Miami Beach Golf Club - Carl Fisher, Langford, Park and Tippett

[Sven Nilsen]

Many of us know the story of Carl Fisher.  Bespectacled due to a case of astigmatism, Fisher made a fortune during the dawn of the automobile industry.  His passion for auto racing and travel lead him down two culturally significant paths, the development of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the creation of the Dixie Highway, a road of dreams leading from the upper Midwest to a termination just across a rickety causeway from his new vacation dreamland, Miami Beach.

Fisher started the development of Miami Beach around 1913.  Formerly a swampy outlying island from the town of Miami, his work crews changed the landscape into an inhabitable beach side area.  Along the way, he built hotels, housing and, of course, golf courses.

The Annual Guides list the following golf courses for Miami Beach (all associated with the Miami Beach Golf Club):

Miami Beach Golf Course:
-1916 Guide - date of 1916, 18 holes, 6,088 yards, Grass greens, Course has been under construction for two years.
-1917, 1920 and  1921 Guides - date of 1916, 18 holes, 6,088 yards, Grass greens.
-1922 and 1923 Guides - date of 1915, 18 holes, par 72, 6,028 yards, Grass greens.
-1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1931 Guides - date of 1915, 18 holes, par 72, 6,130 yards, Grass greens.

Flamingo Golf Course -
-1923 Guide - noted with no information.
-1925 and 1926 Guides - date of 1922, 9 holes, par 35, 3,144 yards, Grass greens.

Bay Shore (or Bayshore) Golf Course -
-1923 Guide - noted with no information.
1925, 1926, 1927,1928, 1929 and 1931 Guides - date of 1922, 18 holes, par 72, 6,581 yards, Grass greens.

La Gorce Course -
-1927, 1928, 1929 and 1931 Guides - date of 1927, 18 holes, par 71, 6,200 yards, Grass greens.

In addition, the 1928 list of Florida Golf Courses notes all four courses with the same names and the similar yardages.  The 1930 list of Florida Golf Courses includes the Bay Shore and LaGorce courses, but not the other two.

So who did Fisher use to design these courses?

We'll start with the Miami Beach Golf Course.  I've posted the following article taken from the March 25, 1925 edition of The Palm Beach Daily News elsewhere, but I think it bears repeating.  According to the second to last paragraph of the piece, the answer appears to be a rather young William Langford, and its the earliest reference to Langford's design work that I've seen.  How Langford and Fisher were connected is a matter of speculation at this point, but perhaps the answers lie in their Midwestern roots.

[Sven Nilsen]

Here are two early shots of golf on Miami Beach.  The first dates from 1920, the second from 1921.  It is my assumption that both of these shots are of the Miami Beach Golf Course.





This third shot is also from 1921, and is titled "Clearing a Miami Beach Golf Course."  My guess this depicts work being done on the land for either the Flamingo or Bay Shore Golf Course.



I don't have a date for this last shot, but the similarities to the features of the course in the first picture make me think its the same place.

[Sven Nilsen]

The following article (The Miami News, October 17, 1919) contains a description of the state of golf in the city of Miami as a whole at that time.  There were two courses, one in the city, and one on Miami Beach built by Carl Fisher (the Miami Beach Golf Course referenced above).

The article makes note of the construction of a nine hole course for the Flamingo Hotel and plans for another 18 hole course to be built once the new fill is made.

The last paragraph notes, with a sense of urgency, the competitiveness among southern resort in drawing guests.

[Sven Nilsen]

The construction of the Flamingo Golf Course and the Bay Shore Golf Course are discussed in a bit more detail in this March 23, 1921 article from The Miami News:

[Sven Nilsen]

I have not found a citation for who built the Flamingo Golf Course, but the name associated with the Bay Shore course is Willie Park.

Buried in this April 14, 1921 article from The Miami News is Park's name in reference to the laying out of the greens. 

The article also contains some interesting discussion of the tools used in the building process, including Holt and Cletrac tractors.

[Sven Nilsen]

After the construction of the Flamingo and Bay Shore courses, Miami Beach had three golf courses.  The following photo (taken from the East) is dated from 1924-25, and shows the area in a bit of detail.  I'm not sure exactly what courses appear in this photo, but perhaps by identifying any of the various hotels (Lincoln, Flamingo) we can narrow it down.



For the sake of comparison, here's a 1947 shot of the same area taken from the North:

[Sven Nilsen]

The first mention of the fourth course (the La Gorce course) appears in this short blurb from the May 1, 1923 edition of The Miami News:



The fourth course is referenced again in a August 29, 1926 piece from the The Miami News.  The article contains the conventional understanding of the day of the history of golf.  It goes on to discuss the state of golf in Miami in general, noting the Flamingo, Miami Beach and Bayshore courses (although I believe the article is mistaken as to the order of opening).  It notes the opening "this year" of the "King Cole or Nautilus course," which must have been early names for what became the La Gorce Golf Course.  The article concludes with a reference to Capt. H.C.C. Tippett and his thoughts on the golf market in Miami.

[Sven Nilsen]

So why are we hearing from Tippett at this point?

Mark Bourgeois was kind enough to forward an old thread on Tippett (Mark calls him a Gatsby type character):

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,30872.0.html

Tippett's history with Fisher is touched on in this thread from around a year ago on Montauk Downs by Jim Kennedy:

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,54700.0.html

You can read a bit about his modern day legacy here (as Tippett's life had a bit of a tabloid quality to it, the Daily Mail seems like an appropriate source):

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-391079/Camilla-tears-family-secret.html

And to cap it all off, now we have a reference to Tippett being responsible for the design of the fourth course at Miami Beach, the La Gorce Golf Course (The Miami News - Jan. 31, 1928):

[Sven Nilsen]

On March 25, 1928, The Miami News published an in depth article on the new La Gorce course.  The article contains a great discussion not only of the course itself, but of the larger trends in golf course design at the time.

Some points to take away:

1.  Tippett also designed the Meadowbrook course in New York (assuming this is Meadowbrook Hunt, and not the one in Buffalo).

2.  There appears to be a bit of disdain for the "modern" trend of greens full of undulations, and the La Gorce greens were built "moderately flat" in an effort to be "fair."

3.  Back-trapping of greens is described as "cowardly" as it discourages bold play, and an inhibition to players who seek "to take his first green shot facing the tee."  [I find this comment highly amusing, and the author of the piece passes it off as one of serveral idiosyncracies of the professional player.]

[Sven Nilsen]

So what happened to the four Miami Beach Golf Club courses? 

Bay Shore and La Gorce are still there, each with an interesting history of survival.  Bay Shore was used during WWII as a training ground, and after the war it narrowly escaped the clutches of development by being condemned and turned into a municipal course.  The original course, now known as Miami Beach Golf Club, sadly, has been replaced by an Art Hills overhaul that the course's website proudly claims as a major upgrade.  Whatever work Willie Park may have done has long since disappeared.

La Gorce, the scene of Michael Jordan's recent cargo shorts fiasco (the impetus of a rather lengthy thread hereabouts), similarly escaped being turned into a housing development after the war when a group of investors purchased the course.  The story goes that a group of wealthy Miami golfers were looking for a new club after the closure of several courses for use as part of the war effort.  The course exists today as the centerpiece of the exclusive club.  I'd be interested to learn a bit more about the work the course has seen in the intervening years, as perhaps there's still some Tippett on the ground.

I'm not sure what happened to the Flamingo Course, but unless it has survived as the small Bayshore Municipal Course located adjacent to today's Miami Beach Golf Club, it is probably long gone.

As for Langford's Miami Beach Golf Course, it, too, has been lost.  A June 26, 1927 article in The Miami News suggests the course was turned into the Miami Beach Municipal Golf Course, and underwent significant changes at that time.  This information runs contrary to the Annual Guides, which list the two courses as in existence at the same time.  My guess is the change did take place, and the Guides mistakenly carried on the listings for the old name.

[Sven Nilsen]

There's one more course to note from the area, that being Normandy Isles.  Built between 1936 and 1940, the public William Flynn design (although the article cites one August Geiger) was heralded as an engineering masterpiece and a course that rivaled many of those in the North for the contours it contained.

From the Miami Sunday News, October 15, 1950:



The course was reworked by Art Hills years later.  Here are before (from the 1950 article) and after aerial images, taken from pretty much the same vantage points.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Wow, Sven, great stuff. Didn't know Tippet designed Meadowbrook. Will have to dig into that one.

You've discovered the Miami Archives and the Wendler Collection in the Florida Archives, yes? What we really need is for someone to physically visit the Miami Archives. Carl Fisher's papers are there. Would be interesting to see what those contain on golf and on Tippet as well.

The diagonal road in the pic below is Dade Blvd. When the muni course was built it bisected Dade. My notes say the muni is the course to the left of Dade and then the far strip of holes to the right. In the foreground my notes say are a par 3 but that doesn't look right. Could it be that was Bayshore, which today is known as...Bayshore, but now a par 3 and in a much smaller footprint?



By the way, from the Wendler here's a 1930 pic of La Gorce:


State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/55338


Here another, date given 1925 -- that can't be right:

State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/55275

The Matlock Collection in the Miami Archives has a few pics of La Gorce as well.


Matlack Collection, HistoryMiami, 93-27



Matlack Collection, HistoryMiami, 95-27



Matlack Collection, HistoryMiami, 107-27


Matlack Collection, HistoryMiami, 55-27

Mark

[Mark Bourgeois]

Here's another pic of Miami Beach CC (the muni) from the Wendler collection, this time of the portion of the course south of Dade Blvd, taken 1928.

State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/55337


I think these photos you posted are of Miami Beach. The course was bordered to the south by Lincoln Road.

[Dan Moore]

Sven, great stuff.  Can see primitive similarity to Langford in the Miami Beach photos.  1913 sounds too early but even 1916 if that can be corroborated that would be quite a find. 

[Jim_Kennedy]

Tippett was responsible for building Montauk for Fisher, perhaps the writer mistook it for Meadowbrook.

[Sven Nilsen]

Mark:

Thanks for the adding the additional photos to the thread.  That little par 3 is a bit of a mystery as to why its named Bayshore.  The website for the current day Miami Beach Golf Club notes that the course used to be the Bayshore course, so my guess is the par 3 is a more recent addition to the scene, perhaps borrowing land that used to be the old Miami Beach Golf Course.

Dan:

The 1916 Annual Guide notes that the Miami Beach Golf Course had been under construction for the last two years.  If indeed it was Langford, its possible that the work began as early as 1914.  Perhaps the answers lie in the Miami Archives, as suggested by Mark.

Jim:

I wondered about that as well.  I have 1894 for the initial date for Meadowbrook, with Emmet coming in around 1914 and Tillie some time later.  Perhaps Tippett did do some work at some point, but from the sounds of it I'm not sure it rises to the level of it having been "designed" by Tippett.

All three: 

The thought that sticks with me is that the three courses that are still in existence (the old Bayshore, La Gorce and Normandy Isles (now Normandy Shores) may represent three lost opportunities to preserve not only a bit of Miami Beach history, but also a good bit of golf history as well.  We have a Willie Park, a Tippett and a Flynn that have been lost over the years to the interceding work of Art Hills and RTJ, amongst others.  I have no idea if the courses are better now than they were then, but my hunch is it would be a good bit of fun to play those layouts now as they were back in the day.

Sven

[Sven Nilsen]

This March 21, 1928 article from The Miami News has a bit of followup on the Miami Beach Municipal Course (fka Miami Beach Golf Course).

Also of note is the discussion of the development of Normandy Isle, a project that did not commence until 1936.

[Sven Nilsen]

A little follow up on Park's connections to Miami Beach.

First, Park advertised an "Alton Beach GC" as part of his portfolio.  This is undoubtedly the Bayshore Course, which was developed by an entity called the Alton Beach Realty Company (most likely controlled by Fisher).  The back pages of this site contain a few lists of Park's work that include Alton Beach, so although we knew that Park had worked on a course in Miami, we weren't sure exactly which one.

Fisher, a native of Indianapolis, may have been familiar with Park's work at Highlands G&CC in that city, which I understand to have just immediately proceeded the Bayshore project.  Perhaps Fisher played the course, or perhaps his friends up North made the suggestion after being impressed by what they saw.

It is interesting to note that Park would embark on a project on almost the opposite end of the Dixie Highway a short time later, that being the fourth course at Olympia Fields.

[Sven Nilsen]

A followup article on Normandy Isles from the March 28, 1938 edition of The Miami News:

[J Cabarcos]

Thank to Sven and Mark for uncovering so much information about Miami Beach Golf.   

I found another Miami News article from 1921 citing Bayshore GC and Willie Park.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bayshore%20%22willie%20park%22%20site:news.google.com/newspapers&source=newspapers

As a current member of the Miami Beach Golf Club, f/k/a Bayshore GC I was well aware of it former PGA tour pedigree but the Willie Park connection would appear far fetched if you played the watery course today.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Sven,
Where, in the scheme of things, does Miami Shores Isle fall?

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=c1MtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=i9cFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1941%2C4339503

[Sven Nilsen]

Jim:

I've copied what I posted on the other thread about it below (http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,57804.75.html).  I'm not sure what happened to the Ross course, or even exactly where it was.  But by all accounts the current Miami Shores CC was built in 1938.

There's another course from the Miami area with a bit of an interesting architectural pedigree.  Miami Shores CC is noted as a Donald Ross design from 1925, and was advertised heavily in the local papers at that time noting the plan for two courses designed by Ross.  I'm not sure what happened to the course, but it is noted as being NLE.

A few years later, in 1938, a new course was built in Miami with a similar name.  The Miami Shores Village G&CC was built by two former Flynn and Toomey employees, one of them being Red Lawrence and the other Louis Wilson.  Lawrence worked for a time in Florida with a home base of Boca Raton before relocating to the Phoenix area.  Known today as Miami Shores CC, the course is still in existence.

From The Miami News, Jan. 5, 1938:

[Sven Nilsen]

From the sounds of it, Miami Shores Island became Indian Creek Island:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2206&dat=19350529&id=X1AtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=c9UFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2376,4681406

The DRS has the Ross course as having been built.  Makes one wonder why Flynn was building a new course a short time later.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Sven,
Thanks. It does make you wonder why Flynn made the scene, but it also doesn't sound like there was a course on the island in 1935.

Perhaps Ross never got to do anything, another casualty of the Florida land bust.

[Sven Nilsen]

How's this for confusing:

Miami Shores CC (NLE) was built by Ross in 1925 on Miami Shores Island which became Indian Creek Island which is also where Flynn built Indian Creek CC in 1930 prior to two Flynn associates building Miami Shores Village G&CC in Miami Shores in 1938, which later became known as Miami Shores CC.

They certainly didn't make it easy for us to try to figure all of this out.

Sven