[Ed Oden]

I need some help pinning down the genesis of the restoration phenomenon.  When and what courses brought restoration to the forefront of the golfing consciousness?  What were the trigger events for the trend toward restoring golden age clubs to a more faithful presentation of their original/prior design?  Was it Oakmont's tree removal work in the mid/late 90's?  I'm sure there were restorations done before then.  But was Oakmont the key?  Would 1996 have been a bit too early to catch the wave?

[Dick Kirkpatrick]

Restoration of golf courses began when the first member was allowed at a club. LOL

[Jeff_Brauer]

Ed,

I recall that Ross' Inverness had a few holes added for the 1979 PGA and Fazio's work looked nothing like Ross, to the complaints of many.   That had the pros complaining and got lots of pub, but I think it was even before that when Brad Klein's Ross designed club up in NE somewhere went through a divisive remodel.  

I am moving and don't have Brad's Ross book in front of me, but its in there (I think) and maybe if he sees it he will chime in.

This site has discussed this before, and Tom Doak had another example when this has been discussed back then, but Inverness is where I became aware of the issue as both a golf fan and golf architect.

Later, in 1984, and having moved to Texas, I recall getting beat by Coore Crenshaw for a few club jobs because, well, Ben is legend in Texas, and I was a damn Yankee, but also because they had been pushing that they were "restoration architects" to these clubs.

Not sure when Geoff S started pushing for Thomas restorations (again, would need the date of his books on Thomas, Riv, etc.) but recall them being big items, just not sure of exact dates.

So, as far as my experience, that puts it in the 1977 time frame, and picking up speed by the mid 1980's.  As always, I could be wrong.   More to Dick's point, it wouldn't be surprising if someone pushed to restore some Old Tom Morris golf course to his original design shortly after his death, as a "tribute" (albeit, with a few pence changing hands!)

[PCCraig]

Ed,

Many would point to Rees Jones' restoration work at The Country Club of Brookline prior to the 1988 US Open as the first modern "restoration" of a course to its classic principals, but with an eye towards the modern game.

[Tom_Doak]

Oakmont may have been the example of tree clearing that caused many more clubs to understand the benefits, but I wouldn't call that the start of the restoration rage -- not at all.

The first real restoration work that I know of was done by Tom Rader, the superintendent of Shoreacres, back around 1980 I think.  That was after the flak the Fazios took for their remodeling of both Inverness and Oak Hill (East), which caused Tom Weiskopf to state the need for "a society of preserve Donald Ross courses," and which caused Tom Fazio to avoid consulting work entirely for almost 20 years.

My first two consulting jobs were at The Camargo Club [starting in 1984] and Garden City Golf Club [starting in 1986].  Camargo has been a true restoration, but they did it over 15-20 years so its example was not widely recognized.  Garden City was not exclusively a restoration, although we cleared trees in the same manner as Oakmont.  The Creek Club, which I worked on with Gil Hanse back in 1992, was probably our first real restoration of a course.

Pat just beat me to mentioning Rees Jones' work at Brookline.  That work did get a lot of attention, even though it wasn't as big of an overhaul as some believe.

[Dick Kirkpatrick]

In 1968 or 69, I was involved with "restoration or reconstruction" of Oakland Hills south course with RTJ Sr. Wadsworth Const. was the General Contactor for whom I was sub-contracting.
While it was not really a restoration but an updating to bring the fairway bunkers into play for the modern golfer, we moved the fairway bunkers varying distances, usually placing them about 265 yards from the pro tee.
We built two new greens and added several tees, and restored most of the greenside bunkering.
The bank of the 16th green was shaved down to the pond.
This is where Gary Player hit his shot over the large willow tree to set up a birdie that likely won him the PGA in 1972

[Ed Oden]

Thanks for the responses.  I see now that there were a number of examples of restorations in the 80s.  Let me phrase the question in a slightly different way.  When do you think that restoration became more of a trend rather than an isolated proposition?  And how do you think 1996 fits into the timeline?  My gut is that 1996 was just a shade before the restoration frenzy truly caught fire.

[RDecker]

Wampanoag outside of Hartford CT was the renovation you were thinking of and the dissatifaction with the results there were the spark for the creation of the Donald Ross Society.  I believe Silva did that work and apparently it wasn't well regarded but as I can recollect the Renovation word always seems to be linked to Rees Jones, especially pertaining to televised golf.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Tom,

I recall working with Tom Rader at Shoreacres on that while working for K and N.  I designed a new putting green for them one year.  Tom would take us around, showing us holes like the tenth, and that the bunker represented the Road of the Road Hole, etc.  Even then, I didn't quite pick up on the fact that Raynor did all that stuff over and over.  It was fascinating.

Ed,

I think CC pushed the renos in early American style all through the 80's and by 1996 were looking for new courses to design.  At the same time, others took up the mantle, like Prichard for Ross, Silva for Raynor, etc.  But, I believe the movment was in full swing by the 1980's, and maybe the good results were just starting to get wider publicity by then,

[BCrosby]

To what extent were these first 'restorations' sold to the clubs as 'upgrades' and not as restorations?

Was the fact that Ross features, for example, were being restored pitched to memberships as an end in itself or was it down-played and treated as incidental to the 'improvement' of the course?

Whoever it was at Oakmont who took out all the trees in the ealry 80's had more guts then I do. The pushback must have been incredible.

Bob 

[Tim Nugent]

I've always felt that it was more of a marketing Phenom. In the 80's, old line clubs were under pressure from a slew of new options and needed to differentiate their courses.  A group of architects siezed on this and became "experts" of D.O.G.  X or Y. and went around to Clubs of that pedigree and sold them on the need of Restoration.  It soon became a self-fulling prophesy as Club A saw what Club B anc C were doing and had to get on the Band Wagon.

[Patrick_Mucci]

My guess is that none of the clubs mentioned initiated the restoration movement.

I would further guess that the genesis wasn't necessarily club specific.

I think the concept of restoration owes it's genesis to reactive rather than proactive forces.

Reactive in the sense that members and outsiders alike recoiled at the butchering of various clubs/holes and the natural reaction to those disfigurations was an attempt to undo or correct the architectural mistake, triggering the desire to RESTORE.

I believe that some of the architectural mistakes caught the eye of people like Geoff Shackelford, Brad Klein, Ron Whitten and others who could express their dissatisfaction in a public forum easily accessed by the golf community/universe.

That pressure, the airing of the architectural mistake in public, caused the offending club to correct their mistake, vis a vis a restoration.

Those members opposed to the disfiguration ceased upon the adverse publicity and championed undoing it, ergo, restoration.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[Ian Andrew]

I always thought the work done by Karl Olsen at National Golf Links of America to be the catalyst to people's interest in restoration. I think the pace made it easy to understand the differences and each was remarkable in re-establishing the scale and expanse of the course.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Ian,

I'm not so sure that Karl was an innovator rather than a restorer.

What did he restore at NGLA ?

[Ronald Montesano]

I've put in a bid to restore the Olympic course in Brasil...

[Tom_Doak]

I've always felt that it was more of a marketing Phenom. In the 80's, old line clubs were under pressure from a slew of new options and needed to differentiate their courses.  A group of architects siezed on this and became "experts" of D.O.G.  X or Y. and went around to Clubs of that pedigree and sold them on the need of Restoration.  It soon became a self-fulling prophesy as Club A saw what Club B anc C were doing and had to get on the Band Wagon.

There is certainly some truth to this angle as well.  The restoration "rage" started right around the same time that several architects decided it was their best way to make a living in the business.  Until then, it was just a few projects here and there.

[Mike_Young]

I've always felt that it was more of a marketing Phenom. In the 80's, old line clubs were under pressure from a slew of new options and needed to differentiate their courses.  A group of architects siezed on this and became "experts" of D.O.G.  X or Y. and went around to Clubs of that pedigree and sold them on the need of Restoration.  It soon became a self-fulling prophesy as Club A saw what Club B anc C were doing and had to get on the Band Wagon.

There is certainly some truth to this angle as well.  The restoration "rage" started right around the same time that several architects decided it was their best way to make a living in the business.  Until then, it was just a few projects here and there.

Amen to both of these....

[BCrosby]

I think you guys have the causation upside down. In the 80's and into the early 90's the names of famous ODG's became known to a large number of golfers for the first time since the Great Depression. If your course was designed by one of these ODG's, it was an added boost to the prestige of the club.

Clubs, wanting to build on that prestige, went out looking for architects to restore their ODG's course. At first gnereralists were hired. Guys like Rees, Tom and others did the work. But as they got too busy with new courses, other architects figured out that there was plenty of low-hanging restoration fruit to be plucked. So they marketed themselves as specialists, encouraged the already existing interest in ODG's and got that work.

The prestige conferred by the new fame of ODG's circa 1990 inspired the idea of restorations and, later, the restoration specialists. Not the other way around.

Bob   

[Mike_Young]

Bob,
Good point.  Where clubs went wrong is when they moved from the "generalist" to the "specialist" most of the specialist had never even done their own courses but were somehow knew what to do with the ODG stuff.   

[BCrosby]

Mike -

A related question.  Why did the ODG's become such a big deal in the late 80's? Was it largely about the influence of books like the World Atlas or TD's CG? Golf course rankings in the big golf mags?

Bob

[Mike_Young]

Mike -

A related question.  Why did the ODG's become such a big deal in the late 80's? Was it largely about the influence of books like the World Atlas or TD's CG? Golf course rankings in the big golf mags?
I think it was "inflated historical writings" and the next thing we knew they were heroes...

Bob

[Ian Andrew]

I find it fascinating that you all believe someone couldn't simply choose to do "that" work instead of new work because they enjoyed it.

I've got a friend who is a mason, he repairs churches and government buildings mainly (old family business). He occasionally does new work and hates it. When I asked him about the work he said he would rather do the restoration work because these buildings need to be there for future generations to appreciate long after he's gone.

Not everyone desires to be in the car at the centre of the parade. Not all motivations are the same for being an architect.

[BCrosby]

Ian -

I'll let others speak for themselves, but I have nothing against restoration specialists. Some do good work, others not so good work. Just like any other architect. My comments above are an attempt to figure out why and how they arose as a branch of the profession.

Bob

[Ian Andrew]

None taken.

I think there has a small group who actually this choose this path because they can.

I guess someone who restores painting or fresco's is not an artist by the same judgement. I think they are.

There are some people who just love history and the elegance of the past that we don't see very much today.

I encouraged a restoration in 1992 that avoided rebuilding holes and major work because it was the right thing to do. I worked in this space because I thought Toronto had a lot of courses of historical significance that were really important and were under pressure to rebuild. It did bring me work, but that's not why I did it. I just cared about what was going to happen to those course and became very vocal. It brought me work because others began to feel the same way. So now I do the work, still do because it matters to me.

I get frustrated when what I do is looked down upon as disingenuous.

[Lou_Duran]

input error.

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()