Herbert Warren Wind's effect

[john_stiles]

Wind did have a very nice discussion in the World Atlas of Golf which was first published in 1976 or so.  The title of his four page essay was ‘The imperishable genius of the master architects."

A few of the old courses were discussed in a positive manner.   There was no mention of a specific  post WW2 course except for the following general summary.

" How, during the affluent post-war period, when a good number of American architects were given the financial backing, time, land, and support (not to mention vastly improved grass strains, better irrigational methods, and all the rest of the advances in knowledge and technique) to build courses of championship standard, more often than not they funked it, chiefly because of their preoccupation with making as much money as possible, which meant becoming involved in as many as twenty projects simultaneously. Consequently, what should have been a Golden Age of Golf Architecture yielded little beyond that rhinestone jewel of a thought:  the mistaken concept that a course over 7,000 yards in length is automatically a championship course - and that the first tour tournament played over it is automatically entitled to call itself a Classic."

Maybe funk was a typo and knowing his unimpeachable status as a gentleman,  the L in flunked must have been dropped versus a mistyped C.

He had an opportunity to rave about modern courses but didn't include anything except for one small photo of Muirfield Village.

[Rich Goodale]

Good catch, John, but I think Wind was using the classical (i.e. pre-James Brown) definiition of the verb "funk," which was, in effect:  "to back out in a cowardly fashion."

So.....rather than take advantage of the incredible resources they had, the new guys chose: quantity over quality; form over function; replications vs. templates; instant gratification over long term affection; etc.

It's a great paragraph which is highly relevant today, and it is only serendipitous that it uses the word "funk" in such a seemingly ironic way due to the fact that it was written in 1976.

[Pete_Pittock]

Golfweek is reporting that Herbert Warren Wind will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame this November. He will be the third writer in the Hall, joining Bernard Darwin and Herb Graffis. Other to be inducted 11/10 include Jijay Singh and Pete Dye with more announcements forthcoming.

[Jeff_Brauer]

I just sold my copies of HWW books back to half price books to reduce the shear volume of my golf book collection, deciding to keep the archicentric focused books only.....I read a few pieces. Good, but not worth the sagging shelves......

[BCrosby]

The World Atlas of Golf (1976) can be read as a wonderfully subtle criticism of gca as then practiced. Merely spilling so much ink on historic courses still largely unknown in 1976 impled that the courses RTJ and others were building at the time might not be the last word.

At the time, that possiblity had not penetrated my thick skull.

The raison d'etre of the book was to bring some perpective to gca that had been lost post WW2. The book was meant to recall to golfers that gca had a history and that that history will tell you how good golf architecture can be. It was a seminal book in that way. It certainly opened up a new world for me.

Bob

[Niall Hay]

His two-art series on golf course architecture in Golf Digest (Oct.-Nov. 1966) was surely the most influential piece of writing ever on the craft.  
 .

Does anyone know where one could get a copy or electronic version of this 1966 Golf Digest piece?

[Tom_Doak]

His two-art series on golf course architecture in Golf Digest (Oct.-Nov. 1966) was surely the most influential piece of writing ever on the craft.  
 .

Does anyone know where one could get a copy or electronic version of this 1966 Golf Digest piece?

Niall,

I think that article was the basis for Wind's long essay in Bill Davis' GOLF DIGEST-published book on the 100 Greatest Courses, in the early 1970's.  I'm not sure if it included the full text from the two articles or not, as I do not have copies of the articles themselves.  I think I still have the book somewhere if you want a copy of that.

I did not mention it several years ago when this thread was first posted, but I did have lunch with Mr. Wind in New York after I had won my scholarship from Cornell, prior to heading overseas in 1982.  He was very gracious to spend time with me and to give me an introduction to Donald Steel, who was extremely kind to me as a result of who introduced us. 

We talked at length of the differences between Pete Dye [whom I'd worked for the previous summer] and Robert Trent Jones [whom I hadn't yet met].  I got the impression that Mr. Wind felt that Mr. Jones had gotten much too busy, but also that Mr. Wind felt some responsibility for that, due to the acclaim he gave Jones in his coverage of the U.S. Open at Oakland Hills, and the long New Yorker piece on Jones' business.

[Niall Hay]

His two-art series on golf course architecture in Golf Digest (Oct.-Nov. 1966) was surely the most influential piece of writing ever on the craft.  
 .

Does anyone know where one could get a copy or electronic version of this 1966 Golf Digest piece?

Niall,

I think that article was the basis for Wind's long essay in Bill Davis' GOLF DIGEST-published book on the 100 Greatest Courses, in the early 1970's.  I'm not sure if it included the full text from the two articles or not, as I do not have copies of the articles themselves.  I think I still have the book somewhere if you want a copy of that.

I did not mention it several years ago when this thread was first posted, but I did have lunch with Mr. Wind in New York after I had won my scholarship from Cornell, prior to heading overseas in 1982.  He was very gracious to spend time with me and to give me an introduction to Donald Steel, who was extremely kind to me as a result of who introduced us. 

We talked at length of the differences between Pete Dye [whom I'd worked for the previous summer] and Robert Trent Jones [whom I hadn't yet met].  I got the impression that Mr. Wind felt that Mr. Jones had gotten much too busy, but also that Mr. Wind felt some responsibility for that, due to the acclaim he gave Jones in his coverage of the U.S. Open at Oakland Hills, and the long New Yorker piece on Jones' business.

Very cool story Tom. Great insight.  Thanks!

[Bill Shamleffer]

His two-art series on golf course architecture in Golf Digest (Oct.-Nov. 1966) was surely the most influential piece of writing ever on the craft.  
 .

Does anyone know where one could get a copy or electronic version of this 1966 Golf Digest piece?

Niall,

I think that article was the basis for Wind's long essay in Bill Davis' GOLF DIGEST-published book on the 100 Greatest Courses, in the early 1970's.  I'm not sure if it included the full text from the two articles or not, as I do not have copies of the articles themselves.  I think I still have the book somewhere if you want a copy of that.

I did not mention it several years ago when this thread was first posted, but I did have lunch with Mr. Wind in New York after I had won my scholarship from Cornell, prior to heading overseas in 1982.  He was very gracious to spend time with me and to give me an introduction to Donald Steel, who was extremely kind to me as a result of who introduced us. 

We talked at length of the differences between Pete Dye [whom I'd worked for the previous summer] and Robert Trent Jones [whom I hadn't yet met].  I got the impression that Mr. Wind felt that Mr. Jones had gotten much too busy, but also that Mr. Wind felt some responsibility for that, due to the acclaim he gave Jones in his coverage of the U.S. Open at Oakland Hills, and the long New Yorker piece on Jones' business.

Tom:

Thank you for mentioning this article.  I have this book in my library and did not even realize that it included this Herbert Warren Wind article (I have had the book since about 1988).  The book is "Great Golf Courses of the World" by William H. Davis and the Editors of Golf Digest.  It is a Golf Digest publication from 1974.  It is a 15 page piece.  I look forward to reading HWW's article later this week.