Pine Valley - A Retro Photo Tour

[Sven Nilsen]

A look back at the early days of a classic.


Course Aerial


Oct. 1923 Golf Illustrated

[Sven Nilsen]

Hole 1





Hole 2





Aug. 1917 Golf Illustrated -




Jan. 1921 Golf Illustrated -





Nov. 1933 Golf Illustrated -





Golf Architecture in America -





1940 -





2nd and 8th Holes


Jan. 1922 Golf Illustrated -





Hole 3





Aug. 1926 Golf Illustrated -





April 1929 Golfdom -

[Sven Nilsen]

Hole 4








1939 -





Hole 5





Aug. 1915 Golf Illustrated -





Sept. 1915 Golf Illustrated -





Dec. 1916 Golf Illustrated





April 1933 Golf Illustrated -

[Sven Nilsen]

Hole 7









Golf Architecture in America -





1940 -





Hole 8





Feb. 1917 Golf Illustrated -





Aug. 1926 Golf Illustrated -





Golf Architecture in America -





Hole 9

[Sven Nilsen]

10th Hole





July 1915 Golf Illustrated -





Aug. 1926 Golf Illustrated -





June 1929 Golf Illustrated -






Golf Architecture in America -






11th Hole


March 1959 Golfdom -

[Sven Nilsen]

Hole 14


Aug. 1926 Golf Illustrated -





Golf Architecture in America -





Hole 15





Hole 16





Golf Architecture in America -

[Sven Nilsen]

Hole 17





Golf Architecture in America -





Hole 18













Aug. 1915 Golf Magazine -





April 1917 Golf Illustrated -





June 1929 Golf Illustrated -






Nov. 1931 Golf Illustrated -




Golf Architecture in America -

[Sven Nilsen]

Players on the Course


June 1929 Golf Illustrated -

[Colin Macqueen]

Sven,


This is an awesome set of pictures and a great idea to have the "retro" aspect of it al lin one handy place.  What is dazzling me is the sheer vision that Crump had to have. To envisage these holes at the beginning of the project beggars belief. To have imagined the greens, perched up there, makes me realise what a genius he was.  The unkempt look due to its young age is so raw and I bet Crump would be amazed to see how relatively preened the course looks today.


A great idea by you and thanks.  It opens my eyes to the talent that good golf course architects must have.


Cheers Colin

[Alex Miller]

Really wonderful Sven!


Interesting to see a couple of what I assume are incorrect yardages for the 10th and 14th holes in the captions.


The dunes/bunkers in that shot of the 15th are astounding, as is the pimple on 18. Thanks for this!

[Patrick_Mucci]

Sven,


Great photos although I think some may be mislabeled.


PV had three great skyline greens that should be restored

[Jeff Bergeron]

Sven, these are the posts that make GCA great! Thank you.

[Phil Young]

Sven,

Here is the photograph of the 2nd hole used numerous times in magazines. Note that Mr. & Mrs. Tillinghast are playing...


Also, the photo of the couple on the 5th hole is of the Tillinghast's and was probably taken on the same day...

[mike_malone]

Hard to believe that they wanted the course to look like that forever.

[Sven Nilsen]

Great photos although I think some may be mislabeled.

Pat:


Which ones do you think are mislabeled?


Sven

[Alan FitzGerald CGCS MG]

Great pics


15 is mislabeled - It is 6


The rest look correct


I always love these old pictures of the Valley, the lack of trees really highlights the elevation changes like 6 fway on the horizon behind 3 green

[archie_struthers]

Just fabulous stuff ,Swen !   I have been fortunate enough to to watch it's evolution over the last forty years.
Amazing that despite the changes the golf course still shines thru as it did in the beginning. 


Would love to have seen the raw version , understand the difficulty maintaining it that way .

[Ronald Montesano]

One of the hole five photos has Clementon, PA in its original magazine caption.

[BCrosby]

Wow. Great stuff Sven. Wonderful.


I had not seen pics of the old 8th green [/size]before[/size][size=78%]. [/size][/size]I prefer it to the current double green hole. Ditto the original skyline 9th green.[size=78%]

[/size]It's nice to be reminded of the wild, unkempt look of the older course. What was with the urge to tidy up golf courses that became so pervasive in the 70's and later? [size=78%]


Bob

[Patrick_Mucci]

Wow. Great stuff Sven. Wonderful.


I had not seen pics of the old 8th greenbefore[size=78%]. [/size]I prefer it to the current double green hole. Ditto the original skyline 9th green.It's nice to be reminded of the wild, unkempt look of the older course. What was with the urge to tidy up golf courses that became so pervasive in the 70's and later? [size=78%]
 
Bob,
 
I think TV and the PGA Tour were the culprits.
 
In the 1967 Open at Baltusrol the areas near the greenside bunkers had tall whispy fescue grasses.
 
Shortly thereafter, the clean, crisp look took hold and that look disappeared.
 
I attribute that to clubs trying to emulate what they saw every week on TV.



Bob
[/size]

[Ivan Lipko]

Doesn't make me wanna play this....landfill
We should be happy to live in this era, I am afraid we don't actually realize how great our times are.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Ivan,
 
I think it shows how spoiled golfers have become.
 
Imagine playing Pine Valley with equipment circa 1918.
 
That would be a daunting, if not an overwhelming challenge

[Robert Mercer Deruntz]

Looks like the Devil's Asshole was significantly deepened at some point. Hopefully,  one day they will use these photos to clear trees and restore the 18th green!

[Patrick_Mucci]

RMD,
 
The DA was not an original feature, but, added some years later.
 
As to the 18th green, I've been advocating it's restoration for over a decade.
 
Ditto on the trees.

Looks like the Devil's Asshole was significantly deepened at some point. Hopefully,  one day they will use these photos to clear trees and restore the 18th green!

[Robert Mercer Deruntz]

Though not an original feature, the bunker became significantly deeper than the photo depicts.