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Mark Hissey

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Extinct Golf Courses in Cuba
« on: March 06, 2011, 09:55:41 PM »
Does anyone have any informtion on them? There is more tal again about new courses being built there and the piece I read mentions Castro bulldozing a number of them after the revolution.

Mark McKeever

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Re: Extinct Golf Courses in Cuba
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2011, 09:58:08 PM »
Didnt Donald Ross lay out a course there?  Or am I getting mixed up?

Mark
Best MGA showers - Bayonne

"Dude, he's a total d***"

JNC Lyon

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Re: Extinct Golf Courses in Cuba
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2011, 10:03:35 PM »
Didnt Donald Ross lay out a course there?  Or am I getting mixed up?

Mark

Country Club of Havana.  Dan Wexler's Missing Links has something about it.  Also, check out Tom MacWood's list of golf courses from 1939 in the "In My Opinion" section.  It ranks very highly there.
"That's why Oscar can't see that!" - Philip E. "Timmy" Thomas

Steve_ Shaffer

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Re: Extinct Golf Courses in Cuba
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2011, 10:06:19 PM »
"Some of us worship in churches, some in synagogues, some on golf courses ... "  Adlai Stevenson
Hyman Roth to Michael Corleone: "We're bigger than US Steel."
Ben Hogan “The most important shot in golf is the next one”

Mark McKeever

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Re: Extinct Golf Courses in Cuba
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2011, 10:29:13 PM »
Didnt Donald Ross lay out a course there?  Or am I getting mixed up?

Mark

Country Club of Havana.  Dan Wexler's Missing Links has something about it.  Also, check out Tom MacWood's list of golf courses from 1939 in the "In My Opinion" section.  It ranks very highly there.

Thats where I saw it!

Mark
Best MGA showers - Bayonne

"Dude, he's a total d***"

Tiger_Bernhardt

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Re: Extinct Golf Courses in Cuba
« Reply #5 on: March 07, 2011, 02:33:24 AM »
Mark great topic and I hope more come to the surface. the friends I have that go there for business purposes on a regular basis are not golfers.

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +2/-1
Re: Extinct Golf Courses in Cuba
« Reply #6 on: March 07, 2011, 05:51:29 AM »
I don't know how many courses there were in Cuba before the revolution -- I suspect not that many, but I've never seen a figure.  There are a few there now, one or two which have been restored and a few newer ones to cater to the tourist market.  We in the USA think of Cuba as isolated, but I have traveled a lot of places in the past year [Spain, Dominican Republic, Canada] where I've noticed direct flights to Havana on the monitors.

Jud_T

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Re: Extinct Golf Courses in Cuba
« Reply #7 on: March 07, 2011, 06:49:23 AM »
Apparently Ross also designed the Havana Biltmore Golf Club which is also NLE.  There were supposedly a dozen courses on the island with 4 in Havana prior to La Revolution.  There was also the course at Colinas de Villareal, where Castro and Che famously played in army boots and fatiques, unsure of the GCA...
« Last Edit: March 07, 2011, 06:53:26 AM by Jud Tigerman »
Golf is a game. We play it. Somewhere along the way we took the fun out of it and charged a premium to be punished.- - Ron Sirak

Jud_T

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Re: Extinct Golf Courses in Cuba
« Reply #8 on: March 07, 2011, 07:02:30 AM »




Golf is a game. We play it. Somewhere along the way we took the fun out of it and charged a premium to be punished.- - Ron Sirak

Christoph Meister

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Re: Extinct Golf Courses in Cuba
« Reply #9 on: March 07, 2011, 07:11:13 AM »
Hello,
there were a couple of golf courses before revolution in Cuba with the El Country Club de la Habana being the most famous and prestigious one.

This is one of the first pictures of the Country Club of Habana (American Golfer, April 1913):



A most interesting article about Golf in Cuba was published in the American Golfer Febr. 1932 by Gerry Swinehart (is that a real name?) mentioning Frederick Snare was the father of Golf in Cuba:

"CUBA, that merry little tropical island ninety miles off the southeastern tip of the United States, where "Nineteenth Holes" flourish three to the block and in the corner grocery as well, has a George Washington, too. Famed for his wisdom, his justice, his literature and his statesmanship, Señior Jose Marti has already found everlasting glory in the pages of history.

But we are concerned with another George Washington in Cuba—the father of his country club, as it were. We are concerned with the story of Frederick Snare of New York and Havana, father of golf in Cuba, to whom thousands of American divot-diggers will pay homage again this season as they follow the pitted pellet over the Island Republic's eight sporty courses. For golf in Cuba, unlike Topsy, did not just grow. Golfo, as the Cubans say, came to Cuba only because it was mothered, fathered, nursed and brought to maturity by the captain of the United States Golf Team.

When this month or next you step out on the No. 1 tee at the beautiful Havana Country Club, six thousand, three hundred yards of palm-fringed rolling fairway before you, you may not be thinking of Frederick Snare. When you step up to that long bar in the club house, or step to the orchestra at tea-time, you'll probably not be thinking of him. And when you fly or motor seven hundred miles down the island to the Santiago de Cuba Country Club, nestled high and nestled low in the valleys and hills of the Sierra Maestra Mountains, you'll probably not have him on your mind either. Yet you can thank him for it all...."


Country Club of Cuba 1950s (photo from my own private collection)

"... The magnificent eighteen-hole course over which you play today was designed, Mr. Snare said, by Donald Ross. Without doubt it is one of golfdom's most beautiful and inspiring layouts. With a total yardage of six thousand, three hundred, it offers a par of only 72—a number made more impressive by the fact that the course record is 70, despite the best efforts of such sharpshooters as Gene Sarazen, MacDonald Smith, Archie Compston, Alec Smith, Bobby Cruickshank, Tommy Armour, Jim Barnes, George Voigt, Oswald Kirby, and Johnny Farrell who shares the record with the young Cuban star, Tony Carillo, Jr. But four holes have ever been made in one. They are No. 3, 154 yards; No. 9, 200 yards; No, 13, 40 yards, and No. 16, 200 yards..."

By 1932 there were 7 golf courses on Cuba:

"But golfers who swing the niblick in Cuba each winter owe Frederick Snare for more than the comfort and the pleasure of only the Havana Country Club.

Today, seven other courses dot the island playground, one of which, the Santiago de Cuba Club, was built only three years ago through the direct encouragement and aid of Mr. Snare, who is its honorary president. Surrounded by the Sierra Maestra Mountains, the "Rockies of Cuba," this unusual nine-hole layout is replete with natural hazards and gorgeous scenic charm. The course lies over a rolling terrain for a distance of 2,950 yards and has a par of 34. It is said that this course is, in the matter of altitude, at least, about as close to heaven as your golfer ever gets. More than seven hundred miles from Havana, the club until this season was little known and rather inaccessible to Americans. This year, however, with the opening of the new $100,000,000 Cuban Central Highway, it is only a pleasant three-day automobile journey away. Or by 10-passenger Curtiss Airliners flying on daily schedules, you can make the trip in six and a half hours. Charles Hunter, formerly assistant pro at the Havana Country Club, is professional. A new clubhouse is under construction."



"Meantime, there are courses in Cuba today at Pinar del Rio, west of Havana; at Camaguey, on the road to Santiago; at the Central Hershey Sugar Mill, near Havana, and at other interior points, all reached by highway.

In Havana, there are also the Almendares Country Club, nine holes, par 36; the Rovers Club, a British organization having a nine-hole course with a par of 34, and last, but not least, the Jaimanitas Yacht and Country Club, formerly known as the Havana Biltmore Yacht and Country Club."



From what I know it seems that today's "Club de Golf Habana", a 9-holer that survived revolution, is the former Rovers Athletic's Club Golf Course just mentionned above.



But what happened to all these golf courses? – In 1960 Fidel Castro and Che Guevara decided to have the new Cuba’s National art school built on the premises of what was once Cuba's premier golf and country club.

Hope you find this information interesting – I will post some more photos in my next reply.
Greetings from Germany,
Christoph Meister
« Last Edit: March 07, 2011, 08:10:40 AM by Christoph Meister »
Golf's Missing Links - Continental Europe
 https://www.golfsmissinglinks.co.uk/index.php/wales-2
EAGHC European Association of
Golf Historians & Collectors
http://www.golfika.com
German Hickory Golf Society e.V.
http://www.german-hickory.com

Christoph Meister

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Extinct Golf Courses in Cuba
« Reply #10 on: March 07, 2011, 08:17:16 AM »
Here are some more photos from El Country Club de la Habana:
(all postcards/photos from my own collection)



















NB: Thank You Neil (Crafter) for telling me how to post pictures - I think I got the hang of it now...
« Last Edit: March 07, 2011, 08:30:41 AM by Christoph Meister »
Golf's Missing Links - Continental Europe
 https://www.golfsmissinglinks.co.uk/index.php/wales-2
EAGHC European Association of
Golf Historians & Collectors
http://www.golfika.com
German Hickory Golf Society e.V.
http://www.german-hickory.com

Christoph Meister

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Extinct Golf Courses in Cuba
« Reply #11 on: March 07, 2011, 08:43:25 AM »
And here are some postcards from the 1950s (all from my collection), printed in the U.S.A., and probably the last ones before revolution:









And this is how the former Country Club looks like now partly covered with buildings of the National Art School:

« Last Edit: March 07, 2011, 09:12:46 AM by Christoph Meister »
Golf's Missing Links - Continental Europe
 https://www.golfsmissinglinks.co.uk/index.php/wales-2
EAGHC European Association of
Golf Historians & Collectors
http://www.golfika.com
German Hickory Golf Society e.V.
http://www.german-hickory.com

Mark Hissey

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Extinct Golf Courses in Cuba
« Reply #12 on: March 07, 2011, 12:27:12 PM »
That is absolutely wonderful. Thanks so much Christoph.

Tyler Kearns

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Re: Extinct Golf Courses in Cuba
« Reply #13 on: March 07, 2011, 12:35:35 PM »
Donald Ross' book "Golf Has Never Failed Me" has at least one picture of his work in Cuba if I remember correctly.

TK

Christoph Meister

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Extinct Golf Courses in Cuba
« Reply #14 on: March 08, 2011, 11:45:16 AM »
In December 1928 the American Golf Illustrated reports about the new Havana Biltmore Yacht & Country Club layed out by Donald Ross. The course was home of the Havana Open, an LPGA event from 1956 to 1958.

After the revolution this golf course was also ploughed over, even though it seems the club with Tennis courts still exists
today as a private facility for diplomats.



Here you see a rough course layout over an aerial from the year 2000. Today there are also buildings on what used to be
fairway no.1. Believe it or not, Fidel Castro lives just next to the former golf course overlooking what used to be fairway No.14:



Here are two photos from 1955 showing the first fairway of HBYCC on the very lefthand side..



...and the 18th Fairway adjacent to the sea on this piture



Both photos used here with kind permission of Bill Butler who took the pictures himself 55 years ago...
« Last Edit: March 08, 2011, 12:31:22 PM by Christoph Meister »
Golf's Missing Links - Continental Europe
 https://www.golfsmissinglinks.co.uk/index.php/wales-2
EAGHC European Association of
Golf Historians & Collectors
http://www.golfika.com
German Hickory Golf Society e.V.
http://www.german-hickory.com

JMEvensky

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Extinct Golf Courses in Cuba
« Reply #15 on: March 08, 2011, 12:05:23 PM »
Christoph,thanks for posting this stuff.You once e-mailed these and I lost them in a computer crash.I was too embarrassed to ask you a second time.

Hopefully,I'll take better care of them this time.

Christoph Meister

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Extinct Golf Courses in Cuba New
« Reply #16 on: March 08, 2011, 05:08:49 PM »
Here are some more early postcards from Country Club of Havanna - the Ross experts among you will certainly be able to tell whether these holes look pre-Ross or not:



















and here is a very early postcard of the 17th Green showing a sand green



Greetings from Germany

El compañero
« Last Edit: March 08, 2011, 05:17:21 PM by Christoph Meister »
Golf's Missing Links - Continental Europe
 https://www.golfsmissinglinks.co.uk/index.php/wales-2
EAGHC European Association of
Golf Historians & Collectors
http://www.golfika.com
German Hickory Golf Society e.V.
http://www.german-hickory.com

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