Speaking of Rye (Thanks TM), Who Knows of HC Tippet, the "English Gatsby*?"

[Mark Bourgeois]

*Or maybe the English "Tom Buchanan"...

To all,

Reading the Rye history last year, I was struck by the economy of words used to described HC Tippet's collapse and death in connection with post-war rehabilitation of the course.  There appeared much more to the story.

Fortuitously, albeit in a sad way, as I completed my reading of the Rye history, last summer there appeared in The Daily Mail this obituary of Major Bruce Shand, the most-amazing, Gatsby-esque sketch of the life of HC Tippet.

So there was much more to the story.  As Tom MacWood writes, "Tippet was not your average retired British officer turned club secretary, he had been an accomplished golf architect during the Roaring 20s, creating a number of high profile American designs, among them Montauk Downs, Meadow Brook and LaGorce."

I searched in vain for more on his life and how his architectural career intertwined with it. And what an "intertwining" it must have been! Based on the sketch one can nearly see him as a minor Tom Buchanan, or perhaps a Babbitt.

Fisher should be a red flag as to the Florida work: he was instrumental, if doltish, in the fabrication of Miami Beach, an avatar of the Florida real-estate bubble of the 1920s. To be connected to Carl Fisher is to be neck deep in that milieu.

And then...to that "toff of toffs" club, Rye!

What do you know, and what can you find out?

Thanks,
Mark

[Rich Goodale]

Thanks, Mark

I know nothing about Tippet (Tippets?--C+C and Tom MacW seem to differ), but I must provisionally add him to the burgeoning list of golf course architects that nobody ever heard of but ought to.  I'd also add Douglas Rolland, whom C+C credit for the 1894 version of Rye (assisted by Colt), whilst MacWood (and Darwin?) seem to think that Rolland assisted Colt.  Given that Colt was a young whippersnapper at the time and Rolland was one of the finest golfers in the land (he finished 2nd to JH Taylor in the 1894 Open at Sandwich), I am more inclined to believe the former attribution of (at least initial) credit for the glorious links of Rye.

Please keep us informed as you learn more.

Rich

[Jonathan Davison]

H C Tippet, also designed Tramore Golf Club in Waterford Ireland. I'm sure he was a secretary at Walton Heath??

[Mark Bourgeois]

Thanks to you both. Searching the online USGA dB doesn't really turn up much, just a few references to matches played, most notably when he beat Cyril Tolley in the 1931 British Am. He is referenced there as having been "associated" with  Meadowbrook CC.

A 1923 reference to his winning the Curtis Trophy in Miami has him playing out of Lido.

Mark

[Tony_Muldoon]

Great stuff Mark, where else…  (Is it possible there’s a snob Gene? )


Rich I’m not arguing with your feelings of what may have happened but it does once again show Colt as the expert collaborator/partner and also mentor of GCA.

He accepted Dr Mac ideas for Alwoodley.  His greatest pupil?

He encouraged Crump and left his mark - whatever that was.

Worked for/with Hodgkin at Woodhall.

Alison was his find.


All these went on to greater things after collaborating with the master.  He was adept at skillfully dealing with all manner of people and in what is truly a collaborative art he is always associated with quality.

[Tom Roewer]

H C Tippet, also designed Tramore Golf Club in Waterford Ireland. I'm sure he was a secretary at Walton Heath??

I also found an article on Tramore which gives H.C.Tippet of Wimbledon as the architect.

[BCrosby]

Interesting.

The "Lost Generation" after WWI has always fascinated me. Sounds like Tibbet was one of them. There's lot's of great literature on the subject. Young, well educated officers who were unable to fit back into the everyday world of work and family.

Becoming a club secretary, playing a little golf, designing a course here and there, all that would have been a perfect resolution to a tough situation

Bob

 

[Rich Goodale]

Great stuff Mark, where else…  (Is it possible there’s a snob Gene? )


Rich I’m not arguing with your feelings of what may have happened but it does once again show Colt as the expert collaborator/partner and also mentor of GCA.

He accepted Dr Mac ideas for Alwoodley.  His greatest pupil?

He encouraged Crump and left his mark - whatever that was.

Worked for/with Hodgkin at Woodhall.

Alison was his find.


All these went on to greater things after collaborating with the master.  He was adept at skillfully dealing with all manner of people and in what is truly a collaborative art he is always associated with quality.

I agree with you, Tony.  I'm still trying to find out if he collaborated with Archie Simpson when they were both at the CC of Detroit in early 1911.........

As for the 1894 work at Rye with Rolland, Mark, do you have any info from the club histories as to who did what and when?  Thanks in advance.

Rich

[Mark Bourgeois]

Rich,

The history makes no mention of Rolland's duties, activities or contributions other than as the professional during the period from August 1894 to roughly October 1895. (His departure date is a little unclear from my reading. The text does not state his departure date explicitly; it's possible I misunderstood and he departed sooner.)

Colt is given credit as the "inspiration" and driving force for creating a permanent course, mentions made of his "mapping out a permanent course," "marking out," and "inspecting ground" during the period of Feb-April 1894, which puts these activities prior to Rolland's arrival.

There were design "inputs" from outside; however, the timing here as well appears to rule out any contributions by Rolland: "This first venture for Colt as a golf architect was not all plain sailing, his design meeting with a number of objections when first produced.  Suitable alterations were made to meet these objections and finally, on 9 July (1894), the Committee gave authority for the project to go ahead.  Work carried on through the autumn and winter"...

Obviously, Rolland was in chair as Colt built the course, but I would imagine the club history would make mention were Rolland to play Bob Jones to Colt's MacKenzie, don't you?

What's your basis for believing Rolland contributed to the design?

It's possible of course the club (club history) would choose to play up the contribution of a man who not only was a member but who served as captain over that of a lowly professional; however, the history makes mention of so many changes to the course over time I grew exhausted writing them in my notes by 1938!

And on that note...Let the significant contributions to the course by Tippet be noted:
2nd hole
7th hole
relocation of 4th green to present site(!)

The construction of the 7th "was a major task," involving the removal of a mound in front of the green and using that in turn as fill to raise the hollow left of the present 4th green by some eight feet.

Mark

[Rich Goodale]

Many thanks, Mark

My only bases for my speculation are:

1.  Cornish and Whitten state that:  "In 1894 he (Colt) assisted .....Rolland in the design for a new course for Rye GC)."

2.  Colt also worked with Rolland in 1910 (under the overall supervision of Braid--Rolland's nephew!) in the design and build of Bishop's Stortford--so, their relationship at Rye was not an ephemeral or unmeaningful one.

3.  If Rolland was the pro at Rye, he would have had a lot of say as to how the course was actually built, regardless of any plans--particularly as he was a highly regarded playing pro.

4.  Given that Colt di virtually nothing (design-wise) until 10-15 years after 1894, I can only assume that whatever he did at Rye was not important to him or to any important potential clients.  Imagine a young Tom Doak working with Nicklalus to design a Sebonack and then not being heard of (design-wise) for another 15 years.......

...but, I'm open to learning.  Keep the facts and opinions coming!

Rich

[Mark Bourgeois]

Rich,

That certainly makes sense to me, but the club history can't help you on that front.

There is another possibility to consider: the temporary course and its designer, the head professional at Littlestone. Also, apparently the greenkeeper at Littlestone also had a hand.

How much of these tees and greens did Colt employ, and did he call on these two for advice and support? Given the timing of design and construction, plus the fact that Colt designed over holes in the ground, maybe it happened this way instead.

Mark

[Rich Goodale]

Rich,

That certainly makes sense to me, but the club history can't help you on that front.

There is another possibility to consider: the temporary course and its designer, the head professional at Littlestone. Also, apparently the greenkeeper at Littlestone also had a hand.

How much of these tees and greens did Colt employ, and did he call on these two for advice and support? Given the timing of design and construction, plus the fact that Colt designed over holes in the ground, maybe it happened this way instead.

Mark

Thanks, Mark

I would not be unsurprised if the Littlestone greenkeeper and/or even the beekeeper at the Arts and Crafts house adjoining the 16th at Littlestone were also involved.  As Tony Muldoon said above, one of the fascinations of digging into what happened ~100 years ago is the degree of cooperation between like minded souls.

Also, Rye has to be the poster child for the greatest course designed by the most people over the longest time period (Dornoch comes in 2nd).  While all over the world, clubs are falling over backwards trying to get MFA attrribution for thier pieces of dirt, I suspect that the grandees at Rye don't really care.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Rich

The design history is a little like the queen's dorgis: a cross-breeding of purebreds, which of course produces a mutt.

Is Rye a case of a thousand designer monkeys banging on the CAD, or was there a method to the madness?

One thing that may signal a method was the progression of holes toward the sea and / or which involved that massive dune into as many shots as possible.

Mark

[Mark Bourgeois]

In Phil Pilley's excellent history of Walton Heath, I found two references to Tippet.  One mentions him as one of the three great secretaries in club history to serve after Fowler's initial term, and attributes his "aptitude for course architecture."  This reference includes the following information:

Born in Newport
Arrived at WH in 1937
Secretarial experience at Ashford Manor in Middlesex, Meadowbrook in US, and "latterly" Royal Wimbledon
Member at Royal North Devon
Had reached semi- and quarter-finals of English Amateur and the last eight of the British
Represented the Amateurs against the Professionals (?)
Helped win the London Amateur Foursomes for Wimbledon

The second reference is to changes Tippet made to the Old. (Or should it be: "...to the Old!") And what changes they were:

Merged the fifth and sixth into one par four
"Banished" the 480-yard seventh
Instead of continuing straight up the hill as the seventh had done, the new (par 4) sixth and a short seventh zig-zagged, one bearing half-right and the other half-left.

Generally, these changes were well received; however, changing the sixth apparently bordered on blasphemy for a few grandees. In particular, Bernard Darwin called the original sixth "one of the classic short holes of inland golf."  Pilley wrote it was the fabled "Port Arthur -- now not captured by the Japanese but killed at Walton Heath!"

Reading Pilley's chapter on the changes to WH Old, I am struck by how many hands touched that course. In my incomplete-education it must be reckoned a success on the order of Rye, perhaps more so: whereas Rye's amendments were drafted by some of golf's most-notable architects, much change at WH Old came at the hands of less-famous, but surely no less skilled, designers.

Mark

[Rich Goodale]

Good stuff, Mark

What, if anything, did Braid do at WH in his 46 years there as the pro?

Rich

[Jim_Kennedy]

Tippett and Meadowbrook
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=MZ4uAAAAIBAJ&sjid=o9gFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4829%2C752559

I believe this one has already been posted
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=-7suAAAAIBAJ&sjid=YtgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5230%2C4227436

And Tippett "revising" Meadowbrook
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vPopAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xiEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3662%2C1061121

[Sean_A]

Mark

Wasn't Rolland a bit of a drunk?  If so, and I may have it wrong, the club may have wanted to keep his efforts on the low.  In any case, the course has changed so much that it would be wrong to say either Colt or Rolland is the architect.  That said, I tend to agree with Rihc.  Seems hard to believe Colt slides away into the sunset for a dozen years afte Rye.  That said, it could have been a matter of opportunities.  Remember, Colt jumped into the design business proper when it was clear he could make a living at it, but even then he took his sweet time.  It wouldalso be interesting to know when Colt figured out that turf and soil are the keys to excellent year round inland golf. 

Ciao