There was another post made recently called Are Great Courses Left Alone? In it examples are given where people felt they have been and Highlands Links was mentioned. I thought I would share the history I researched about the evolution of the course from construction to my involvement. This was part of the Master Planning process for Parks Canada.
Architectural Evolution of Highlands Links
An Overview of Construction - 1938-1939
Stanley Thompson conceived the idea of getting Parks Canada to build new golf courses as a make work project for the people of the area during the depression era. He saw the government as one of the last sources of available money to build a golf course. He sold it to the government as a way to take the hardest hit communities and put those people back to work. The end result would be a new source of permanent income and employment for the community.
Stanley Thompson convinced Parks Canada to build, not one, but two great courses in the boundaries of their Park. Since it was a make work project, the construction at Highlands Links was largely done by hand and was limited to one steam shovel and one truck to make sure it employed the maximum number of people.
While the course was supposed to be completely inside the Park, Stanley selected areas outside the Park for inclusion in the golf course. Many people were forced to surrender ancestral homes in order to supply Stanley Thompson with the land to build a golf course. Most ended up on the construction team, since it took a very long time for them to get reimbursed for the land that was expropriated and these people needed income to survive.
While we think of this great course as Stanley Thompson’s Mountains and Ocean course, it also represents one of the more practical routing he ever conceived. Most of the holes of the golf course are routed where Thompson was able to find soil. While we still cringe at the thought of Thompson taking people’s land for his course, he must have clearly seen that if he did not use their farm land, there was not going to be enough money to complete the project.
Since most of the site was not treed, Thompson was able to recognize the opportunities he had for natural holes. He routed his holes in over and around the great flowing contours to deliver a series of stunning golf holes. He also was careful to avoid as much earthwork as possible to keep the costs down to a minimum. Stanley Thompson came out each month to inspect the progress. He changed anything that he did not like and often would gather the men to change greens or bunkers to create the design he was looking for.
His lead foreman was originally Hennie Henereson, an Engineer, who was given the task of clearing the site and organizing the distribution of soil around the property. This was eventually taken over by Geoffrey Cornish. Cornish supervised the removal of 12,000 cubic yards of topsoil from the 6th fairway and at least another 700 cubic yards of topsoil brought down from further up the Clyburn Valley (about a 400 yards up from 9th green) to be distributed over the site. The soil was used for the greens, the tees and to cover the rocky part and some of the hills on the fairways. The rest was done by hand.
The course was seeded to fescue and New Zealand Bent, but the fescues quickly died out giving way to poa annua that is predominant today. Thompson also sent Ken Gullan to give the course “a definitive links look” He transplanted Marram grass from near by to some of the “seascape holes.” That work was mostly confined to the 4th and 6th holes. (The small dunes were slowly mined for sand till they were completely gone).
The course came in slightly over budget and was built for around $180,000. The budget including the bridges was around $167,000 including overruns.
Of special note, the 12th which was to play over the brook had to be altered because the money for that particular bridge was no longer in the construction budget.
Earliest Changes
The first significant change I was able to find was in 1967 when Cecil MacNeil constructed the blue tee on the 11th hole that changed the hole to a par 5. The 13th hole had changed from a par 5 to a par 4 so the course remained a par 72. (original tee still remains available on right across river)
In 1974 Cecil MacNeil and his crew excavated the pond on the 12th hole. The area had been wet previously and this formalized the pond.
The big change in 1974 was the rebuilding of the 13th green. It was done to elevate the level of the green in an attempt to prevent flooding. The original green was approximately two to three feet lower than it is today and was bowl shaped. It featured a swale that ran diagonally from front right to back left of the green.
In 1979 the Park Superintendent at the time asked Cecil MacNeil to close 27 bunkers in order to make the operation more efficient.
In 1980 the large bunker behind number 8 was closed.
In 1982 Stewart Best created the pond on the 6th hole to take care of drainage problems found on the 6th fairway.
In 1987 Stewart Best extended the tees back on the 5th hole and lengthened the 8th tee about 40 yards dramatically changing the nature of the original hole.
Graham Cooke’s "Renovation" 1994-1996
Joe Robinson, the long time professional at Highlands Links described the Cooke renovation best: “The renovation project of 1996 was touted to be a restoration of Stanley Thompson’s Highlands Links. No attempt, however, was made to restore the bunkers to their original design and liberty was taken to even remove or relocate bunkers.”
While Cooke and Steve Miller set about to re-introduce the bunkers that were removed, they surprisingly choose to put their own stamp on the course, rather than put them back to their original form. They choose to ignore the numerous photographs found in the clubhouse, the collection of aerials available from the Park, and the landforms that were still intact. Many of the bunkers were built in new locations, some were removed and all of them re-shaped into a modern style that had little or nothing to do with the original artistry found in the bunkers at Highlands Links.
Cooke was also asked to lay out a continuous cart path system for the golf course so that carts would be available for use on a daily basis. The cart paths helped deal with wear in certain areas and provided people with year round access to carts, but their placement had a negative effect on the aesthetics of the course. Far too often the paths are placed squarely into view and even right in play.
There was an extensive underbrushing program done at the time to make the areas in the trees more playable, while this was initially effective, it did not deal with the fact that the trees would regenerate again. The undergrowth has largely grown back in leaving the exact same problem as before.
Cooke and Miller rebuilt a series of tees to provide the course with more available tee area. These have generally benefited the turfgrass operation providing additional surface area to help spread wear. The new 6th tee was an excellent addition creating a Cape style tee shot. I’m a fan of that addition, but was also told locally that credit should be given to Stuart Best.
1997-2007
There were no significant architectural changes in those 10 years.
The biggest problem has been the continual encroachment of the tree lines into the playing corridors. I had played the course for the first time in 1981 and taken a photographic record of that day. The course was much wider open back them. On my return in 2003, the tree growth was so out of hand that the turfgrass is not getting enough sunlight and airflow to survive. The 9th green was bare of turf in multiple locations.
2008 to Present
I was hired in 2008 by Parks Canada to restore the course.
In the fall of 2009 the Park gave permission for the course to undergo an extensive tree removal program to improve the growing conditions and return the original playing corridors. While there were exceptions presented, we were largely granted full latitude to remove trees to address turf issues and restore original views. To date 9 acres have been removed and most of the historical views have been returned. Most of the remaining tree removal is for playability and turf.
The bunker restoration was done in 2011 and 2012. It was done with a backhoe (on some days – not all) and an in house crew with zero experience (unless you count me). We cut and replaced our own sod through most of the project. It was fun, but the work is not perfect. We had to put a lot of features back together and we did the best we could with the photos, aerials and equipment that we had.
Some of the work is real accurate and solid, other spots need some work.
The recent "berm" on the 12th was done by Parks Canada Engineers and not by myself.
So there’s a history of Highlands Links. How intact it is based upon your own personal interpretation.