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Joe Bausch

  • Karma: +0/-0
Next up is Lu Lu.  One has to wonder how much fact checking ole J.E. Ford did or whether the writer was simply confused by what he was told (or was a good friend with Frank James!).  He says both nines were the design of Frank James.  I think nearly all other evidence points to Donald Ross as the architect, with James being the fellow that constructed the course.

@jwbausch (for new photo albums)
The site for the Cobb's Creek project:  https://cobbscreek.org/
Nearly all Delaware Valley golf courses in photo albums: Bausch Collection

Mike_Cirba

Re: February 15, 1925 review of Lu Lu by J.E. Ford (North American)
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2009, 10:39:29 AM »
Joe,

We should also mention that the original nine holes, whose routing still mostly exists today, was the work of J. Franklin Meehan.

Joe Bausch

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: February 15, 1925 review of Lu Lu by J.E. Ford (North American)
« Reply #2 on: March 19, 2009, 10:46:14 AM »
Well, not according to the club's web page he wasn't!

A farm bordered by Limekiln Pike and Jenkintown Road was the birthplace of the LuLu Country Club. George S. Cox owned the farm, and during the first decade of the new century he would invite his fellow Shriners from LuLu Temple, together with their families, to join him there for picnics on weekends. The LuLu Temple Automobile Club also met there for rallies. Dinners featuring roast pig and fried chicken were the high point of these gatherings, which also included horseshoe pitching and baseball games.

One Sunday in the summer of 1907, William H. Ward, who had just returned from a visit to England, showed up at the Cox farm with a golf club under his arm. Few of the picnickers had ever seen one, but in short order a number of them were demanding the chance to take a swipe at a golf ball. That farm's days of producing corn and tomatoes were numbered.

In 1909 the golfing Shriners rented the farm from George Cox in order to build a nine-hole golf course. No amateur golf architect for them—no, indeed. Nothing would do but that they bring in the best—and best-known—course designer in America, Donald Ross. Ross, who was born in Dornoch, Scotland, and had learned the craft of course design there and at St. Andrews, had established his reputation on the strength of his outstanding layouts at Pinehurst, North Carolina. Now he was broadening his horizons, and LuLu Temple was among his earliest efforts outside Pinehurst. It was also his first course in Pennsylvania. Over the next 16 years there would be 16 more Donald Ross courses built in the Keystone State.
@jwbausch (for new photo albums)
The site for the Cobb's Creek project:  https://cobbscreek.org/
Nearly all Delaware Valley golf courses in photo albums: Bausch Collection

Mike_Cirba

Re: February 15, 1925 review of Lu Lu by J.E. Ford (North American)
« Reply #3 on: March 19, 2009, 11:08:43 AM »
Joe,

The website is wrong.

Joe Bausch

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: February 15, 1925 review of Lu Lu by J.E. Ford (North American)
« Reply #4 on: March 19, 2009, 11:14:49 AM »
Here is the May 30, 1915 Inky review that shows the original 9 holes being done by Frank Meehan:



It wasn't until August of 1918 that this Public Ledger article announces that Ross is being brought in to redesign the original nine and add nine more:






Then the Ledger, in May of 1919, wrote more about the upcoming course and what Ross has done:



In June of the same year the Ledger posted a picture of a green under construction, and it included a caption stating "Frank James Golf Course Constructor".
@jwbausch (for new photo albums)
The site for the Cobb's Creek project:  https://cobbscreek.org/
Nearly all Delaware Valley golf courses in photo albums: Bausch Collection

Mike_Cirba

Re: February 15, 1925 review of Lu Lu by J.E. Ford (North American)
« Reply #5 on: March 19, 2009, 11:17:09 AM »
ahhh...you were just saving it up!  ;D

Phil_the_Author

Re: February 15, 1925 review of Lu Lu by J.E. Ford (North American)
« Reply #6 on: March 19, 2009, 12:07:10 PM »
LuLu's history is a bit of a, please forgive me, "LuLu" of a journey to understand!
 
Consider the following reports:
1- 6/27/1915 - From "Joe Bunker's" column: "The new LuLU Valley Country Club course at Edge Hill... has been a very popular plac since it was opened for play on Memorial Day..."
2- 1/1916 - American Golfer: "The newly organized Masonic Golf Club of LuLU Temple... The course is still in a very crude condition..."
3- 2/1916 - American Golfer: "The nine-holes course of the LuLu Temple which was laid out only a short time ago, is not altogether satisfactory to the players, who have decided that it will be nor only necessary to reconstruct the present course, but to extend it to eighteen holes. Mr. A.W. Tillinghast has been engaged to furnish the plans..."
4- 5/1918 - American Golfer: "Frank James, Greenkeeper at Aronimink since its inception, goes to the LuLu Temple, where it is said that some effort will be made to improve the course, which has been sort of a golf curiosity..."

Mike_Cirba

Re: February 15, 1925 review of Lu Lu by J.E. Ford (North American)
« Reply #7 on: March 19, 2009, 12:38:16 PM »
Sounds like Tilly was angling for a job there, Phil.

He tried the same thing at others like Llanerch aka Delaware County.

TEPaul

Re: February 15, 1925 review of Lu Lu by J.E. Ford (North American)
« Reply #8 on: March 19, 2009, 12:43:46 PM »
JOE JIGGER is the pseudonym writer in that article for the Philadephia Inquirer!!!

If that ain't old Tillie I will positively eat my hat!   :o

I can see it all right now when he came up with that pen name. He was in a gin mill down in Philly with W.C. Fields and the five year old Woody Platt teaching the kid how to drink the hard stuff when he looked at the jigger of gin he and Fields were forcing down the toddler's throat and he said to himself-----AAHA----I'm JOE JIGGER in the Philly Public Ledger golf articles! Young Woody said to Tillie; "A jigger is a golf club you old sot." And of course Tillie and Fields then said to the young weissenheimer; "Good point, better yet kid."
« Last Edit: March 19, 2009, 12:45:18 PM by TEPaul »

Phil_the_Author

Re: February 15, 1925 review of Lu Lu by J.E. Ford (North American)
« Reply #9 on: March 19, 2009, 02:47:39 PM »
Mike,

My point was not that Tilly was "angling for a job" but, evidently by using the phrase "has been retained," had been awarded it. Why didn't he do it? Did WW I bring about a scale-back in spending for the club? After all the work was delayed for several years until after the war. This was a fairly common occurance at this time. Yet there appears to be more involved than simply a "we've got to wait till after the war" mentality in this. Otherwise why write in May of 1918 during the height of the War that "some effort will be made to improve the course, which has been sort of a golf oddity..."


Whatever the reason for the delay, evidently they then hired Ross for the work.
« Last Edit: March 19, 2009, 02:51:05 PM by Philip Young »

Mike_Cirba

Re: February 15, 1925 review of Lu Lu by J.E. Ford (North American)
« Reply #10 on: March 19, 2009, 04:44:25 PM »
Phil,

Yes, I completely agree that the war interrupted a number of architectural efforts at that time, most sadly and probably most tragically as relates to GCA is the case of George Crump.

My point was only that sometimes Tillinghast would write using his pen names in such a way as to suggest that this or that course could and should be much improved, with the clear implication usually being that he was available to help.   This usually seemed to happened in cases where he seemed to already have a bit of an "in", already, and thought likely to be eventually hired.

Thanks!


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