1911 Copy of Garden City's 12th green at Columbia

[Mike_Cirba]

The sixteenth putting green on the new course of the Columbia Country Club. This is
modeled after the twelfth hole at Garden City. The distance is about 140 yards, play
being from the middle of the left of the picture. - American Golfer, May 1911

[PThomas]

Mike, those humps on the green look like the Loch Ness monster!

[Paul Carey]

Columbia Country Club in???

[Bill_McBride]

Columbia Country Club in???

Washington DC (Maryland suburb just north of DC line). 

[Paul Carey]

wow....a little bit different than today!

[Craig Disher]

From 1910 - slightly different angle. I think the 17th fairway is in the background:



The bumps didn't last 10 years. Here's the same green in 1921:

[TEPaul]

Smart guy that former GCGC pro HH Barker! Some say he may've even been the second best architect in America, right behind Charles Blair Macdonald. 

[TEPaul]

Craig:

Thanks for that photo of the 1921 16th green at Columbia CC. That thing is so hideous it's actually kinda cool. It looks like they tried to bury a 5,000 sf iron upside down! 

[Dan Moore]

Any photos of Garden City's 12th from that same time period? 

I've seen less severe versions of those punchbowl style mounds on several greens in Chicago including on the 17th green at Glen View which is attributed to Flynn.

[TEPaul]

Dan,

Here is Flynn's revision plan for the 17th at Glen View Club, presented on 12-26-1922.  As you can see he proposed moving the 17th green to a new location.  While much of Flynn's plan was not implemented, the new green was constructed.  This move enabled the lengthening of the 18th hole.

[Bill_McBride]

Columbia has a great finish, with that lovely 16th hole played from an elevated tee near the clubhouse and then #17, a 300 yard par 4 which has a flat fairway that ends at a sharp rise with the green up on top of a knoll with fall offs on both sides.  I wonder if the young bucks are hitting driver up there today, we hit 4 iron PW or SW to a semi blind green.  Then #18 is the combined length of 16 and 17 back to the clubhouse from a tee just below that elevated 17th green, a par 4 some 450 yards long.  The tee shot is to a saddled fairway, with the green gently benched into the hillside below the clubhouse.  It's a beautiful trio of holes, and a wonderful whiskey loop at the end of the day in the fading light.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Mike & Craig,

Thanks for those photos, they're very interesting.

It would seem, that with higher and higher green speeds, that unique or pronounced contouring is all but dead in new designs.

Yet, the greens on # 5 and # 14 at ANGC might provide evidence that you can combine pronounced contour with higher speeds.

The question is, do pronounced contours present to much of a challenge for 98 % of golfers, many of whom seem to feel that if a green causes more than two putts, it must be "unfair" ?

[Dan Moore]

Dan,

Here is Flynn's revision plan for the 17th at Glen View Club, presented on 12-26-1922.  As you can see he proposed moving the 17th green to a new location.  While much of Flynn's plan was not implemented, the new green was constructed.  This move enabled the lengthening of the 18th hole.

Tom,

The new green located up the hill greatly improved the 17th hole.  However, the punchbowl style mounding around the back of the green really surprised me.  Initially I thought it was a remnant of the original pre-Flynn green but that proved not to be the case as this green is as you note in an entirely new location.  Perhaps the mounds were part of some old bunkers lining the 16th fairway, but they do not constructed as part of the green complex.  They do provide some protection from an errant drive from the 16th tee. 

Did Flynn use these mounds around greens elsewhere?  Perhaps they are just an anomaly added during construction or later when Flynn wasn't around. 

Now back to our regular programming. 

[Carl Nichols]

Bill:
If I'm having a reasonable day with my driver, I'll hit it on 17; something decent usually leaves a pitch from an uphill lie or a bunker shot, and I like my chances with those shots over a 90-yard semi-blind uphill shot from a tight fairway.  Haven't played CCC enough times to know whether it's really the right play, but it's sure fun.   

[David_Elvins]

Wow, that is one of the coolest looking greens I have seen in a long time. 

[Patrick_Mucci]

Are Plainfield's 3rd and 12th greens similar ?