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Belvedere GC, Charlevoix, MI
Tom MacWood:
JC
I've found good info in American Golfer, Golf Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and The Scotsman, but the best sources have been the LA Times and The Golfer magazine, which was a magazine based in Chicago.
I'll be posting some images once I figure out how to do it.
Bart Bradley:
I am posting these for Tom MacWood....
Tom, send me an IM if you want me to call you and run you through the process of posting pictures...it is really not that hard ;D.
He will have to make his own comments.
Bart
Tom MacWood:
Both the article and the advertisement come from The Golfer Magazine. The advert was May 1913 and the article May 1925.
Mike_Cirba:
Tom,
I'm very confused. Does this mean that Wilie Watson laid out White Bear "on the ground" and was merely the construction supervisor for the project? ;)
Who knew he was also the construction supervisor at Interlachen?
Who actually designed it? ;)
Seriously, I really do appreciate your research and new findings. I don't think you truly believe in the torturing of the English language any more than I do.
Thanks.
Jeff_Brauer:
Tom,
Well that is interesting.
Here is what the Ross Society has to say about Ross and Watson in MSP....
From the WBYC section:
We have no evidence that Mr. Ross visited the site of the White Bear Yacht Club in 1912 or 1915 when he designed first the front nine (1912) and later the back nine (1915). It is thought that this course was designed from topographical maps that were submitted to Mr. Ross. The drawings for the course were lost in a fire in 1938, leaving scant written evidence of the work of the Master.
The course is all the evidence that one would need to confirm that White Bear is a work of Donald Ross.
And from the Minikahda section:
In 1898, William Watson left Scotland to join with Robert Foulis in building nine holes at the Minikahda Country Club in Minneapolis. The new nine complimented nine that had been built by Robert Taylor and C.T. Jaffray, two amateur Architects. .....The combination must have been reasonably successful as the USGA chose Minkahda Country Club to be the site of the 1916 US Open. Chick Evans won the 1916 with great aplomb. Carrying only seven wooden-shafted clubs Evans soared to a 2 under par total of 286 to take the crown.
Members of the Club must have been worried that their course was obsolete in the face of the power and finesse of the Championship players of the day. After all, Evans set a record for the lowest score in the Open, a score that they did not know would remain a record for 20 years and Evans, the great ball-striker, was the worst putter of his day.
The members called in Donald Ross who redesigned the Minikahda Club in 1917.
I know that Ross also did Northland as a redo of an existing course. Is it quite possible that Watson did the original layout work and that Ross blew it up and started nearly over, given the dates from the Ross Society? I will say that in the case of WBYC, even Ross guys say there is no evidence he was there, but Brad Klein did confirm that Ross made it to Northland. It would seem he might stop by.
I know I could look this up, but what years if you know, were the prime of Watson's career?
Mike C,
No need to carry that over here! While I agree that the term layout seems to have been used many different ways to describe design, too, lets try to keep this one civil, my earlier comments to Tom Mac notwithstanding. He is good at digging these things up.
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