[Gary Slatter]

I've met a 78 year old golf Pro, in the Dunvegan, who swore over his Bellhaven Best that Tom Bendelow (from Aberdeen, the future home of Trump's 6th number one course) actually designed some courses in America that Donald Ross gets credit for.  I took his word for it and will begin my search tonight........anyone else ever heard this?

[tlavin]

He gets credit for improving some of them, that's for sure.

[ClarkW]

That depends on what you consider "credit"... Allegheny Country Club in Sewickley, PA was originally designed by Tom Bendelow. Donald Ross subsequently came in and made changes including adding at least three holes. Most references that you now see to Allegheny credit it to Ross despite Bendelow's original work.

[Tom Yost]

Funny you should mention...  just today in another forum, a poster made mention of a Donald Ross in Cincinnati - the Maketewah CC.

I hadn't heard of it so I checked out their website where it is revealed that it was originally laid out by Bendelow (1910), then subsequently "redesigned and refined" by Ross.

Tom

[Mike_Young]

Ross gets credit for most of the Georgia courses built before WW2....

[John Kavanaugh]

Why would Bendelow care.  He takes double credit for many courses including two that I am a member.  LCCC and Cross Roads....Quail Creek and Robinson.  Who knows how many more are out there as two names one course.  Don't even think about two something and one another.

[Tyler Kearns]

Gary,

Both courses Bendelow designed here in Winnipeg (St. Charles and Pine Ridge) were subsequently & substantially re-designed by Donald Ross. I can't speak with authority on St. Charles without reviewing their club history, however, I know from Brad Klein's book on Ross, and old newspaper reports, that Ross completely altered the bunker scheme at Pine Ridge, as well as creating four new holes, eleven sets of tees and six greens. Does that make it a Ross course? The Bendelow routing is mostly intact, although Ross new tee locations were different enough on some holes to alter par. Should they both be given credit? Should we care?

TK

[Tony Ristola]

Tyler,
I think we should care.

Credit should be given where due.

[Ally Mcintosh]

as an aside, who improved / toughened medinah no.3 in the 30's?

bendelow originally designed the course and george fazio did some redesign in the 70's but apparently it was altered in the 30's also...

does bendelow get the majority recognition for this course?

[Tom Roewer]

Palma Ceia C.C. in Tampa is another example.  Bendelow original and then i believe Ross rerouted, but it seems 9 out of 10 times credited to Ross.  If you Google it the first site credits Bendelow and the second Ross.

[Jeff_Brauer]

as an aside, who improved / toughened medinah no.3 in the 30's?

bendelow originally designed the course and george fazio did some redesign in the 70's but apparently it was altered in the 30's also...

does bendelow get the majority recognition for this course?

Tim Cronin's excellent Medinah Club History answers this......He says that Collis was credited with revamping No. 3 but in fact Bendelow had drawn plans for imrpoving it well before it was actually done and should be credited.

[Ian Andrew]

At Rosedale, in Toronto, Ross was brought in to rebuild 14 greens. He made improvements to the routing too, but it's still a Bendelow routing and he gets no credit.

[Jeff_Brauer]

In some ways, its understandable, isn't it? Bendelow's early work was for Spalding, and his charge was to create any kind of course to get golfers started.  In a way, his courses were meant to be disposable or at least upgraded at a later date when golf took off and more money was available.

Its hard to tell from these Ross remodels of several holes just how much Bendelow was left in tact, routing or feature wise. I'm sure it varied all over the map, but in many cases, were the first "blow outs" where a new course was built on the site of an old one when the club/town got serious about golf.

[BCrosby]

Your friend at the Dunvegan might have been thinking of East Lake.

It is usually referred to as being by Ross, but EL is technically a Ross remodel of a Bendelow course. Ross' redo however rerouted virtually the whole thing. He built a completely different course.

EL is a good test case for how attributions ought to be given. When a remodel is as extensive as the one Ross did at EL, I think attribution ought to be given to Ross, with a note that there was a prior routing by Bendelow.

To Mike Young's point above, he is correct. And that there is no record that Ross ever worked on those courses doesn't seem to bother the clubs in the least.

Bob

[Bradley Anderson]

I am unclear on an important fact regarding Bendelow: did he ever employ his own builders? And if he did, do we know what year he began contracting his work to include his own foremen operating under his direction?

Among other things, what makes a Ross course so distinctly Ross is he had teams of people trained to build his designs. That is not the impression however that I have formed for how Bendelow's work came into existence. As I understand it the work that Bendlow is credited for is essentially the routing of the golf course, but the features within the route where built with no particular franchise design style that he owned, or that made his work distinctive from the work of other architects.

That is my impression of Bendelow, but it may not even be accurate.

[Dan Moore]

Bendelow routed the original course at Skokie CC which Ross later redesigned in the teens.  In 1939 Langford added several new holes and redesigned several others.  It is now considered a composite Ross Langford course with no credit for Bendelow.

Bendelow was a transitional figure who initially laid out primitive starter courses (for lack of a better term) that were routed in a day by placing stakes in the location of the tees, hazards and greens with instructions provided as to how to complete the work.  Later, probably while employed with American Park Builders, his work evolved and involved detailed architectural drawings and supervision of construction.  In the teens and 20's he was widely cvonsidered an expert on turf and agronomy issues and lectured on such issues at the University of Illinois.  

The best preserved example of an early Bendelow I am aware of is Tuscumbia in Green Lake, Wisconsin and I think the original course at Medinah (not #3) is fairly well preserved as well.  

Anyone wanting to know more about Bendelow should pick up Stewart Bendelow's biography in which one can find a drawing of the original routing plan at Medinah.

[Tyler Kearns]

Tom Bendelow was working as a manager for Spalding Bros. in Chicago, and it seems his role as golf course architect was most importantly to give people places to play, thereby allowing Spalding Bros. to sell more balls, clubs etc.

I had always assumed that Bendelow was an "eighteen-stakes on a Sunday afternoon" architect, and I do not think his autobiography disclaimed such notions. However, I have a newspaper article from 1912 that states,

"Tom Bendelow, who for some time past has been superintending the laying out of the new Bird's Hill course..."

That does seem to imply a longer stay at the site than I would have otherwise anticipated.

TK

[Tyler Kearns]

Isn't this kind of like branding? Ross' renovation work ran the gamut, from total re-routing and design to much less invasive work depending on the quality of the original course. Many of the courses mentioned in this thread should more accurately be labeled as Bendelow/Ross designs, however, the name Donald Ross became synonymous with quality, namely because his courses were hosting lots of major championships (professional & amateur) from the 1920's to present, while those of Tom Bendelow were not.

People recognized the Ross brand, and I think a lot of clubs where Ross worked in any capacity, grabbed onto the name over the years to associate themselves with a well-known master. The Ross name got slapped onto promotional material, scorecards, hats etc., and likely sold a few memberships along the way. A lot of it is probably attributable to marketing as opposed to actual accreditation.

TK

[Pete Balzer]

Playing Maketewa this week. Found this thread, the more I think about it, Mak reminds me of Lakewood CC in Denver. Both solid courses, but neither remind me of what I think of when I think of a Ross. Are these (and more) course more Benelow than Ross?  No brainer to market the Ross name..

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