Groundbreaking/Revolutionary Courses

[Mac Plumart]

Guys...

Great stuff!  I will make updates as neccessary.

As an FYI, I think more than one person has mentioned that Shadow Creek needs to be pulled off the list as the Lido owns this category.  I will do it, but for some strange reason it makes me sad.  There is something about seeing pictures of what was there and what is there that is mind blowing.  I am set to play it in March and I am stoked!!!  But I will take it off the list, nevertheless.

However, this brings up a question.  We have a gap from 1967 (Harbor Town) to 1994 (Sandhills) with no breakthroughs.  If this is accurate, fine.  But if we are missing something...let me know.

[DMoriarty]

Shadow Creek should really be on any list of significant golf courses.  It symbolizes and/or ushered in this whole crazy era of cost-be-damned, nature-be-damned excess in golf course design.   Lido may have been 70 years before its time, but I don't think that takes away the impact of Shadow Creek.

[Mac Plumart]

David...

Thanks!

I think it deserves to be on as well.  It is freakin' crazy!!!  I am counting down the days until March Madness and the accompanying tee time at Shadow Creek!!

[DMoriarty]

Don't get me wrong Mac.  I think the whole idea of the place is a travesty to golf and nature.   But your question was about groundbreaking courses, and it was one whether I like it or not.

[Niall C]

Donal

I think there was any number of "resort courses" about this time. St Andrews and North Berwick being the obvious examples in Scotland. Also Carnoustie in certain months was full of visitors and I'm sure Rich would confirm that Dornoch was the same (not that I'm suggesting he was about then  .

There might not have been one owner owning the course hotel and everything else but in many instances there was a popular movement by people to get their town a course to attract tourists. Lossiemouth was largely developed for this reason and even had its own newspaper which was short lived to promote the town and its golf.

Niall

Niall:

When I referred to a "resort" type of course, I was thinking about a course that was built to tap into the tourism trade. St. Andrews, Dornoch and North Berwick certainly attracted tourists, but were they built for the purpose?

Lossiemouth was founded in 1889, so was this the first course built to attract tourists?

Dónal.

 

Donal

Fair point. Can't say the Old Course and NB were started as resort courses but I think it is fair to say they developed later in response to their popularity with visitors. Lossiemouth was as much about providing a course for the locals as well as visitors and was a traditional club model where a couple of locals think a golf club would be a good idea, they put a notice in the local paper calling a meeting for anyone interested, a committee is formed at the meeting charged with looking into finding suitable land for the course, and then usually deal down with local farmer and course up and running few months later.

What you had at Rosapenna sounds more like the resort idea that we think of today. Also Uisguintuie on Islay which Melvyn mentions was linked to the local hotel as was/is the Machrie. There was another one in the highlands that I was reading about where the course was built round about the same time, don't have the details to hand. What one was first ? I would guess it was the Machrie.

Melvyn

I was reading an account how the newly formed Lossiemouth club sent a team by sail to play a team at Dornoch. Needless to say the relatively new golfers of Lossiemouth took a bit of a beating.

Niall

[Mac Plumart]

David...

I agree 100%...but I've got to see it.

[TEPaul]

I agree that Shadow Creek should be on the list as groundbreaking and revolutionary. The Lido's making of a golf course out of watery fill that ended up looking like most of the rest of the south coast of Long Island is a lot different than Fazio making a course that looked like a mirage of North Carolina or Oregon in the middle of a desert in Nevada. In other words, there is a very distinct juxtapositional aesthetic difference between Lido and Shadow Creek.

[Mac Plumart]

Tom P...thanks!  Good point.


Niall, Donal, Melvyn...

I am reading your posts with much interest and checking out the courses you list.  Please keep updating and if you all end up with a specific course regarding first resort, please let us know.  Interesting and worthwhile stuff.  Thanks!!

[Kari Haug]

Although the Crooked Stick website lists Pete Dye as the architect, the ASGCA website lists it as Alice Dye's design in 1964.  Is this the first course designed by a woman?

[Mac Plumart]

Kari...

Interesting!  I will dig into it...if others know, please comment.

[TEPaul]

Kari:

I'll ask about Crooked Stick when I speak with them again. I doubt one could say Crooked Stick was not done by Pete or the both of them but maybe they just put Alice's name on it due to ASGCA membership criteria or something like that. Pete and Alice are big and long time supporters of the ASGCA. It would be an understatement to say that Alice has and has had some very strong and some pretty unique ideas on architecture.

For instance she told me that at TPC Sawgrass she was pestering Pete so much he assigned her a single hole and told her to leave him alone for awhile. Her hole was one of the ones with railroad ties and recently all the railroad ties had to be replaced because they had rotted; all the railroad ties except the ones on Alice's hole that is. When Pete became aware of that he wondered how that had happened and Alice told him; "Because I used pressure treated wood and you didn't you dumb shit." 

[Mac Plumart]

I was also hoping we could attach some purely architectural breakthroughs with these courses or some other courses.

North Berwick had the original redan, correct?

Oakmont had a special bunker rake...furrowed rake?...was that the name?

RT Jones is known for the water hazard/lake right in front of the green causing a "heroic" carry, right?  Does anyone know the first course he did this on?

Biarritz green at Biarritz golf course in France...is that right?

Old Course...backwards and forwards?

NGLA copied/template holes...was this the first time it was done?

TPC Sawgrass first island green or was that  Ponte Vedra?

anyway, I think you get my drift.

Any and all help would be GREATLY appreciated.

[Eric Smith]

Mac,

You'll find many examples of island greens built before Sawgrass.

This one is from Suneagles (Tillinghast)



Adam Clayman notes a few others below:

Plenty of golden age courses (and later) tried to utilize the island green. I can cite Eastmoreland in Portland, The el Capitan in Howey-in-the-hills, Florida and Oyster Bay in Myrtle as a few.
Now, Pete's version is plenty controversial and a fairly unique application of that concept. BTW, That's a good thing.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Mac,

As far as I know the first woman GCA was May Webb Dunn, who built the Tahoe GC in 1917.

RTJ built a 9 hole course for Lowell Thomas on Thomas' property in Pawling, NY. in 1941. It has a par 5 green protected by water in front, although that was not RTJsrs' definition of a heroic carry.   

[Jim_Kennedy]

Mac,
Some more on 'Nora' Dunn:
http://www.washoegolf.org/PDF%20Files/EARLY%20DEVELOPMENT%20OF%20GOLF%20IN%20RENO.pdf

[TEPaul]

Mac:

According to the Springhaven Club, Wallingford Pa (just outside Philadelphia), it appears it was their Ida Dixon (Mrs. Henry Dixon) who was the first female golf architect in America as they believe she laid out their original course in 1903.

However, I'll try to check again but I recall there may've been another female who laid out a course in Canada perhaps considerably earlier than Ida Dixon in Philadelphia.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Looks like Ida got the jump on Nora!

You sure CBM didn't help her out?

[TEPaul]

I have no real idea if she had anything much to do with golf course architecture but considering the course was something of a family affair at the time one should probably look a bit more carefully at the remarkable early American professional golf teacher at Franklin Park Boston, Georgina Campbell, the wife of the sadly departed (in 1900) Willie Campbell. I promise you if any American should be considered the original patron saint of say the LPGA it probably is the remarkable Georgina Campbell. This lady seems to have been very well known and beloved in golf around Boston and she kept at it for nearly fifty years after her husband's really young departure from life.

[TEPaul]

"You sure CBM didn't help her out?"

JimK:

Nope, of course I'm not sure CBM didn't help out Ida or was the driving force behind her or her Springhaven routing and design. Particularly if we use a couple of operative hypotheses such as what if Ida looked like an actress or showgirl that CBM clearly had an affinity for (you've heard about his famous "Hen House" on his estate in Southampton, haven't you?) or if we use the heretofore used working hypothesis query on here-----eg "It's not IMPOSSIBLE, is it?"  

PS:
I like the way you didn't use a smiley after that question and so I just removed mine in response.

[Mac Plumart]

Here is the updated list...

If there are anymore architectural breakthroughs that need to be added, please let me know.


Groundbreaking/Revolutionary Golf Courses


St. Andrews (Old)…no concrete evidence details when golf was first played on The Old Course; perhaps 1441, 1552, 1574.  Regardless, it is a timeless gem and first “great” muni…course can be played forwards and backwards

Royal Calcutta...1829…oldest golf course outside the British Isles

North Berwick…1832…first golf course to allow women…the original Redan

Westward Ho!...1864…first course in England

Hoylake…1869…influential English golf course

The Country Club…1882 (1895?)…first country club

Biarritz Golf Club…1888…home of the original Biarritz green

Hotel Champlain on Bluff Point…1890…first American resort course

The Machrie...1891…first resort course

Kelvinside…1984…first golf/residential golf course

Van Courtland Park…1895…first U.S. muni

Franklin Park…1897…first very good U.S. public golf course

Sunningdale (Old)…1901…one of the first great heathland courses, also one of the first courses to be formed from cleared land and whose course was grown from seed
--It should be mentioned that New Zealand G.C. was cleared and groomed in 1893
--And Woking was perhaps the first heathlands course 1893
---And Huntercombe was another earlier great heathlands course 1901

Springhaven Club…1903…first course laid out by a female (Ida Dixon)

Princes Golf Club at Sandwich…1904…UK course designed specifically for the Haskell golf ball

Chicago Golf Club, Garden City Golf Club, and Myopia…1895-1900, represent some of the significant early American golf courses

Pinehurst…1907…a great and historical golf resort…known for its shell-backed greens

National Golf Links…1911…the first world class course in America; a watershed moment in American golf course architecture…used classic British Isle courses for ideas for holes on the course

Merion…1912 (or 1914)…first 36 hole golf club in the U.S.

St. George’s Hill…1913…great gated housing/residential combined development

Lido…1914…first “mega-expensive” golf development that included ground building, its disappearance was also significant


1914-1918…World War I


Mountain Lake…1915…first American golf/residential combined development

Oakmont…1916-1927…our work suggests the course transformed to greatness during this time frame, coinciding with EMIL LOEFFLER becoming head greenskeeper…known for its “penal” architecture and bunkering...and their weighted furrow bunker rakes.

Pine Valley…1918…a great “collaborative” golf course

Pebble Beach…1919…first course to have piped irrigation to all 18 holes

Mid-Ocean…1921…great “tropical” golf course

Jasper Park…1925…first great mountain golf course

Yale…1926…one of the first great heavy construction golf courses



1929-1932 (1939)…Great Depression



Tokyo GC and Hirono…1932…great Japanese golf courses

Augusta National…1933…first golf course designed for spectator/tournament golf

Bethpage State Park...1935…historical course/golf complex built with Public Works Administration money which was provided by the government to help combat the Great Depression.  Other courses of note regarding the P.W.A. were: Prairie Dunes, Ohio State GC, Indian Canyon, Memorial Park, North Fulton, Split Rock, and Mark Twain.


1940-1945…World War II


Peachtree Golf Club…1948…first great RTJ course…big/elongated teeing areas, big greens

Dunes Golf & Beach…1949…first course to use a template to aid real estate sales (RTJ)

Desert Forest…1962…first desert golf course

Victoria Golf Course…1962…first landfill golf course

The Golf Club…1967…minimalist golf course in the era of RTJ Maximism

Harbour Town…1967…another counter to RTJ

Shadow Creek…1989…ultimate expression of mans power to create; it is a lush oasis in the middle of desert waste land

Sandhills…1994…minimalist, first “build it and they will come” course

Bandon Dunes Complex…1999…First “built it and they will come” resort
 
Machrihanish Dunes…2009…minimalist golf course with minimalist maintenance



As always, thoughts, critiques, comments are welcome.


Should something be removed, should something be added?


Anyway, thus far…here is what I/we got.

[Jim Nugent]

Mac, no one knows if the Biarritz course in France had a Biarritz green. 

[Mac Plumart]

Jim...

Huh?  Is there a first known example of it?  I did go to their website and look around.  As you point out, I saw no direct mention of the Biarritz green, but did see diagrams that appeared to have maybe, kind of, sort of, looked liked it. 

Anyway, I thought this was a recognizable design feature and wondered if we could find a "first" for it.

Thanks,
Mac

[Jim_Kennedy]

Mac,
I think the first known example of what we call a Biarritz is at Piping Rock, at least it's the first one that CBM and SR built.

[TEPaul]

Piping Rock's biarritz is indeed the first biarritz done by Macdonald/Raynor. It could've been designed and built at some point between 1911 and 1912 because the course opened for play in 1913.

[Mac Plumart]

Okay...another dumb question.

Why is it called a biarritz green if it wasn't started on the Biarritz golf course?

I get the "cape" hole because it loooks like the land formation, redan makes sense because of the fortress mentaility, etc.