Fantastic resource on Golf at Yale

[Mark Bourgeois]

Profs. William Kelly and John Godley have gone live with their website on golf at Yale.

One could make a compelling argument that when it came to early-American golf, more roads ran through Yale than through any institution not officially charged with the management of the game!

It includes biographies on people such as Max Behr, Jess Sweetser, Robert Pryde, Widdy Neale, and Seth Raynor.

It includes a history of Yale Golf Club as well as oral histories from people like Heather Daly-Donofrio, Bob Heintz, Rees Jones, Pete Dye, Peter Oosterhuis, Herb Kohler, and Jess Sweetser(!).

It includes photos and maps, including a 1925 map detailing the original plans for TWO courses. (The joke of course being that they ran out of money after just SEVENTEEN!)

What a fantastic effort!

The link:
http://research.yale.edu/wwkelly/Yale-golf/index.htm

Mark

[Mark Bourgeois]

What a time sink! A few things I've learned (or forgot I knew -- haven't even listened to the audio interviews due to technical difficulties) from this site:

*That CB Macdonald published four articles on "Representative American Golf Holes" in Golf Illustrated magazine using NLGC --
     Sahara: http://tinyurl.com/2ky9vt
     Alps: http://tinyurl.com/3yvmzh
     Redan: http://tinyurl.com/3bml7s
     Cape: http://tinyurl.com/32d9xy

*That CB's niece thought he had "no sense of humor...was not a nice man," was a philanderer, and didn't want to do the design but changed his mind when he found a seam of sand on the property.

*That the drive to build the course was driven in part by the fear that Harvard was building its own course, and that the leader of this effort was a friend of CBM--thus the commission.

*That "many" bunkers have been filled in -- would love to know more about which / where! (These are not obvious to me from scouring a circa 1943 aerial...)

*That the second green originally was contoured like the eighth (knew this but had forgotten...)

*That the swale on 9 green was quite possibly deeper, or possibly that the "fairway" front green sloped more towards the swale, enabling the "run through" shot to the back tier, and that as Geoff notes in an old thread that 5 green was almost certainly raised higher

*That originally water was to intrude in the play on the 16th

*That the course probably could not be built today due to environmental concerns and, if it could, would cost in excess of $10-million to build

*That, along with John Reid Jr., our very own Tom Paul served as an executive officer on the 1899 Golf Club

*That the course was filmed during the 1931 CT Open played there (on the site!) and that the film appears to show:
--That there was a beautiful bunker down the left side of 1 fairway (this can't be that mild bunker there now; it looks closer to the tee and perhaps more in play for the Tiger tee)
--That the bunker complex right of 8 green may have been far more intricate and complicated than today's or that the aerial circa 1943 apparently indicates

*That after going through this site Sean Arble will appear unbidden on my doorstep.  With luck, I even will be home. We will depart on a "North to Dornoch" pilgrimage, with traffic.

[Jon Spaulding]

Awesome site; Thanks for putting this link up. Lots to take in here....take that Stanford Indians!

[Eric Morrison]

Thanks for the post...I look forward to doing some research on a course I am fortunate enough to get to play every now and again.

[Geoffrey Childs]

Mark

It is a really nice site and William Kelly and John Godley should be congratulated for their efforts.

Below is Yale in 1934 so you can search the bunkers for yourself.


The lost bunker on #1 was on the RIGHT side of the fairway not the left.

Here is #2 green from before Harry Museal took liberty with his bulldozer

Credit George Bahto for discovering this and I sent it to the club for him.

Here is 1 and 8 greens in 1940 (Craig Disher aerial)

note the beautiful front left bunker on #1 with its lip evident.  Hopefully this can be recovered.

Here is the short #5 in the old days.  Count the steps

Its as much as 5 feet shallower now. Is the bunker raised or did Harry lop off the top of the green, remove the horse shoe feature and drop the dirt in the bunker bottom?

Roger Rulewich bulldozed and graded the old #16 greensite near the swamp.



We have discussed and documented most of this here in the past.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Geoff,

Thanks.

Re bunker on 1, it wouldn't really have counted as a "fairway" bunker as it was well left.

I am referring to striking bunker that used to be on the left not right.  It is visible at 3:37 in the film of the 1931 CT Open. Aerial photos do not do it justice; it was a beautiful bunker -- but what was it there for? (I can see how it would catch drives on 2, but from its orientation it seems clear it was designed to catch drives on 1, but was it really in play over there?)

Also, regarding the bunkers between 1 and 8 greens, from the picture you've posted and the 1931 video (10:09), it would appear that an NLE, finger-like bunker extended from the front of the right 1 green bunker (which today is two bunkers) towards 1 fairway, and that another bunker or waste area appears on the slope of 8 green.

Honestly, I'm not sure what I'm looking at but that picture plus the video show something very different from today, I think.

I apologize if this has been covered before but sure would like to know what I'm looking at between 1 and 8 greens in those archival materials.

Mark

[Mark Bourgeois]

The audio interviews on the site work now.

Anyone else know Macdonald was part Native American? Perhaps that helps us understand his progressive attitude towards race -- well, I don't know about "attitude" but at least his position on who should be allowed to play in USGA tournaments.

Mark