[Frank Pont]

I am currently working with the Royal Hague on the restoration of their 18 green complexes and surrounding bunkers. Main reason for the club to start this project was the poor quality of the putting surfaces, due to the fact that they were originally constructed on clay! The course was built in 1938, and was mostly the work of Alison, although Colt gets an equal credit.

I am currently working with six Colt designed courses (Hague, Kennmer, Eindhoven, Pan, Toxandria and Amsterdam Old) to restore them back to their original splendour. In the process of that work I have become very familiar with the bunker style(s) of Colt.

However I am less familiar with the attributes of the bunker style of Alison.

From what I have seen on GCA and from other sources the bunker style of Alison was rather different from that of Colt. However the funny thing is that at the Hague, even though Alison was the man on site, the bunkers (now but also on historic pictures and film) look much more like Colt bunkers than like the bunkers I have seen of Alison.

Did Alison adapt to Colt's style when working together in Europe?

How did/do his bunkers look like in joint projects in thye US?

Any thoughts/insights/info would be much appreciated.

[ed_getka]

Frank,
  Paul Turner is the guy I would go to with this. He seems to know the most about Colt stuff.

[Pete Lavallee]

Frank,

First off, I'm sure you'll get some great responses very soon.

I've been planning a vacation this Sept to play golf in Belguim and Holland; it seem's your working on five of the Dutch course I've picked to play! Are any of the six going to be under construction at that time of year? Very much looking forward to having a look at these Colt and Allison courses.

[Frank Pont]

Frank,

First off, I'm sure you'll get some great responses very soon.

I've been planning a vacation this Sept to play golf in Belguim and Holland; it seem's your working on five of the Dutch course I've picked to play! Are any of the six going to be under construction at that time of year? Very much looking forward to having a look at these Colt and Allison courses.

Hague will have 9 greens under contruction, but the 9 other in play.

Kennemer will put new irrigation in after the Dutch Open in august, but that would only mean slight disruption of the fairways. They have 27 holes anyways.

Amsterdam Old will be still growing in the three new greens we built last year, but would allow you a fun round in Amsterdam.

The other courses should be fine, don't forget to also play Hilversum (half Colt) and Noordwijk (good links by Frank Pennink).

[Paul_Turner]

Hi Frank

Yes I think it's definitely Alison's course.   Colt wasn't travelling to Europe that late in his life.

I've just sent you some info.

I think his style was somewhat different in Japan from the USA.  I haven't seen many old pics from his USA work but they range from quite simple (Sea Island) to big sandy wastes like at Timber Point.

Good luck with the Haagsche greens, they really do need some maintenance work!

PS
Colt's bunkering is most dramatic on the English heaths (or it was a least!).  More subdued in Holland for some reason.

[T_MacWood]

Frank
Alison's North American bunker style is pretty simplistic in shape and often very large. His Japanese bunkers are more irregular and free form, a reflection of the Japanese construction people I suspect. I am not surprised the old pictures of Royal Hague look a lot like Colt's work in that country...wouldn't they have been built by the same construction company?

I'd be curious if the scale of the bunkers is any different than the other Colt courses in The Netherlands.

[Tom Dunne]

Hey, Frank! Good to see you on the board again. I thought Haagsche was an absolute blast to play--some of the most thrilling terrain I've seen in a while--so I hope you'll keep us posted on your progress.

[Robert Thompson]

Ian Andrew has done a lot of research into Allison bunkering -- and did a version of Allison's bunkers at Weston Golf & CC in Toronto last year. Weston was strange because it was a Willie Park course, but the bunkering was done by Allison after Park got sick and left Canada. Ian also works at Park Club, a Buffalo area Allison design....

[Mike_Cirba]

Frank,

The only Alison bunkers I've seen, unfortunately, have been at Sea Island and Timber Point.

In both cases the overall shape of the bunker itself wasn't anything particularly fancy, but as Tom Mac mentioned, they tend to be on the large side in terms of overall expansiveness and mental impact.

Also, and perhaps more importantly in my mind, they were sand-flashed up to the top, with fairly steep faces, sometimes with an overhanging grass lip that almost seemed to defy gravity.  The bunkers were generally long ovals, often cut into rising slopes, and in the words of some great architect, sometimes seemed to cut into a green's very innards.

[Mike_Clayton]

Frank

Tell me they are going to play the Dutch Open on the original 18 at Kennemer and not that new nine we played twice in the mid-eighties.
It was very disappointing.

I have played the Hague a few times - its a special place.
For those who have not played golf in Holland it is well worth the effort.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I second everyone's enthusiasm for the best courses in Belgium and Holland, and agree totally with Mike's view on the new 9 at Kennemer.  I lothed it and I'm not much given passionate hatred, preferring always to look for the positives.  

[Frank Pont]

Frank
Alison's North American bunker style is pretty simplistic in shape and often very large. His Japanese bunkers are more irregular and free form, a reflection of the Japanese construction people I suspect. I am not surprised the old pictures of Royal Hague look a lot like Colt's work in that country...wouldn't they have been built by the same construction company?

I'd be curious if the scale of the bunkers is any different than the other Colt courses in The Netherlands.

Tom, thanks for your reply, do you have pics of some of the North American Alison bunkers?

You are right about one construction company doing  all the Colt courses in the Netherlands. Neverthelss the bunkers in the Hague (Alison) are indeed larger than the bunkers in Eindhoven(Colt/Morisson), although the bunkers at the Pan (only Colt) are also fairly large.

When I am back in the office I will try to post some bunker pics of the various courses. Also will post old and current aerial pictures of Royal Hague that give a good comparison.

[Frank Pont]

Frank

Tell me they are going to play the Dutch Open on the original 18 at Kennemer and not that new nine we played twice in the mid-eighties.
It was very disappointing.

I have played the Hague a few times - its a special place.
For those who have not played golf in Holland it is well worth the effort.

They are playing a composite course 9 holes A course (Pennink) and nine holes of the B/C courses (Colt).

The A course is indeed not nearly in the same league as the BC courses.

I am working with the club on the A course trying to improve the routing, the width of the holes, make the bunkering more strategic and to bring the green surrounds in line with BC.

Probably one green A6 will need to go, it is too steep back to front (8%) to put on when it is at tournament speed.

funny enough a lot of the members rather like the A course; guess this is because the scenery is better than on the BC course (where you see the highrise flats of the Zandvoort seeside)

[Mike_Clayton]

Frank,

Good luck - that sounds like an impossible job to match the new nine to the original course.
It's 15 years since I saw the course but it seems astounding some would prefer the new to the old.

[T_MacWood]

Frank
I do have some old Alison images. I'll try to get them scanned and sent over to you.

[Frank Pont]

As promissed the aerial pics of Royal Hague of 1954 and 2003.

Interesting to see how barren the dunes were in 1938 and 1954 (unfortunately no pics of course just after completion)

As you can see the course is mostly the same as it was. Couple of surpises though

- new bunkers on par 3 hole 8 (original had no bunkers, now 2 bunkers left-right, very un-Colt)  
- new bunker on par 3 hole 11 (had 1 bunker and now 2 bunkers, new bunker is blind from tee, again very un-Colt).

The site of the course just before building in 1938




The course in 1954


The course in 2003



I need to run, will post more pics of hague and Colt bunkers in Netherlands later.....

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