Bob Crosby asked me on another thread yesterday about Les Hall, of whom he had never heard. Les Hall was the greenskeeper at Savannah Golf Club for about forty years. I never knew Mr. Hall, I just know of him through older members at Savannah Golf Club. The older members give Les Hall the credit for Savannah Golf Club, although clearly Ross did the routing and specs. The "Ross" course was built around 1926.
Les Hall did a few other courses in the South over his lifetime. He is credited with Bainbridge CC in Bainbridge GA and North August GC in South Carolina. Bainbridge I believe predates today's Savannah Golf Club, and North Augusta was built around the time he left SGC. I have heard he built Mary Calder GC in Savannah and that would make sense, since he was probably the only guy in town that had any experience at Golf Course design and construction. I would expect he did a few others that may or may not exist any longer.
I would describe Les as sort of a rennaisance man (no offense Mr. Doak). Savannah Golf Club was one of the earlier courses to have grass greens in the south, going back to 1926 or 1927. Mr. Hall began experimenting with golf course grasses and he developed a strain of grass, I believe to have been bermuda type. His grass, which some of us called Les Hall Monkey Grass" was very hardy and deep green. It grew on runnners with the somewhat broad leaf laynig out flat. It looked sort of like a very small centipede or St Augustine, except it laid very flat and was darker green than most bermudas. It had no yellow to it like Centipede or St Augustine. A ball rolled on it pretty well, but it was grainy. In the "post WWII" era, SGC was known as one of the finest conditioned courses in the southeast. Touring players often came through for a good money game; SGC has always been quite the wagering club.
Savannah Golf Club tried to eradicate Les' grass in the 80's, but they tried to save a buck and didn't gas the small practice putting green by the pro shop. Within a couple of years the first tee had a substantial population of monkey grass. And then we started to see it on the first and then the second green. It seemed like the seed would get on the players shoes and make its way slowly around the course, and they wound up having to do a second eradication.
Les was also quite knowledgeable about soils and drainage. In 1962 or so, the SGC decided to cut a deal with the local school board so thay could build a new clubhouse. The club orchestrated the condemnation of the 1st, 17th and 18th holes and the clubhouse for a new school. They then purchased some low lying land adjacent to the club to the northwest. It was an old "pre-war" landfill. I have a copy of a letter Les wrote to Hobart Manley, a great amateur player who was a member. He warned that the landfill site would be disastrous for a golf course, and would forever settle and be a drainage problem. He wanted to document his advice, and he knew Hobart was sympathetic to him and trusted his advice. (I got the letter from Hobart). Of course the big engineering firm in town disagreed and Les "moved on." SGC has had to rebuild those 3 new holes at least 3 times since. The last time it costs 3 million dollars, and its collapsing again.
He must have been a very interesting man, the kind Tom Paul would spend hours talking to. I wish I knew more about him, and I'll make it a point to make some inquiry the next time I see one of the old members who I believe knew him.
There must have been quite a few guys like this in the first half of the twentieth century. I find it interesting how a love for the game of golf and its courses makes us reflect on things and men like Les Hall. Maybe with this thread he won't go totally forgotten.
Does anyone know of anyone else who is long gone but deserves to be remembered?