Tillinghast: Delaware Water Gap C.C & Poxono C.C.

[Craig Rokke]

The Tillinghast Society recently uncovered evidence of Tillinghast's Poxono CC, which apparently never quite became fully operational. As you may remember, the course was built
on the Delaware River, near Shawnee, and it was to be for
the use of Tillinghast, and his friends, some of whom were
very well-known people.

In the Tillinghast book "The Course Beautiful", there is an advertisement promoting a course called Delaware Water Gap Country Club, also to be located on the Delaware. I don't believe that course ever came to be, and I'm betting that
the two courses are one and the same. Does anyone know for sure?

[Tom_Egan]

I've read the same thing in a couple of places and have assumed that the Delaware Water Gap CC is what, for years, has been known as the Shawnee Inn and CC.  Maybe I'm wrong, and now I'm curious.

[Craig Rokke]

The ad for Delaware Water Gap CC actually mentions Tillinghast as the guy who "planned Shawnee in 1909."

To make matters more confusing, there currently exists in that same region a public course called Water Gap (originally Wolf Hollow) that was designed by Robert white in 1921. I believe Walter Hagen won an event there.

[John Foley]

Craig,

If I remember correctly, quite awhile back Tommy had some detials on Poxono posted.

Tommy do you still have those details?

[Cory W.]

I played a Tillinghast course last week in San Antonio.  I played Brackenridge Golf Club north of downtown San Antonio.  It is a public facility now and it was in terrible shape.  It gets played a ton now and it is not kept up worth a darn.  Obviously, playing in the middle of February didn't help it at all either.  However, I imagine that in its day, it was quite the course.  They used to hold the Texas Open there back in the 30's I believe.  I was most impressed with the greens which were pretty big for a course built back then.  They also were guarded by a number of shallow bunkers.  The course was short and a low number could be given up easy. The fairways were narrow and you had to hit the ball straight.  I think that with less play and more attention given to it, the course would still be a great place to study the greens and how to vary approaches to the greens.  Nice course in poor condition.  

[Tommy_Naccarato]

John and others,
Rick Wolfe and his legion of Tillieheads (which I am one of them) took to a boat and motored their way down the Delaware in search of the famed Poxono and found what seemed to be the remains of the course, or what had been constructed of it.

Rick told me that it would be impossible to get Poxono rebuilt since the land it sits near is federal watershed, which more or less means unbuildable by eco standards.

For further review of Poxono, please see the A.W Tillinghast Organization web site at http://www.tillinghast.net/

[Dan Grossman]

I have played Shawnee G&CC a couple of times, and according to the course, the architecture is attributed to Tillinghast.  I have a hard time believing that it is his work, however, because the golf course is not very good.  However, I haven't played any of Tillie's other work, so I don't have anything to judge it against.  Most of the golf course is laid out on a flatish piece of land in the middle of the Delaware River.

[guest]

Shawnee is now 27 holes where 18 by A.W. Tillinghast once stood.  Using the original aerial in The Course Beautiful one can see that little of AWT remains.  Since there was not really a consistent style, remaining greensites and basic locations of holes would make it very difficult for all but the most astute AWT scholars to confirm the pedigree.

[SPDB]

Tommy - Did your Delaware boat excursion look anything like this one:



I can just picture Tommy, as a modern day George Washington, standing tall in the bow of the boat, in the noble quest for Poxono CC.

[Ron_Whitten]

Delaware Water Gap CC was the original name of a course since renamed Wolf Hollow.  While Tillinghast once advertised his involvement, he must have lost the job, since the club has always listed Robert White as their course architect.  But then again, they could be wrong . . .

The Brackenridge Park course in San Antonio that presently exists is not the same course Tillinghast designed. Not even close.  It was totally remodeled by a city engineer name Vern Schmidt back in the 1960s.  Schmidt also remodeled Tillinghast's original layout at Fort Sam Houston.

[Mike_Cirba]

Ron Whitten is correct that Robert White is the architect of Water Gap Country Club, but has it backwards.  The course opened in 1926 as Wolf Hollow Country Club, and is now called Water Gap CC.  I'm not sure what year they changed the name, but the course used to host an event called the "Eastern Open", with Hagen and crew playing.  

From their website;

The layout [Map of 18-hole Course] originally was famed as Wolf Hollow Country Club, birthplace of the Eastern Open and host of a half dozen other major tournaments. The course today is the same well-groomed test that confronted the golfing greats of the Golden Era of Sports. Golfers now tread in the footsteps of such immortals as Walter Hagen, Johnny Farrell, Gene Sarazen, MacDonald Smith, Willie MacFarland, and Leo Diegel.

Having played several other Robert White courses (Skytop, Berkleigh, East Potomac, Glen Brook, Green Hills, Mount Pocono, Pine Lakes, Wiscasset), I have no doubt that he did Water Gap CC and not Tillinghast.  

[R W]

Delaware Water Gap has been a mystery to me.  I have heard speculation that it may have been Wolf Hollow.

Robert White was the first green keeper at Shawnee and worked with Tillie on many changes to Shawnee in its first decade.  Tillinghast was also President of Shawnee and ran the Shawnee Open, which later became the Eastern Open.

Robert White was a transplanted Scottsman who was also a golf professional.  Interestingly he rather preferred to be known as a green keeper, because he said just about any Scott could call himself a golf pro in America in those early years.
White was also first President of the PGA of America and interestingly enough, Tillie was in attendance at the first organizational meeting for the PGA.

Later in life, White also found employment at another Tillie course Sunningdale CC in Scarsdale NY.

I have long speculated that White may have supervised the construction of remodeling work designed by Tillinghast at Echo Lake CC during the mid 1930's.

[Mike Nuzzo]

Ron or anyone:
I was planning on visiting Fort Sam Houston in the near future.  Would I be wasting my time, as I was only hoping to see some remenants of the masters work?  Is it completely gone?
The Water Gap has some quirky holes, if I remember correctly.
Thanks

[Mike_Cirba]

Mike Nuzzo;

"Quirky" only begins to describe Water Gap CC!

I think most here would find it both fun and exasperating.  However, it isn't the most walkable track in existence, so bring a respirator!

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Sean,
Unfortunately, I wasn't there for the now famous Search For Poxono, which I'm told was quite an adventure.

What was the name of that tune? "What do you do with a druken sailor?"

Tillie would have been proud of his Tillieheads.