From Tom Paul:
Mark:
Thanks for bringing back this old thread. It's interesting. I'd forgotten it existed.
It would be good to know what golf course(s) first comprehensively used seed or sod in America, and who was responsible for proposing and developing it, but I have always wondered who was the first course in the world to comprehensively use seed or sod. I do recall from this thread that I have long believed that very early "inland" courses abroad probably just used pre-existing meadow grasses for their courses, and the very early "linksland" courses used pre-existing, naturally occurring agrostis (bent) and festuca (fescue) on their swards (fairways). It had been my feeling that the first courses abroad that may have comprehensively sodded or seeded were probably in the Heathlands (exs: Sunningdale and Huntercombe). It's hard to say if a course in America preceded that or preceded GB.
I agree with what Jim Kennedy said above----eg some form of bent grass or dwarf strains were used in various applications previous to its use for golf. Those preceding uses for sports or recreation were apparently lawn tennis, cricket, perhaps croquet or even some of the huge landscape-architectured lawns of massive parkland estates in GB and/or France, Germany, Italy etc. And I do recall doing some research on the history of some seed companies such as Carters Tested Seed Co. The interesting thing is a company like that one is as old or older as the history of golf architecture itself (perhaps as early as the 1830s for Carters).
I do recall some years ago looking through a fascinating photo scrapebook at NGLA that was filled with very early photographs of golfers playing on massive lawns of what looked to be parkland estates in GB (they were not playing golf on golf courses, just massive lawns).
Bob Crosby:
For your information G. Herbert Windeler (TCC) was British born (married a Bostonian) and he was also the first foreign born president (1903) of the USGA. It was during his presidency that the USGA invited the Oxford/Cambridge golf teams over to play the Americans in 1903.