USGA Archives On Line!

[peter_p]

http://www.usga.org/aboutus/museum/library/segl.html

Thanks Geoff

[SPDB]

These are SENSATIONAL

[ForkaB]

This is GREAT stuff.  In a brief troll I found, amongst lots of other important trivia, a picture of an above ground convex "bunker" which had been placed in the middle of the 14th green at Huntingdon Valley!  Take that, Riviera......

[Bryan Izatt]

For fun, a picture from the archives.  An early island green by a famous architect.  Does the hole still exist?  Does it look the same?  Looks like it would be a real maintenance problem as designed.

[TEPaul]

Do you all think the archive material is set up, presented, and as accessible and manipulatable (?) as it could be? Can you think of any ways of improving the accessibility and use of it? How do you find it's search engine, if you're looking for something in particular?

[Kyle Harris]

For fun, a picture from the archives.  An early island green by a famous architect.  Does the hole still exist?  Does it look the same?  Looks like it would be a real maintenance problem as designed.

Bryan,

That hole still very much exists. It's the 3rd Hole at Cobb's Creek (Olde).

Cory Lewis posted a picture he took when we played it back in August during the US Amateur.

[wsmorrison]

Tom,

This is a wonderful realization; well a tremendous first leap anyway.  The formatting of the pages must be able to be manipulated.  The size of the image is small relative to the overall page size with the too much space on the page given to the background USGA logo and such.  If you click on a search finding, it should be able to fully cover the page for easier reading and search.

I'm sure things will be refined as we go along.  The fact that the material is in digital form is a tremendous boost to golf research.  We may have to pour through this material for another five years before the Flynn book is finished  

I've just started playing with it (I found 1930s photos of Whitemarsh Valley and the bunkering looks spectacular, nothing like the caricature that exists today.  I'll spend most of the day looking for Flynn stuff.  Great!

[Eric Franzen]

Wayne,

Right click on the links of the listed search results and choose "Open in new window".
This will display the file in your pdf-reader as normal.

[JohnV]

It looks great.

I hope those of you who have stopped being members of the USGA and enoy this stuff might consider giving them some money just because they preserve the history of the game for all of us.

I've enjoyed some of the ads as much as the articles in those old magazines.  I found an ad in one issue of Golf Illustrated for a golf ball that is flies further and is durable.  It went 318 yards in a driving contest in Arkansas.  I guess the Pro V1 is older than we thought.

[wsmorrison]

I think the search engine needs to be improved upon and the resolution of the images is not quite what I was hoping for either.  I know I am nitpicking here, but in an ideal world...

The potential for this is so high and this is such a great start that I congratulate the USGA for undertaking this daunting task and look forward to seeing this project move forward to great heights.  Does anyone have an idea what percentage of the collection has been digitized?  I suspect it is rather small.  Some periodicals like Golf Illustrated may be completely digitized but it is such a huge collection that there must be substantial portions yet to be digitized.  My suggestion is that they use a higher resolution in the scans.

The USGA should be applauded for their efforts.  Let's put our energies into the positive side of things and assist this effort.  This intensive and costly effort is a project that we must all get behind and help realize its full potential.  Let's help with suggestions and positive interchange of ideas.  We should embrace this effort and donate materials under the right control and circumstances for the frictionless exchange of information.

[TEPaul]

Please check out the on-line archiving.

Go to USGA website
click on "About us" on the top bar
click on "Museum" in the menu
Click on "Library"
scroll down and click on "SEGL"

Comments and suggestions on the presentation, accessiblity, ability to manipulate the material are definitely encouraged.

The USGA has so far budgeted to do about 50,000 pages per year.


So far---
The entire run of Golf Illustrated is on there

American Golfer up to 1923

all of the USGA's holdings of two early American publications called GOLF and THE GOLFER.

Ths year they expect to complete--

The rest of the entire run of American Golfer

The full run of Golf Journal

In addition to the periodicals digitalized to date, they have digitialized---

More than 100 early (early being pre 1900) books



On some material, particularly later material all should understand that there are some complex copyright issues to be worked out before on-line digitalizing.

They are expecting some upgrades to the search engine soon as well as some discussions with the company about improved resolution for readability of photos etc.


There's far more going on within and around the USGA Museum/Library Dept than ever before with the planning and breaking ground for the huge new "Arnold Palmer History Center" that will be to the right side and behind Golf House.

I think the expected completion date is at some point in 2008.

There are some really good and sophisiticated researchers on here so keep the commnents and suggestions coming.  In the final analysis this stuff is being done for you.

Also, if any of you know anything at all about the whereabouts of any kind of valuable or interesting collectable material to do with golf and particularly golf architecture that may be floating around out there somewhere put it on here. The USGA will monitor this site and they are very interested in all this and appear to be ready to ramp things up with the coming on-stream of this Arnold Palmer History Center that gives them so much greater ability of bring in, display and deal with all this kind of valuable and interesting material.

I'd like to see them be the world's best repository of all this kind of material and I know you would too.

[BCrosby]

Kudos to the USGA.

Access to these materials will only heighten interest in and knowledge of classic golf architecture. (To say nothing of other aspects of the game.)

That is a very good thing.

Bob

[wsmorrison]

Eric,

Thank you for the lesson, much appreciated.

Tom Paul,

I think the USGA should put in a primer on how to use the site to each individual's best potential.  From explaining how to open the search item in its own window to other "how to issues."

The Amateur Athletic Club search engine used to search their databases is particularly fine.  When you search for something, it automatically takes you to the part of the document that features the search term and highlights it everywhere in the search result.  It is a fabulous search engine and maybe could replace the one currently in use.

[TEPaul]

"The Amateur Athletic Club search engine used to search their databases is particularly fine.  When you search for something, it automatically takes you to the part of the document that features the search term and highlights it everywhere in the search result.  It is a fabulous search engine and maybe could replace the one currently in use."

Wayne:

Do you mean the AAF in LA? If so do you realize how much money they have? It's beyond belief. They're so rich I'm told at this moment they're trying to decide whether to buy Riviera or to go for the gusto and just buy Japan.

Anyway, Wayne Wilson of the AAF has been contacted and he apparently will be collaborating so the USGA's search engine will likely be perfected. Either that or the AAF will just buy the USGA or if they want to go for the gusto again maybe they'll even buy the entire state of New Jersey.

But if for some reason the AAF does not do these thiings all you contributors out there just keep the cash and checks flowing into the poor USGA. Didn't your Moms and Dads tell you that nothing in life that's worth a damn is for free?  

[wsmorrison]

Tom,

Sorry, I did mean the Amateur Athletic Foundation.  I have no idea about their resources, but I am happy that they might be working in conjunction with the USGA.  At the very least a link to their collection is a great step.  Maybe they can provide their search engine/data-mining software, some funding and other efforts as well. The AAF would be a great strategic partner if it can be arranged.

[Michael Moore]

I hope those of you who have stopped being members of the USGA and enoy this stuff might consider giving them some money just because they preserve the history of the game for all of us.

Amen, Brother V.

It is utterly refreshing to be reminded that the USGA does a hell of a lot more than test balls and mow fairways.

[Mark_Guiniven]

TE, Wayne or Tom MacWood.

Was there a British magazine called 'Golf Illustrated' and an American 'Golf Illustrated'?

Which magazine did the MacKenzie articles 'Round the World on a Golf Tour' appear in?

[SPDB]

Bryan -
Can you tell me how you grabbed the adobe photo and
saved it as a jpg?

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Mark,
If you don't mind me answering, The original Golf Illustrated started off in Great Britain in 1898 aptly titled, British Golf Illustrated. In 1904 or thereabouts, American Golfer was the more known or more circulated publication here in America. Around 1914, Golf Illustrated started publication in America and I think it was related to the latter British Golf Illustrated, which you'll see some of us refer to from time to time as BGI.

So the nomenclature:

BGI: British Golf Illustrated
GI: Golf Illustrated (In America)
AG: American Golfer
BGL: British Golf Links by Horace Hutchinson
Dogshit: Golf Digest

[DMoriarty]

Congratulations and thank you to the USGA.  This is really a valuable resource and could become even better if and when the bugs are worked out.  

One apparent advantage of the Am. Athletic Union site is that they catalogue by article rather than by issue, but hopefully the USGA will catch on to this.  

_________________

Mark,

The American 'Golf Illustrated' originally was called 'Golf Illustrated & Outdoor America'

[Mark_Guiniven]

Thanks Tommy. I understand perfectly now.

Who do we need to bribe to get BGI digitized and archived online?

[Kevin_Reilly]

Bryan -
Can you tell me how you grabbed the adobe photo and
saved it as a jpg?

In Acrobat there will be a little camera icon near the top...click it and then highlight the picture you want to save and do a copy and paste to your desktop where you can save it as a jpeg.

To test it doing it, I grabbed this photo from a 1927 Golf Illustrated:

[peter_p]

From the last picture it looks like San Francisco GC also used wicker baskets. Thought Merion was unique.

[Kevin_Reilly]

From the last picture it looks like San Francisco GC also used wicker baskets. Thought Merion was unique.

Definitely true...the picture is larger and clearer in the pdf of the issue.  The "finest one-shot hole on coast" is how the hole is described.  I wouldn't argue with Gene Tunney about it.

[TEPaul]

Patrick:

Actually William Flynn and a guy by the name of Peters patented (owned the rights) to those wicker basket "standards".