Tired of wasting time on this one...Did Max Behr design a course in Germany?

[Mark Bourgeois]

C&W say no.
Couldn't find anything in American Golfer or Golf Illustrated.
Nothing in my German course Baedeker (very limited list, though).

But Walter Hagen wrote in the summer of 1929:  "Dr. Mackenzie has great respect for the opinions of Max Behr, Los Angeles, one time runner-up for the national amateur championship and now engaged in designing golf courses in Germany and on the Pacific coast."

By the way, I don't think Hagen was working off second- or third-hand info.  I found another article that mentions Behr sailing with Hagen out of New York City Wednesday, April 9 on the Mauretania; The Haig was heading over to captain the US Ryder Cup team and to compete in the Open Championship. Just to keep everyone un-discombobulated, the Ryder Cup was played 26-27 April.

(Completely hijacking my own post, FWIW Crane attempted to qualify for the Open that year, as did Behr...)

In the piece by Hagen quoted above, Hagen goes on to write:  "Behr accompanied the United States Ryder cup team to Europe and remained there to study foreign links.  He says he found many which lacked strategy of design and interest, but he found the old links at St. Andrews a true test and attributed this to the fact that it was a natural golfing terrain not spoiled by man."

Maybe Behr started on something, then his best-laid plans got waxed by the economy.

Mark

[TEPaul]

Very interesting Mark!

Behr in Germany checking out golf architecture? Hmmm! Sure sounds like a man of the world to me.

However, if David Moriarty searches ship's manifest WEBSITES and can't find Behr in them I'm quite sure you realize that would mean there's no way he could've been over there!   

[Thomas MacWood]

MacKenzie came over as well. The Ryder Cup was held at Moortown. That must have been the trip when they visited Joshua Crane at St. Andrews. I'll double check by Behr info to see if I have leaving via Germany. I do seem to recall finding something along those lines; I'm not sure it was 1929 or not.

Ironically Crane wrote an article on Chiberta in 1929 and one on St. Germain in 1930 (he had dropped his grading system at this point), so evidently he was on the continent too.

[BCrosby]

Mark -

That summer both Behr and Crane tried to qualify for the British Am and the Open. There was lots of coverage of Crane in Boston and NYC papers. In part because of his matchstick putter. Behr got a fair amount of pub. as well, in part because he played a floater ball in protest over the USGA's and R&A's refusal to deal with the ball problem. Accounts say Behr's drives were 20 to 30 yards short of his opponents.

My guess is that they (along with MacK) saw a lot of each other that summer. I too saw the accounts of a trip to the Continent, but I've not seen anything that indicates that Behr actually designed a course there. Crane had a flat in Paris at that time. He began to spend a lot of time in Paris after about 1930. Who wouldn't.

Bob

[John Mayhugh]

Very interesting Mark!

Behr in Germany checking out golf architecture? Hmmm! Sure sounds like a man of the world to me.

However, if David Moriarty searches ship's manifest WEBSITES and can't find Behr in them I'm quite sure you realize that would mean there's no way he could've been over there!   

What is wrong with you?

Can't you limit the Merion animosity to threads about Merion?

[Mark Bourgeois]

Did Behr leave any personal papers? (Being of the larger world and a man of letters, he must have left a very tall stack.)

Did he have a family? Anyone got an obit to post?

Mark

[Thomas MacWood]

Behr returned in August of 1929 via Liverpool.

[RJ_Daley]

I'd like to know what was the basis of his invented religion that involved the study or relationship of numbers.

Did Behr leave any personal papers? (Being of the larger world and a man of letters, he must have left a very tall stack.)

Did he have a family? Anyone got an obit to post?

FWIW, considering all that ships manifests stuff, you can find Max's brother Karl, the tennis player, was on the Titanic and survived. 

http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-biography/karl-howell-behr.html

[Peter Pallotta]

Mark - sorry, I've seen a bio out there (at least an informal one) but search as I might I can't find it again. By search I include going back through the archives typing in "Behr" -- there are 37 pages of threads that include him, but I couldn't go through them all. A couple of long threads (one from 2007 the other from 2003) are "Joshua Cane gets mad" and "Architectural principles compared, Fazio and Behr", respectively. Some terrific stuff in there by the likes of Signors Goodale, Paul, Crosby, Clayman, Daley etc

Heir to the paint company that still bears his family name, the philosopher-king led an active and vibrant life of success, and went on to formulate a religion (I'm told). 

Of how many of us can that be said?

Peter

[Ulrich Mayring]

I would be extremely surprised to find any records of Max Behr being in Germany. The country was still recovering from World War I, the roaring twenties weren't as roaring in Germany as elsewhere. Sure, there was some potential for golf courses in the larger cities, but those commissions went to Colt and Morrison.

I know that Cornish & Whitten attribute Bad Ems to Tom Simpson and as much as I would love to have a Simpson course here in Germany, I simply don't buy it from the looks of the course. Official records state Karl Hoffmann, Charles A. Mackenzie and Georg Friedrich Fahrenholtz.

So there. And now you're telling me Max Behr?

Ulrich

[TEPaul]

Max seems to be a fairly elusive research subject in some areas but I do know a man from the Lesley Cup who actually purchased Max's library some time ago. I've asked him about that and he tells me the library was essentially just Max's books and not exactly material on golf or the writing Max did himself. But I'm going to try to run that down a bit more. He did say it seemed like Max got a bit weird in the end (not that he wasn't in the beginning or in the middle ) and that he probably did become sort of a classic eccentric. What I would really like to know more about is Max's particular education. He was a Yalie and judging from some of his references and terminology he must have been into a pretty comprehensive classical education back then. In my opinion, Behr was the deepest thinker golf and architecture has ever known and perhaps even by a couple of country miles. Or at least he sure tried to delve deep into golf and architecture---pretty much right into a golfer's pysche and soul and into some pretty interesting ramifications of and about "Nature" too.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Ulrich

I was hoping you'd chime in. What about the Harris Brothers? They seem to pop up.

Colt, Morrison, CA MacKenzie -- lots of connections to Behr, if indirect, there.  Does the German Golf Association have any records?

What courses were built or renovated in 1928-30 with "unknown" designers attached?  Maybe there are a few of those...

A little more on Behr:

Good bio on Yale Golf History Project webpage:
http://research.yale.edu/wwkelly/Yale-golf/Topics/ArchitectPages/Behr2.htm

Has anyone checked with Yale University to see if he left any papers with them?

Could only find a thumbnail obit in the NY Times.  Have found nothing else, not even in LA Times -- kinda puts things in perspective, I guess:
NY Times
Aug 28, 1955
p85
Deaths
BEHR--Max Howell, formerly of New York City and Morristown, N.J., died at his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., Aug. 6; father of Mrs. E.A. Cannon of Alamo, Calif., and Mrs. Sanborn Griffin of Greenwich, Conn., and a brother of Mrs. Archibald M. Reid and Mrs. John C. <<GARBLED>> ("Mune"? "Muhe"? "Milhe"? "Milne"?...), both of New York City and Easthampton, L.I.

This should be enough for Behranatics to get started on a "Roots" quest...

Mark

[Mark Bourgeois]

From the Yale bio and survivors (Reid), interesting connections to St. Andrews (US).

[RJ_Daley]

I am not really proficient at internet searches, but I sure can't find anything about his numbers based religion.  I'd think if he invented a religion, he must have left some sort of book of dogma for followers.   

Also, though I haven't read much of Behr, I do get the idea that he was an anti card and pencil sort of golfer, in that he seemed more interested in the psychology and spiritual side of the game and its field of play.  So, isn't that sort of contrary to any fascination with numbers?

[TEPaul]

"Also, though I haven't read much of Behr, I do get the idea that he was an anti card and pencil sort of golfer, in that he seemed more interested in the psychology and spiritual side of the game and its field of play.  So, isn't that sort of contrary to any fascination with numbers?"

RJ:

I don't think so. Although Behr was a really good golfer---a state and almost national champion, in fact, he seems to have understood better than most anyone I can think of how golf AND architecture really does have to address itself to very different ways of approaching the game and golfers---eg the tournament player and that context and the recreational golfer and that context. He was definitely not one dimensional that way---eg he proposed a basic "competition" ball way back when just for tournament competition and not the rest. Behr apparently didn't believe in standardizations for golf or architecture and he didn't seem to believe in I&B standardization for all either. Apparently he did not believe it served the purposes of all the level of golfers well enough.

Behr, like Macdonald, had a pretty strong feeling and connection to the sort of old fashioned "spirit" of the sport that basically required that the "sportsman" adjust his impliments to JUST sustain his skill, if you know what I mean. It was sort of like a hunter doesn't use a 10 gauge shotgun to shoot a dove and a fisherman doesn't use a 10 lbs test line to catch a trout. To do stuff like that in his mind just wasn't "sportin'". He felt the same way about golf I&B and how it applied to golf and architecture. 

[Thomas MacWood]

Colt, Alison & Morrison had a ton of courses on the drawing board in Germany - especailly Colt and Morrison. At least a dozen projects in the late 20s, early 30s, but I seriously doubt they were involved with Behr, however.

[TEPaul]

"Colt, Alison & Morrison had a ton of courses on the drawing board in Germany - especailly Colt and Morrison. At least a dozen projects in the late 20s, early 30s. I seriously doubt they were involved with Behr, however."


??

[Mark Bourgeois]

The missing link as it were could be Hans Samek, the founder and pooh-bah of the German Golf Association.

1928 Samek in NYC over from Deutschland announces he has arranged for Ferrell, Diegel, and Hagen to play in the 1929 German Open. No idea if they did.

In 1928 / 1929 Samek visits California.  Probably 1928 -- he's quoted in an article by Scott Chisholm appearing in the February 1929 American Golfer magazine.  Chisholm writes of playing golf with Samek at Riveria. Samek tells Chisholm that California courses have the best-quality greens anywhere in the world.

1930 Samek writes a piece in Golf Illustrated on the history of golf in Germany.  Mentions a number of courses -- tons of display ads of German golf resorts / spas in issue -- of which perhaps one candidate for Behr is Homburg. ("...undoubtedly will be lengthened in the future...")  Another possibility is Carlsbad -- but that sounds like it was in Italy or possibly Czechoslovakia.

March 25, 1934 Samek arrives in NYC and announces he will invite American golfers to play in several German tournaments that summer.

1939 National Golf Review Samek is one of the panelists deciding the world's finest courses. (Hagen is on the panel as well, but Behr isn't.) Samek puts Le Touquet, Havana, and Bel-Air at the top of his list.  Clearly he spent time in Behr's adopted home town of Los Angeles!

Anybody out there digging into Behr?  Hopefully this will, uh, help...

Mark

PS MacKenzie in "Spirit" quotes an article by Samek in Canadian Golfer magazine where Samek calls Cypress and Pebble the "two finest golf courses I have seen in the world..."

[Christoph Meister]

C&W say no.
Couldn't find anything in American Golfer or Golf Illustrated.
Nothing in my German course Baedeker (very limited list, though).

But Walter Hagen wrote in the summer of 1929:  "Dr. Mackenzie has great respect for the opinions of Max Behr, Los Angeles, one time runner-up for the national amateur championship and now engaged in designing golf courses in Germany and on the Pacific coast."

By the way, I don't think Hagen was working off second- or third-hand info.  I found another article that mentions Behr sailing with Hagen out of New York City Wednesday, April 9 on the Mauretania; The Haig was heading over to captain the US Ryder Cup team and to compete in the Open Championship. Just to keep everyone un-discombobulated, the Ryder Cup was played 26-27 April.

(Completely hijacking my own post, FWIW Crane attempted to qualify for the Open that year, as did Behr...)

In the piece by Hagen quoted above, Hagen goes on to write:  "Behr accompanied the United States Ryder cup team to Europe and remained there to study foreign links.  He says he found many which lacked strategy of design and interest, but he found the old links at St. Andrews a true test and attributed this to the fact that it was a natural golfing terrain not spoiled by man."

Maybe Behr started on something, then his best-laid plans got waxed by the economy.

Mark

Hi,

After years of researches into the history of golf in Germany I am 99% percent sure that Max Behr did not design a course in Germany,
I am 100% sure on the 27 pre-1939 courses in Germany still existing....

CM

[Mark Bourgeois]

Ah! Ask and I shall receive...

Many thanks,
Mark

[TEPaul]

Mark:

To go back to your original post, the way I look at it----if Walter Hagen said that in the press back then I'd sure assume he was not just making something up out of whole cloth. There must have been something to it. Now, whether that means Behr actually was involved in some course that was completed to his design in Germany (particularly after that Hagen remark appeared) may be another matter altogether. There are numerous articles that appear all over the place that mention something is happening or going to happen with lots of architects and projects that ends up not happening. That to me is the beauty of what can be called really good "timelining."