All the tees in china.

• Author: King, Brad

The background music in the restaurant hums so gently its melody is hardly perceptible as Rick Robbins eyes the cheeseburger in front of him. He shifts his lithe frame to find comfort in a hard, straight-backed chair and begins metaphorically whistling a familiar yet barely recognizable tune of his own.

It has been nearly two decades since the golf course architect and western North Carolina native departed the comfort of the Jack Nicklaus design umbrella to form his own company, Cary-based Robbins and Associates International Inc. Now 60, Robbins finds himself a first-time grandfather designing courses during a time when the economic downturn and its trickle-down effect on golf have forced some better-known peers to shutter their operations. Yet here he sits, explaining to his lunch companion how much work his company has in the pipeline.

If the weather cooperates on the other side of the world, he plans to oversee ribbon-cuttings this year at three golf courses in China. They are about as varied in topography, climate and location as possible. One is near the Korean border in northern China. Another is on Hainan Island in the far south. The third is between them, near Nanjing, a former capital that is second only to Shanghai as eastern China's commercial center.

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Robbins also has signed contracts to design a 27-hole master-planned resort west of Xiamen, a coastal city in southeastern China, and a 45-hole resort near Dujiangyan, in the center of the country. But what he finds most thrilling is having completed a preliminary design for The Shanghai Golf Training Center, which will include a Tournament Players Clubstyle course, a full practice range including a section for short-game work and a nine-hole, par-3 course.

"Helping create facilities that will assist growth of the game in China is incredibly satisfying," Robbins says. "The facility will be reserved at certain times for use by schools for training kids to play, much like our First Tee program in the U.S., and may be very instrumental in helping create China's Olympic team in 2016."

Domestically, Robbins has kept busy at his home course, Prestonwood Country Club, where since 1993 he and his family have inhabited a two-story home he helped design on the 14th fairway. That's also where he, for the past two years, has overseen renovation of the club's greens. "It is really strange," he says, "to have your work either be a two-minute cart ride or an 18-hour plane trip."

Reaching down toward his plate for a potato chip, his right hand trembles slightly. It was the same type of involuntary tremorthat his wife, Ginger, began noticing a few years earlier when they sat together late at night watching television. A visit to a neurologist revealed that he had Parkinson's disease, a progressive degenerative disorder of the central nervous system. Among those who suffer from the disease are evangelist Billy Graham, boxer Muhammad Ali, actor Michael J. Fox and former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno.

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Given that Robbins' grandmother and uncle--scientists believe genetics may play a role in the disease--had been diagnosed with Parkinson's, the news wasn't the devastating surprise for him that it is for many. While there is no cure for Parkinson's, medications and multidisciplinary management can provide relief, and Robbins says he exhibits none of its symptoms when holding the two chief tools of his trade--a pencil and a golf club.

The golf industry, meanwhile, has been suffering, mainly because of the economy. And its symptoms have been manifesting themselves. Consumer spending on golf equipment, for example, fell 14% in 2009 and an additional 3% in 2010. The number of rounds played was down 3.5% through the third quarter of 2010, and that was in comparison, again, to a weak 2009. The National Golf Foundation predicts that 500 to 1,000 public courses will close during the next five years.

Given those factors, it raises the question of how Robbins is where he is today--in one of the most successful periods of his professional career. The answer begins along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the town of Blowing Rock, where Robbins' grandfather, Grover C. Robbins Sr., a nurseryman and developer, served four stints as mayor--a total of 18 years--from 1919 through 1949. The elder Robbins also opened The Blowing Rock as a popular tourist attraction. The family, spearheaded by Grover Sr.'s three sons, would develop Tweetsie Railroad as well as three major golf projects--Beech Mountain Golf and Ski Resort, Hound Ears Club and The Elk River Club.

But Robbins' own infatuation with the sport began at another mecca of the sport. The winter of 1960 brought 6 feet or more of snow to sections of the North Carolina mountains. "My father just said, 'Enough's enough.' He packed up the family and moved us ... to Pinehurst." Spencer Robbins took a night auditor job at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in Southern Pines. He later would become manager of operations and work closely with Tar Heel golf legends Peggy Kirk...