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Tilly on TOC...

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ForkaB:
Accordong to a letter from Harold Hilton to CB Macdonald, Bobby Jones only used a wooden club 10 times in his Open win in 1927 (inlcuding the qualifying round), so the course must not have been playing very long for the top players in those days.  It still does not play long, even at 7,300 yards (I saw a big South African hit driver 6-iron to the middle of the 618-yard 14th this year).

All that being said, it is and always has been a "championship" course.  The fact that it can be had (in or out of the wind)and might not demand high, soft, faded 3-irons might be seen as weaknesses by some, but they are wrong.

TEPaul:
"TE
The more you read of Tilly, Darwin and other commentaries of that period the better feel you have for the underlying background or context of their comments (and what is said in tongue and cheak ;) ).

Tom:

Of course I disagree with that.

That's no different than saying "If he was here today I know what he'd say to do on this golf course."

Saying because you've read so much of what they've written you know when they were being tongue in check is nothing more than a rationalization to fit anything they said into a preconceived agenda.

T_MacWood:
TE
Sorry. I think Darwin was trying to interject humor with his steeplechase comment....but who knows maybe you're right and he was literally trying to make the case Victorian courses were inspired by horsemen.

When can we expect your Steeplechase essay?

TEPaul:
"TE
Sorry. I think Darwin was trying to interject humor with his steeplechase comment....but who knows maybe you're right and he was literally trying to make the case Victorian courses were inspired by horsemen."

Tom MacW:

Inspired by horsemen? Why would you say that? A far more logical answer to me is that the model of the obstacles of steeplechasing simply worked just fine for INLAND golf at that point where inland golf outside Scotland had just begun and was at about its most rudiementary period. As Max Behr so cognently said, this was the first examples of golf when it first departed from land so naturally suited for it and emigrated to land that was not naturally suited for it.

Furthermore, I completely realize you think Darwin was trying to interject humor with his steeplechase remark. I also realize if you said you thought he was being serious that would be the word of one of golf and golf architecture's greatest observers and chroniclers basically shooting down the entire premise of your article "Arts and Craft Golf" as being primarily a reaction to the dehumanizing influences of Victorian industrialization or to some crude artistic influence of what you called the "Victorian Aesthetic"   .  :)

I guess he was also just interjecting humor when he detailed how some of those early layout people rushed from the planting of one stake to the planting of another, huh?

"When can we expect your Steeplechase essay?"

I don't know.

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