Who designed the Old Course?

[TEPaul]

This thread is wandering again.

Tom MacWood is trying to ask a potentially very important question here which seems to be;

“Was TOC purposely widened (by someone) to create dedicated “strategic” play directions that served as a model for architecture to begin to change from penal to strategic or did TOC get widened, initially or otherwise for some other reason?”

That seems to be the question he’s asking, and it is an important one in the evolution of golf architecture.

So far only Bob Crosby and Paul Cowley have attempted to answer that question. They suggested it seems apparent the course was initially widened for another reason---eg due to the increased congestion of play and increased danger on its theretofore narrow (app 40 yard wide) traditional playing corridors banded by whins. Some of golf’s history books suggest that this occurred around the time golf became more popular at TOC due to the change from the featherie to the gutta percha ball and therefore more congested and dangerous.

Personally, I agree with Bob and Paul and a few of the history books that suggest this.

Of course it’s tempting to want to find someone who may’ve advocated this widening of the course JUST to create wider play and multiple options of direction which essentially is a form of strategic golf but I sure hope no one tries to assign responsibility for this to someone back then without some real historical support. Doing something like that only creates dubious advocacy and perhaps historic revisionism such as this whole Arts and Crafts thing being a really powerful influence on the Golden Age of golf architecture. That, of course, is an interesting supposition but the fact is direct and specific historical evidence is just not there to support it. Will it ever be?  

One of the most interesting things about the evolution of golf course architecture (and golf) is that so many diverse things seemed to conspire together or come together by mere happenstance to create the evolution of golf course architecture, and golf.

The geological, agronomic and practical availability (no competition from farming et al) of the Scottish linksland itself is just one of those fascinating happenstances.

And I believe the basic creation of strategic golf from width created by the clearing of the whins at TOC also was a happenstance born by the congestion on the golf course causing inconvenience and danger around the middle of the 19th century. At least I believe that unless and until someone can find something that was written BEFORE the whins were cleared or destroyed that says it was done for the decided purpose of creating strategic golf through much wider playing corridors.

[TEPaul]

Furthermore, the historic facts of golf architecture when golf began to move out of the Scottish linksland and into inland sites in England, Ireland, the USA and the rest of the world seem to be supported in this vein by the fact that many of those inland sites were open wide areas with nothing in an obstacle way to "band" or define them like the whins of TOC originally did.

So what was man to do about that?

Apparently, his first inclination was to put obstacles clear across those wide areas of play in inland sites (something TOC never had, by the way), thereby creating penal golf in both a direction sense but particularly in a distance sense for some golfers. It would seem that putting obstacle features clear across playing corridors would be much easier and cheaper than trying to "band" or line entire playing corridors with some other obstacle such as vegetation or even bunkers. Not to mention the fact that the example of steeplechase obstacle features were readilly available at that time on inland sites in England and such. This is clearly why an important observer such as Darwin said that many of those early rudimentary golf courses in inland England looked like steeplechase courses.

At that point golf course architecture itself was in its real infancy and was merely taking its very first baby steps outside Scotland without the help and benefit of many of the natural features the linksland had always possessed.

And then TOC was widened due to greater popularity and congestion at TOC perhaps due to the onset of the gutta ball, and after a while someone noticed what this had done at TOC (the widening of the playing corridors) and began to apply the same thing elsewhere.

And the concept of strategic golf was borne due to a series of interconnected happenstances.

[TEPaul]

Sean:

I agree with you, particularly with your first paragraph.

I do think this question has been answered and for many years. The answer to this question is in many to most of the history books on golf course architecture and going back a long way.

Happenstance is very much part of the entire story of golf and golf course architecture, and that happenstance apparently includes why TOC was widened in the first place. It seems fairly certain that increased popularity of golf at TOC that fostered congestion that therefore fostered danger was the primary reason or the spark that set off a number of events over time in golf architecture.

I believe in that and would rather not see someone try to revise that fairly obvious history. That's just the way it went, and it's pretty well recorded.

Tom MacWood sometimes says there must be a ton of material out there that needs to be uncovered.

I would somewhat agree with that but I'd definitely qualify that to say that perhaps most all of that material will not be new or previously and heretofore undiscovered. That kind of material has always been out there perhaps hidden in various places now but I doubt most all of it is material that has never been seen before, perhaps only seen in the past but nevertheless seen before.

The real difference today is that it has generally probably never been comprehensively analyzed as some of us are willing to do with it today. The case of the archives of PVGC is probably a fairly typical case. All that material has been there for years but until now no one ever really looked at it carefully with an overall or dedicated purpose.

But even with new and dedicated analysis I very much doubt that anyone can legitimately find that the story to date of the evolution of TOC with its widening and the reasons why, and including what that might have meant for the eventual onset of strategic architecture and an eventual turning away from the penal archietcture that preceded it is anything other, and for any other reasons, than what we basically already know.

[Forrest Richardson]

I think, quite certainly, that The Old Course was a product of collective thought, dilectics among scholars of the time, and the personal undertakings of enthusiasts.

I wrote in Routing the Golf Course...

...In the beginning (we are uncertain of the date), the golf links were known to consist of 12 holes. The last hole was near where it sits today, and play went out toward Eden’s Mouth of the St. Andrews Bay. Then, after reaching the 11th, golfers turned back and played to the same holes they had just come from, but in reverse order. A round consisted of 22 holes....

...In 1552 Archbishop John Hamilton gave the people of St. Andrews the right to use the links for golf and, among other things, gathering turf to roof their homes. This is the earliest known documented reference to golf being played at St. Andrews. Its form is a manuscript dated 25 January  1552. A key to the archbishop’s graciousness was his retained rights to raise rabbits on the links. In this period, the links at St. Andrews were known as the Links of Pilmoor and described as being “between the Mussil Scaup and the Watter of Edin..."

...Prior to 1832, when two holes were placed on each green, the breadth of fairways was unchanged from their rough form as mere pathways to and from each individual hole. The holes were still named individually, even though each green now sported two actual holes.
Sir Hugh Playfair of St. Andrews is credited with reclaiming land torn away by the forces of the sea, specifically land along the once narrow fairway for Holes No. 1 and 18. Playfair allegedly sank old boats to shore up the coastline, eventually regaining enough land so that play could expand beyond the single-width fairway that formed a pathway for these two holes. His efforts were just part of the groundwork for one of St. Andrews’ greatest features, the defining of fairways for each of the 18 golf holes that are now in play.
Old Tom Morris and Allan Robertson were the first to undertake serious clearing of the links to widen what originally amounted to pathways connecting the greens. This development spawned the glorious fields that span out before golfers at each hole. These expansive areas, flanked by roughs and bushes, revealed the undulations and subtle ridges that are now such an integral part of The Old Course. Many have attempted to duplicate their grandeur and intricacy, but there is no equal substitute for the originals.
This improvement to the Links proved highly significant to golf course routing, as it marked the first recorded design of golf holes where alternative routes to the target were encouraged. When the areas of the holes were widened, the interspersed bunkers and contour changes created multiple choices for negotiating each individual hole...

[Tim Liddy]

Tommy,

I cannot help but smile about your commercialization comment.  It is great you can still recognize it.  

[Tim Liddy]

Of course I wrote the previous comment while watching a NASCAR race. Not much commercialization in it. God Bless America.

[Sean_Tully]

Who am I and why am I important? Rich if I sent you this already hold back on your answer please.

Hint- He had the biggest shoes that anybody has ever had to fill in the game of golf.  

That is one hell of a thick mustache!!!!

Tully

[Tony_Muldoon]

David Hamilton in his excellent “Golf Scotland’s Game” quotes an announcement of 1856

“in consequence of the golfing course being much out of order by the greatly increased number of golfers and smashing with clicks, the Royal and Ancient deemed it necessary to vote a sum of £25 to have the turf and bunkers repaired. Although just about half the sum is yet laid out the course wears a better look...Along with this is another improvement, viz., two holes in each putting green, with the exception of the first and end hole, white flags going out and red ones coming in. The bent and whins have been cleared to widen the course when necessary.”

In a footnote he adds

“Various dates have been given for the decision  to widen the old course, and the 1850’s seem the most likely, though plans in the R&A clubhouse still show a narrow course in 1870.  There were two stages in this widening-twin pins in the existing greens first, then large double greens with course widening later. The huge double greens may have taken time to expand to the present size.”


He also states
“Tom Morris’ role in improving the St Andrews links has probably not been acknowledged; even to consider grooming the ancient course may have been a controversial novelty. Some players felt that the game should be played without changing the natural habitat, and there was eloquent defence of the variety of greens at St Andrews. One, the eleventh, was entirely surfaced at that time with close cropped heather. This variety of surface had its supporters, and Morris’ innovations were more radical than they might seem now.  His changes included resurfacing such greens, tidying bunkers and preventing their erosion by formalising they edges.”

[TEPaul]

"Of course I wrote the previous comment while watching a NASCAR race. Not much commercialization in it. God Bless America."

Tim Liddy:

Ah, my good man, do you see any comparisons between early golf course architecture and early stock car racing?  

My biggest regret is never seeing TOC. My second biggest regret is never bringing Nascar's best, Fireball Roberts, to see TOC. That man could sense the degree of fall on land in the seat of his pants better than any golf architect could sense it in their minds. The fact that he felt it through the limit of adhesion of rubber is only small potatoes. I should check the Nascar museum to see if Fireball drove on balata tires.  

[TEPaul]

Tony:

That's some interesting stuff there, particularly the defence against Morris's "grooming" of the greens and the course. That sort of mentality was in the days before relief really began to be defined into the currency of strokes, as it is today perhaps too much. The thinking back then was the land alone did that naturally.

[Tim Liddy]

Sorry for the OT

Tom Paul
Fireball seems like my kind of guy. Where do I donate funds for the TEPaul Old Course tour? I pray you are not sick?

[paul cowley]

One thing the Old Course had going for it in its evolution was low topography and width....this allowed for a widening and an expanding of its holes and a freedom that many of the more vertically challenged links courses didn't have.....changes were relatively easy to affect.

And as a consequence it was, and still is, a fine tinkerers lab.

[TEPaul]

Tim:

Fireball was a great guy, a great big rangy guy who was your consummate grease-ball. Back in the '50s he used to wear one of those shiny satiny jackets that was red and gray and black with "FIREBALL" stitcked over the breast and "FISH CARBURETOR" stitched in large letters across the back.

When he first won the Daytona 500 on the old beach/road track, I was lucky enough to ride home with him and he let me wear that jacket. I don't recall ever being that happy in my entire life.  

[paul cowley]

...amazing...life can be such a splendid journey.

[T_MacWood]

“Various dates have been given for the decision  to widen the old course, and the 1850’s seem the most likely, though plans in the R&A clubhouse still show a narrow course in 1870.  There were two stages in this widening-twin pins in the existing greens first, then large double greens with course widening later. The huge double greens may have taken time to expand to the present size.”

Tony
The fact that no one seems to know when the Old Course was widened leads me to believe it was not deliberate premeditated action and that Horace Hutchinson and John Low were probably accurate: The course was relatively narrow in the 1880s and the whins gradually died back between 1885 and 1900....creating the width the course is famous for.

[paul cowley]

"...amazing...life can be such a splendid journey."

I wrote this from a room on the 10th floor of the Chateau Frontenac in the walled city of Quebec, overlooking the St Lawrence River [I am truly fortunate that maybe a little of the toil is starting to pay off]....while waiting for Miss Dawn to awaken.

She just has, and asked what I was writing.
I read what Tom had wrote about Fireball etc, which she found very interesting as she had a friend named after him.....but she then made the comment that 'if life is so great', what am I doing on GCA while she's sitting alone in bed?

....good point .

[ForkaB]

The Old Course was widened 1850-60 (who cares what specific date?) for one purpose only--to allow for more play.  The place was getting too crowded, and with the game increasing in popularity due to the railroad and the guttie ball, there was a strong need to create a larger playing field.  Playfair was the catalyst.  Who "designed" it is unknown and the question largely irrelevant.

And yes, Tully, you did send me that picture.  An unsung hero in the history of St. Andrews......

[TEPaul]

This from Part One of Cornish and Whitten's tome "The Architects of Golf".

       "In 1832 the practice began of cutting two cups into each of the common greens, creating eight "double greens" on which two matches, one heading out and the other heading in could be played at once (previously groups heading out and groups heading in had to play against each other down 40 yard wide corridors and had to wait for the group who arrived at the common green first to play to the same cup as the group going the other way, parentheses are mine))......As a public course, in a town devoted to the game, St Andrews had always seen considerable play. The narrow strip of playable grass was only forty yards wide (for groups going both ways), and despite the use of double greens, play had become increasingly CONGESTED and HAZARDOUS (caps mine). Between 1848 and 1850, the course was widened by replacing the closest crops of heather with turf and by expanding the double greens into huge hundred yard wide surfaces. The widened course and huge double greens offered a unique feature: the holes could be played either as the "right hand" course or in reverse as the "left hand" course. During the same period of alteration, a new seventeenth green was also built. And in the first recorded instance of such a practice, some artificially created hazards were added to the Old Course.
     An ACCIDENTAL (caps mine) but far-reaching result of the course widening was the introduction of strategy into the game of golf. A player was no longer compelled to carry every hazard. He could, if he preferred, play a longer but safer route around a hazard at some sacrifice but without suffereing undue penalty. Previously, like most links, not only required compulsory carres over most hazards but also penalized, with whins, heather, sandy lies or lost balls, any shot that strayed off line".

Now, Tom MacWood, I don't know where Cornish and Whitten came up with that information contained above but despite the fact you seem to constantly imply that their book and their sources may not be comprehensive enough or accurate and informative enough, is there anything at all about the foregoing that you find inaccurate, incomplete or insufficient? Furthermore, have you or do you feel you can come up with anything to counterpoint or to claim anything they said therein is not the accurate historical case? And if so what is it?

You keep saying you think there might be far more material or information out there that has never been considered or analyzed properly. Well, what is some of that material or  information that has not been previously known or considered? Give us something, even if it's miniscule.

Otherwise tell me why you think there is something missing or inaccurate about the foregoing explanation of the dates TOC was widened, altered and the reasons why it was done.

[T_MacWood]

The Old Course was widened 1850-60 (who cares what specific date?) for one purpose only--to allow for more play.  

Rich
Is this your theory or do you have some documentation to back this up?

It would be interesting if you could show us (or tell us) the width of the course in 1850, 1860, 1870 and so on.

[TEPaul]

"Between 1848 and 1850, the course was widened by replacing the closest crops of heather with turf"

Perhaps C&W just made those dates up? Maybe the next person who speaks with Ron Whitten should ask him where he got that info or whether he just decided to make it up himself.

Are we now trying to figure out how much it was widened between 1848 and 1850 and how much more it was widened later?  

The lengths one will go to try to prove that perhaps Horace Hutchins was the "Father" of all golf architecture is getting to be amazing. If the A/C connection doesn't sell, why not try TOC widening angle?  

I know Tom MacWood will never admit to trying this angle but I have little doubt that's what he is trying to do. It would be an interesting angle to consider but if we are going to let him provide something, anything, to support it in the face of the evidence we already have WHY TOC was widened in the first place.

[Sean_Tully]

One could find some interesting info on the old course in the old Golf Illustrateds from around the time of Old Tom and Hugh Hamilton(in the photo above) who followed in Old Toms footsteps as Greenkeeper at St Andrew's. I went through the magazines from 1899-1904 in about 6 hours at the PBA and took as many photos as I could in that timeframe. There is a section in there that discussed the minutes for St. Andrews and the New course. I did not have enough time to get all the info out of them. They are a wonderful collection of information and need more study. To my surprise they had a nice article on golf in California with some pictures that I had not seen before. Hope to get a look at the full run of magazines at some point.

Tully

[Marty Bonnar]

Here's an image of the modern day aerial I merged in Photoshop with an early 20th C map (1905-ish). I added the redline over the line which appeared to be the high water mark.
The Jubilee could easily have had some serious water holes if required!!! I guess maybe OTM didn't like the idea.
I had never realised the water line had been SO close to the R&A. Was it ever flooded, Mr H?



FBD.

[paul cowley]

....I bet they started hitting over the sheds on #17 as soon as the equipment advances let them....gutty maybe, but Haskell surely.
The early modern ball just chimed in to lower its par to 4....

[Phil_the_Author]

In the February, 1898 issue of Golf USGA BULLETIN:

A COMPARISON OF GOLF COURSES IN
THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW.
'By W. Girdivood Stewart,

   That a good links should contain the not more nor less than eighteen is almost the only point on which there is universal agreement. We need not inquire whether this number was originally fixed on because of its representing the best test of play, whether it was devised to give the defeated a chance of revenge in the afternoon, or whether it merely meant the golfing limitations of some famous links. In any case few golfers would care to see it altered either way. The number of holes being granted, we may next consider what the total length should be. St. Andrews in Scotland is given as 6,323 yards…

HOLE.                                                          PAR.   YDS.
1  Two full drives                                           4        352
2  Two full drives, probably short pitch               4        417
3 Full drive, full iron                                        4        335
4 Two full drives, probably short pitch                4        367
5 Two full drives and full driving mashie              5        516
6 Full drive, full brassey or cleek                        4        359
7 Full drive, full brassey                                   4        340
8 Full iron                                                      3        170
9 Drive, short pitch                                         4        277
   Out                                                          36      3133
10 Drive, short pitch                                       4         290
11 Full iron or cleek                                         3        150
12 Full drive, full iron or cleek                           4         333
13 Two full drives, probably short approach         4         385
14 Two full drives, full iron or cleek                    5         475
15 Full drive, full cleek or brassey                      4         375
16 Full drive, full cleek                                     4         334
17 Two full drives, full iron                                5         461
18 Full drive, full cleek or brassey                       4         387
   In                                                             37      3190
                                                                             73      6323


My apologies for the way the numbers line up....

[ForkaB]

Tom

This is the conclusion of Tom Jarret, who wrote the official history of the links for the Links Trust (1996).  It also conforms to Balfour's personal observations.  Jarret doesn't go into any great detail as to what happened on a decade by decade basis, except to say or imply that changes wer emostly cosmetic (although much of those "cosmetics" involved the massive improvement of the quality of the greens under Morris and Honeyman, as well as the significant changes made when the Bruce Embankment was built (1880?--don't know/don't care/am not at home so can't even look it up!) to 1, 17 and 18.

Per an earlier query, my book "Experience The Old Course" is concerned with architectural changes only to the extent that knowing such will enhance the experience of the golfer playing the course or reading about it.  Ther are many other sources for one who wishes to dig deeper into the details (I would recommend starting with Jarrett).

Rich