I think it’s pretty easy to imagine a 36-hole Seth Raynor golf course design. He would use some famous templates, he would use some not so famous templates and he would integrate these features and concepts into the piece of land he was given. He may even find a few natural holes along the way. What’s the big deal if each course has a Short, Eden, Biarritz and Redan? Have we played too many of these to turn down the second 18?
If you could play Yale today would you turn down a round at Fishers Island tomorrow, because the Par 3’s are built on the same concept? If you could play Chicago Golf Club today, would you turn down a round at Shoreacres tomorrow? Raynor’s holes were based on the the same concepts, but they were different. Different holes were stars of the show at different places.
I think we can ask this question about any architect? Does a 36-hole Donald Ross course have 36 completely unique holes and greens? Does a 36-hole Geoffrey Cornish design keep you interested from start to finish? Would you rather play a 36-hole course designed by Seth Raynor with two different Biarritz, Short, Edens and Redans or take your chances on a 36-hole designed Al Zikorus course where 7 holes might be exactly the same on one 18? I think the thought process is more based on hypothetical then reality. No offense to Mr. Cornish or Mr. Zikorus, but I would rather play a 36-hole Raynor course any day of the week, if one still existed.
Raynor drew 36-hole plans for several clubs:
Yeamans Hall-never built
Fishers Island-never built
Yale-never built
Gibson Island-never built
Del Monte Golf Links-never built
Monterey Peninsula CC- One of two courses built, but redesigned since.
Greenbrier-Up until the 1970’s the Greenbrier had two Mac/Raynor courses, the Greenbrier was redesigned by Nicklaus
Essex County Country Club-Raynor redesigned 18 holes and Banks built an entirely new 18 holes next door. These two courses still exist, but only one is owned by Essex County CC, the other is now public.
Everglades- Seth Raynor built the original 9-hole course at the Everglades, then went on to build 18 new holes for Paris Singer on the site of what is today’s North Palm Beach, later redesigned by Nicklaus. Raynor had also laid out another 18-hole course for Paris Singer at Cragin Park, but this course was never finished because of Singer’s financial problems with the Everglades. All together, Raynor designed at least 45 holes for Paris Singer.
Mid-Ocean and Castle Harbour were also very close neighbors. Raynor did design an additional 9 for Mid-Ocean using some of the land Castle Harbour (Tuckers Point) sits on today, but that design was never built. Instead, Banks came in after Raynor passed away and designed a new 18-hole course using additional land available at the time.
The Olmsted Brothers were very good at what they did. They often looked years into the future when they planned these developments, so many times the second 18 was more of a conceptual backup plan if the development was very successful and the first course became crowded. Some of these architects were very difficult to get a hold in the 1920’s, so when they had the architect on site they would maximize their visit. There are also instances where some of the land planners, like Dawson and Whiting would actually lay out a golf course plan, especially when they couldn't get in touch with an architect and they wanted to move forward on the project. They needed to know what land was earmarked for golf course vs. development.
When Raynor showed up at Mountain Lake in 1916, Frederick Olmsted had already determined the corridors for the first 4 holes and the last two holes. Some of the Yeamans Hall maps representing the additional 9 or 18 holes showed open ended corridors, meaning the land planners had determined the corridors for the golf course, but not the direction of the golf course. You couldn’t tell if the course was going clockwise or counter clockwise, it was open ended for the architects interpretation. Each Olmsted project was different, in some cases Raynor or Banks would be called into lay out a golf course and they would recommend the Olmsteds to the developers after they designed the course. This happened at Mid-Ocean and Caracas. Other times the Olmsted Brothers called in the architects to develop a plan, so they would know what land they should set aside for golf course development. And on a few occasions, the development was already under way and the land planners had to determine which land would be used for the golf course and Raynor/Banks would have to figure out a plan based on the land available.