Linda Hartough

Since focusing her skills as a landscape painter to recreate some of the world's most beautiful golf holes, Linda Hartough has become recognized as one of golf's leading artists. So extraordinary and realistic is her attention to detail that her oil paintings seem to come alive with a clarity that surpasses the camera.

Her work has gained international fame. She is the only artist ever commissioned by the United States Golf Association and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews to do the annual, official paintings and prints for the U.S. Open and British Open Championships. She has painted prestigious golf courses from the U.S. to Scotland to Hong Kong. Her paintings are so admired that they have earned a place on two ABC Television Golf Specials on famous golf holes hosted by Jack Nicklaus. Her paintings are in the collections of such famous clubs as Augusta National, Pine Valley and Laurel Valley. Hartough originals are also included in the private collections of Jack Nicklaus, Robert Trent Jones and Rees Jones.

A confirmed artist since the age of six, Linda was raised in the picturesque country sides of Wilmington, Delaware and Louisville, Kentucky. Much of her early career was spent in Chicago where, after receiving her Fine Arts degree from the prestigious School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1970, she made a living by selling her paintings locally. In 1980, Linda moved to South Carolina near Hilton Head where, she painted landscapes, portraits and horses

In 1984, Augusta National Golf Club commissioned her to paint the famed 13th hole, thus beginning her golf landscape career. After an enormous response to her work at the 1988 PGA Show in Orlando, Linda focused her career entirely on golf landscapes. Since that time, Linda's work has enjoyed unparalleled status in the golf world, while receiving international acclaim including Golf Digest's "Lifetime Achievement Award." Linda is privileged to be a Founding Trustee of the Academy of Golf Art, a professional society of golf artists established in 2004 to create an awareness and appreciation of golf art as a valuable segment of fine art.

Linda's approach to capturing a great golf hole is by spending a week or more at each course, taking photographs at different times of the day to capture all possible lights. She then figures out what is important or memorable in each view of a hole and makes sure this is included in the painting. Her memory serves as a less objective image of the hole. The combination of the two provides the unique view found in each of her paintings.

"I really enjoy painting golf landscape. It is some of the most beautiful and varied landscape in the world combined with a deep, historical sense of tradition that transcends time. The painting is a success when both elements emerge."