Chandler Egan's artificial dunes at Pebble Beach

[Pete Lavallee]

What led to the demise of Chandler Egan's artificial dunes at Pebble Beach? Judging from the pictures of the 1928 redesign these were visually stunning hazards, which seemed to present a real penalty, with many uncertain shot possibilities. The one's on 4, 7, 10 and 17 are well documented with photos. They seem to have a significant portion above ground level; did these parts just get blown away by strong winds?

Also what architect was responsible for formally turning these dunes into the bunkers they are today?

Finally, should the Pebble Beach Corp. consider "golf's most beloved figures's" suggestion that they be restored?

[wsmorrison]

Pete,

 Any chance you can post the photographs or let me know where to locate them so I can post?  Thanks.

[Pete Lavallee]

Wayne,

The pictures I am referring to are in Geoff Shackelford's: Golden Age of Golf Design, under the Monterrey School chapter.

[Kevin_Reilly]

I have a Pebble Beach history book at home...I will check it tonight regarding the timeline of changes.  FWIW, here is the 7th in 1952...already cleaned up substantially.  

[Patrick_Mucci]

What led to the demise of Chandler Egan's artificial dunes at Pebble Beach? Judging from the pictures of the 1928 redesign these were visually stunning hazards, which seemed to present a real penalty, with many uncertain shot possibilities. The one's on 4, 7, 10 and 17 are well documented with photos. They seem to have a significant portion above ground level; did these parts just get blown away by strong winds?

Pete,

I don't think the winds were the critical factor.

I think the increasing number of rounds and maintainance were two of the primary factors relating to their demise.

One of the things you see when you play courses with dunes within the property lines are signs that advise golfers to avoid walking on the dunes due to their fragile nature.

If 20 golfers a day play the course, it's usually not an issue.
When 400 a day play the course, it's an issue.
Especially when you consider that the dunes you like are immediately adjacent to the greens, the epicenter of the playing universe, and as such, subject to intense traffic.[/color]

Also what architect was responsible for formally turning these dunes into the bunkers they are today?

It may not have been an architect.
It may have been Mother Nature in concert with heavy play[/color]

Finally, should the Pebble Beach Corp. consider "golf's most beloved figures's" suggestion that they be restored?

The the heavy traffic that burdens PB, I don't think it's practical, and even if they were replicated, I can't see them lasting past the first season.[/color]

[wsmorrison]

I hope Geoff doesn't mind me posting these photos from his "The Golden Age of Golf Design" book.  These three photos show the imitation sand dune bunkering quite well.

The 4th green




The 7th green from 2 angles and apparently different years

[Patrick_Mucci]

Wayne,

Thanks for posting the photos, and Geoff Shackelford, thanks for writing, "The Golden Age of Golf Design", it should be required reading for GCA buffs.

When you examine those photos you can see that heavy traffic would take a toll on those features, especially at # 4.

As beautiful and challenging as it looks, I don't think you'll see a restoration.  It just wouldn't hold up.

[Pete Lavallee]

Wayne,

Thanks for posting those pictures, it will be a lot harder for Geoff to go all the way to Philly to get you, instead of just driving down the I5 to get me.

I guess I should rephrase the question: How long did they last in this fashion? Were they abandoned at the start of the Depression? This time period they would certainly have the least amount of play Pebble Beach ever got; I doubt they had the throngs of people in 1928 that they do now. It would appear that they would lend themselves to less maitenance if just left natral and unraked, kind of like Pine Valley. So if money and maintenance were the issue they might have lasted through the Depression. Or was it a good idea that was flawed technically and therefore doomed to an imeadiate failure?

Obviously from the photos someone had to do a lot of hand work to turn those dunes into the formal bunkers there now, be it an architect or superintendent. Who can we attribute that work to?

[paul cowley]

They were fake to begin with....propped up on a stone shelf that underlies most of Pebble and as such they were poorly inspired, probably because of their relashionship with thier cousin to the north, which happens to be in real dunes.
The grass grows so well that it is not easy to maintain it and keep it back..... and they just lost it as part of going with the easier maintenace flow.

[Mike_Cirba]

I think Patrick is spot on with his assessment that they weren't maintainable given the wind.

I'd also add that similar to Cypress Point, it must have become quite the pain in the behind to keep vegetation from encroaching.

If you think about the duneslike bunkers at places like Sand Hills and Pac Dunes, they at least have the fighting chance of being deep pits, generally shielded from the wind by being built/scarped/uncovered into upslopes.

The faux dunes at Pebble seem to have been built just below ground level, and I can't imagine they had much protection from the glazing effects of wind, rain, and human-wear.

The sand would have simply been blown everywhere, including all over those greens.   At some point, someone likely decided that they weren't workable, and as cool as they look, that someone would have been correct.

[Geoffrey Childs]

I think the same maintanance concerns apply to Bethpage Black.  If they attempted to keep the old scruffy Pine Valley-like appearance of the bunkers they simply could not be maintained given the amout of traffic from dawn to dusk that the course gets.

[Kevin_Reilly]

The Official History book I have says:

Most obvious of the maintenance losses is Egan's artificial dunes bunkering which proved impractical to maintain.

An accompanying picture from 1950 is very similar to the Watts collection picture above.

Egan wrote the following about #7:

The new green has been placed as close to the ocean as possible.  It is irregular in shape, 100 feet long from the front to the back and from 45 to 50 feet wide.  It is completely surrounded by sand dune bunkering.

[Jon Spaulding]

Thank you Wayne for posting the photos; I've been intending to so this for some time with no success. If you have time, please scan in the ones from Timber Point on the thread that Blasberg put up some time ago.

Not related to the artificial dunes look, but G-Shack put up a small blurb on the changes to PB#9 on his site today. Given the greens/hotel fees PB charges, it seems that they could a) afford a restoration and b) afford to maintain some or all of these Egan features.

[TEPaul]

What I'd like to know is who built them in the first place. They look so much like what was done next door at Cypress I'd have to assume it was the otherworldly American Construction Company that did them.

MacKenzie also apparently got into a massive fight with Pebble's super to do with something at Pebble. Morse had to step in and mediate. I bet it was the proposal to do those bunkers.

[Kevin_Reilly]

What I'd like to know is who built them in the first place. They look so much like what was done next door at Cypress I'd have to assume it was the otherworldly American Construction Company that did them.

All I could find was that Joe Mayo and Egan experimented with the bunkering, starting with #4.

MacKenzie also apparently got into a massive fight with Pebble's super to do with something at Pebble. Morse had to step in and mediate. I bet it was the proposal to do those bunkers.

Maybe dissatisfaction with his work on #8?  It was panned during the '26 Pebble Beach Open.

[Sean_Tully]

What I'd like to know is who built them in the first place. They look so much like what was done next door at Cypress I'd have to assume it was the otherworldly American Construction Company that did them.

All I could find was that Joe Mayo and Egan experimented with the bunkering, starting with #4.

MacKenzie also apparently got into a massive fight with Pebble's super to do with something at Pebble. Morse had to step in and mediate. I bet it was the proposal to do those bunkers.

Maybe dissatisfaction with his work on #8?  It was panned during the '26 Pebble Beach Open.

Joe Mayo was heavily involved at Pebble as the Super and he was also involved at Burlingame(Renovations) and at MPCC during the construction there. I have not come across any info that would have said that AGCCC did the work. They have a series of wonderful adverts that shows all of their work and no mention of Pebble.

Regarding the Mackenzie/Mayo fued...
It may be something even deeper than just the work at Pebble. It should be interesting to note that Mayo was involved at the Raynor course in Hawaii. After Raynor died, Mayo went to Hawaii to help finish the project. He could very well have been a Raynor "man," in the same way a Fleming was a Mackenzie "man." How much was changed at the Dunes course by Mackenzie and Hunter? It is too obvious that their styles were the opposite of Raynor's and it can be very likely have led to some disagreements.  It would be interesting to know more of Mayo's background before he came to Pebble.

We are giving a lot of credit to Egan here. I feel that he deserves it as I have been trying to dig up info on him and he only gets all the more interesting. But, we can't always forget Hunter's role. He always gets lost, but played a large part in two courses by this point. This leaves Lapham, he is the virtual unknown in the group. Why was he involved?

The first reason was that he was instrumental in having the Amatuer there in the first place and would have wanted to have his hands on the project. The other reason would be his past experience with the work done by Tillinghast at SFGC and Watson/Mayo(still working on this as Mayo may not have been following Watson's plans) at Burlingame. I just found some references to his working with Tillie in 1924 at SFGC where Tillie added close to 70 bunkers on the course. Lapham was a member at both clubs and was on the green committee at SFGC.

Interesting stuff.

Tully