[Anthony Gholz]

I have just finished reading James Hansen's bio of RTJSr and found it very enlightening, especially regarding Jones' struggles in the 1930s to start his path to becoming "the world's greatest architect."  It certainly gives me a new perspective to his personality and some of the driving forces behind his career.  As an undergraduate at Syracuse in the 60s I played the Green Lakes State Park course as part of a one credit phys-ed class I had to take.  Although aware of Jones and OH at the time I had no idea that Green Lakes was one of the first, if not the first 18-hole from scratch course by RTJ.  I have also been privileged played OH South several times from the early 60s to date so, although we are viewing the course thru aerials, I am aware of the ground plane contouring.  I have also followed the course changes over the years, the worst of which IMO are the stone pond retaining walls, not the constant lengthening.  If I never see another zillion dollars wasted on stone faced retaining walls ala Colonial in Ft Worth or here at OH it will be too soon.

While looking for older aerials of Detroit area Alison designed courses, I ran across an OHCC image from 1949.  Above are two aerials of Oakland Hills CC: the 1949 B&W from the Detroit Edison Archive and the color image from GE dated 5/9/10.  At the risk of irritating the anti-RTJ group I suggest looking at the similarities between the two layouts as opposed to the normal fixation on Jones re-bunkering for the 1951 Open and the subsequent changes by Trent and Rees (as well as Art Hills) to lengthen the course.  It's been discussed on many occasions previously, although not so much on gca, that Rosses routing of the course mostly survived the Jones 1951 Open changes.  I also read (RW?) that Ross had done a re-bunkering plan for the course in 1948 prior to his death and that a copy of that plan was seen by Jones and is still in the OH archive.  In the plan Ross supposedly was going to remove his short cross bunkering and add "many" bunkers further out.

The routing is remarkably intact to this day not withstanding the Jones remake of #16 which looks remarkably benign compared to some of the Fazio changes at, say, Inverness or Oak Hill.  Even the pond shape at the turn and the amount of fairway from there to the green is very similar.  Other similarities to my eye, are the par 3s especially 3, 13 and 17 that appear to be as tightly bunkered by Ross as other greens became under Jones.  17 in fact looks as though there may be more sand in view from the tee and tight to the green as today.  Certain fairway bunkers, the large monster bunker on the hill left side of #2, the right fairway bunkers on #11, even the fairway bunker short left of 18 look very similar.  What happened to the huge bunker in the right rough short of 18? 

The main visual impact to me from the air and on the ground, has always been the spacing of the holes across the hills.  This has allowed the course to be used for tournament play for 90 years, including the Ryder Cup and all of its circus paraphernalia. Another observation is that Jones for 1951 added less than 100 yards to the course, from 6850+/-  to 6927.  We should be pleased that so much Ross is still intact and his version of fairway bunkering could still take place in some idillic future.  The same can't be said for the Invernesses, Sciotos, and Oak Hills of the world.

acg

[Tom_Doak]

Anthony:

Are we looking at the same map?  Of course, the bottom map is really Rees Jones' version of Oakland Hills, not his dad's, but in the latest version there are 15 bunkers on the first two holes ... and on Ross' version there are 5.

Oakland Hills is a great piece of ground for golf and a lot of those bunkers are just overkill, IMHO.  Maybe one of these years I will get to do something about it.

[Anthony Gholz]

Tom:

Yes of course, this is the current Jones version.  I'll go back to the DTE file and see if I can find a 1951 or so for a better comparison. 

I tried to avoid the obvious, bunkers both sides of the fairway issue, by suggesting the re-bunkering by Ross, Klein, or Doak in my "idillic world" comment.  The ground and routing is still there.  I am also hoping someone will come up with the Ross bunkering plan that I've heard is still on site.

My effort was trying to  accentuate the positive!

acg

[Tom_Doak]

We should be pleased that so much Ross is still intact and his version of fairway bunkering could still take place in some idillic future.  The same can't be said for the Invernesses, Sciotos, and Oak Hills of the world.

acg

This is indeed the truth.  Ross' Inverness and Oak Hill are dead and buried, but not Oakland Hills.  Not sure about Scioto, though I am not as likely to ever have any input there 

[Anthony Gholz]

Will this do? 1952 a year after the Open.  These should be all Trents

[BCowan]

We should be pleased that so much Ross is still intact and his version of fairway bunkering could still take place in some idillic future.  The same can't be said for the Invernesses, Sciotos, and Oak Hills of the world.

acg

This is indeed the truth.  Ross' Inverness and Oak Hill are dead and buried, but not Oakland Hills.  Not sure about Scioto, though I am not as likely to ever have any input there 

Could you elaborate about the fairway bunkering at Inverness and it being buried? 

[Tom_Doak]

Could you elaborate about the fairway bunkering at Inverness and it being buried? 

There are a few holes at Inverness that will never be restored after routing / property changes.  That's what I meant by "dead and buried".

[Tom_Doak]

Will this do? 1952 a year after the Open.  These should be all Trents

Great picture.  At least on those first two holes, nearly all the added bunkers are Trent's and not Rees's.

Note also the change to the shape of the first green.  Mr. Jones did a little more of that to Ross' greens than is commonly acknowledged, and most of those changes were really good.

[BCowan]

Could you elaborate about the fairway bunkering at Inverness and it being buried? 

There are a few holes at Inverness that will never be restored after routing / property changes.  That's what I meant by "dead and buried".

oh, ok.  Yes, very sad.  I would give a lot to have played the 4 original holes.  The original 7th green was a very interesting squeeze.  Hopefully one day they go back to full restoration to original routing, highly doubt it.  Although they aren't afraid to renovate there.  

[Matthew Rose]

Even the 1952 7th hole looks largely different from the one that is there now. When was that lake added?

[John Percival]

We see the late 40's and current version. For the record, earlier photos and maps in the CH show an abundance of sand. In fact, to use one hole as an example, the ninth was a sea of sand in the early days. So, the obvious question is whether the changes from the earliest design to that shown in the 40's were supervised by DR or were in-house?
Also, there are many old bunkers that are grassed over throughout the course that are not shown on the 40's version. Another example is two fwy bunkers about 100 yds short and right of #8 green. Restored, they would provide some consideration for lay-ups on the short 5 par (4par in tournaments) and, even better, create a terrific visual balance with the two ferociously deep, left greenside bunkers.

The 7th is almost entirely new, as the lengthened 8th hole made the original 7th green unsafe. The green was moved to the north and slightly west. In the current/latest photo, 4 evergreens are planted at the old green's location. The pond was added in two parts. First, it was small and located near the dogleg's bend. It was enlarged by Rees to it's present size.

Agree with many that there are too many bunkers. In fact, with the obscene distances now on the tour, most of the short bunkers can go.

Tom, you r invited any time to visit, play and enjoy the archives before/after.

[Anthony Gholz]

I was going to wait awhile to give the thread a bump, but Matthew and John noticed what I think is the biggest change to the course and the only real routing and strategy change from Rosses original.  The 7th.  This is Rosses original 1949. 



The creek starts in the 8th fairway, comes tight to the left side of the original green and then is used as to split the fairway before it heads out stage left and crosses 6 and 5. This is a great use of the creek on all shots no matter the golfers skill.  It allows attack lines to be determined by each player.

Now Jones from 1952:



A piece of the creek still exists to the right of the fairway with a small piece of the fairway front right.  The creek on the left of the green has been replaced with sand.

Now Jones 1967:



The first pond appears looking like a large bunker shape. This is the hole as played in the Carling World Open in 1964.  Later a third bunker was added on the left fairway.  Creek has essentially disappeared.

And now today (2010)



Others can help with dates but I think RTJSr moved the green west toward the 2nd fairway before the 85 Open.  The pines trees are where the green used to be.  Rees took the tee back for the umpteenth time after the 2005 US AM and added another bunker farther out left.  The pond has become as large or larger than the 16th at AN.  So, this to me is not just a routing change but a completely different strategy.

Maybe Tom can comment on it as a better/worse situation.  Clearly a Jones family hole, not a Ross.

acg

[Anthony Gholz]

Excuse me. I should have said "north toward the 2nd fairway".  And as you can see from the previous photos the left side had a third bunker and then lost it and then gained it back and then Rees added a fourth.  BTW I tried to crop the 7th holes pics so that the relationship to the 2nd, 6th, and 13th greens is always visible.  The 13th had a lot of sand from the get go although originally played at 142.

[Anthony Gholz]

I recently found this routing of the course for the 1937 Open.  The seven th is interesting for its clear view of the creek.  Compare this version to the 1949 aerial above that shows the creek through the middle of the fairway, i.e. fairway both sides of the creek.  Both of these versions Ross'.  I find interesting the fairway bunker on 4 about where Ricky barnes drove it consistently in the 2005 US AM.  Also the fairway bunkering on 12 and 14.  The 2nd tee is in its original location to the right of the 1st green.

[Jeff_Brauer]

I wonder if 11 really had that little neck of fw to the right?  It's a neat hole now, with the blind drive left, but I would think the safe drive right would require at least a look at the green!

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