Chicago Aerial: Another NLE

[Dan Moore]

Started as a private course in the 1920's.  I haven't been able to determine who designed this course; it looks somewhat like Ross to me, but that is very unlikely.  

Two other courses nearby were also built in the FOREST have been PRESERVEd while this course which looks like it was much much better than those two was not.  Maybe they didn't like all the BRANCHes to the NORTH along the river.  

[T_MacWood]

Dan
I agree...from the air it looks very good. It reminds me of CH Alison.

[Phil McDade]

Tom:

I went and looked at the GCA aerial on Milwaukee CC, which I believe is an Alison (and not a Colt/Alison) design, and you can see some similarities with the bunker designs. Some of the bunkers at Milwaukee CC are truly -- for lack of a better term -- artistic in design -- moreso than the ones in this aerial, if indeed it has some connection to Alison. Boy, that green in the upper right-hand part of the picture looks like an absolute bear to hit, with those bunkers pinching like that and the semi-boomerang design of the green. Some greens also like small, relative to the size of the bunkers.

Dan -- Any Alison or Colt/Alison designs in the Chicago area? Alison didn't strike me as nearly as prolific in the Midwest, if at all, as someone like Bendy -- I don't think, e.g., that there is another Alison in Wisconsin, at least that I know of.

[SL_Solow]

Alison did Northshore in Glenview and Briarwood in Deerfield.  Also some work at Bob O Linc.  Perhaps Knollwood as well.

[Dan Moore]

Shelly,

Does it look like Alison?  

The bunkers seem much larger than what I've seen from Alison.

I see some slight similarities to Evanston; there is a dogleg at Evanston just like the one in the upper left though it bends in the opposite direction.  The bunkers on this course are much less numerous than at Evanston and not as varied.

 

[SL_Solow]

I must confess that there are others who are better with aerials than I.  However, Alison was well known for large but more importantly deep bunkers.  Perhaps a contemporary aerial of Briarwood (then known as Briergate) Northshore, Milwaukee or Century in NY might give a better idea.  Comparing current Alison bunkers after years of maintenance and redesign could be misleading.

[Dan Moore]

I just looked at Bob O Link which shows rather large bunkers.  The bunkers at Knollwood and Briergate from the same time period don't appear quite as large.  

The aerials are not scaled consistently so that too can be misleading.  

Bob O Link

[Dan Moore]

Ok, I highlighted the cryptic clues in the first post.  This  course was named after a famous Revolutionary War Battle that actually took place in a different location.  Why its named that on an flat as a pancake site remains to be seen.  Why they kept the nearby course that is near the edge of a brook and ploughed this one under is a major querstion.  Its no longer niles from nowhere.  

[T_MacWood]

The only Alison courses in Chicago that I'm aware of are Knollwood, Briergate, North Shore and Bob O'Link.

Is this course Bunker Hill?

[Dan Moore]

Indeed.  

Any idea who designed it?  

[T_MacWood]

Dan
The one reference I've seen said the golf architect was John MacElhatton, the former pro at Ridgemoor. Not exactly a household name. He was an Irishman who evidently designed another course before Bunker Hill called Burlong Woods. Bunker Hill opened in 1925. One article claimed the 9th and 18th were par-3s over water. I'm not sure I see two holes over the creek.

[Dan Moore]

Its is just north of Devon along Caldwell Ave. in the Cook County Forest Preserve.  The land is now used as a picnic area called Bunker Hill and is the start of the North Branch bike trail which follows the river north to the Chicago Botanic gardens in Highland Park, passing close to a bevy of wonderful golf courses along the way; Glen View, what's left of Tam O' Shanter, Winnetka, and Skokie CC.  

What I don't understand is why this course was ploughed under while Edgebrook (which you can see at the bottom of the google image) was kept.  Edgebrook is a nothing course while Bunker Hill looked to have considerable merit.  Was there something inherently wrong with Bunker Hill, perhaps it was abandoned at some point, or was it stupid politics?

The course was located where the road weaves it way through the park between the Bunker Hill and Clayton Smith designations.

[Tim_Cronin]

It's amazing how the outline of the big bunker to the bottom of the old aerial can still be seen. If not for the housing intrusion, this course could be rebuilt without too much trouble.