First Restoration

[T_MacWood]

What was the first golf course restoration?

[TEPaul]

Tom MacW:

What a GREAT question and after five or so years of Golfclubatlas.com that discusses restoration architecture endlessly I can hardly believe the question has never been asked.

I have no idea what the first real dedicated restoration may have been. I certainly think now that we can see restorations of old courses has hit a bit of a critical mass and has really gotten popular amongst clubs it is something that certainly should be known. I think this restoration phase we're seeing now will probably end up being a significant part of the evolution of American golf architecture.

I've always felt perhaps Linc Roden of HVGC may've been the first to propose such a thing in a real dedicated way. HVGC may not have been the first to restore but it seems to me Linc tried to get the club to do it for perhaps 20 or even 30 years and finally he succeeded. In those years many thought he was crazy, sort of a purist kook but he kept at it and eventually he prevailed upon his club to do it.

[Tom_Doak]

Tom:

The first restorations that I ever heard about were small to medium-sized efforts by superintendents:  one by the past superintendent at Shoreacres [whose name, unfortunately, I can't remember right now] about 1980, and Karl Olson's work at National Golf Links in the mid-1980's.

We started work on The Camargo Club in 1986 and pretty much everything we have done there is restoration, although it's taken them almost twenty years to follow through on everything.

[TEPaul]

One candidate might be Mike Rewinski, long time super of Westhampton G.C. (Raynor's first solo effort). Mike once told me he had so many green chairmen rolling through there making changes that he had to do that he actually got into doing them himself in a way that he thought and hoped mimiced Raynor. Mike has always been interested in architecture.

[T_MacWood]

The Country Club was one of the first to get a lot of publicity. Before that I recall Pinehurst #2 reversing some changes made by Diamondhead Corp. I'm thinking that the first restorations might have occured after WWI or WWII in Europe. I believe Seminole was restored after being neglected due to the Depression and War.

[Jeff_Mingay]

I agree with Tom Doak. It seems to me the first true effort to restore a classic golf course was undertake by Karl Olsen at the National Golf Links of America beginning in 1986, I believe.

What's most interesting about The Country Club is, the work done there in preparation for the 1988 US Open marked the first time ever, I think, that a golf course was "restored" in preparation for a championship. Until then, it was widely thought that in order to host a modern era US Open, the golf course had to be "modernized".  

How about the revitalization of Augusta National following the Second World War? The golf course closed for a few years during the war (1943-45, I think), when sheep and/or cattle grazed on the property. They must have undertook some extensive restorative-based work in preparation for the 1946 Masters Tournament, I imagine.  

[TEPaul]

Seminole was restored only in the last ten years. Courses having work done to them after WW1 or WW2 was probably more in the line of bringing courses out of the so-called "mothballs" of those two world war years when it really wasn't very patriotic to play golf. Those processes of going into and coming out of world war years "mothballs" may have been the beginnings of wholesale redesgns, though, not exactly dedicated restorations.

[Tom_Doak]

Seminole, like Turnberry, was rebuilt after World War II but not really "restored."  Pete Dye insists that Seminole was much different before the war and that Dick Wilson made quite a few revisions when rebuilding it.

I played Brookline when I was a freshman at M.I.T. in 1979, before it was "restored."  Other than the par-4 fourth hole it was not very much different architecturally than it is today.  It was restored in the sense that they didn't mangle any of the holes by redesigning them, and they tried to do something sympathetic to the old course in the revised fourth [although it is nothing like the original hole, which featured a blind tee shot].

[TEPaul]

Someone should probably get to the bottom of what Dick Wilson did or didn't do to Seminole after WW2. There've been stories floating around for years he comprehensively redesigned the course. I really don't see how that's possible. I have copies of all Ross's original holes and the entire course and the way it is today is not much different than those plans with the notable exception of the 18th green which everyone knows Wilson moved left up nearer the dunes. Pete Dye said he thinks Wilson also move #3 green back but that doesn't appear to be true looking at Ross's plans. Wilson apparently did redo most all the bunkers and that led to the misunderstanding that the flashed up look of Seminole's bunkering was Wilson. But by an early photo that look was proven to be some unique Ross flashed up bunkers and not Dick Wilson's.

[michael j fay]

It is my understanding that the Royal St. Georges was restored fairly faithfully after it was used in the staging during WWII.

In the States I do not remember anything earlier than the effort by Karl Olson at National.

Seminole was done over by Dick Wilson in the late 1940's and the bunkering and green sizes were changed. When the Club discussed the restoration in the 1990's I believe that there was consideration given to returning to the Ross fill pads, greens and bunkering but the powers to be decided to restore the Wilson work. Awfully good golf course regardless of the author.

Tom Smack did a full blown restoration of the Sagamore Golf Club on Lake George in the late 1980's.

[Jeff_Mingay]

Dick Wilson's involvement at both Seminole and Shinnecock Hills is very interesting to me. Of course, I'm just speculating, but it sounds like Wilson might have "talked himself up", re: his involvement at both courses, after Ross and Flynn were gone.

Hey, a guy's gotta do what he's gotta do in business, right.  

[T_MacWood]

I'd characterize the most recent renovation at Seminole a conjectural restoration...due to insufficient historical documentation. Unfortuantely there are far too many conjectural restorations of Ross designs due to incomplete investigations.

The flashy bunkering at Seminole was definitely Ross not Wilson, I've run across a few more old photos since this subject was last discussed. I suspect Jeff is right about Wilson's ability to tell a tale...is it possible Dye was on the recieving end of one or two of them? Based on his age I'd be surprised if Pete had much personal experience with Seminole pre-WWII and pre-Wilson.

On a related note I also wonder if Ross (and his associates) followed his plans religiously. There seems to be evidence that says they did not, which is why it might not be such a good idea to restore his courses based solely upon his plans.

[TEPaul]

Seminole definitely did not restore their bunkers to the "look" of Wilson's redesigned bunkering. The photos of flashed up bunkering they thought was Wilson was not! The accurate dating of a photo(s) proved the flashed up bunkering was Ross's original bunker and not whatever Wilson did after WW2.

As far as what Wilson did at Shinnecock in the 1950s we have that in absolute detail and it wasn't much at all. Shinnecock only agreed to do probably less than 10% of what Dick Wilson recommended during that 1950s visit. Wilson's visit to Shinnecock during that 1950s is a most interesting one and it's the reason some thought Wilson originally designed the golf course and not William Flynn. During that 1950s visit Wilson told Shinnecock he designed the course. Wilson only worked on the crew when Toomey and Flynn designed and constructed Shinnecock between 1929-1931. Wilson was not even the construction foreman--William Gordon was!

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