Changes are coming in how GolfClubAtlas.com presents material. As it is, if you want to learn about Pine Valley, you have to go to In My Opinion, Courses by Country, the Discussion Group, and Art & Architecture. We hope to simplify that in the months ahead. If you want to learn more about Dick Wilson, the only place to go is the infrequent thread in the Discussion Group. Nobody has ever profiled any of his work or the man himself. Kevin Mendik has changed that in spectacular fashion with his treatise on Wilson scholarly entitled the Cultural Landscape Assessment for the Restoration of the Golf Course at Sunnylands Estate, now published under In My Opinion.
Why isn’t more love accorded to Dick Wilson? Various reasons. He was taciturn and flirted with the bottle a bit much, even by my lowly
standards. Born in 1904, he toiled in the shadow of Robert Trent Jones, who was more personable and articulate. Yet, Wilson’s body of work is impressive and on more than one occasion, beat RTJ for a project. I remember playing Meadow Brook Club with Tom Egan on Long Island in 1986 with its wide fairways cutting through fields of fescue to large greens, appreciating the angles of play, the handsomeness of the setting, and wondering why this course wasn’t more heralded. That same year the Women’s U.S. Open was staged at Wilson’s South Course at NCR, but the rain hampered it from being memorable. The two most intriguingly glowing reports I have heard this entire year both come from Bidermann in Delaware (believe it or not, Richard Wilson is the professional there!). In addition, anyone lucky enough to hole out on the eighteenth at Seminole can’t help but be dazzled by Wilson’s placement of the eighteenth green some seventy yards to the left and up on the dune line from where Ross had it. Other highlights include overseeing the construction of Indian Creek and Shinnecock Hills for Flynn and Toomey, Cog Hill # 4 and Royal Montreal with his masterpiece remaining to this day Pine Tree in Florida, a true player’s golf club (Pat Mucci’s furious close there in January to square our match still smarts
).
More than any piece with which I am familiar, Kevin’s shines the light on Wilson and his accomplishments. When Kevin (who matriculated at Vermont Law School before taking his current position with the National Park Service) started, I think it is fair to say he had no idea that it would evolve into such a monster! His interest was initially piqued by the 200 acre Sunnylands Estate in Palm Springs, which features a nine hole course designed by Wilson and Joe Lee. As Kevin writes, “The fact that the golf course at Sunnylands is the largest physical feature on the estate indicates the relative importance placed on golf by Ambassador Annenberg. The course was intended for his private use and that of his close friends, family and visiting dignitaries, who in many cases, included sitting and former U.S. Presidents and top professional golfers. The extent to which the Sunnylands Trust wishes to interpret the historical context and significance of presidential golf is undetermined, but should be accorded at least some degree of focus, given the history of golfing presidents. Prior to the decision to restore the golf course and renovate some elements with modern systems, it was necessary to decide the critical Period of Significance for which the golf course was to be interpreted and restored to, and the desired future conditions under which it would then be managed, as well as the extent to which various stories and people associated with the golf course would be interpreted. The Sunnylands Transition Project (STP) adopted a position to “do no harm,” which translated essentially into restoring, as closely as possible, the course that DW envisioned and the design elements contained therein, in order to accurately convey his design philosophy and intent at Sunnylands.By its very nature as the private golf course of a U.S. Ambassador, frequented numerous times by sitting and former U.S. presidents, dignitaries and public figures, and designed by one of the two most highly regarded golf architects working in the U.S. at that time, the golf course at Sunnylands constitutes a historic golfscape, and would likely qualify for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places, if that designation were to be applied for.”
Apart from its stunning rich history, one fascinating part of this 2010/2011 restoration is that it was just that: something close to a pure restoration. According to Kevin, "The general distance from tees to hazards was retained at roughly 230 yards, the average driving distance at the time the course was designed. This element not only ensured the integrity of Wilson’s original design, but also the historic integrity of the golf course and by association, Sunnylands as a whole. Therefore, the STP may want to consider offering the use of period golf clubs (steel shafted bladed irons and persimmon headed woods) to provide an experience similar to that which Dick Wilson envisioned when the course was designed."
The more Kevin dug, the more his curiosity was aroused until he expanded his research to be all encompassing. And that’s the bottom line on Wilson: the more you study his work, the more you find to admire. That’s simply not true for the VAST majority of architects. Kevin characterizes Wilson’s personality as follows:
“Due to his reputation as being gruff with his clients and his use of alcohol, especially in the last few years of his life after the passing of his wife, his reputation as a golf architect has been diminished and somewhat overlooked. He has been described as “warm, direct, rugged, extremely likeable” and at times, was considered “temperamentally volatile.” Other descriptions of him include being a “gruff, surly, unpolished artist-in-the-rough [although] his basic warmth and humor still manage[d] to show through.” He was known to alienate both business associates and in some cases, his clients, including Ambassador Annenberg. His actions got him removed from a number of projects which were then completed by his associates. Former associate Robert von Hagge described him as a “ball of barbed wire and ground glass. But when the situation calls for compassion he will melt like a marsh-mallow. He’s such a bug on honesty that he does all his business with a handshake.” von Hagge also noted that Wilson had been drinking by the time he began working for Wilson in 1955, and noted that it picked up by 1958. While building Cog Hill #4 in Illinois, he was not allowed into the clubhouse in order to keep him away from alcohol. According to Wilson, “That’s the damn most exclusive club I’ve ever seen in my life; they won’t ever let me in the clubhouse.””
The abyss of world events from 1929 through 1949 stunted what Wilson might otherwise have accomplished. He died in 1965 at the age of 61 yet he made quite a mark despite two world wars and a depression. His design philosophy stood up well through the different eras. Here is a gem of a quote that Kevin found from Wilson on how the land should dictate how the course gets laid out: “You can put a beautiful woman in an expensive dress, but if the dress doesn’t fit, neither the woman nor the dress is going to look any good at all. It’s the same with building a golf course. You got to cut the course to fit the property.”” Here is a MacKenzie-ian quote from Wilson, “A golf course should appear more vicious to a player than it actually is, it should inspire you, keep you alert. If you’re playing a sleepy-looking course, you’re naturally going to fall asleep.”
Thoroughly researched (and including 71 footnotes!), Kevin’s treatise gives Wilson his due based on his indisputable ‘in the dirt’ accomplishments. It fills a great void and makes for a fascinating read through the different eras of golf course design. Hope you enjoy it and congratulations to Kevin for such an accomplishment, both in research and in writing!
Cheers,