"Tom,
This fellow designed the first nine holes at Misquamicut, as well as the last 18 holes at Philmont."
Mike:
In my opinion, WIllie Park Jr maybe the most important person in the evolution of golf course architecture since he may've been the first to design good relatively natural looking INLAND architecture (outside Scotland) in history. But I don't know that he was the first to do it over here. I think he certainly was, however, in the English heathlands around 1900, and that puts him in a most important place in the history of GCA, in my opinion, particularly since what he did in the heathlands was what the likes of Leeds, Emmet and Wilson saw before they did their breakthrough projects over here.
I've always thought Park Jr may've been the man and that's one of the reasons I always thought that Tom MacWood giving all the credit for what Park did in the heathlands to Horace Hutchinson and the English Arts and Crafts Movement was basically a load of crap.
I cannot imagine that it took some tutelage from Hutchinson and the A&C Movement to teach Scottish linksman Park Jr what to do inland. All that was required was for him to slow down, to have the money and to take the necessary time on some inland sites. And that was Sunningdale and Huntercombe.