I'm sure some realize but certainly not all how important and valuable A.W. Tillinghast was to golf and architecture not just as the extraordinarily imaginative golf course architect he was for decades but also for what he contributed to the informational literature of golf and golf architecture for probably well over three decades.
Tillinghast apparently wrote just about every week for a number of publications for decades and his writing style somewhat matched his flair in architecture----his writing was basically the opposite of dry---he had an unusual off-beat sense of humor and he could be unusually hard hitting if something really moved him.
Not just that but the subjects he covered were remarkably comprehensive, to say the least. A number of architects and architectural observers back then pushed the envelop but probably no one as much as Tillie (with the exception of perhaps Max Behr).
For what he provided us with we should thank Tillie on this thread 70, 80 and 90 years after the fact---for the extent of the information on things that were going on back then and what concerned them back then that we would otherwise probably never know.
In my opinion, when we look back on those early days in the 1900s, teens, 1920s and 1930s noone comes even close to Tillie for filling in the blanks for us today.
Thanks Tillie---We raise our flasks and toast you.
PS;
Phil, Rick and RobertT, we definitely forgive Tillie for attempting to steal the occasional course attribution (inadvertently or not) for all that he gave us in writing over the years.
