By Fred Altvater
When you walk through the halls of famous old golf clubs, look closely at the paintings of the signature hole. If it is thing of beauty, it probably bears the artist’s name, Linda Hartough. She has been painting famous golf landscapes since 1984, when she was asked by Augusta National to paint their iconic 13th hole.
She has been recognized as one of golf’s leading artists and her work has gained international acclaim. She is also the only artist ever to be commissioned by both the United States Golf Association (USGA) and The Royal and Ancient (The R&A) Golf Club of St Andrews to do the annual painting and prints for both the U.S. Open and the Open Championship.
Her work is displayed in permanent collections at Augusta National, Laurel Valley, Pinehurst and Pine Valley. You can also find her work in the personal collections of Jack Nicklaus, Raymond Floyd and Rees Jones, as well as, in the USGA Museum, and the Morris Museum of Art, in Augusta, Georgia.
In 2017, Linda was inducted into the Lowcountry Golf Hall of Fame, plus she has received the Golf Digest Lifetime Achievement Award.
Historic Oakland Hills Golf Club, in Detroit experienced a devastating clubhouse fire earlier this year and an original Hartough rendering of their 16th hole was lost to that blaze. The club has asked her to create another original oil painting of the 16th Hole to replace it.
Back 9 Report had a chance to chat with Linda Hartough about her work and recreation of an original painting for Oakland Hills Golf Club in Detroit, that was lost in their recent fire. https://youtu.be/ZqPdgc0K6kk
Linda primarily only engages in commission work these days, but golf fans can find various paintings and prints of her previous works of art on her website, Hartough.com.
She is also working on adding NFT’s to her offerings to help interested fans stay in touch and add to their collections.
In 2004, she co-founded the Academy of Golf Art, a non-profit organization to promote golf art as a genre of fine art. The effort has helped other golf artists connect and become recognized for their work. Find out more at: AcademyofGolfArt.org
If you would like to purchase any of her paintings, or prints be sure to visit her website: Hartough.com.
