Golf Architecture - Sports Illustrated covers

[Carlyle Rood]

I was just rummaging through some old golf magazines, and discovered two Sports Illustrated covers featuring golf courses.

25 August 1958
Pine Valley: World's Most Demanding Course

7 April 1958
The Masters: The Spirit of America's Great Spring Golf Tournament in Full Color

I then got curious how many there were.  Basically, they're only about a dozen, and I'm stretching on a few of them.  It seems in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it wasn't that uncommon to feature a golf course on the cover.  But you'll notice in the 1970s and forward, they prefer to put golf personalities on the cover.

Here they are:


4 April 1955


16 Jan 1956



7 April 1958


25 August 1958



2 November 1959




4 April 1960




23 January 1961




12 June 1961




11 June 1962




15 February 1965




22 February 1965



16 April 2001

[Kevin_Reilly]

Love the footprints in the bunker at Oakmont!

What hole is Souchak playing at Pebble?

[Patrick_Mucci]

Carlyle,

Neat centerline bunker in the first cover.

Also note, by 1958 that PV was thick with trees.

Could you research 1966-1968.

I was told that the combined 9th and 18th greens at Boca Rio either made the cover, or a lead article.

Thanks.  

Kevin,

I'd guess # 9.

[Carlyle Rood]

Could you research 1966-1968.

I suppose it was a lead article.  I haven't looked at all those covers; but, I did look at all covers searching on the term "golf."

Here's the link:

http://dynamic.si.cnn.com/si_online/covers/

[Carlyle Rood]

I just noticed that you can order reproductions of many of the covers!

http://subs.timeinc.net/SI/coverstore/Main.jhtml

[Carlyle Rood]

Oh, and I guess the database hasn't been updated for recent issues.  Just discovered this cover:

[Andy Silis]

Great post!------I have the covers of the 6th at Seminole and Souchak at Pebble framed in my family room/golf den!!!!

[Eric Johnson]

Love the footprints in the bunker at Oakmont!

What hole is Souchak playing at Pebble?

Looks like PB #9 with 10 in the background.

[Jeff_Mingay]

Neat covers, Carlyle.

I agree with Pat, too. How cool does that centre fairway bunker at #8 look on the first cover? Nice.  

[Scott_Burroughs]

Yes, that's #9 at Pebble that Souchak is hitting toward.

1961 U.S. Open cover ("Toughest of them All") is Oakland Hills.  Won by Gen Littler at 1 over par.

I'm trying to get all of the holes on "The Second Nine" cover.

I see:

#11:  Merion
#12:  Augusta
#13:  The Dunes (Myrtle Beach)
#14:  Cherry Hills
#16:  Oakland Hills
#18:  Pebble

Any one get the other three?  #10 isn't Riviera.

[Scott_Burroughs]

I figured out #15:  Oakmont

[Scott_Burroughs]

I think #10 is Winged Foot (W).

[Tony_Chapman]

The centerline bunker in the first picture is obviously unfair.  

Scott - Can't help you on 10 and 17, but it appears 10 is a short par 4. I know on the tour isn't Westchester similar to that? Could it be that hole?

[Tony_Chapman]

Scott's right. 10 must be a par-3, because Augusta #12 is the only other one on that list.

[A_Clay_Man]

Kevin, Yes it's #9 at PB. The bunker looks completely different to day. What you're seeing is the bunker and the ravine. The ravine is in front of the bunker.

I'd guess the golf shot is from the left edge of the fairway approx. 195 yds to the center of the green. The reason I say that is the levelness look of the lie. There are  just a few terraced spots on that leftside, that allows for a more level lie, as dipicted.


I like how the Majority of those old pictures, show center-line nasties.

Golfers have turned into such pussies.

[Tom Bagley]

#10 is the 10th at Winged Foot West.  Dan Jenkins was the author of the series and subsequently a book was published that you may find in your public library.  When I was a kid, I actually had a jig-saw puzzle of these holes.  The 17th hole, believe it or not, is from someplace like Oklahoma City Country Club???  I can recall reading or hearing that Jenkins' selection of this hole was a favor to someone.

The fron nine, as I recall was:
#1 Merion
#2 Scioto
#3 Olympic
#4 Baltusrol Lower
#5
#6 Seminole
#7 Pine Valley
#8 Prairie Dunes
#9 Champions (par 5).  I believe that Jenkins mad a mistake in selecting this hole.  It may not even be the 9th hole, and I think it is on the second course at Champions, not the championship course.  It was a medium length par-five with water guarding the green.

I'll try to remeber what the 5th hole was.

[Kelly Blake Moran]

Adam,

Maybe its because more golfers today like pussy better than golf??

[Tom Bagley]

I should have thought of this earlier:  the 5th hole was the 5th at Colonial, from Jenkins' home state of Texas.

[George_Bahto]

SI Cover:  I collect a lot of thinks but never had gotten into SI stuff but about 20 years ago at a card show I came by the one linked below and for some reason I bought it.

Little did I know that one day this guy would call me up from Hawaii to ask me what he could do for me because what I was writing about was one of his favorite subjects - Charles Blair Macdonald

I was honored and will be forever thankful that he wrote the Introduction for The Evangelist book and shortly thereafter personalized the cover (pictured on the right).

It hangs framed in my office.

Aside: I also had a whole year of Sporting News stashed away in my Mother's attic (which she never found to throw out - oh, those Mothers - and my old baseball cards!!) - the year 1948 .........  and there in the pile was that great prize winning photo of Babe Ruth leaning on a bat saying goodbye at Yankee Stadium. In there also was three NY papers telling of the Babe's death and funeral.

I don't know how to hyperlink this but here is the address:

http://dynamic.si.cnn.com/covers/search

[Scott_Burroughs]

Tom,

Thanks for setting #17 straight, that it's not from a famous course, because I couldn't figure out which course it could have been from.  I was going through all of the biggies and couldn't come up with anything.

[Scott_Burroughs]

A search gave the entire Jenkins original list.  #17 is at Quail Creek in Oklahoma City.

Here's #17 at Quail Creek, below the creek, going right to left:

[Brian_Gracely]

Here's the original list of 18 Greatest Holes from Sports Illustrated by Dan Jenkins:

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0HFI/2_51/59199491/p1/article.jhtml

Front nine

No. 1: Merion, par 4
No. 2: Scioto, par 4
No. 3: Olympic, par 3
No. 4: Baltusrol, par 3
No. 5: Colonial, par 4
No. 6: Seminole, par 4
No. 7: Pine Valley, par 5
No. 8: Prairie Dunes, par 4
No. 9: Champions, par 5
Front-nine par: 36

Back nine

No. 10: Winged Foot, par 3
No. 11: Merion, par 4
No. 12: Augusta National, par 3
No. 13: The Dunes, par 5
No. 14: Cherry Hills, par 4
No. 15: Oakmont, par 4
No. 16: Oakland Hills, par 4
No. 17: Quail Creek, par 4
No. 18: Pebble Beach, par 5
Back-nine par: 36  Total par: 72


Here's Jenkins All-Time Best 18 as well as his Modern Best 18.

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0HFI/3_51/59554881/p5/article.jhtml?term=


All-Time
========
The front nine:
                                            Old/
Hole   Course              Designer      Par   New

1      Sand Hills          Crenshaw      5     new
2      Rio Secco           Rees Jones    4     new
3      Ventana Canyon      Tom Fazio     3     new
4      Baltusrol Lower     Trent Jones   3     old
5      Colonial            Maxwell       4     old
6      Seminole            Donald Ross   4     old
7      Pine Valley         Crump, Colt   5     old
8      Prairie Dunes       Maxwell       4     old
9      Barton Creek        Tom Fazio     3     new

The back nine:

                                            Old/
Hole   Course              Designer      Par   New

10     Castle Pines        Nicklaus      4     new
11     Merion              Hugh Wilson   4     old
12     Augusta National    Mackenzie     3     old
13     The Dunes           Trent Jones   5     old
14     Muirfield Village   Nicklaus      4     new
15     Black Diamond       Tom Fazio     4     new
16     Blackwolf Run       Pete Dye      5     new
17     TPC Stadium         Pete Dye      3     new
18     Pebble Beach        J. Neville    5     old


Modern 18
=========
Hole                 Name                Par     Yards
1                    Sand Hills          5       549
2                    Rio Secco           4       478
3                    Ventana Canyon      3       107
Hole                 Name                Par     Yards
4                    Bear Creek          4       435
5                    Cullasaja           4       463
6                    Spanish Bay         4       395
Hole                 Name                Par     Yards
7                    Bay Harbor          4       406
8                    The Dunes Club      5       513
9                    Barton Creek        3       175
Front-nine totals:   36                  3,521

The back nine

Hole                 Name                Par     Yards
10                   Castle Pines        4       485
11                   Mira Vista          5       540
12                   Challenge/Manele    3       202
Hole                 Name                Par     Yards
13                   Shadow Glen         4       477
14                   Muirfield Village   4       363
15                   B. Diamond Ranch    4       371
Hole                 Name                Par     Yards
16                   Blackwolf Run       5       560
17                   TPC at Sawgrass     3       132
18                   Harbour Town        4       478
Back-nine totals:                        36      3,608

18-hole totals:                          72      7,129

[BCrosby]

If the first picture is of the 8th at ANGC, either the tee or the bunker has been dramatically relocated since '55.

Bob

[Tom Bagley]

Carlyle,
I did a similar search of SI covers and found that the August 4, 1958 issue profiles Nantucket, with a photo of Sankaty Head in the foreground.