[Mike_Cirba]

NOTES FROM THE SOUTH
By Percy H. Whiting
It can be truthfully said that few, if any, successful resorts of the South have overlooked the value of a golf course as an attraction. But of all the resort cities none appreciates the worth of golf more keenly than the city of Southern Pines. The mayor, R. E. Wiley, is an enthusiastic golfer himself, and through his efforts the city has appropriated money to place the golfing advantages of the place before the players of America.  In fact the golf club itself, which is a country club, by the way, was organized as a stock company by the business and professional men of Southern Pines six years ago as a special resort attraction.

The organization acquired a tract of land containing 365 acres, lying about ten minutes' walk from the center of the town.  A nine-hole golf course was laid out by the Board of Directors and a baseball diamond constructed on which the Philadelphia national baseball club has trained for two seasons, and will train again this spring.

The golf course has a length of 2,800 yards. The bogey is 39 and par 30.

The nature of the land is sandy, with a clay subsoil.   The entire course is turfed over with a splendid setting of Bermuda grass with the sand putting greens neatly woven in.   THe coursis open the year round but the official golfijng season opens with the Annual Flag Tournament on Thanksgiving Day.   Through the winter months there are many handicap and open tournaments...

A 3000 pound motor roller keeps the course in the best possible shape.   Last summer nine more holes were added and they are pronounced by experts better in every way than the old nine.   It is expected that by March 1913 these will be opened to the players, giving them an eighteen-hole course of 6,100 yards.

The course is laid out over a beautiful rolling country, which for scenic beauty, picturesqueness, and natural hazards is unsurpassed in the South.

The nine-hole addition was laid out and constructed under the direction of the present manager, G. Irving Lenker, assisted in the planning by the president of the club, Dr. W.P. Swett and Mr. Peacock.

[Mike_Cirba]

Guys,

Don't make me delete this thread for lack of interest! 

Seriously, it seems that there was 18 holes at Southern Pines prior to Donald Ross's involvement.  Given that SP is a pretty seminal course for this group I would think it might have some historical interest.

The only historical documentation I'm aware of that Ross had any involvement with SP was his booklet from 1930 that mentioned hiim building 36 holes at SP, which in itself never seemingly happened.

It's tough to imagine at a place as public and vital to the early history of golf in this country as Pinehurst/Southern Pines that no other documentation exists??

[Jim_Kennedy]

Melv...., I mean Mike,
Here's a hand-colored photo of the 5th green, ca. 1914.

 

[Jim_Kennedy]

.....and one from the first tee, ca. 1905/1915

[Jim_Kennedy]

....and a closer view of the clubhouse, with acouple of gents playing 'clock golf'.

[Richard_Mandell]

In researching my book, I found ZERO documentation about Donald Ross having designed SPCC.  I went through all the minutes from April 2006 until 1950 from the Town of Southern Pines Board of Comissioners meetings and found nothing.  I even did a search for Donald Ross, Ross, Mr. Ross. Mr. Donald Ross within all the town minutes (to the present) and found nothing. 

This was the only 'Ross' golf course in the Sandhills that never was mentioned by Ross or vice-versa.

I have had many an argument with people (particularly those that may have started the GCA website ) to the effect that there may be people in the world capable of routing such a great golf course as SPCC not named Ross...

This is a good time to plug the book, Pinehurst ~ Home of American Golf (The Evolution of a Legend) of which there are less than 350 copies left.  The complete documentation of SPCC is in there (witrh the exception of this found jewel by Mike C) as well as my whole research process of what I found and didn't find.  Better get it while you can

[Craig Disher]

There are a lot of old postcards that show a pre-1920 golf course at Southern Pines and what's struck me is that the ground and trees just don't look like the current site at all.  Is it confirmed that the early course and the current one were in the same place? The photo of the 5th green that Jim posted just doesn't look like it belongs anywhere on the SPCC site.

Nor do either of these - the 5th hole of the old course in 1908



and a view of an unidentified hole

[Jim_Kennedy]

There was a 9 hole course in Weymouth Woods, which is north of SPCC. I was up there many years ago with a friend (she eventually had her wedding at Weymouth Center) but everything was pretty well overgrown. It was twenty years ago, or so, but I have a memory of a remaining green and fairway, and we hit some balls around.  This is the spot, on E. Connecticut Ave.

[Craig Disher]

I found this in the Washington Post (Nov 24, 1935) a while ago and it's the one piece of text that stuck in my mind as evidence that Ross had designed 36 holes at SPCC.

"With the opening of the Mid Pines Club on December 14, under the management of John J. Fitzgerald, formerly of the Oysters Harbor Club on Cape Cod, Southern Pines will offer the discriminating golfer the choice of four 18-hole Donald J. Ross courses and three country clubs."

The three clubs would be SPCC, Mid Pines, and Pine Needles with SPCC having two of the four 18-hole courses.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Craig/Richard,

Is this an NLE course, an unbuilt PCC course, or ?
 
 
 

[Adam_Messix]

Weren't the courses that were going to be Pinehurst 9 and Pinehurst 10 supposed to be built out by The Pit.  If memory serves, Rees Jones was scheduled to design 9 and actually had some work done on it but was stopped soon after the 9/11 attacks and 10 was never started.  Is what we see above The Pit a roughed in #9?

[Mike_Cirba]

More to come later via a recent discovery by Joe Bausch...

[Craig Disher]

After some thought, it's possible that this postcard



is a view of the nle par 3 hole that connected the current #4 hole to the current #15, making a 9 hole loop (1-4, nle par 3, 15-18). The green site was located approximately where the new #15 tee was built. The 1939 aerial shows the hole still existing, creating 19 holes on the SPCC course with this one serving as the cross-over for a 9-hole loop. The topography shown here looks about right.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Richard M

But didn't Ross include it in a marketing booklet? Here are the relevant pages:





Not trying to call out your scholarship, I'm just having trouble reconciling the reality that government records never mentioned it, yet there is this one instance.

I guess the argument is that Ross didn't want to publicize his involvement with a competitor of the Tufts family...but then why did he include SPCC in a pamphlet?

Thanks,
Mark

[Craig Disher]

Mark,
The pages didn't show up on my browser. I think these are what you're referring to.





I don't think it's likely that Ross would have made a false claim.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Yes, thanks for the fix, Craig.  I guess another possibility is that Ross didn't write or carefully review the marketing booklet, and SPCC went in.  My point being that Ross succeeded in keeping his authorship of the course out of the public record but this one slipped through.

Mark

[Mike_Cirba]

With my apologies to any "guests" who cannot view this image (perhaps some kind soul can copy it and post for them), here is a May 27th, 1914 article from the Charlotte Daily Observer, courtesy of Joe Bausch;

[Mike_Cirba]

ugh...how pathetic is that...let me try to get the relevant bits

[Mike_Cirba]

sorry for the piecemeal effort;

[Mike_Cirba]

and finally;

[Joe Bausch]

Let's try this Mike:

[Mike_Cirba]

Joe,

I can't see that.   My eyeballs are still stuck to the screen from trying to read my post from last night.


thanks! 

[Mike_Cirba]

Willie Norton for years was the professional at Lakewood GC in southern NJ, which used to be a big winter playground, prior to the development of resorts down south.

He also laid out the course there in 1903, along with Seabright, some of Hendricks Field, and possibly Trenton CC, as well.

[Craig Disher]

What a terrific find. Thanks, Joe.

I'm finding it difficult to square this description with any feature that I'm familiar with on the current property. The only tie-in is the reference to the railroad cut, which may, or may not, be the track on the west side of the property. If a hole on the old course crossed it, that indicates a very different routing that what's there now.

Other comments that don't fit:

- the view of 10-11 putting greens from the clubhouse
- #16 (or #17) as a 175-yard hole
- moving the clubhouse to a point near the 17th and 8th greens

The mention of a ditch crossing the fairway made me think of the postcard posted earlier. If that's the hole, I don't see it anywhere on the current course.

Is it possible that this article refers to a course that was located at a different place in Southern Pines than the current one? At this point, that's my thinking.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Craig,

http://www.southernpinesgc.com/coursehistory.html

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