Peter Lees and Somerset Hills

[Paul_Turner]

Did Peter Lees have some design influence?  Lees came from Royal Mid-Surrey, I think.  Famous for its "Mid-Surrey Mounds".  Somerset has some of those on the 4th and 6th holes in particular.  But I know Tillinghast was interested in "Alpinisation" and mentions it his early reports on Pine Valley (3rd hole) in 1913.  Did Tillie actually build Alpinisation before  Somerset Hills?

[Patrick_Mucci]

Paul,

Do you equate "alpinization" with the "dolomites" ?

Aren't they quite distinct from one another ?

Perhaps the mounding at Ridgewood would be similar, in function and form, then the features at Somerset Hills.

What are your thoughts

[SPDB]

Paul - This has been discussed before. I'm sure if you search the archives, you'll find discussions of both Peter Lees and the relationship of the "alpinisation" of Somerset, PV and Mid-surrey.

Tom MacWood has explored Lees's involvement with Tillie at Somerset, Quaker Ridge and a long island course, the name of which escapes me at the moment.

[Phil_the_Author]

Paul,

As far as usage of mounding in imitation of Mid-Surrey in America, Tilly claimed to have done it first and wrote of it. Here is a paragraph that touches on it from my Tilly bio:

"Even in this first work, Tillinghast proved fearless in design. He knew what he liked and was unafraid to incorporate it into the course. Inspired by what he had seen abroad, he used the Mid-Surrey scheme of breaking up the fairway and rough into miniature ranges of mountain and valley. For a number of years an argument was raised as to where this alpinisation of golf courses first occurred in America, with those in Richmond, Virginia, claiming their club as being the first. The work at Shawnee probably was not only done on a much larger scale than anywhere else in those early years, but as Tillinghast wrote, “The idea of grass hollows and mounds was conceived there [at Shawnee] three years ago, before the alpinisation at Richmond was known.” "

[T_MacWood]

Paul
Yes. Peter Lees did colaborate with Tillinghast at Somerset Hills...I would not be surprised if George Low was also involved. The three worked together at Quaker Ridge and Low & Tilly were responsible for Baltusrol.

Tilly built mounds prior to Somerset Hills, his first effort at Shawnee had mounds, but they were extremely crude. The mounds at Somerset are cousins to the mounds at Mid-Surrey.

[Paul_Turner]

Thanks for the replies.

Patrick

I think the dolomite mounds at Somerset similar to what remains at
Mid Surrey (only seen a small part of it and a few pics).  I'm not sure if the massive eathworks at Mid Surrey are still there.  I think the term Alpinisation was used to cover a range of mound sizes.

An amusing cartoon from back then:

[TEPaul]

Philip:

When do you think Tillinghast first did some alpinisation (logically just a synonym for "Mid Surrey mounding") in America, or when do you think he said he did? It appears J.H. Taylor thinks he invented the architectural feature or concept in England at Mid-Surrey in 1911, when Mid Surrey's green keeper, Peter Lees, helped him build them there, apparently in the winter of 1911. Wasn't Tillinghast's Shawnee built earlier than that--around 1908? Do you think it had alpinisation then, and does it appear the feature was done in Virginia earlier than that? Or was alpinization added to Shawnee at some time later? Is it not also true that Peter Lees was first recruited to America (By Macdonald) to oversee the construction and grow-in at The Lido around 1914-1915?

There certainly was some "alpinisation" around the back of the 3rd green at Pine Valley early on. That may've been as early as 1913. According to a later architectural review of PVGC by Hugh Alison it appears there may have been some more of that feature on other areas of PVGC such as in front of the first green (Alison recommended its removal in 1921 as he felt the proportions were wrong and unnatural for architecture). Merion East had some of this feature around the 9th green early on (maybe around 1912-1913) but it appears to have been rather quickly removed in place of sand bunkers.

A very interesting explanation of the invention or original creation of "Mid Surrey mounding" is contained in TommyN's "In My Opinion" article ("In Praise of the Ralph Miller Library") as an excerpt from a book by J.H. Taylor. Taylor explains that the concept of this type of mounding serves the purpose of a more progressive or scientific penalty in golf vs the original penal cross bunkers, followed by flanking bunkers, followed by pots and such scattered within fairways. Taylor explains these various bunker concepts were cycling through architecture in a sort of "in vogue" fashion and obviously Taylor felt this type of mounding ("Mid Surrey mounding" or "Alpinisation" or "Himalayas") was a more scientific architectural feature in the sense of a more progressive penalty.

Also, Philip, what type of relationship or friendship do you suppose Tillinghast had with C.B. Macdonald at any point in their careers?

Some of the relationships of some of these early architects who obviously knew each other seem pretty interesting. For instance, we're trying to figure out what Hugh Wilson's relationship ever was with Crump. It doesn't seem close for some reason. Alan became a member of PVGC (along with seemingly every other well known architect from the area) but apparently Hugh did not. However, following Crump's death, both Hugh and Alan were brought into PVGC to help the club out. Hugh actually became PV's Green Chairman (is it possible to have been PV's Green Chairman without being a member of the club?).  However, a few years later Hugh Wilson appears to have severed all ties to the club.  

Not just that but we have a letter from Hugh Wilson to  R.A. Oakley dated Feb. 6, 1918 (less than ten days after Crump's death) stating that Crump died suddenly 'from an abscess to the brain'. A pretty odd statement if those amongst Crump's friends actually knew he shot himself.

[T_MacWood]

TE
Tilly built mounds at Shawnee prior to (possibly at the same time) Taylor and Lees' rebuilt Royal Mid-Surrey, but they were much different than the mounds at Somerset Hills, Quaker Ridge and Mid-Surrey. The mounds at Shawnee were more knobby looking and smaller, and were only used on a couple of holes as fairway hazards. They certainly were not the first mounds on a golf course in America.

Mid-Surrey was a large scale mounding project, with each hole methodically redesigned with mounds (some of them fairly large) as the chief hazard.

[Patrick_Mucci]

The mounds or dolomites on # 4 at Somerset Hills are not on the line from the fairway to the green, so they don't enter the golfer's direct line of sight as he approaches the green.  

They are not features that must be traversed in order to get to the green from the fairway, and as such, remain peripheral features, perhaps an experiment on AWT's part, or the desire to punish errant shots in an unusual manner.