling across most of the Southeastern United States, Albie offers a new dimension in work productivity. When the van is on the road, someone is in the “mobile office’ getting work done.

Additionally, Bergin Golf Designs is able to keep materials and supplies within easy reach. Those supplies include our temperamental, yet essential, grade rod, as well as paint guns, hand levels, range finders and rugged tablets, allowing us to have everything we need for project management at the ready. A key part of Bergin Golf Designs’ success, Albie has been with the company since 2019.

Justin Killingsworth

Design Associate

After an initial stint with Bergin Golf Designs from 2006-2009, we were fortunate to have Justin Killingsworth rejoin the company in the fall of 2022. Involved in all aspects of plan production and presentation, Justin is able to express our proposed designs in graphic form. His presentations help our clients visualize potential changes to a hole or the land. Justin’s work has continued to advance to include strategic design and detailed grading plans. A member of the ASGCA Tartan Program, Justin is working toward full membership with the ASGCA. 

Justin obtained a master’s degree in landscape architecture from Louisiana State University and a degree in Ornamental Horticulture from the University of Tennessee, combining his love for the game with a well-planned education. As a student at the University of Tennessee, Justin obtained plant knowledge and construction experience by interning for four years with a landscape design company. His training consisted of developing design concepts, creating artistic renderings, and executing field implementation. As a graduate student at LSU, Justin’s internship allowed him to assist with various projects ranging from city master planning to small scale park design.

Matt Bergin - ASGCA

Design Associate

Matt Bergin joined Bergin Golf Designs in 2016 as a draftsman. Fast forward to today, Matt is involved in both strategy and grading plans, influencing and contributing to the overall design and execution of our projects. Matt also performs site visits – both in the initial design phase, as well as during construction supervision. After four years in the ASGCA Tartan Program, Matt became a full member of the ASGCA in the fall of 2025.

In his initial years with the company, Matt quickly acquired the AutoCad skills necessary to produce construction documents. He also assumed and continues to hold responsibility for all drone flights, producing topographical base maps, as well as photography and videography, during construction and upon course completion. 

Growing up in the Bergin family, golf has always been a part of Matt’s life. During his college years, Matt began his work experience in the industry at Cherokee Town & Country Club in Atlanta, GA, gaining valuable experience in golf course operations and maintenance while working on Cherokee’s grounds crew and in the Pro Shop. A graduate of Rhodes College with a degree in Theatre Arts, Matt’s artistic aptitude and set design experience have greatly contributed to an appreciation of spatial relationships and an understanding of scale. Matt brings that knowledge to golf course design – the stage for the game of golf.

Spencer Oliver

Agronomic Associate

Spencer Oliver joined Bergin Golf Designs in February 2022, bringing agronomic expertise to the BGD team. Assisting with construction and grow-in on over 25 Bergin Golf Designs projects, Spencer has keen insight into the important relationship between the superintendent, contractor and the architect – before, during and after project completion. Spencer’s love for the game and passion for detailed course management have resulted in him being a great asset to our company. Now in a consulting role, Spencer’s agronomic and course management skills, combined with BGD’s design philosophies and expertise, offer an outstanding package to our clients.

Prior to joining Bergin Golf Designs, over the course of 20+ years as a golf course superintendent, Spencer was involved with golf course construction, maintenance, and renovations. During his early superintendent career, Spencer worked on many notable courses such as: Callaway Gardens, The Golf Club of Georgia, Kiawah Island, Hawks Ridge, Barnsley Gardens and Dunwoody Country Club.  It was during his nearly 17 years at Dunwoody Country Club where Spencer developed his own philosophies of golf course maintenance and where he matured as a golf course superintendent. His ability to see things not as they are, but what they could be, was well evidenced during his time there.