Ken Kavanaugh was born and raised in the small town of Lawrenceville in southern Illinois. He moved to Arizona from Illinois in 1972. He received his degree in landscape architecture from the University of Arizona in 1976, after undergraduate work in architecture at Arizona State University and environmental science at Southern Illinois University. Kavanaugh, a scratch golfer, is a former semifinalist in the Arizona State Amateur, and winner of the 1994 Pima County (Tucson) Amateur Championship.

Kavanaugh undertook his first solo project in 1985: nine holes for Roy Rogers and Dale Evans at the Happy Trails Resort (now known as Great Eagle Golf Club), in Surprise, Arizona. His next major project was a new nine at Gold Canyon Golf Club in Gold Canyon, Arizona (east of Phoenix/Mesa), three holes of which garner annual acclaim in the Arizona Republic's reader poll for the most popular 18 holes in greater Phoenix. Nine states across the U.S. now feature Ken Kavanaugh original designs or redesigns. His Southwyck Golf Club in suburban Houston, Tex., opened to tremendous praise in 1989 and served as home of the 17-time NCAA champion University of Houston golf team. Southwyck has been ranked in the Top 10 for best public courses in the state of Texas, by several publications.

The early 90šs saw design collaboration with touring professional Peter Jacobsen at The Oregon Golf Club outside Portland, former home of the PGA Tour's "The Fred Meyer Challenge", as well as the spectacular Orchard Valley Golf Course outside of Chicago, which opened in July of 1993. A variety of publications have ranked Orchard Valley in the Top 5 of Chicagošs public golf courses every year since its inception. A former host of the Illinois Open, which was once won by PGA Tour winner Mark Hensby.

Another acclaimed Ken Kavanaugh original design is the Homestead at Murphy Creek in Aurora, Colorado. In 2000, after being open only three months, Colorado Golfer voted Murphy Creek the #2 "Public Daily Fee Course in Colorado", and ranked it as #1 "Toughest Public Course" in the state. On the national level, Golf Digest ranked Murphy Creek in the Top 10 "Best New Affordable Courses" in the country.

Currently, Kavanaugh is working on projects throughout the West, including Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming.