Jeff asked: "Are you saying that after Travis reworked Garden City, the course's original designer, Dev Emmett, came back again, and undid much of Travis' remodel work? Just curious.
I've always understood that much of what Garden City is today should be credited to Travis."
From my experience at Garden City, it is made very clear that Emmet is regarded as the designer of their course, though Travis is held in high esteem for his contributions to the course, but most of all, because of his incredible accomplishments as an amateur golfer. A room in their clubhouse is dedicated to Travis and Travis memorabilia, and their 100th anniversary book devotes chapters to Travis and his amateur golf career. There is some space given to his work on the course as Green Committee chairman from 1899 to 1911.
I cannot give you details of what is left there from Travis; I'm unable to glean that info from their anniversary book. Will check with their historian to see what he would say about that. I do know that the deep bunker to the left of the par 3 18th is a Travis bunker.
In the Cornish/Whitten "Architects of Golf", they state that "Emmet had the last say" (in the ongoing debate between he and Travis) in the design of the course when his remodeling undid some of the Travis features in 1926. It is amazing to me that the Golf Club was as tolerant of Travis as they were, given his rants about the condition of the course following his tenure as Green Chairman. In one response to one of his letters, they took what appears to have been a called-for jab at Travis by lamenting the fact that he had turned down their invitation to become more active in the supervision of golf course maintenance.
TEPaul:
I appreciate the reference to Macdonald's comment, i.e. "Eventually I dropped Travis...". I've often wondered what happened. There were references in Golf such as, "The committee to lay out the course will be Walter J. Travis, C.B. Macdonald, H.J. Whigham, and D. Emmet". (Golf, Jan 1907, pg 50) Another item, in a later Golf article stated that "The National Golf Links of America was laid out, primarily, by three men--Mr. Chas. B. Macdonald, Mr. Walter J. Travis and Mr. Devereux Emmet." It goes on to describe how the "three men tramped over the ground in its rough state...". It does seem apparent that their relationship was contentious, at times. I think the Old Man was a bit of a thorny character. Not that C.B. was much different. In his defense, I've not encountered any criticism specifically targeting C.B. in any of Travis's writings. Travis was certainly vocal about the center-shafted putter issue and was supportive of the USGA charting its own course in the matter. If you read his June 1910 American Golfer editorial, in response to the barring of Centre-Shafted Clubs, you'll see that his main concern was that such as ruling to lead to the "standardization". He credited the "Rules of Golf Committee" (R&A's) with having "done a great deal of good for the game", but was of the opinion that they "overstepped their limit" and had taken action that "is the first step toward standardization". He goes on in his column to describe his concerns about the standardization of golf equipment. At one point, he says, "If a man can putt better--or think he can putt better--with an umbrella, for instance, by all means let him so do." A bit extreme I think, but he was trying to make a point.
TE:: re your remarks about Bob Labbance, GCGC, and "unvarnished presentation: Bob was a special friend from whom I learned the lessons of careful research and reliable documentation during the time we were assembling information for his writing of The Old Man. The past few weeks I've finally been able to go through the Travis files he turned over to the Travis Society a few weeks before he passed away. The organization and thoroughness of the files are impressive, though not at all surprising. So, if he wrote something, you could take it to the bank that it might his high standards for reliability. But, he was also of the opinion that our knowledge of Travis continued to grow after the production of The Old Man. To the extent that he prepared a proposal for writing Travis book II. His loss was a significant loss for each of us.
Travis was Green Chairman at GCGC from 1899 until 1911. From trips to the UK, in the late 1890s and early 1900s, he became acutely aware of the short-comings of golf courses in this country. Those trips shaped his thinking about the design of golf courses, and were a major influence in his 1899 design work at Ekwanok, in collaboration with John Duncan Dunn. So, it was a natural for him to take on the job of Green Chairman, and to begin thinking of how GCGC's course could be improved. His 1901 U.S. Amateur victory at the Atlanta provided the impetus, and the authority, to revise the GCGC course. He used the Haskell ball in that victory, and it was his belief that the "bounding billies" would render many courses out-dated because of the distance one could achieve with them. Thus, according to the GCGC history, "Travis returned to Garden City insisting that the course had to be lengthened if it were to remain a championship venue." The course was lengthened to 6400 yards "making it the longest course in the country at that time". According to the GCGC history book, Travis filled in cross-bunkers, added deep green side bunkers, introduced deep pot bunkers, and rebuilt greens over a span of several years, culminating in the unveiling of his changes at the 1908 U.S. Amateur. The GCGC history points out that during his decade as Green Chairman, the course "was regarded as Travis's course".
I'm not sure what to make of your comments about the "certain dynamic with those who are particularly concerned and interested in various architects". Perhaps just an editorial comment, eh? But, if I understand what you're saying, I couldn't agree more, with you, and most certainly, with Bob.