The July Feature Interview with Bradley S. Klein is posted

[Ran Morrissett]

With Brad's new Ross book entitled Discovering Donald Ross: the Architect and his Golf Courses (Sleeping Bear Press, 415 pages) due out tomorrow from the publisher, the timing for this Feature Interview could not be better.

I'm sure that we are all waiting to get our respective copies. Until then, hope you enjoy Brad's second Feature Interview at GolfClubAtlas.com, the world's most ebulient website.

Cheers,

[T_MacWood]

Brad
What do you know about Ross's courses in Cuba? I recall reading an old article about a guy named Kennedy who played a few thousand courses around the world and the CC of Havanna was in his personal top 5.

I understand that Ross played in the 1910 Open at St.Andrews (and finished pretty well if I recall), apparently during that visit he traveled extensively, studying many of the famous courses. What do you know about that trip and how often did he return home?

[John_Conley]

Let me know when your book is received.  I had one pre-ordered from Sleeping Bear and was told the ship date was 8/1.  I can't wait any longer!

[Brad Klein]

Tom, Ross left Dornoch in 1899. I know he returned in 1906, 1910, 1920, 1928, and there was probably at least two other visits he made in between, usually for about 6 weeks. He played a lot of golf in Scotland and no more than very little in England, never in Ireland. He finished in a 4-way tie for 8th at the 1910 Open at St. Andrews.

[Khris Januzik]

O.K. I confess, I have had my copy for a couple of days. It's just wonderful, you are in for a treat. Well worth the wait and then some. It all sounds trite, how about all that I had hoped it would be and a bit more. Well done, well done. What a month, the MacKenzie book and now the Ross book. Won't have time much for GCA, too busy reading.

[T_MacWood]

Brad
Did Ross do much writing on the subject of golf design and in particular routing?

I am continually amazed by Ross's ability to route a golf course. He always seemed to maximize a given sites natural advantages, producing a series of very strong holes, while at the same time producing no, or at least very few, indifferent holes. His courses seem to flow effortlessly from one hole to the next. Were you able to discover how he did it-- his secret?

I haven't played the number of Ross courses that many others have (around a dozen), but I have wondered if he didn't find attractive natural locations for his par-3's before laying out the remaining golf holes.

[Ran Morrissett]

Tom,

I've always wondered the same thing and have come to the conclusion that the par threes weren't as big a part of Ross's "secret" as they were to Colt. For instance, at Seminole and No. 2, the par threes don't appear to be the driving force behind either routing.

I assume Ross always first looked toward high spots to locate his greens? While this wouldn't make him a genius, he did nonetheless seem to relentlessly on course after course find the ideal hillocks to locate many of his greens and such holes are always among the best ones: 15 at Holston, 13 at No. 2, 13 at Seminole, 7 at Wannamoisett, 13 at Salem, 13 at Charles River, 16 at Beverly, 10 and 12 at Highlands CC, 11 at Roaring Gap, and on and on...

Such holes are particularly amazing to me as they have resisted the advances of technology for so long.

Cheers,

[Ed Morrissett]

I have just played a number of courses new to me, both classical and modern in the Golfweek sense.  A compelling feature of the old courses is their compactness.  They are often rectangular pieces of land with no housing except on the perimeter and a lot of other holes almost always visible.  My questions to Brad are there any "real estate development" type Ross courses and secondly, in his view does the compactness promote a positive feeling about being somewhere special that is almost impossible to achieve on a strung out real estate development course?  How do modern designers attempt to deal with the often isolated feeling of playing down single long isolated corridors?

[Paul Richards]

Brad:

Along with the topic of routing, I know
you've mentioned before that you were very
impressed with the genius of Ross in his
routing at Beverly CC, as each nine is
contained in a seperate rectangle, that only
once do two consecutive holes play in the
same direction (11 & 12), and that the five
three pars all play in  basically different
directions.