Travis Westchester Reverse Design

[Bill Gayne]

I just finished reading Bob Labbance's book, The Old Man, The Biography of Walter J. Travis. It was delightful to read. Labbance writes:

"Travis designed the West Course-the tougher of the two and the one used currently for the PGA Tour's Buick Classic-to be reversible. This service was one he advertised, charging $3,000 for an 18-hole layout and $4,000 for one that could be played in both directions. It was an interesting concept that allowed greenkeepers to rest their normal greens for the winter, while still allowing golfers to enjoy the challenge, and, in fact, a slightly different challenge, year-round. By selecting one enlarged teeing ground as the target, and by positioning some of the bunkers so that they accommodated and influenced play from the opposite direction, Travis built two courses from one. It was a concept so far ahead of its time, it has yet to come into vogue."

The course opened in 1922. My question to the group is concerning Labbance's last sentence "It was a concept so far ahead of its time, it has yet to come in vogue." Is this really a good concept? If so why has it failed to come into vogue? If not's a good concept why is it flawed? Also are there other good design concepts from the Golden Age that are still ahead of their time?

[Patrick_Mucci]

Bill,

Perhaps, when it was first designed and built, no trees existed.
But, today, I have a hard time seeing the concept on the golf course, whereas, at TOC it's fairly evident.

[TEPaul]

Bill:

Pat makes the all important structural point to a concept such as a reversible design---lack of trees. To pull something like that off and keep it functional tree encroachment really does need sort of double monitoring.

Travis offered George Crump a reversible routing at Pine Valley to quite a lot of fan-fare in his magazine American Golfer in 1915 but obviously nothing came of it. I do have Travis drawings of two holes that way (actually more I guess)---#1 and #16 and it did require twice as many greens and tees obviously. And of course Flynn did a 9 hole reversible course that Wayne and I have played a number of times on the Rockerfeller estate of Pocantico Hills.

I do think an 18 hole reversible course, a really good one, is probably something that was ahead of it's time but the thing I think is really ahead of its time is what might be referred to as "courses within a single course". That's something that George Thomas, who, in my opinion, may've been the ultimate conceptual genius of all time in architecture did a few times in a partial way in California.

Unfortunately, because of a bad flood or perhaps just misunderstanding of the utility and interest in such a concept, it didn't last.

But the concept of "courses within a single course" is something I've been dreaming about for a few years now. If you think it's a bit of a jigsaw puzzle and complex to route a golf course, trying to route, and then DESIGN, the various iterations of a "courses within a single course" golf course to really make sense and play well That'd be, in my opinion, about twenty times more complex and difficult to pull off even remotely well than the routing of a regular golf course.

But I would love to see it done well somewhere, someday. Matter of fact, I'd want to take the concept even farther---whereby all the "courses" within a single course would not only all play well but when on one you'd scarely know there were others!! In that way I see such a thing as a bit of a "Rorschach Test" effect!!! But again, as Pat said, the site would have to be pretty open and kept that way.

[Bill Gayne]

Pat and Tom, thanks for the replies.

Tom, I looked at the August 1915 American Golfer and saw the first and 16th holes as they were played. Unfortunately the September 1915 American Golfer isn't on the Amateur Athletic Foundation website which has the reverse drawings. The seven paramount features of Pine Valley which Travis lists is great criteria when evaluating any course.

Also I concur that it becomes extremely complex to draw multiple courses in a single course. If you place constraints such as an odd shape of land, number of times of holes can cross-over, par 36 for nine holes, nine greens, nine tees, starting and ending on the perimeter of the nine, etc. it becomes exponentially more complex.

Using nine greens and ten tees on a square peice of land I quickly came up with three nines. Although most constraints were met, it would be pretty boring to play and require a fairly bland simple site. I think I'll keep my day job.

[TEPaul]

Bill:

As an architect, do you have a good relationship with Lloyds of London?