This Club started in 1916 and the 18 hole golf course opened in 1921. In a thread started by the late Tom MacWood in 2005:
http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?topic=18608.0He wrote:
Does anyone know who designed this golf course in Virginia Beach? From the few old photos and descriptions I've seen of this course, it looked to be very interesting...unusual bunkering, and green complexes...very sporty. A little like Banks or Emmet or Strong, but the course I believe was created around 1921-23, which would eliminate Banks...perhaps it was a no-name/amateur architect.
And Steve Shaffer pointed out the information from Executive Golfer magazine:
C.E. Neff, redesigned by Ault&Clark, 1987.
Information from Executive Golfer magazine, private club directory. Sometimes not reliable. Information usually provided by club.
Who is C. E. Neff?And MacWood replied:
Neff was an architect...I haven't been able to figure out if he designed the clubhouse or the golf course. The course looked to be pretty sophisticated for a amateur designer, but you never know.C.E. Neff is actually Clarence A. Neff, a rather noted building architect. For example, he designed the Cavalier Hotel in Virginia Beach, a short distance from Princess Anne CC.
Neff was also the first president of Princess Anne and part of the original group the organized the club and the real estate plan that went with it.
Here is an aerial from 1932 of part of the course (you can see the Cavalier Hotel to the far right):
(it is clickable)
In 2008 GCA's own Tim Liddy reworked Princess Anne.
A few months ago GCA's Lester George called me and asked if I had anything on who designed Princess Anne. Lester has also done some work at PACC, in particular the short game area. I told him I did not know anything more than what I could find from MacWood's 2005 thread and another post of two by Tom on the site.
Lester was curious if Clarence Neff might have had some help in designing the course. So game on!
I contacted the Virginia Beach Public Library to find out the most popular newspaper in that area during those years. I was told it was the Virginian-Pilot. I then proceeded order April through June of 1921 on microfilm as I knew they had a big amateur tourney there in late June of 1921, and I figured that was likely right after the course opened.
In the days before the tourney, the paper did an article previewing the upcoming tournament and you can read with your own eyes that PACC almost certainly had some very capable architect helping them out!
Last Saturday I presented my findings to the Club and found it to be simply an outstanding place. Of course my trusty camera came along for the ride and here is my photo album of the 'sporty' course that I know Tim Liddy is quite proud of and understandably so, IMHO:
http://xchem.villanova.edu/~bausch/images/albums/PACC/