GCA.com's finest moment - Tom MacWood's Arts and Crafts Golf is posted

[Jeff_Mingay]

This is a monumental tome. Excellent work, Tom. My hat's off to you.

Like Ran, I was also most fascinated with the section about Horace Hutchinson. I learned a lot. And, again, I appreciate your efforts.

Cheers,

[Paul Turner]

Thanks Tom for such a stimulating read. A totally new perspective for me.

I believe that only the 5th and 16th at Rye are as Colt designed the course (still-two of the best holes).  Although parts of the other holes might still remain?  The course used to stretch beyond the houses behind the 3rd green towards the dune ridge.  The current 5th used to be the 8th.

Interesting to see a photo of Blackmoor (the 1st?).  I haven't played there but I did once hear a report that it's better than West Sussex!  Although I seriously doubt it's that good, it could be a sleeper.

[Paul Turner]

If anyone's interested here's a link to the website of Blackmoor:
www.blackmoorgolf.co.uk

And from the modern photo there, I think it is the 1st hole shown with Tom's study.  Although, the right greenside bunker has hooked around the green more and a left greenside bunker has been added.

[Paul Turner]

It's interesting that Tom Dunn's design style is described as crude and basic by Simpson and Huchinson.  If you look at Dunn's resume, it's impressive, with credits at: Broadstone, Worlington, Woking, Lindrick, Seacroft,Ganton.

But all of these courses have major redesign credits by much more respected architects such as Colt, Campbell...  I still wonder however, if Dunn deserves some credit for basic routing of some of these courses?

We obviously know that Woking was transformed by Low and Patton, but is the routing Dunn's?  And Broadstone was redesigned too, by Colt (although Darwin clearly liked two thirds of the holes there before Colt was involved). Ganton has evolved through many different architects and I have no idea what remains of Dunn's work. And I have no idea for Seacroft or Lindrick.

The most intriguing is Royal Worlington and Newmarket.  That course is the polar opposite of Dunn's apparently crude style.  Colt did redesign all 9 holes but I remember that we had an extract of the club's history posted on this DG some time ago by Dan Robson and it wasn't clear how much Colt had changed the holes.  (Maybe Dunn designed one great course?)

[T_MacWood]

Paul
Simpson and Hutchinson were not the only ones, it seemed like everyone took a shot at him -- he was their favorite whipping boy. You could add Tom Morris's name also to a lesser extent, and he too has an impressive list of courses on his resume.

I know Park was involved in improving Broadstone even before Colt. And both Lindrick and Seacroft began as 9 hole courses, I'm not sure about Ganton or Woking, but their improvements are well documented. But as active as Tom Dunn was, I would agree that there has to be at least a routing he should be credited for. But after reading that history and what I remember as a number of improvements over the years, I'm still confused to how much credit he deserves for Worlington.

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