Open Vistas at Huntingdon Valley

[Chip Gaskins]

From a thread earlier today.....Jim Sullivan mentioned opening up Huntingdon Valley CC a little.  Maybe not "going Oakmont" but opening some vistas.

I did a screen grab from the Hagley website that showed what HVCC looked like in 1939...note the newly planted trees in the center.  There is another photo on the Hagley site from 1927 without the samplings....Courtesy of the Hagley Museum & Library

[mike_malone]

There is a similar look here to Rolling Green as it relates to holes being carved out of the existing trees. I think that is #6 in the lower right portion. You can see how a wide corridor was allowed and the green was set in the opening. This was also done at RG.
  #13 , on the other side of the trees has its green carved out . #4 has the carving at the tee, so it creates a chute like #15 at RG. #2 has trees on both sides but I understand Flynn was in favor of preserving trees whenever possible. I wonder if #2 has about 80 yards of width which seems to be Flynn's goal.  #2 is on the far left of the picture with the fairway cut between the trees. The same planting pattern is seen in the 1930's Dallin photos of RG.

   I believe he liked trees to separate holes, provide a backdrop, and shade on a hot day.

[mike_malone]

 The plantings seem to be out of play for the most part, particularly at the beginning of #6 and to the right of #15.

  I would love to see the course from the other side so I could see #11 and whether there were trees on the left in the landing area.

[mike_malone]

 Flynn wrote that existing trees can be used effectively to make doglegs. Here that was done on #16. He does a wonderful job of turning that hole around the trees with a dogleg left but with the hill kicking everything right----typical Flynn. #16 is upper left with the island of trees forming the dogleg. #2 is left of that.

   Another Flynn habit is running back nine holes parallel to front nine holes.

[mike_malone]

 I have deleted the part about agronomy and Flynn. It wasn't germane to the topic.

[JESII]

Chip,

My best case scenario would be pretty close to Oakmont.

Mike,

We are looking East, or just barely North of East.




It surprises me how thich the internal tree clusters are...not too disimilar today...but those are the ones I would remove to gain the incredible vists the terrain would afford.

[mike_malone]

 I would stick to Flynn's ideas for the trees.

[JESII]

What were his ideas for trees.

[mike_malone]

 What you see in that photo seems to be in harmony with his ideas. It shows trees that were there and evidence of those removed and it shows plantings soon after the opening of the course. Since we need more air and sun with the way greens are kept today, I can imagine cutting back trees behind the greens that shade the greens in the morning.

      I always wanted to see a photo from the year before construction at RG to see the trees. Look at the thick mass of trees to the left of that photo. One can easily imagine that significant clearing took place on the left side of that photo.

[JESII]

Mike,

You see evidence of trees that were removed?

[mike_malone]

 Sure. The fairway for #2 is a high probability. The U shaped areas around greens are also likely. The chute for #4 looks obvious. The entire  #3 hole seems obvious as well. The line of trees next to #1 is too straight to be natural. How far into the course did that tree line go?