Tom P
You might be interested in the following quotes:
Colt (1912) from M Sutton's "Book of the Links"
Fashions in golf courses, as in ladies' clothes, seem to be so frequently hopelessly exaggerated. We have our latest Parisian styles, and they are adopted for every form and every contour, quite regardless of the land to be dealt with. Cross bunkers are made on a course, and they are dumped down everywhere; then wing hazards have their vogue, and we see them cut at every hole exactly opposite each other and at precisely the same distance from the tee (SOUND FAMILIAR!).
Then courses are supposed to be too short, and they are at once lengthened to about four miles from tee to hole; and then we have the advocates for difficult shots, and the entrances to the green become so small, and the bunkers so gruesome that no one but an idiot plays for the shot. Now we have what is known as the Alpinisation of courses, and the few rough mounds that have been made for many years past develop into continuous ranges on every new course. A good idea is worn threadbare in next to no time in golf course construction."
Mackenzie form Spirit of St Andrews.
"I have a great admiration for JH Taylor. Winner of five British Open Championship, he is one of nature's gentlemen, is exceedingly well read, has original and common sense views on health, politics and many other subjects ,and moreover is a born orator and writer. On the other hand he is not a success at designing golf courses. At one time because he was unable to play it as a pitch, his favourite shot, he condemned the 17th at St Andrews in most emphatic terms. Recently he admits that, having given up competitive golf, he has changed his views, and in picturesque language puts a curse on anyone who would dare alter it.
I have selected JH Taylor as the representative of the professionals not only because of his marked ability, but because in England he is the spokesman for the PGA and for many years was their president, and may be so still as far as I know.
We have always told eachother in the frankest manner possible our respective views, and one thing I admire more than any other in JH Taylor than anything else is the fact he is not afraid of changing his ideas and admitting he has changed them when one has given him a sufficiently logical reason to convince him he is wrong. Many years ago, when Harry Colt and I were designing most of the golf courses in Britain, JH Taylor started an agitation to prevent us doing so, and tried to make golf course architecture a monopoly of professional golfers.
We contended the were it not for the amateur golf course architect there would be very few professionals, and it was a direct result of modern golf course architecture that there had been such a boom in golf and golf courses. Subsequent event proved, I think, that we were right, and that the very existence of most of the professionals is due to the fact that golf archiects have made inland golf courses so popular. There would be very few professionals if golf were still confined to the sand dune country by the sea shore.
JH Taylor is a professional at Mid-Surrey, a marvelous piece of sandy links in the heart of London. Some years ago the course was reconstructed at enormous expense. Owing to the influence of JH Taylor, the approach to every hole was converted to a pitch. The result is a remarkably fine golfing land ruined, and the erection of a dull monotonous course. If an architect like JF Abercrombie or Harry Colt had altered it they would have got better results at a tenth of the cost."
PS
I've read some the letters in GI (UK) 1908 between the amateur archies and the professional players. T Simpson is involved too and they get pretty heated. It's fascinating stuff right at the start of golf course architecture becoming a profession.