Jason Straka brings his own brand of dynamism to the art and science of course design. No architect working today creates golfing tableaus more strategically and aesthetically, with more ecological sensitivity, across a broader spectrum of environments than Jason Straka.

A native of northeastern Ohio, Straka developed and strengthened his commitment to environmental matters while a student at Cornell University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Landscape Architecture, followed by a Master of Professional Studies in Agriculture, Agronomy and Environmental Golf Course Design. His postgraduate studies overlapped with the development of Widow’s Walk Golf Course in Scituate, Mass., later recognized as the very first environmental demonstration and research course in the United States.

Straka joined Dr. Michael Hurdzan’s design staff in 1995. In 2010, GOLF Magazine spotlighted Straka as one of the most influential people in golf under 40 years of age. This accolade also proved prescient: Straka was one of the youngest members ever elected to the ASGCA Board of Governors, serving as President in 2021. For 10 years, Straka also served as Board Member of the Ohio Turfgrass Foundation, leading the OTF as President in 2017-2018.

Straka long served as an Adjunct Professor at The Ohio State University, in Columbus, where Fry/Straka is based. He continues to lend his expertise/ leadership to superintendent organizations around the world and university curricula domestically — at Cornell, Purdue, Delhi State, Lakehead, UMass — and internationally, including The Graduate School of Industry and the Environment at Kyungwon University in Seoul, South Korea and the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.