Alex Findlay's take on bunkers and putting greens

[TEPaul]

"It is worn out, void of grass, and the only thing that will stop golf balls from running all over the place are deep pot bunkers, cruelly placed, and when at the bottom of one of these, woe betide you!  Many of them are on the putting greens."


The above is Alex Findlay's take on TOC and on its bunkering surrounding the putting greens!

I'm interested to know as much as possible about Findlay, his courses, his architectural thinking etc, as he certainly was pretty significant around here back in the day.

At least one of his articles on Wilson and Merion is now being minutely analyzed as to the meaning of some of the things he wrote or meant and I find that last remark of his is pretty interesting that some of TOC's bunkering were on the putting greens!

Some remarks on some of the things Findlay wrote are being analyzed due to his lack of clarity. This would seem to be another example and it may indicate Findlay was pretty light on understanding The Rules of Golf and their meaning as at that time the definition within the Rules of Golf of a putting green was all the area within 20 yards of the hole EXCEPTING bunkers!! 

[Mike_Cirba]

Tom,

He also talked vaguely about "fairness" in the same rant;

"I know my second shot to the seventeenth two or three years ago should have rested at the pin, but, instead of that, it rolled into an unplayable bunker, and instead of playing toward the hole I really had to play away from it.  I was playing Andrs. Kirkaldy at the time (old Tom Morris' successor), and that particular hole cost me the match.  My nice three at the last hole came too late to be of any use.  But the traps are as fair for one as they are for others."

It sounds to me that the bigger problem he referred to was not so much the placement of the bunkers, but the fact that there was little grass on the course and the ball would not stop rolling. 

[TEPaul]

Mike:

On the other hand, I think anyone willing to do the necessary in-depth research will find that the deepest thinkers on the philosophy of golf course architecture (and golf) back then were also the same ones who did the deepest thinking on the numerous and varied ramifications of how The Rules of Golf should be.

Apparently Alex Findlay was just not one of them. I think it will be both interesting and important for the continuing education of this website on the GCA of that time to understand exactly who those men were though who were deeply involved in thinking about BOTH those seemingly somewhat unrelated areas.  

I give you men such as Macdonald, Behr, Crane, Alan Wilson, Richard Francis, Thomas et al over here and the likes of Horace Hutchinson and John Low et al over there!

[Dan Herrmann]

I can tell you that Findlay's Coatesville GC has one solitary fairway bunker on the entire course. 

There are a bunch of Findlay courses in metro-Philly (Reading GC is one).  I think they tend to be a bit quirky, short, and narrow with some very interesting green complexes.    This design philosophy may fit well with his writings.

Here's a list of his courses I found (dont know if it's complete):
Basking Ridge Country Club - Private in Basking Ridge
Beaumont Country Club - Private in Beaumont
Brockton Country Club - Private in Brockton
Burlington Country Club - Private in Mount Holly
Butte Country Club - Private in Butte
Chester River Yacht & Country Club - Private in Chestertown
Coatesville Country Club - Private in Coatesville
Dedham Country & Polo Club - Private in Dedham
Edina Country Club - Private in Edina
Forest Park Country Club - Public in Adams
Fort Smith Country Club - Public in Fort Smith
Galen Hall Country Club - Semi-Private in Wernersville
Green Pond Country Club - Public in Bethlehem
Grindstone Neck Golf Course - Semi-Private in Winter Harbor
Guthrie Golf & Country Club - Private in Guthrie
Hyannisport Club - Private in Hyannis Port
John F. Byrne Golf Course - Public in Philadelphia
Llanerch Country Club - Private in Havertown
Medford Lakes Country Club - Private in Medford Lakes
Mountain at Lake Placid Club Resort - Resort in Lake Placid
Northfield Golf Club - Semi-Private in Northfield
Northfield Golf Club - Semi-Private in Northfield
Ocean at Breakers, The - Resort in Palm Beach
Oceanside Golf & Country Club - Private in Ormond Beach
Pitman Golf Course - Public in Sewell
Pittsburgh Field Club - Private in Pittsburgh
San Antonio Country Club - Private in San Antonio
Saranac Lake Golf Club - Semi-Private in Ray Brook
Siasconset Golf Course - Public in Siasconset
Summit Golf Course - Public in Poland
Tavistock Country Club - Private in Haddonfield
The Eighteen Hole at Centre Hills Country Club - Private in State College
Walnut Lane Golf Club - Public in Philadelphia

[Bradley Anderson]

Tom,

I have had this discussion with Ron Prichard and I think he would say that literally speaking, the term putting green would include the bunkers that are in the fill pad. Where we would today use the term "green complex", they would simply say "putting green". So what Findlay is refering to here is not necessarily an interior bunker like that at Riviera number #6. I think what he is trying to convey is that the bunkers are really in play on TOC putting greens. He also sounds very critical of the grass quality doesn't he?

At this time in maintenence history, the putting sward mowers were often being pushed right to the very edge of the bunkers. That made these bunkers even more in play. Moreover, as we have seen in some of our other threads on here, the hummocks of the original bunkers were originally at much lower elevations than what we see them at today. Subsequently they may have collected more balls than they do today. Although at TOC, the stacked sod bunkers are constantly being restored, and one may assume that they are being put back to original elevations.

[TEPaul]

"At this time in maintenence history, the putting sward mowers were often being pushed right to the very edge of the bunkers. That made these bunkers even more in play. Moreover, as we have seen in some of our other threads on here, the hummocks of the original bunkers were originally at much lower elevations than what we see them at today. Subsequently they may have collected more balls than they do today. Although at TOC, the stacked sod bunkers are constantly being restored, and one may assume that they are being put back to original elevations."


Bradley:

I think there's a ton of stuff to think about and discuss in that paragraph of yours. For the moment, with this particular thread subject I was just trying to reflect how the actual Rules of Golf back then looked at this issue of what was and wasn't DEFINED (in The Rules of Golf) as the putting green. It was definitely in both look and in play a whole lot more amorphous than the way we think of a putting green today. Next I will add how it was eventually redefined in the Rules of Golf, and I think you will see better what I mean and am driving at.

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