Barwon Heads Golf Club (updated with PICS)

[Sean_Tully]

Interested in this course as I have a routing map that dates to before the course was built. It seems to be different than the current version of the course. Interested to see if changes were made during construction or in the years following. What I found interesting was that James East is listed as the purchaser of the property. I have seen his name as the designer of the course and I seem to recall that he was a very prominent golf pro.( I corrected this last part )
I made it sound as though his name was listed as the architect, there is no mention on the paper as to the architect.

Does anyone have any better background info?

Tully

[Neil_Crafter]

Sean
Our company Crafter + Mogford is the consulting architect to Barwon Heads and I have a pretty good idea of the course history accordingly. Royal Melbourne pro J. Victor East is credited as the designer of the first Barwon Heads course on their current property, which was constructed and most likely also co-designed by George Lowe Jr, the club's professional and greenkeeper in 1920. George was the son of George Lowe, the Royal Lytham and St Annes professional who was also a course designer (and who emigrated to Queenscliff in Victoria with his daughter in 1920 to be closer to his son after his wife died). I have written about the early days of the course at Barwon Heads in the article I co-wrote on the Lowes in the issue 9 of Golf Architecture magazine. There is a plan of the course that George Lowe Jr drew up at this time and I would be interested to see if the plan you mentioned is the same one or not. Perhaps you can send me an email about it.

The course was modified fairly significantly a few years later as the club was able to acquire more land to the south in 1929 (through 'permissive occupancy') where there are now the first six holes, previously there were only the first two holes. A number of other changes were made to the remaining holes to make this adjustment and it seems most of the credit for this work belongs to club stalwart S.F. 'Barney' Mann, who was quite well educated in respect of golf course design and had travelled to the UK to learn from the courses there.
Sean, hope this helps.
cheers Neil

[ed_getka]

Tully,
   You never cease to amaze me. Now you are coming up with stuff from Australia? I was hoping to see the course when I am down there, but alas there isn't enough time to see all the interesting courses there in just two weeks.
   If there is anything you would like me to check out about BH I could inquire while I am in the area. It sounds like Neil is your best resource.

[James Bennett]

Ed

Neil is the best resource.  He and Tully would be a great pair.

James B

[Neil_Crafter]

Sean
Let me know about the plan you have when you get the chance.

J. Victor East left Australia for America around 1922 after Royal Melbourne refused to pay him what he thought he was worth for a retainer. He became pro at the Biltmore Forest CC according to the Royal Melbourne history and was a renowned club designer for Spalding.

James - a great pair of what?

cheers Neil

[Sean_Tully]

Neil

Sorry for the delay. I have been busy walking over an old abandonded course down in Santa Cruz and my internet provider is killing me. I have not had a connection at home for 3 days!

Anyways, when I get a chance I will get a picture of the papers. The papers are for the purchase of the property and has all of the signatures on it. On the back is the plan for the golf course. It appears that some of the holes are still in play today, they ones furthest from the Clubhouse. Are those from the original 9 hole layout?

Victor East, I knew that I was familiar with him. When Joe Kirkwood came over to the US, East was acting as his agent. I have a nice newspaper article that shows the two together in that capacity.

Tully

[Neil_Crafter]

Sean
The dreaded server blues! Its amazing how reliant we have become in the internet in the space of a few short years.

I would be very keen to see the papers and the plan. The George Lowe Jr sketch plan only surfaced in the last couple of years and it would be amazing to think that another plan might be found so soon. Presumably this material must have found its way to the US via J Victor East, can't think of any other reason. I'm certain the club would be very interested.

Sean, the original nine hole course was on a different property altogether and the club decided to move and purchased their current site to secure their future. Barney Mann reorganised the holes in 1929 and added new ones to turn the first 18 hole layout into its current form. I have a newspaper article on Mann which described the changes he made and that he was a James Braid disciple, had met Braid while in the UK and had made a study of his courses and design philosophy.

Look forward to seeing your plan.
regards
Neil

[Sean_Tully]

Neil

As you can see from the photos, the plan is from Dec of 1921. I see some similarity to the bottom left holes(7-11) on the plan to the current holes today. Pretty neat stuff.

Here is the front, the bottom is legal mumbo jumbo.


Here is a view of the signatures...



Here is the plan on the back...



Pretty cool stuff.
Tully

[Jeff Doerr]

It looks like a number of holes were added...

http://www.bhgc.com.au/guests/golf/tour.mhtml

Looks like they got rid of 13, 14, 15, 16 and added new holes 2, 3, 4, 5.

Sean,

Was the course built in the current config? Do you have any old images?

[Neil_Crafter]

Sean
Thanks for posting the plan and the document. Clearly Victor East purchased land in the new development around the golf course, perhaps even traded off against his design fee perhaps - architects have been known to do crazy things like this!

From an inspection of the stick plan it matches well the plan drawn up by George Lowe Jr, but Lowe's plan is far more detailed with greens and tees as well as fairway widths being tabulated at certain distances from the tee for each hole.

If somone could give me easy instructions how to post images from PhotoBucket where I have set up an account for myself, I will post Lowe's plan and a few other things I have that might be of interest, including a newspaper clipping on Barney Mann and his work at Barwon Heads.

Jeff, as I mentioned in my first post, Barney Mann added four new holes on land to the east of the clubhouse around 1929, with the existing 1st retained and the existing 2nd renumbered as the 6th, and other holes on the main property were deleted or modified to create the layout we know today. Not sure quite what you mean by the question "was the course built in the current configuration?". No, it was built originally by East and Lowe to the layout on Sean's plan and modifed around 10 years later to accommodate the new land they were able to access at the eastern end.
cheers Neil

[James Bennett]

Neil

give me a call - we'll get that first photobucket image posted "no worries".

James B

[Bill_McBride]

From a cursory look at that plan, the clubhouse appears to be in serious jeopardy of long sliced tee shots from the 3rd tee!  

What happened in reality?  Is that now the 7th tee, if I'm reading the above correctly?

[RichMacafee]

Yes, the 3rd tee on that pic is now the 7th tee. The 7th is a par 4 about 390 yds/350 metres but it runs more parallel to the houses than the 3rd in that pic. In a south westerly wind the clubhouse still gets quite a few balls, but the whole clubhouse/parking area has been made OOB, and the main body of the clubhouse is protected by a row of very large pine or cypress trees (can't remember which).

17 & 18 look like they are basically the same holes that are there today. The 9th on that pic looks like the current 13th - which is one of the best short par.3.'s you will ever see. Also the 14th on the pic seems to be the same as the current 16th. The rest of the holes have either been deleted or changed as Neil said.

Pic of 13th hole which is only about 120ish metres.

http://www.golfselect.com.au/armchair/images/courses/330/369_001.jpg

[Neil_Crafter]

Here is my first attempt at posting an image, thanks to James' instructions. If it fails it will be his fault!

This is the plan drawn by George Lowe Jr of the first layout at Barwon Heads, this came from his son Alan Lowe.

[Neil_Crafter]

As this appears to have been successful, here is a photo of J Victor East, holding the plan, with George Lowe next to him on his right, rest are BHGC officials.