How would today's new sandy courses have been received in 1955?

[Tommy Williamsen]

I grew up playing tree-lined courses in the northeast, where the only sand on a golf course was in a purpose-built bunker. The last two days, I played Tree Farm and Old Barnwell. I loved them. On the drive to the hotel, I wondered what my Dad would have thought about them. I think he would not understand them. In many ways, Dad never left 1955. He would think the course didn't have enough money to plant grass. I do realize that courses like Prarie Dunes existed but they were few and far between and not well known.


If some of the new sandy courses were built, what do you think golfers in 1955 would think about them? I know it is an odd question, but architectural tastes have changed so dramatically that 1955 era golfers would hate the new design.

[jeffwarne]

I grew up playing tree-lined courses in the northeast, where the only sand on a golf course was in a purpose-built bunker. The last two days, I played Tree Farm and Old Barnwell. I loved them. On the drive to the hotel, I wondered what my Dad would have thought about them. I think he would not understand them. In many ways, Dad never left 1955. He would think the course didn't have enough money to plant grass. I do realize that courses like Prarie Dunes existed but they were few and far between and not well known.


If some of the new sandy courses were built, what do you think golfers in 1955 would think about them? I know it is an odd question, but architectural tastes have changed so dramatically that 1955 era golfers would hate the new design.

LOL.
Had a friend's 85 year father and former(as in back in the 70's) avid golfer ask me how The Tree Farm could be any good when all they had was Pine Trees and sand.....
Hmmmm....

[Thomas Dai]

Interesting proposition.
The folks from a generation or two earlier might wonder where the sheep and goats and horses and cattle are? Maybe even the sand/oil greens?
Atb

[Ben Hollerbach]

I would suspect that if you transported someone from 1955 to today their impressions of the new sandy courses would not be a shocking as one might suspect.

When we look back on something like the 1963 Shells match between Nicklaus and Snead, one of the comments you see most frequently is about how scruffy the course looks.

If Pebble Beach was in a normal to good condition for the time in 1963, the ragged edges of the new sandy courses of today would probably feel about as foreign as Pine Valley was at the time.

[Paul Rudovsky]

Tommy--


This question may simply relate  to international travel and the % of USA players who have played in GB&I.  I started playing the game at the age of 10 in 1955 and never even began to understand the concept of firm/fast until I took my first trip to Scotland in 1970...and then really start to understand it with later trips.


My strong sense is that prior generations never traveled to GB&I to play with the frequency of our generation and that is why they never understood firm/fast...they never played in those conditions (at least after sprinkler systems became prevalent in the USA probably after WWII)
Paul

[Mike_Clayton]

People liked the Melbourne Sandbelt in 1955 - including the Americans who came to play.  Middelcoff, Snead and earlier Sarazen and Hagen.

[Ben Stephens]

Need to get the DeLorean back out and travel back to 1955 to see how golf is played 

[Tim_Weiman]

People liked the Melbourne Sandbelt in 1955 - including the Americans who came to play.  Middelcoff, Snead and earlier Sarazen and Hagen.

Mike,


I don’t know how anyone wouldn’t!


As for Tommy’s question, I don’t think my father would be too focused on the sand soil conditions if I took him to Old Barnwell. Instead, I think it would be the scale of the property and the course that would stand out.


My father belonged to two courses when I was a kid, both in New York suburbia (Leewood Golf Club in Eastchester and Pelham Country Club in Pelham Manor).


If I am not mistaken, both properties are quite small: somewhere around 120 acres compared to Old Barnwell’s 575 acres.


Westchester County is blessed with many great golf courses, but none have properties like Old Barnwell or The Tree Farm.

[Tommy Williamsen]

In 1955, most golfers knew only about the courses they played. Golf magazines rarely discussed golf course architecture. Everything I played was wall-to-wall grass. Even Pinehurst 2 planted grass along the corridors. My first foray was watching Gene Littler and Gene Sarazen at Pine Valley on the Wonderful World of Golf. It was like golf on Mars. I had a hard time relating to it. Then, The Wide World of Golf with Jim McKay began to broadcast part of the "British" Open. The golf courses fascinated me, and I couldn't wait until the next year's Open.

[Paul Rudovsky]

In 1955, most golfers knew only about the courses they played. Golf magazines rarely discussed golf course architecture. Everything I played was wall-to-wall grass. Even Pinehurst 2 planted grass along the corridors.


Tommy---I first played #2 in 1976....and it looked exactly like it does now.  It got grassed over after that.

[Tommy Williamsen]

In 1955, most golfers knew only about the courses they played. Golf magazines rarely discussed golf course architecture. Everything I played was wall-to-wall grass. Even Pinehurst 2 planted grass along the corridors.


Tommy---I first played #2 in 1976....and it looked exactly like it does now.  It got grassed over after that.

You're right. I just checked Lee Pace's book on the "Rebirth of Pinehurst 2." DiamondHead began greening the course in the 70s, when they bought the course.

[Matt Kardash]

This does not go back to 1955, but my father who was born in 1951 did not see these wide open courses as good designs. When I would talk to him about new courses he was still stuck in the 1970s mentality of tree-lined, narrow and thick rough being a proper test of golf. Believe it or not, he even liked homes along the fairways! As a Canadian, homes along the fairways seemed like this new fancy American thing.

[Kyle Harris]

I don't buy the premise.

Plenty of golf was built on sandy sites back then and the standards for opening day were far less stringent.