Peter Gannon

[Mark_Rowlinson]

In another GCA post the name of Peter Gannon is raised.  His name is associated with several highly-rated Italian courses but, otherwise, "Peter Gannon is a mystery to me, and a quick web search revealed nothing new.  He also had a hand in Milano, Varese, Degli Ulivi, Alpino di Stresa, Firenze Ugolino, sometimes in conjunction with someone called Blandford.  Cornich suggests, 'Based in Ireland in the 1920s, james [Peter] Gannon designed Villa d'Este in Italy (1924)* the original nine at Lenzerheide in Switzerland and the original nine at San Abdres de Llavaneras, Barcelona, Spain.'  * (Golfer's handbook gives 1926)."

Can anyone tell us more?

[Neil Regan]

Mark,
 
  I can't help, but I'll bring the topic back up in case others missed it.

[Christoph Meister]

Hi,

Some facts abut Peter Gannons life have allready been quoted here from my article in Paul Daley's
GAV III.

During the last year I have found historic evidence that Peter Gannon designed or redesigned (r) the following
Golf Courses:

Internationaler Sport Club, Karlsbad, formerly Austrian Empire (now Czech Rep.), 1909 (r)
Mare Club de Golf Pedralbes, Barcelona, Spain, 1912 (course closed down during late 1940s)
Menaggio e Cadenabbia GC, Lake Como, Italy, 1923 (second nine holes)
Engadine GC, Samaden, Switzerland, 1923 (r)
Golf Club Alpino di Stresa, Italy, 1925
Golf Club Merano, Italy, 1926 (defunct)
Golf Club Locarno-Ascona, Switzerland, 1926
Lido Golf & Country Club, Venezia, Italy 1926
Golf Club Villa d'Este, Lake Como, Italy, 1926
Golf Club Creclkvenecia, Yugoslavia, 1926 (defunct)
Golf Club Baden-Baden at Selighof, Germany, 1927
Golf Club San Gian, St. Moritz, Switzerland, 1927 (course closed down after 1945)
Milano Golf Club, Monza, Italy, 1928
Golf Club Bad Schinznach, Switzerland, 1929     
Golf Club San Remo, San Remo, Italy, 1931
Private Golf Course for the Duke and Duchess of Aosta at Naples, Italy, 1931
Golf Club Sestrieres, Sestrieres, Italy, 1932
Circolo Golf dell'Ugolino, Firenze, Italy, 1933
Golf Club Courmayeur, Italy, 1934
Golf Club Varese, Italy, 1934
Golf Club Marseille-Aix, Les Milles, France, 1935

Rumours say that he also designed courses in Argentina, where he was born and where he returned for some time after 1912...

Recently there was an article in "Through the Green" (the magazine of the British Golf Collectors Society), where the former German Amateur Champion Lipscombe said he met Peter Gannon, who was working as a professional at Estoril, Portugal - there was no year given. This information is interesting as up to 1935 Peter Gannon was allways reported as an Amateur player.

I am not sure where and when Peter Gannon died, this still remains obscure to me, even though a well-respected Irish-Argentine researcher told me that Peter Gannon died in South Africa....

You find more information and pictures of Peter Gannon on my web-site:  http://www.golfika.de/43075/44454.html
 

[RJ_Daley]

I wonder if Gannon's productive period in Italy has any relationship or evidence that he was a facist or sympathizer with Mussolini, and more influencially for the growth of golf at that time, a pal of Galeazzo Ciano, Il Duce's son-in-law - who was an advid golfer?

[Christoph Meister]

I wonder if Gannon's productive period in Italy has any relationship or evidence that he was a facist or sympathizer with Mussolini, and more influencially for the growth of golf at that time, a pal of Galeazzo Ciano, Il Duce's son-in-law - who was an advid golfer?

Hi,

I never thought about this and I never found any evidence for this - During summer Peter Gannon was living in St. Moritz where he was honorary club secretary and the winter time he usually spent at Nice Golf Club (now defunct), where he also had a similar post.

I think people in Italy knew him because of his successes as an (left-handed!) amateur golfer and he just happened to be there at the write time. Also he was probably the only golf architect who not only spoke fluent Spanish but also Italian - certainly an advantage....one commission implied the next one and so on.....

greetings

Christoph

[RJ_Daley]

Hello Chistoph,  It looks like you have a fine website.  Pity I can't read German.    And, you had a nice chapter in Paul Daley's book. 

As far as Gannon's connections to get several courses designed and built in Italy at that time, it just seems to me that possibly the only way that could be accomplished was to have close ties with the Victor Emanuel royalists circle types (whom I assume were about the only ones playing golf in Italy at that time) and their allies within the Mussolini crowd that were inclined towards projecting the imagery of refinement, while practicing certain barbarities.  It seems to me to be an interesting time for the growth of golf in those areas. 

[Christoph Meister]

Hello Chistoph,  It looks like you have a fine website.  Pity I can't read German.    And, you had a nice chapter in Paul Daley's book. 

As far as Gannon's connections to get several courses designed and built in Italy at that time, it just seems to me that possibly the only way that could be accomplished was to have close ties with the Victor Emanuel royalists circle types (whom I assume were about the only ones playing golf in Italy at that time) and their allies within the Mussolini crowd that were inclined towards projecting the imagery of refinement, while practicing certain barbarities.  It seems to me to be an interesting time for the growth of golf in those areas. 

Hi,

you might have a point there - also I think that during this time in Italy and Germany golf was seen as a hope to atract British and American tourists, so specially Spa-Town and Tourist resorts were keen on having golf courses - environment was not an issue.

According to Golf Illustrated (U.S.) December 1930 Peter Gannon also designed a private golf course at Naples in the garden of the Duke and Duchess of Aosta - and here we are right in the middle of the Italian Royal Family - Peter Gannon certainly had connections in this direction...

So I agree with you on the close ties with the royalists - that was well guessed!

Greetings,

Christoph

Please find below a scan from the Golfer's Handbook 1912 (from my own archive) as well as a photo of Peter Gannon at Engadine GC dating 1910 (courtesy of Engadine GC)

[RJ_Daley]

Good luck in future research efforts regarding Gannon.  He really seems to be a very interesting figure, considering his early life vocation as a priest while also a keen competitive amatuer golfer, and leaving the priesthood for what might almost seem like a bon-vivant lifestyle of the sporting international gentry.  Your mention of his origins as born to a "Well-off Irish transplant farmer in Argentina is also an odd begining, it seems to me.  Do your think that there was enough wealth there (given te 9th child of a family) to sustain what must have been a sporting life that required some means beyond that of your average Priest?  You wrote that he left the priesthood and took a wife in 1910, but then no mention of her during the bulk of his golf design career.  Do you believe he stuck with her and that she was with him as he travelled the right social circles of the era? 

With a resume like that, you'd think that some of the other golf bon-vivants of the day would have associated and mentioned him more. 

PS:  I just googled up a few mentions at the la84 foundation, "Golf Illustrated" archives, information that obviously you and MacWood and Melvyn already know about. 

http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/GolfIllustrated/1926/gi251z.pdf

[RJ_Daley]

...more - http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/GolfIllustrated/1924/gi213l.pdf

Here, it seems that Gannon, is misidentified as "Cannon" and on page 4, curiously:

"The amateur championships of
Switzerland were competed for at
Samaden last August. There were
thirty entrants, of whom nearly onehalf
hailed from the United States.
Peter Cannon, an Irishman well
known in Chicago, who had twice before
won the Swiss championship, and
who was champion of France before
the war proved the winner."

Was Gannon-Cannon possibly a mysterious figure and the source of his wealth somewhat 'shady'?  Maybe he knew both Mussolini, Count Ciano and another well known golfer in Chicago at the time, Al Capone! 

[Christoph Meister]

Your mention of his origins as born to a "Well-off Irish transplant farmer in Argentina is also an odd begining, it seems to me.  Do your think that there was enough wealth there (given te 9th child of a family) to sustain what must have been a sporting life that required some means beyond that of your average Priest?  You wrote that he left the priesthood and took a wife in 1910, but then no mention of her during the bulk of his golf design career.  Do you believe he stuck with her and that she was with him as he travelled the right social circles of the era? 

With a resume like that, you'd think that some of the other golf bon-vivants of the day would have associated and mentioned him more. 

PS:  I just googled up a few mentions at the la84 foundation, "Golf Illustrated" archives, information that obviously you and MacWood and Melvyn already know about. 

http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/GolfIllustrated/1926/gi251z.pdf

Hi,

the Gannon family become very wealthy as farmers in Argentina at the end of the 19th century and then emigrated back to Ireland as well-off people buying an estate there. This was reported to me by the Irish-Argentine researcher who was stressing though that this was very exceptional and only a few Irish families came back to Ireland as welthy people.

Peter Gannon's wife is never mentionned outside any St. Moritz sources, but never mind Peter Gannon is mentioned almost every year even in the American Golf Illustrated from 1924 to 1934 f.e. In Swiss, German, Italian and French Riviera golf circles Peter Gannon was a well known man....but there are still some obscurities and misteries in his life to be discovered.....

Greetings,

Christoph
 

[Christoph Meister]

...more - http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/GolfIllustrated/1924/gi213l.pdf

Here, it seems that Gannon, is misidentified as "Cannon" and on page 4, curiously:

"The amateur championships of
Switzerland were competed for at
Samaden last August. There were
thirty entrants, of whom nearly onehalf
hailed from the United States.
Peter Cannon, an Irishman well
known in Chicago, who had twice before
won the Swiss championship, and
who was champion of France before
the war proved the winner."

Was Gannon-Cannon possibly a mysterious figure and the source of his wealth somewhat 'shady'?  Maybe he knew both Mussolini, Count Ciano and another well known golfer in Chicago at the time, Al Capone! 

I know this source and I have allways wondered what Peter had to do with Chicago - but now I know 
C.

[Christoph Meister]

Hi,

Peter Gannon not also designed golf courses in Italy and Switzerland, but also a 18-hole course in Germany at Baden-Baden Selighof in 1927.

This course of is still open today - you find more info on:

http://www.golf-club-baden-baden.de/index.php?startseite

To give you an idea about Peter Gannons work - hole no.17 at Baden in 1930:

[Christoph Meister]

Mare Club de Golf Pedralbes, Barcelona, Spain, 1912 (course closed down during late 1940s)

Some sources such as Cornish/Whitten say that Peter Gannon designed the original nine at Lenzerheide and San Andres de Llavaneras, Barcelona, Spain. I contacted the Golf Club Llavaneras but got the reply that their course was designed by F.W.Hawtree and that they had no information about Peter Gannon. Maybe someone else can help here?

Greetings,

Christoph

[Alfonso Erhardt]

Christoph,

The Llavaneras club does not figure in any record that I have seen about Spanish courses as being built prior to 1945. The info in Cornish/Whitten must refer to some other course, maybe Pedralbes?

Regards,

[Christoph Meister]

Hello Alfonso,

Pedralbes seems the most probable after all I know so far - Did you ever come acrosse Peter Gannon in your researches about Golf in Spain?

Kind regards,

Christoph

[Alfonso Erhardt]

Christopher,

This thread is the first time I have heard about Gannon!!!!!

Early golf design (pre WWII) in Spain was almost entirely due to Colt (most of it) and Simpson.

Regards,

Alfonso