Alex Findley?

[DPL11]

I'm looking for any info I can find on Mr. Findley for research. Either web material or old fashioned paper resources.

Google is not giving me much.

If you wish, contact my email: dpl11@verizon.net



Thanks,
Doug

[Craig Van Egmond]

Cornish and Whitten have a brief write up on Alex in their book the Architects of Golf.

There is a review of one of his courses on this site that may help.

My only experience with Mr. Findlay's golf courses is here in Oklahoma. He was responsible for building the first golf course in the state in 1900. It still exists and is a pretty darn good 9 hole course.

You might also use the search function on the site here, his name has come up once in a while.

Also Del Lemon has a few pages about Mr. Findlay in his book The Story of Golf in Oklahoma.

Hope that helps.

[DPL11]

Craig,

Thanks for your input.

Mr. Findley designed many courses here in NJ, as well as SE Pa. I play many of them often, but have not come across a lot of resources on his design philosophies.


Thanks,
Doug

[TEPaul]

Doug:

The fellows from Tavistock G.C. (Alex Findlay, date?) should be coming over to see us next week hopefully and I'll ask them for you what they have on Findlay or where they or Ron Forse and Jim Nagel who are about to do their restoration are getting information on him.

[Michael Moore]

As the resident English major, I could not help noticing that you have thrice misspelled Mr. Findlay's name, which would hamper your Googling.

Shoot me an e if you are curious about his modest body of work in Maine.

[TEPaul]

Michael Moore:

There's a larger and more important question here than info on Findlay or the spelling of his name.

Are those two young multi-millionaire GOOGLE founders interested in golf courses and architecture?

[Jim_Kennedy]

Doug,
Alex Findlay was the Matt Ward of his day, it is said that he played over 2,400 different golf courses.
In 1926 he tried, unsuccessfully, to build a six hole golf course at the Vatican. It's too bad he didn't, Pius XI could have been the original "Pope of Slope" instead of Dean Knuth.

[Dan Herrmann]

Doug,
Check out http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forums2/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=6108;start=msg118299#msg118299

and

http://www.coatesvillecountryclub.com/Index.cfm?Page=Golf%20Info

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Of course, the Philadelphia muni, Walnut Lane, is profiled here at GCA. Here's a bit from www.golfphilly.com

"Located within Wissahickon Valley Park lies Walnut Lane Golf Club, an exquisite tract designed by legendary golf architect, Alex Findlay. This majestic tree-lined golf course opened for play in 1940 and is highlighted by several tremendous par 3’s. The unique layout is aesthetically pleas- ing as it features several holes that are cleverly tucked away in hills and valleys. The undulating greens  vary in size and protected by deep bunkers that make accuracy a must.
 


 
The 184-yard fifth hole is the most well known hole on the course as it holds the distinction of being a mild dogleg left par 3. Although it is the shortest of the Philadelphia Public Golf Courses, Walnut Lane challenges the golfer’s mastery of the short game. This gem of a course is as scenic as it is challenging and is the ideal shot-makers golf course. If you are looking for the perfectly serene golf experience, look no further than Walnut Lane Golf Club."

One of the better features of WL is that D'Allessandro's, a noted cheese steak emporium, is within walking distance of the parking lot. This makes WL a "must play" in my opinion.

Steve
 

[TEPaul]

I don't know much about Findlay but from Mike Cirba's descriptions of the salient elements of his best architecture on that other, earlier thread he seems pretty interesting in the way of a how another era's architecture can be interesting. Long and narrow greens is a thoughtful little element partiuclarly on some of the low acreage sites he dealt with like Llanerch. I've played Llanerch and Tavistock a number of times but it's been a while now.

The fellow running the Tavistock project was telling me how clever Findlay was on the greens of Tavistock by basically just using a mound contour somewhere in most all the course's greens and just moving it around on the greens through the course. Simple and effective, I say, just like a lot of those clever early architects were. Sort of like how some of Ross's very back to front pitched greens are elegantly effective today with the strategic implications of approach shots due to increased greenspeeds.

[DPL11]

Tom,

The supt. at Tavistock is an old and good friend of many years. I was trying to purge the great architecture minds of GCA for his upcoming efforts.

Michael,

I googled his name in various spellings, and something came up on all of them.

Sit tight, you haven't seen anything yet when it comes to spelling.


Thanks to all who replied,


Doug

[TEPaul]

Doug:

I'm expecting Tavistock's super and some others from Tavistock to come over and see us next week about their restoration project which is pretty much in the category of what we just did at GMGC. The point of getting together is the very thing I think most valuable--COLLABORATION between clubs who are into restoration projects. I just think too many clubs tend to go it alone when they needn't do that. How often does a club do a restoration on their course anyway? Even with the best intentions most clubs act like they're the first to do this kind of thing and it tends to make them operate through it in something of a vacuum. Why not reach out and learn from the successes and the mistakes others made before you?

Billy McGuiness called me sometime ago (maybe I shouldn't be saying that on here, I don't know) about this but we got delayed by snow. Most around here know Billy, he's a real player (he's probably forgotten more about what he's won than I ever won) and a most thoughtful guy. He might be running the restoration project over there for the club.

We're hopefully going to talk about what we did and how we did it and they want to see, I guess, what they might learn from that. And I think we'll talk about the "process" of taking this kind of thing through a membership and the victories and pitfalls of that which I view very much as a separate thing and sort of the other side of the coin.

Our super, Mike Smith, is really competent, really smart and knowledgeable--he's been around a long time.

[DPL11]

Tom,

Billy is the greens chair, and is spear-heading their project. I still play a lot of golf at Tavistock, and have to say that they prepare for projects better than most clubs. They don't rush things and aren't scared to seek advise from people who have been through these processes, and that is the right approach.

I knew they got snowed out back in the late fall, and hopefully they can get there soon. Being snowed out still, at this late date, is still not out of the question.

Tom G., their super, doesn't know that I'm trying to gather info for his project. Most of what I gather, he probably already has, but anything new would be welcomed.


Thanks,
Doug

PS-I know M. Smith quite well also, and he is one of the "good guys" in the business, and a fine supt..

[JNagle]

Doug,

We have been working with Tom G. and Billy M. for nearly a year now.  What a pleasure it has been working with them and all of those at the club.  This is one club that is doing the homework necessary and seems to be fully behind a vision of what could be.  We have been working with oblique aerial photos from the 20's and 30's in developing the master plan.  During one meeting I did a brief powerpoint accompanied by slides of other Findlay projects, with his wild mounds, bunkers and mound/bunker combinations.  I also has scanned in the b/w aerials at such a high resolution that we were able to show individual bunkers from the 20's.  Jaws were dropping when the people realized that is what Tavistock was.  Much of the undoing came about in the 30's when Tillie visited the course on behalf of the PGA.  I am set to return to Tavistock this week in preparations for a presentation this summer.  The members have visited LuLu during construction and are set, as Tom stated to visit Gulph Mills.  If you are personally interested in seeing more from Findaly go see Lebanon (back-9) and Reading (mainly holes 3, 10, 12-18).  

Give us a call if you are interested in more.  

Jim Nagle

[JSlonis]

Doug,

During the beginning stages of our project at Tavistock, I searched high and low to find info on Findlay.  Like you, I found very little.

As Jim Nagle stated above, the aerials that he has are the best representation of Findlay's work at the time.  The committee working on this project is very excited about the future of our golf course.  Jim and Ron have been wonderful to work with.  Our club is lucky to have the proper people in place to hopefully see this project through.

Besides opening up our golf course from the overplanting of White Pines and other ugly trees(Tom G has done extensive work already), the most exciting element of our restoration will be the recapturing of the lost greenspace and bunker restoration.  As you know, we've got some great features in the greens at Tavistock.  Some of our most interesting contours are what I call the shoulders of our greens,  you can still see the outlines of these area now, although they are covered in rough.  Tom G recaptured a couple of these areas last year and they look great.  It is possible that a few greens will increase in size by 25-30%.  The additional hole locations will be exciting.  On the couple of holes that Tom did some green recapture, there are now viable hole locations that would have previously been in the fringe cut.  The additional green space will allow for some great new hole locations and will bring back many of the edges, dropoffs and bunkers back into play.

[mike_malone]

 It is amazing that we get excited by the things that just recover the course as it was. But we do.Greens back to their original size,fairways back to their width,trees taken out,bunkers back to their proper shape and placement.It's kind of a shame to spend all this time and money to just undo 50 years of mistakes.
       I think this is the area where gca.com can have its greatest impact.  Amateurs,like me and many others, can see in these aerials and original designs what has been changed.We can then do something about it with evidence.
     One reason i spend so much time on the tree issue is because i can't think how i can screw up by just taking down what doesn't belong there.It is much more difficult to recommend changing the angle of a tee,or changing the location of a bunker.Here i defer to experts with experience.

[DPL11]

Jim & Jamie,

I was in with Tom G. today and he showed me many pictures from Lebanon & Reading. Some of the shots looked like many of the green surrounds at Tavistock. It is an exciting project and I'm looking forward to seeing the progress.

I figured that I wouldn't be able to find much more than what Jim & Ron probably already had, but it was worth a shot.

The tree removal looks fantastic, and I think Tom G. will enjoy the improved growing conditions for his old greens.


Thanks,
Doug