He had a successful playing career, winning three North and South Opens (1903, 1905, 1906) and two Massachusetts Opens (1905, 1911), and finishing fifth in the 1903 US Open and eighth in the 1910 Open Championship.
Ross was a founding member and first president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, which was formed at Pinehurst in 1947. He was admitted to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1977, a high honour rarely awarded for anything other than playing success.
Ross died on 26 April, 1948 while completing his final design at Raleigh Country Club in North Carolina.
