The Spay Bay Golf Course was constructed in just over 6 months and comprised of a workforce of between twenty and forty-five. Nothing really out of the ordinary there you may say. However this was the end of the period when course work was said to take a few days to build with just a hand full of men.
This little article from The Scotsman dated the 12th March 1907 is quite remarkable as we are not talking of London but a remote area in Northern Scotland. Golf courses according to some historians, past Designers and by popular opinion believed that courses were just taken out of the landscape with very minor modification, formed in days and sometime designed in the morning played in the afternoon. Nevertheless we have yet again another golf course that has taken well over 6 months to build, but that not all, we have the reports of Cruden Bay being started in 1894 yet not finally opening until 1899; then we have Muirfield designed a year and a month earlier that the famous drawing by Blyth Hall dated December 1891.The Kinghorn Course being early has detailed reports on its design, construction to opening phases. These are not isolated reports but more the norm than the exception, but we still seem to want to insist that the Early Designers just conjured courses out of the landscape with hardly much effort by Man.
I remember a debate on this site some months ago on the terminology used in past ages, comments laying out, laid out etc and what they actually meant. Why do we think we will never get to the bottom of this. Perhaps it can be answered as simply as why can’t really understand each other on this site. So how in Hell’s name are we going to understand those who lived a 100 years ago. Having said that this small article has again made clear and with no misunderstanding by defining who designed the course and who laid it out (constructed the project), I quote “Excellent progress has been made under the direction of the greenkeeper, Robert Marr, North Berwick, the laying off of the course having been done by Bernard Sayers”. Not ‘Laying out’ the course but “off”.
I, again refer to this Scotsman article on a third and final point, it notes the interest that the course is having on the area, from a few premises to a new hotel being planned, we are looking at a Cruden Bay, Castletown Resort course in the making, but it seem by a rather different approach than a certain Mr Trump.
Yes we are coming towards the second Golden Age but the first still had not died or faded away, so it makes me wonder even more if we need to look to some of the reports from certain - I was going to call them Gentlemen but in hindsight I fear that is a complement to far . The likes of T Simpson springs to mind with his outspoken opinion of his predecessors, just why did not know let alone understand what was the normal practice just a generation or two before his time.
Golf Course Architecture or design has always been about making a sporty challenging course for all. Yes it included the hard difficult Holes but with options for the less skilled or Duffers. Many believe the first Golden Age of GCA courses had the best sites thus giving the designers an added advantage, but that is another myth, that is wrong, again a total oversight by the last few generations of designers. The ones who had the best choice were the second Golden Age. They had the money to acquire the sites, the technology plus labour including the mechanical resources to relay upon. We forget that many a Golf Course in the early stages were only poor unused corners of Farmers or the Landed Gentry property useless for crops and would only sustain sheep. That’s why we see the courses comprising of 6, 8 9 or 12 Holes, the land just could not accommodate any more Holes even with the many crossover of fairways. Many a Links course was owned by the local town some allowing Golf to be played among other facilities as laying out the washing etc. Money was tight in the early days, even in the first boom period in Scotland the late 1880-1900’s and it was not until the clubs achieved a good membership allowing money to roll in did they try to buy the land rather than just leasing it from the Farmers/Gentry. It was not uncommon in those days to have 2 or 3 clubs sharing the same golf course, so no they did not have the money to buy the best sites.
This on little article has explained much, all very interesting but I still expect to see and hear that the early designers designed a course in the morning and played a match in the afternoon – I have a full explanation with some supporting article explain this myth, but first we need to understand the period and the mind-set of the club members – But that’s for another time – that is if anyone is interested in GCA.
Hope you find the above interesting.
Melvyn