John Bredemus

[T_MacWood]

Bredemus appears to have been one of the more colorful figures in golf architecture, but I've never been able to figure out if his design work matched his personality. It looks like all his designs are in Texas & Mexico, obviously Colonial is well respected, how do some of his other courses stack up?

[Chris_Clouser]

I've run across some stuff on Bredemus in my Maxwell research.  Colonial is the most famous course that seems to be associated with him.  But his involvement there was very limited.  He was involved with the original design with Marvin Leonard and Perry Maxwell.  He and Maxwell both submitted five initial layouts of the course and Leonard then selected what he thought would work best by each architect.  After that Bredemus' involvement at Colonial was almost non-existent.  Maxwell and his construction manager Dean Woods (mainly Woods) stuck around and helped Cato and the other Colonial stalwarts build the course.  Maxwell hung around and provided some design input.  This is what led to Maxwell and Woods getting the renovation contract for the 1941 US Open.  The building of the Horrible Horseshoe and the renovation of almost all the greens, tees and bunkers on the course.  Maxwell and Woods did a large part of the work out of their own pockets.  As payment for his long service to the club Woods received a beautiful medal and was also on the tournament committee for the Open.  

Bredemus though was active in Texas I believe until the mid to late 40s as he and Maxwell were both bidding on the Austin Country Club and the Oak Cliffs courses.  Both of which Maxwell got.  

From what I've gathered of his style, Bredemus was a lot like Maxwell in that he moved very little earth, but his green designs and bunkers didn't have the flair of what Maxwell designed.  He seemed to be much popular in the Houston area though.  Bredemus did tutor at least a few up and coming architects like Ralph Plummer I believe.

Unfortunately, I believe that Bredemus' reputation revolves more around his drinking and other activities and less about his golf course designs.  

[T_MacWood]

Chris
Do you find it odd that Bredemus' design was selected but he didn't stick around to build it? And odd that the architect whose design was not chosen stuck around to build his competitors design?

[Geoffrey_Walsh]

The only course I have played that was designed by Bredemus is Memorial Park in Houston which used to hold the PGA Tour Houston Open.  This granddaddy of public golf courses in the Houston area fits Chris' description perfectly:

"From what I've gathered of his style, Bredemus was a lot like Maxwell in that he moved very little earth, but his green designs and bunkers didn't have the flair of what Maxwell designed."

I love the design, but the greens were not that interesting.  However, one has to take into account that it was designed for the general golfing public and not the low handicapper.  It is a fun course to play, especially when the wind picks up.  There are a couple of great par 3's and a particularly long par 5 (600+ yds, #16?) that normally plays downwind.

I still would put Memorial Park on my list of favorite public venues.

Regarding Bredemus, there is a plaque for him on the clubhouse, just outside the first tee.  I believe he went to Princeton and then somehow ended up in Texas... I always wondered if he designed/influenced anything out east before he made the trip west (such as George Thomas and Whitemarsh Valley).  One has to assume he must have had some exposure to the Philadelphia school of design if he was at Princeton shortly after the turn of the century.

[Geoffrey_Walsh]

From the Memorial Park website:

"In an ambitious effort to enhance parks across the city, the Parks and Recreation Department began construction to turn the <existing> 9-hole course into an illustrious 18-hole golf course. In July of the following year, the first ball was teed off on what architect John Bredemus called his "greatest golf course ever."

Through the years, Memorial Park Golf Course hosted many famous golfers such as Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Jimmy Demaret. It was also the home of the Houston Open from 1951 to 1963."

[Chris_Clouser]

Tom,

It wasn't just Bredemus' design.  It was a conglomeration of the 5 designs submitted by him and the 5 submitted by Maxwell that Leonard put together.  I'm not familiar enough with Bredemus to know whether he built all of his designs or hired a crew to do it or had someone from the outside come in and do it.  Several clubs at that time in the Southwest were doing stuff in house to save funds as well.  So it may not be weird that he wasn't involved.  But I think the plans all along were for Leonard to oversee the construction of the course once he selected the best parts of the proposed designs by both men.  So he may have had the construction crew already in place.  
As for it being weird that Maxwell stuck around, he only lived about 100 miles north of Dallas and could make the trip if he was home in Ardmore.  Woods was the one primarily involved and coincidentally he was much less involved at Southern Hills, which paralleled the construction of Colonial, than was the usual case for Maxwell.  But Perry made a few trips down to Dallas during the initial construction.        

[T_MacWood]

Chris
Leonard must have had some desgin savy & proficent in the art of routing--taking parts of 10 designs and molding the parts into one coherent design.

Has the course been incorrectly credited to Bredemus over the years--should the bulk of the credit go to Leonard or perhaps Leonard in association with Bredemus and Maxwell?

[Rick Shefchik]

What about Hogan's influence on Colonial? In Dodson's new biography on Hogan (which, unfortunately, I don't have handy right now) he implies that Hogan consulted quite a bit with Leonard as Colonial was being built -- at least, that's what I seem to recall from what I read a couple of weeks ago.

[Chris_Clouser]

I would tend to go with the latter of those for the original design, but Maxwell did almost a complete redesign of the place for the 1941 US Open.  The routing stayed loosely in tact but many tees were moved slightly, every bunker was redone and several greens were rebuilt.  The interesting thing is that you can go through the course hole by hole and see many of Maxwell's template holes in the original layout.  Holes 1, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17 and 18 were very similar to other Maxwell templates.  Add that to holes 3, 4 and 5 with the redesign plus the other changes he made and you could make a very solid argument that the course played in the 1941 Open was largely Maxwell.  The course today, though bears little resemblance as the bunkering is entirely different, all the greens are much flatter, many more trees exist and a number of holes were changed with the work in 1968 for rerouting the Trinity River.  And that doesn't even take into account the pond expansion and tee lengthening that has occurred at the course.  

I just saw the Hogan question.  Hogan was 22 when Colonial was being built and was a struggling pro at the time.  I know he and Leonard had a relationship and perhaps he helped out with hitting shots around the course to determine playability aspects of the design, but I would say that was the extent of his design input at that time.  I would say he would have more likely played a larger part in 1940 with the redesign, but I know that wasn't the case.  I will have to check out the Dodson book and see what it says about his involvement there.

   

[T_MacWood]

Chris
The commonly told story says Bredemus won the Colonial commision over Maxwell, designed the golf course, followed a few years later by Maxwell and his three new holes. Any idea how that tale got started?

Jeff Brauer mentioned an article on Bredemus that speculated he was involved in the construction at Lido....I'm not sure on what basis the author drew that conclusion, but it is interesting

Everything I've read about Bredemus leads me to believe he was very good architect....the adjective most often assoicated with his courses is 'sporty'.

Rick
I believe there was a second Leonard project later on....I want to say Shady Oaks, but I'm not certain.

[Chris_Clouser]

Tom,

The only thing I can think of was that this was the first worky by Maxwell in Texas and that Bredemus was the much more recognizable name so he got associated with the project by those in the area and it kind of stuck from there.  Outside of that, no clue.