Jonathan left Leeds Metropolitan University in 1987 with an Honours Degree and Diploma in Landscape Architecture and immediately began working at St Andrews for the contractor remodelling the Jubilee Course. He gained an excellent 'grassroots' grounding in construction through to 1990, designing and building his first golf course - The Chesfield Downs Family Golf Centre in 1988 - and then worked independently as a golf course architect on 17 new golf course projects in UK, Denmark, Portugal and Turkey.
Between 1998 and 2006 he worked as co-director of Gaunt & Marnoch Limited. During this time Jonathan designed new projects in UK, Ireland (Castleknock), Czech Republic (Kaskada) and Spain (Zagaleta (co-design)), plus the restoration of numerous historic golf courses from the early 20th century originally designed by John Abercromby, Harry Colt, Alister MacKenzie, Willie Park jnr., and Tom Simpson.
In February 2006 Jonathan established Gaunt Golf Design Limited. He now has an impressive portfolio including over 30 new courses designed and built, plus over 80 reconstruction/restoration projects. He is now working on a number of challenging new projects in England (Ramside Hall Hotel, Park Hall and The Peak Resort), Morocco (Royal Golf Oued Fes), Scotland (The Westerwood Hotel), USA (Carlson Farm course, Greensboro CC with Donald Steel) and Argentina (Valle de Uco Wine & Golf Resort with Eduardo Romero). He is responsible for managing a dynamic golf design company with three core staff, along with a network of expert associates, consultants and project managers.
Jonathan is flexible in his approach and has developed a wide experience of working with limited budgets and restricted timescales on difficult sites.
Jonathan plays golf (handicap, 8) at Cavendish Golf Club in the Derbyshire Peaks, designed in 1925 by Dr Alister MacKenzie.
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