I heard an interesting story from a Sakonnet member the other night, which I thought you all would be interested in. She mentioned to me that the club has bought a piece of property on the Sakonnet Inlet, and they plan to build new holes that take advantage of this stretch of waterfront parcel.
Before anybody cringes in disgust, hear me out, because if the story as it was related to me is true, this is a potentially interesting development.
As legend has it, when Ross was designing the course (lest anyone forget, Little Compton was Ross' summer dwelling), he had assumed (or had relied on instructions) that this parcel in question was part of the existing club owned land. Accordingly, he made hole sketches for the land and it was incorporated into the design.
As the construction began, it became evident that the club did not, in fact, own the land and that it was privately owned. The club apparently tried to reconcile the situation by buying the land, but the owner refused to sell. This forced Club/Ross to re-route/design the course so it headed further inland.
Recently, however, the club has finally secured ownership of the original land in question. As reported to me, the club has a trove of material on the holes that were originally planned for the waterfront acreage, and plan to build holes to specification as they were planned in Ross' original routing design.
A few Questions:
1) Can anyone authenticate this ? Brad Klein?
2) What do people think of this? A lot is made on this site of the architect's original intent. If routing the course to include that property was Ross' original intent, should this project be undertaken? Assuming, of course, that the plans are followed through faithful to Ross' design and objectives.
3) Does anyone know who the architect is on this?