"Alpinisation" at Dornoch?

[ForkaB]

Looking at those goofy pictures Sean Tully posted of Royal Mid-Surrey, and knowing that JH Taylor did some work at Dornoch in the early 1900's, and knowing the lay of the land up there, I wonder if the following features might be JH's work rather than Mother Nature's.......

--the bunker-faced cone at 290 or so in the right-middle of the 1st fairway
--the string of little humps crossing the fairway at 320 or so on the 3rd
--the humps and bunkers which separate the (current) 5th and 12th fairways
--the ring of little humps that surround the 16th green
--the string of little humps that cross the 1st fairway at 150 or so of the Struie (13th on the championship course in JH's day)

They all look fairly natural today, but were they in 1910?  Thoughts?

[TEPaul]

"They all look fairly natural today, but were they in 1910?  Thoughts?"

Rich;

If Taylor did something at Dornoch in 1910 it probably wasn't a type of feature like "alpinization" or Mid-Surrey mounding since it seems he said himself he first came up with the idea at Mid Surrey in 1911.

[ForkaB]

Jeez, Tom

What are you trying to do, take away the title of Research Nazi from MacWood?

I'd bet that JH learned about Alpinisation at Dornoch and then went into an alcoholic haze for a few years before waking up at Royal Mid-Surrey.  Kinda like Tilly.....

[TEPaul]

"I'd bet that JH learned about Alpinisation at Dornoch and then went into an alcoholic haze for a few years before waking up at Royal Mid-Surrey.  Kinda like Tilly....."

Well, Taylor seems to say that the idea first occured to him at Mid Surrey and that appears to be after he was at Dornock so maybe he did have an alcholic black-out for a year or so. That's one of the more creative rationalizations I've heard to date, Rich. I don't think it tops Tom MacWood's massive rationalizations to arrive at his conclusions in his "Arts and Crafts Golf" article but you're getting warmer.