Park Golf Club - Mysterious Pennants

[David Cronheim]

In doing some research on the Tom Bendalow-designed 9 hole Park Golf Club in North Plainfield, NJ (NLE), I came across something odd that I hadn't seen before. I was hoping that our collective knowledge could help solve the mystery.

I found a treasure trove of old black and white photographs of the golf course in the archives of the Plainfield Library. The photos show fall scenes from the club at some point between 1898 and 1915. As I was looking through the photos, I noted a number of small flags on the course that appear to be miniatures versions of the larger club red and white pennant. The flags are mounted on on wooden poles approximately 5-6' high. The distinctive bright white chevron on the red field makes them easy to pick out. (see photo below).

Club Pennant

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9s7llk59wly9vrn/Park%20Golf%20Club%20Pennant.jpeg?dl=0

Miniature Pennant

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ekxblwf5l4his8w/C11347-FLAG%20MARKED.jpg?dl=0

I was pretty quickly able to ascertain that they were not the obvious - flags atop flagsticks marking the location of the hole on a green. Interesting, the pins used for that look like old railroad switches. (see photo below)

Railroad Switch Style Pins

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ty1dznzr37t28t5/C11349.jpg?dl=0

Nor do they mark tees since they don't show up around tee markers.

Tee Markers

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ls2ow7hpms9bfja/C11351.jpg?dl=0

I thought it was possible that they were 150 yard markers or directional markers until I saw this photo with hole #1 on the left and hole #9 on the right. From an old scorecard we know that #1 (the downhill one on left) was 345 yds. Hole #9 (the uphill one on right) is 365 yds. If they marked 150 yards from the green, the flag for #9 would be uphill of the flag for #1. However that is not the case.

1 and 9

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lkunmht5y68j4tq/C11356-FLAG%20MARKED.jpg?dl=0

There aren't enough photos to determine whether they appear on every hole, but I've seen them often enough to think that they almost certainly do. There is never more than one on any hole (making a flag day tournament unlikely), plus they appear permanently affixed on very large rough hewn wood poles.

You'll have to zoom in to 100% to see what I'm talking about in pretty much all of the photos, but here is a link to the full gallery of them. I've marked the flags with green arrows to make them easier to spot. (To zoom in hit the ... button in the lower right and click "View Original" then the click the magnifying glass on the image). The link to the image gallery  containing the 6 photos of the marked pennants is here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/b69jxfkizgiyt6e/AADb6Gma18oztEeBPl8yZEsja?dl=0

The full Park Golf Club image gallery (about 50 photos, postcards and clubhouse blueprints, including all the images that aren't marked to show the flags) is here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/twsza1q7oidlqkz/AADJD9yPyiBtdIVcZg0Fl_O3a?dl=0

I'd be very curious if anyone has come across anything like this before and would be appreciative of all theories no matter how far-fetched.

[Jim_Kennedy]

David,
One of the earliest mentions of yardage markers I found was from 1897 at Milwaukee CC. They were placed at 150 and 200 yards from the tee, the reverse of what we use today.It would coincide w/their position in your photos, so perhaps that's what Park GC did  - same era.


p.s. nice find!!

[BCrosby]

David -

Great find. Your second pic of a threesome putting out is notable for the detail it gives of the green's turf. It would have been incredibly rough. I haven't seen picture of many pre-modern greens with that sort of close-up view of the putting surface.

And to think the greens in NJ would have been much superior to the common bermuda greens they were trying out in the SE at the time.

Thanks for posting.

Bob

[David Cronheim]

David -

Great find. Your second pic of a threesome putting out is notable for the detail it gives of the green's turf. It would have been incredibly rough. I haven't seen picture of many pre-modern greens with that sort of close-up view of the putting surface.

And to think the greens in NJ would have been much superior to the common bermuda greens they were trying out in the SE at the time.

Thanks for posting.

Bob

Absolutely. It gives a better understanding of why scores were so high. Many people would cite advances in technology for clubs and balls as the single greatest factor that brought down the average player's score, but the greens are a huge factor as well. You practically had to chip in by today's standards.

[Brad Tufts]

Hey Dave,

Maybe they used the area as a practice range too?  Before my club built our range in the 90s, people used the 10th fairway.

Or maybe a "you can hit when the group in front passes here" flag?

Winter sucks...still a 10-14 days before Boston golf gets going...

Hope to see you soon.

-Brad

[Scott Stambaugh]

David-

Here is a photo of the Tom Bendelow designed Beresford Country Club in San Mateo, CA circa 1913.  The course was NLE in 1922-1923, completely redone by Donald Ross.  It is now known as the Peninsula Golf and CC.

This photo was recently discovered; the "railroad switch" style pins as you call them are very similar to the ones in your photo.  Was this something common of that era?  Was it a Bendelow thing?  Any idea?

Scott

[Bill Brightly]

David -

Great find. Your second pic of a threesome putting out is notable for the detail it gives of the green's turf. It would have been incredibly rough. I haven't seen picture of many pre-modern greens with that sort of close-up view of the putting surface.

And to think the greens in NJ would have been much superior to the common bermuda greens they were trying out in the SE at the time.

Thanks for posting.

Bob

Absolutely. It gives a better understanding of why scores were so high. Many people would cite advances in technology for clubs and balls as the single greatest factor that brought down the average player's score, but the greens are a huge factor as well. You practically had to chip in by today's standards.

David,

When reading George Bahto's book The Evangelist one of the things that struck me most was Macdonald's continuing experimentation with turfgrass for putting surfaces. I envision greens like the great photo you found at Park Golf club being the norm in the US, and then NGLA (and surely other courses) making rapid advancements in the early 1900's. That must have put tremendous pressure on all the existing courses to adapt, right? And so the potential market for Ross, Tillinghast, Raynor and others to redo existing courses must have beeen vast.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Scott,

You can find the RR style markers for sale in the old Spalding's golf guides, along with other forms of flags and markers.