The most useful missing link

[Mark_Rowlinson]

On this top page at the moment there are threads about Raynor, Banks, Taylor, Doak, Colt, Fowler and Simpson.  A lot is known about them.  But if you were an archaeologist or archivist working in the field of golf course architecture, what is the one missing document or artefact that you would most wish to discover and which would give us the most extra knowledge about the subject? It doesn't have to be MacKenzie's original drawings for Alwoodley - it could be Flynn's toe-nail clippings if they happen to be sufficiently educative.

[Mark_F]

Soutar's routing plan for Kingston Heath

Construction notes on RM West's 11th hole, as to why the pitiful bunkers in the corner of the dogleg are there as opposed to the magnificent creation drawn on plans.

[Dan_Callahan]

What was Rulewich thinking when he put together the restoration plan at Yale.

[Bill_McBride]

Seth Raynor's routing plan for Cypress Point!

[wsmorrison]

Hugh Wilson's notes and sketches from his trip to the UK before he oversaw the design of Merion East.

Fortunately, the Flynn collection of drawings is the most complete of any pre-WWII architect.  The courses where there are no drawings include:

CC Harrisburg 1916
Doylestown CC 1916
East Potomac Public Golf 1923
Rock Creek Park 1923
Washington GCC 1919
Manufacturers GCC (back nine) 1925
Philmont North (because it is a Willie Park) 1924
Seaview Pines 1931

[David Stamm]

Doh!! Bill, you beat me to it!

[Tony_Muldoon]

Colt's diaries 1900 to 1910. What were his thought's on
- the effect of the Haskell Ball on established courses.
- what he was trying to achieve in updating the original Suningdale.
- how he came to decide that Golf course Archtecture could be a carear.

Plus I'm sre many other fascinating thoughts.

[David Stamm]

I don't know how significant this would be or important to the overall understanding of architecture, but when William F. Bell died, the Bell family cleaned out his and his fathers design office and threw out all the drawings and documents that they had there. Everything they ever did was in there. The family later said that they just didn't think anybody would want them or thought they had value!

[Tom_Doak]

The original routing for Sebonack which I drew on tracing paper.  It was noticeably absent from the book published by our client, even though the narrative describes the importance of it.  But strangely, nobody asked me for a copy to include in the book.

Really, though, the "Dead Sea scrolls" of golf architecture are Macdonald's notes from his trips to the UK.  He wrote that he had given them all to Raynor, but they have never been found.  I was told once who owned them, but have no way of verifying it.

[Jeff_Mingay]

How about the routing plans for all the great Rod Whitman courses that were never built:

- (Whitman's) Angus Glen, suburban Toronto;
- (Whitman's) Crowbush Cove, Prince Edward Island; and,
- the third course at Kananaskis, along side RTJ's 36 holes.

Hmmmm...  

P.S. Oh yeah, we can't forget those 36 holes Whit routed in the sand dunes on the coast of Morocco a decade or so ago...

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