Brian Schneider grew up in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and earned degrees in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Wisconsin. Then he made an unusual choice for a science grad: he decided to design and build golf courses.

After reading Tom Doak’s The Anatomy of a Golf Course and The Confidential Guide, Brian wrote to Tom asking for a job. Tom said no. With no experience to his name, Brian was told to go study the great courses and work out what made them great. He took that advice further than most would; from 1997 to 2000 he worked on maintenance crews at Pine Valley, Augusta National, Shinnecock Hills, Merion, Riviera and the Old Course at St Andrews, learning design from the ground up and touring nearby courses on his days off. In 2001 he worked as a shaper for Goalby Golf Design.

All the while, he kept calling and writing Tom. His chance came in the summer of 2002. Brian was living in Philadelphia when work began on the second course at Stonewall Golf Club in eastern Pennsylvania, so he climbed onto a bulldozer and put five years of study to use. He joined RGD full time that fall.

He still never passes up a chance to see an interesting course. That habit keeps him quick with ideas, and you can see it in some of the firm’s boldest work.