So that we can all be on the same page...
In the 1974 Golf Digest coffee table book, "Great Golf Courses of the World", by William H. Davis and the Editors of Golf Digest, there are any number of previously published stories and course profiles put together in a colorful compendium. The book has special meaning to me as it was the first golf course architecture related book I ever received, which my dad got for me in my late teens.
Among the articles is one titled, "early open courses", by John P. May.
First, May profiles Chicago Golf Club, and then Philadelphia Cricket Club, with some cool vintage photos of each accompanying the text. Then, on page 50, across from a photo of the 8th hole at Myopia taken from the tee in 1900, May writes;
MYOPIA HUNT CLUB
The Myopia Hunt Club near Boston sprang from fox hunting, polo, trap shooting, riding plus a healthy interest in lawn tennis. Myopia first surfaced in 1875 when a tennis club by that name was formed in Winchester, Mass. In 1881 fox hunting became popular, and the Myopia Fox Hounds was founded. Finally, on December 16, 1891 the Myopia Hunt Club became official. It was in 1894, however, that the club's first nine golf holes, measuring only 2,050 yards, were laid out by three club members, R. M. Appleton, T. Wattson Merrill, and A. P. Gardner.
Myopia Hunt Club's unusual name comes from the fact that the original founders had two things in common - a compelling interest in "sport", particularly hunting, and myopia or what's commonly called nearsightedness. Yes, they all wore glasses. Myopia's first president, Marshall Kittriedge Abbott, even wrote that "eyeglasses were a badge of distinction, amounting to a decoration."
In 1896 Herbert C. Leeds, a club member and its best golfer, laid out on another site the nine holes that form the basis for today's course (the first nine holes were eventually abandoned). It was 2,930 yards long and was shortly afterwards altered again. Myopia proved such an outstanding test that despite the fact that it had only nine holes, it was chosen as the site of the 1898 Open. Fred Herd, a Scot professional working in Chicago, went around the nine holes eight times in two days and won with 328. Designer Leeds, incidentally, finished eighth. Another nine had been added at Myopia by 1901 when Willie Anderson won there the first of his four Open titles. He won it there again in 1905 and little Fred McLeod took the last Open held at Myopia in 1908.
Today Myopia is a 6,353-yard, par-72 courses with a rating of 71. It is still a site of occasional state and area tournaments; the 1976 Massachusetts State Amateur will be eld there. Fairways burrow through thick stands of trees, marching up and down well-defined grades. Fairway mounds are not uncommon and can cause a sidehill lie on a shot right down the middle. The bunkers around the green are low and not so noticeable from the fairways. The small greens call for pin-point approaches.
With each of the nine holes that existed in 1898 still included in the present course, Myopia is the model par excellence on the marriage between a great golfing tradition and sound course-design principles. Surely, despite their spectacles, Myopia's early designers were far-sighted.
-- John P. May
Later, in the Acknowledgments Section it is written;
The following individuals provided extensive help, research, and background materials for the sections indicated:
US COURSES
- Donald E Casey, president, Chicago Golf Club, for photographs and material on Chicago Golf
- Joseph Hoover Jr., Joseph Hoover and Sons, for photographic film of man courses
- Carlton S. Young, Manager, Myopia Hunt Club, for vintage photographs of Myopia, and Alexander N. Stoddard, Publisher, Essex County Newspaper, for background information on Myopia
- The help of dozens of club managers and presidents of golf courses and clubs in the United States who edited material for accuracy is also gratefully acknowledged.
MEXICO
- and so on....