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Joe Bausch

  • Karma: +0/-0
Inverness: Ross after Nicholls?
« on: January 25, 2008, 07:43:12 PM »
While researching early Philly newspaper articles on Cobb's Creek (I'm desperate now and looking at microfilm!), I found a series of 10 articles in the 1916 Philadelphia Ledger by Ben Nicholls.  They chronicle his escapades of designing courses in Spain, Italy, and a few other places.

It wasn't until I got back from the library (with the usual splitting headache from operating those darn readers) that I did a Google search on Ben Nicholls to find this interesting article from last summer:

http://tinyurl.com/2sekkv

I'm willing to scan and post these 10 Ledger articles by Nicholls if people are interested.  

My guess is that he is one and the same person that originally laid out some of the holes at Inverness.  But I'm sure I'll be corrected if that belief isn't possibly correct.  ;)

« Last Edit: January 25, 2008, 07:45:20 PM by Joe Bausch »
@jwbausch (for new photo albums)
The site for the Cobb's Creek project:  https://cobbscreek.org/
Nearly all Delaware Valley golf courses in photo albums: Bausch Collection

Mike_Cirba

Re:Inverness: Ross after Nicholls?
« Reply #1 on: January 25, 2008, 09:41:49 PM »
Joe,

My eyes are bleary too, and my head is pounding after searching every possible online site I can think of to locate a picture of one Albert Haseltine Smith (aka "Ab Smith", "A.H. Smith", etc., who won two Philadelphia Amateur championships (1897 & 1911) was an original Charter Member of Pine Valley, was responsible for the term "birdie" to define a hole played in one under par...while playing with George Crump and his brother William Poultney Smith (aka W.P. Smith), and who also designed much of the original Huntingdon Valley course as well as teaming with Hugh Wilson and George Crump and George Klaudner to create Cobbs Creek, and who also later stated some involvement with his friend Crump in designing Pine Valley and also teamed with Hugh Wilson to make significant revisions to North Hills CC, and also the man who designed Karakung, the second course at Cobbs Creek.

Any Abbaholics out there who might have a photo are welcome to help me!   :o ;) ;D


OH...by the way...I'm mucho up for seeing the Nicholls stuff.
« Last Edit: January 25, 2008, 09:43:00 PM by MPCirba »

Mike_Cirba

Re:Inverness: Ross after Nicholls?
« Reply #2 on: January 25, 2008, 09:47:17 PM »
Oh...btw, Joe...

Nicholls was the pro at Whitemarsh Valley in 1913

Joe Bausch

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:Inverness: Ross after Nicholls?
« Reply #3 on: January 26, 2008, 07:11:33 AM »
Near a Dec 12, 1915 Philadelphia Inquirer article by Verdant Greene is this photo:



It is Ben Nicholls with his name misspelled, like the 2007 story linked above documents!  Gil Nicholls is his brother in the photo.  Any chance Mike that the fellow between them is Ab Smith?  He seemed to go by a variety of names, but I'm guessing this is not him.
@jwbausch (for new photo albums)
The site for the Cobb's Creek project:  https://cobbscreek.org/
Nearly all Delaware Valley golf courses in photo albums: Bausch Collection

wsmorrison

Re:Inverness: Ross after Nicholls?
« Reply #4 on: January 26, 2008, 09:34:12 AM »
While you are at it, guys, can you please find a photograph or drawing of Howard Toomey?  We've never seen one anywhere.

By the way, Flynn spent some time at Inverness, doing what, we have no idea.  It might be agronomic and/or architectural.  We know from the Hugh Wilson-Piper/Oakley letters that he spent time out there with Marshall, a member of Inverness and the Green Section Exec Board.  
« Last Edit: January 26, 2008, 09:36:52 AM by Wayne Morrison »

Mike_Cirba

Re:Inverness: Ross after Nicholls?
« Reply #5 on: January 26, 2008, 09:42:27 AM »
Nope, it's not our friend Ab Smith.

Alex Smith was a pro, not a lilly-pure amateur like our good friend Albert H. Smith.

Joe Bausch

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:Inverness: Ross after Nicholls?
« Reply #6 on: January 28, 2008, 02:31:29 PM »
Okay, here goes nothing.  ;)

I've compiled the series of Ben Nicholls articles from the Philadelphia Ledger in early 1916 that document his travels designing courses outside the US.  Unfortunately the first article I can't get a good photocopy off the microfilm so it is difficult (painful?!) to read.  But I it just a overview article of what it to come, so it isn't the most interesting of the series.  

The date of this first article is February 13, 1916.



The 2nd in the series talks about designing a couple of courses in France.  Here the quality of the document is much better.

The date of this article is February 20, 1916.



The date of this article is February 27, 1916.  Here Nicholls describes his adventures laying out the first golf course in Italy.



The date of this article is March 5, 1916, and describes laying a course in the Spanish island of La Toka:



The date of the 5th article in the series is March 12, 1915, and covers him renovating the first course in Africa (Alexandria), then building a 9 hole course in Suez.



The 6th article in the series, dated March 19, 1916, describes building the first of two courses in Portugal, this one in Lisbon:



The next article, dated March 23, 1916, describes the 2nd course in Portugal, in Oborto:



The 8th piece (April 2, 1916) covers when golf began to grow in Europe, as well as designing a little chip and putt in Germany:



The 9th article (April 9, 1916) describes Mr. Nicholls getting to know an Indian Prince and teaching him the game, as well as drawing out the design for a course in India for him on paper just based upon photographs and descriptions of the land.  He also talks that he added nine holes to a course in Nashville, TN, in 1909 (I have no idea what course that could be, but certainly supports the possibility he did the original 9, if not more, at Inverness before Ross came along!).



The last wrap-up article is next.







« Last Edit: February 07, 2010, 10:37:06 AM by Joe Bausch »
@jwbausch (for new photo albums)
The site for the Cobb's Creek project:  https://cobbscreek.org/
Nearly all Delaware Valley golf courses in photo albums: Bausch Collection

Joe Bausch

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:Inverness: Ross after Nicholls?
« Reply #7 on: January 28, 2008, 05:10:26 PM »
I hope some of you got a kick out of those articles above!

Here is the wrap-up article from Mr. Nicholls, dated April 23, 1916:



This fellow sure got around and I wonder if he isn't responsible for many other courses, not just in the US, but other countries as well, that we just haven't yet uncovered.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2010, 10:37:54 AM by Joe Bausch »
@jwbausch (for new photo albums)
The site for the Cobb's Creek project:  https://cobbscreek.org/
Nearly all Delaware Valley golf courses in photo albums: Bausch Collection

Joe Bausch

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Inverness: Ross after Nicholls?
« Reply #8 on: February 19, 2008, 05:04:53 PM »
I've learned how to get much better quality scans from microfilm, so I'm bumping this thread b/c now those 10 articles from 1916 are readable that Ben Nicholls wrote as he designed golf courses all over!  I guess if the original stuff can't be read easily, well, nobody will read them.  :)

Just back up two posts to begin the fun.
« Last Edit: February 19, 2008, 05:08:16 PM by Joe Bausch »
@jwbausch (for new photo albums)
The site for the Cobb's Creek project:  https://cobbscreek.org/
Nearly all Delaware Valley golf courses in photo albums: Bausch Collection

Jim Nugent

Re: Inverness: Ross after Nicholls?
« Reply #9 on: February 20, 2008, 12:10:22 AM »
Joe, the articles aren't showing up on my computer. 

Jim Nugent

Re: Inverness: Ross after Nicholls?
« Reply #10 on: February 20, 2008, 12:47:23 PM »
Joe, the articles are showing up fine now.  Thanks.

btw, hope you keep finding more of these incredibly cool articles. 

Joe Bausch

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Inverness: Ross after Nicholls?
« Reply #11 on: February 07, 2010, 10:39:16 AM »
bump (based upon the mention of the series of Nicholls articles in the Merion/Seaview thread).
@jwbausch (for new photo albums)
The site for the Cobb's Creek project:  https://cobbscreek.org/
Nearly all Delaware Valley golf courses in photo albums: Bausch Collection