New Le Touquet find

[Adam Lawrence]

Here is an interesting little snippet from John Morrison's regular golf column in 'The Bystander' from 1936.


We previously believed that Colt himself was the chief architect of La Mer at Le Touquet. Not so, according to the man's partner!

[Rich Goodale]

Sorry Adam, but I find this post ignorant and insensitive.

Japan illegally invaded and occupied Manchuria in 1931--one of the precursors of World War II.  Why was Morrison gadding about Japan in 1936 4-5 years after the beginning of the Manchurian atrocities and only a year before the Germans bombed Guernica?  True artists, e.g. Picasso, got it right and Morrison got it very, very wrong.


Rich

[David Davis]

Interesting that they said he did Tokyo, I'm pretty certain that was not the case. I wonder if he meant another club. Komyo Ohtani laid out the current course in 1940.


[font=arial, ​helvetica, ​sans-serif][/size]Very interesting on Le Touquet however. [/font]

[Adam Lawrence]

Sorry Adam, but I find this post ignorant and insensitive.

Japan illegally invaded and occupied Manchuria in 1931--one of the precursors of World War II.  Why was Morrison gadding about Japan in 1936 4-5 years after the beginning of the Manchurian atrocities and only a year before the Germans bombed Guernica?  True artists, e.g. Picasso, got it right and Morrison got it very, very wrong.


Rich

He wasn't. Can't you read? The Japanese fella was in the UK.

[Rees Milikin]

Sorry Adam, but I find this post ignorant and insensitive.

Japan illegally invaded and occupied Manchuria in 1931--one of the precursors of World War II.  Why was Morrison gadding about Japan in 1936 4-5 years after the beginning of the Manchurian atrocities and only a year before the Germans bombed Guernica?  True artists, e.g. Picasso, got it right and Morrison got it very, very wrong.


Rich

So what does that have to do with what was written in the article?

[Tom Dunne]

Interesting that they said he did Tokyo, I'm pretty certain that was not the case. I wonder if he meant another club. Komyo Ohtani laid out the current course in 1940.


[font=arial, ​helvetica, ​sans-serif]Very interesting on Le Touquet however. [/font]

David, Tokyo Golf Club had an Alison course when Morrison was writing in 1936. It had to abandon it when its property was requisitioned by the Emperor during the run-up to WWII. The club moved another x miles west of the city, and the next course was designed by Ohtani, working in the mode of Alison.

[ward peyronnin]

maybe it doesn't really matter. I am not sure what is left of Le Touquet of the original design. Although the inward nine is very pleasurable it was recovered from the Bosch ploughing it down for air strips. There are still satisfying holes but a true restoration would be very problematical and I would hope anyone undertaking would turn up my Cruden Bay Galvin Green wind shirt i foolishly abandoned

[Patrice Boissonnas]

Nice finding Adam, very interesting piece of information indeed.

Having worked at le Touquet for the past 6 years together with Frank Pont, here is what we know about the origins of La Mer course:
I remember seeing a press article in some local paper showing Harry Colt visiting the site for the future course with the owners of the club. We know for sure that the Colt company was commissionned for this job. Now as always with Colt Alison and Morrisson working as partners the question is who did what...
The earliest course plan we have (1928 or 29) is signed by Colt and Alison.
In a March 1930 letter to the members, the then Director of le Touquet golf club explains that work is moving on well under the supervision of both Colt and Alison. The course finally opened in 1931.
Obviously le Touquet was 100% designed and built by Colt & Co. There is little doubt that Alison's share of the work was quiet significant. But I don't believe Colt can be dissmissed as the (co)designer of le Touquet.
Maybe it would be fair to Alison that we quote his name together with Colt everytime we mention the designer of the course, but isn't it the case with many other "Colt" courses??