Did H.S. Colt visit Portsalon?

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

I came across an interesting article in the Irish Times dated 6 May 1911.

In relation to the valuable prizes offered by Messrs. Sutton and Sons, of Reading, the well-known seedsmen; to bona fide green keepers for the best six original essays (combined with practical home work) on “The Making and Management of Golf Courses” (“making” referring to the formation, and not the planning, of the course), the competition being open to all green-keepers, it is interesting to observe that Mr. Garden G. Smith (the editor of Golf Illustrated), who has judged the essays, has selected among the best six that of Mr. John Irving, green-keeper of the Portsalon (Co. Donegal) Golf Club.

Mr. Harry S. Colt (Sunningdale Golf Club) will shortly inspect the six golf courses, and judge the practical work of the chosen essayists, and finally decide the order of merit for the prizes, the first being a gold watch and £5 in cash, which, it is hoped, may be carried off by the green-keeper of an Irish course.

Does anyone know the outcome of this competition? John Alexander Irving (born in England) was the golf professional at Portsalon.

What is interesting to note is that Portsalon was altered shortly afterwards in preparation for the Irish Ladies' Close Championship of 1912. Here's another article from the Irish Times dated 30 March 1912;

The old ninth hole, which was beloved of all who knew it, has been reverted to. The Matterhorn green, the fourteenth, has been moved further to the right and one hundred yards further from the tee, which does away with the blind approach. The new fifteenth is played from a high tee, near the present sixth green, across the valley on to a green situated picturesquely on a small promontory near the old fourteenth green. It makes a really fine one-shot hole.

I am not trying to make a connection between and Colt and the subsequent modifications. I'm just wondering if Colt did make the journey to Portsalon. If he did, it's possible he made some recommendations, but then again, maybe he visited, made his decision and went on his way. It's just something to think about.

Dónal.

[Tom MacWood]

Donal
Colt did not list Portsalon as a course he designed, remodeled or advised.

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Donal
Colt did not list Portsalon as a course he designed, remodeled or advised.

Tom:

I also didn't see Portsalon on the Colt Association list either.

I wonder if he ever made it there. I wonder what the 5 other clubs were. Seems like a lot of hassle for Colt to have to visit all 6 courses. What if they were spread all over the UK&I?

Dónal.

[Melvyn Morrow]

Dónal

I am just waiting for Tom MacWood to say Colt went to Ireland on a holiday. That’s his usual excuse for anyone visiting Ireland

Melvyn

[Richard Phinney]

Interesting article. Thanks....

[Tom MacWood]

Donal
I have several lists Colt created over the years, I'll back see which courses he listed around your timeframe.

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Donal
I have several lists Colt created over the years, I'll back see which courses he listed around your timeframe.

Tom:

I know that Colt visited Foxrock in early January 1913 and his redesign of Rosapenna was well underway by May of 1913. I'm not sure if he did anything in Ireland before this.

Dónal.

[Tom MacWood]

Donal
Here are the Irish courses (designs, redesigns, etc) he listed prior to 1920, and I'd say most if not all were before WWI.

Castle
Dollymount
Royal Belfast
Newcastle, Co Down
Portmarnock
Portrush
Rosapenna

He didn't list Foxrock on this list, but he did list on later lists.

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Donal
Here are the Irish courses (designs, redesigns, etc) he listed prior to 1920, and I'd say most if not all were before WWI.

Castle
Dollymount
Royal Belfast
Newcastle, Co Down
Portmarnock
Portrush
Rosapenna

He didn't list Foxrock on this list, but he did list on later lists.

Tom:

Portmarnock is an interesting one; I was not aware of this.

What about Dunmurry (late 1920s) and Skerries (1922)? Gibson's Early Irish Golf mentions Colt as having worked on these two courses also, although the Colt association does not included these two courses in their list.

Dónal.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Donal superb find.   The greenkeepers competition was Colts idea and Suttons accepted it in June 1909 and their minutes show it was clearly his idea that the courses be visited.

Minutes of Suttons. 10 June 1911
“Mr Colt finished this week his inspection of the Golf Courses of the six winning competitors in the Greenkeepers completion, + finally placed the order. The four first prize winners had written essays of extraordinary merit + there was not very much between them”
0n 20 June
“letter from Garden Smith fully approved of the final placing”   is this a typo, who is Gordon Smith?

Next date unclear 3-7-1911?
“Colt said he was as busy as ever and had a string of engagements from now onwards, and also that he was very pleased with the Greenkeepers’ Competition and was quite sure it would have a major influence on business in the future.
The prizes for the winning Greenkeepers were all posted on Wednesday last, and in accordance with our promises consisted of a very handsome half-hunter gold watch to Alex. Wright as first prize with cash, and the other prises proportionately. A halve page announcement was made in the “Golf Illustrated” of the winners, and an excellent paragraph was put in on the opposite page largely from notes supplied by us. Letters of thanks were received from the prize-winners, and also notes of appreciation from some of the other competitors who received certificates for their essays, and a very satisfactory letter was received from Mr Wright in which he evidently greatly appreciated being the first prize winner. He stated that he had been to Sandwich and that al the Greenkeepers who were there for the Championship were talking about the competition and wondering when --- would see the announcement, and that it had created a great interest. The total cost, which we feared mi--- run in to £100. Has come out at just about £80. And  ..probably the advertisement was well worth the expend---“

October 16 1911
“Mr Colt called to see me this afternoon. He will carefully think over suitable subjects for a Golf Essay for the coming compettiion and give us his views.”

29 Dec 1911
Colt lists courses he’s currently involved in and includes Rossapenna. At this meeting a proposed Golfer’s Annual is discussed with Colt to write much of it...  I haven’t got a copy of the Suttons Book of the links but I believe this was its genesis and that several of the articles in it were the Greenkeepers winning essays –can someone confirm?  I’m not sure there ever was a second competition?

[Ally Mcintosh]

Donal
Here are the Irish courses (designs, redesigns, etc) he listed prior to 1920, and I'd say most if not all were before WWI.

Castle
Dollymount
Royal Belfast
Newcastle, Co Down
Portmarnock
Portrush
Rosapenna

He didn't list Foxrock on this list, but he did list on later lists.

Tom:

Portmarnock is an interesting one; I was not aware of this.

What about Dunmurry (late 1920s) and Skerries (1922)? Gibson's Early Irish Golf mentions Colt as having worked on these two courses also, although the Colt association does not included these two courses in their list.

Dónal.

Portmarnock was 1919... What he did is uncertain but there were significant changes for the better made under Guppy Cairnes throughout the early twenties.... I still haven't a link between the two but it is certainly a possibility that Colt suggested them...

Greystones and Clontarf are two other Dublin courses that he is credited with....

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Tony:

This is wonderful infomation!!

So he was involved with Rosapenna as early as December 1911. According to the Irish Times of 17 May 1913, Colt's re-design of Rosapenna would not be "completed this season". It was a major job costing £3,000 and neccessitated the laying down of a light railway track to transport the turf.

And it is nearly certain that he visited Portsalon. Very interesting indeed. It would be nice to see that Golf Illustrated article.

Ally:

Very interesting. It's possible that his visit is documented in the Irish Times sometime in 1919. If I find anything, I'll let you know about it.

Dónal.

[Marty Bonnar]

Tony,
Garden G Smith - he of the hating of inland golf (in)fame(y) - was unfortunately only too real...

Good link with some quotes from the Book:

http://chestofbooks.com/sports/golf/Golf-Smith/

Sláinte!
FBD.

[Tom MacWood]

Tom:

Portmarnock is an interesting one; I was not aware of this.

What about Dunmurry (late 1920s) and Skerries (1922)? Gibson's Early Irish Golf mentions Colt as having worked on these two courses also, although the Colt association does not included these two courses in their list.

Dónal.

He did list both courses on later lists. The last one I have is the later 20s and has (designs, redesigns, and advice):
Belvoir Park
Castle
Castlerock
Clontarf
Co Sligo
Dunmurry
Foxrock
Galway
Greystones
Hermitage
Kingstown
Larne
Mill Town
Rosapenna
Royal Belfast
Skerries
Royal Portrush
Royal Dublin
Royal Co. Down
Portmarnock

Any information you can find on his involvement (or his partners) would be greatly appreciated.

[Tom MacWood]

Tony,
Garden G Smith - he of the hating of inland golf (in)fame(y) - was unfortunately only too real...

Good link with some quotes from the Book:

http://chestofbooks.com/sports/golf/Golf-Smith/

Sláinte!
FBD.

Matrin
I've read quite a bit of Garden Smith and I never got the impression he was uninformed. He seems to be on top of modern golf design developments during his tenure as editor of Golf Illustrated. One of the more astute observers in the early 1900s. Do you have a different impression?

[Melvyn Morrow]

Dónal

The following may be of interest taken from the Scotsman Archives. It is from the 25th July 1919
under “The Peace Year Holiday Problem”

                 

Melvyn

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Thank you Melvyn.

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

29 Dec 1911
Colt lists courses he’s currently involved in and includes Rossapenna. At this meeting a proposed Golfer’s Annual is discussed with Colt to write much of it...  I haven’t got a copy of the Suttons Book of the links but I believe this was its genesis and that several of the articles in it were the Greenkeepers winning essays –can someone confirm?  I’m not sure there ever was a second competition?

Tony:

You can get a copy of "The Book of the Links" here,

http://www.archive.org/details/bookoflinkssympo00sutt

You can view it online or save a pdf copy. See options on left hand side.

Dónal.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Incidentally, I found some really good aerial photographs of Rosapenna in the national library... From the early 50's... showing the hotel and pretty rugged and small, natural looking bunkers... only small parts of the course are visible as the photography was based on the hotel...

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Incidentally, I found some really good aerial photographs of Rosapenna in the national library... From the early 50's... showing the hotel and pretty rugged and small, natural looking bunkers... only small parts of the course are visible as the photography was based on the hotel...

Ally:

Do you mean the National Library of Ireland or Scotland. Are they online? I'd love to see those.

A number of golf glassplate photographs from c1900 are online at the NLI site,

http://digital.nli.ie/cdm4/index_glassplates.php?CISOROOT=/glassplates

Dónal.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Incidentally, I found some really good aerial photographs of Rosapenna in the national library... From the early 50's... showing the hotel and pretty rugged and small, natural looking bunkers... only small parts of the course are visible as the photography was based on the hotel...

Ally:

Do you mean the National Library of Ireland or Scotland. Are they online? I'd love to see those.

A number of golf glassplate photographs from c1900 are online at the NLI site,

http://digital.nli.ie/cdm4/index_glassplates.php?CISOROOT=/glassplates

Dónal.

Dónal,

I haven't seen some of those before - they are fantastic!... And they must be newish on the website because they weren't there about 2 years ago...

I do mean The library of Ireland... I spent quite a few afternoons in there hunting down aerial photography... Looks like I need to go back and hunt down all golf photography... Check out "The Matterhorn Golf Links" at Newcastle...

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Incidentally, I found some really good aerial photographs of Rosapenna in the national library... From the early 50's... showing the hotel and pretty rugged and small, natural looking bunkers... only small parts of the course are visible as the photography was based on the hotel...

Ally:

Do you mean the National Library of Ireland or Scotland. Are they online? I'd love to see those.

A number of golf glassplate photographs from c1900 are online at the NLI site,

http://digital.nli.ie/cdm4/index_glassplates.php?CISOROOT=/glassplates

Dónal.

Dónal,

I haven't seen some of those before - they are fantastic!... And they must be newish on the website because they weren't there about 2 years ago...

I do mean The library of Ireland... I spent quite a few afternoons in there hunting down aerial photography... Looks like I need to go back and hunt down all golf photography... Check out "The Matterhorn Golf Links" at Newcastle...

Ally:

These were just added quite recently; there was a story in the Irish Independent a few weeks ago reporting that all the William Lawrence collection had been digitised. All (I believe) of the Lawrence glassplates were taken by Robert French and he retired in 1914, so they are all pre-1914.

Dónal.