The Sewell's Point story bears some investigation.
I understand from Wayne that the current Sewell's Point course matches the Flynn plans they have in both location and routing. When and why Ross' name was attached to the course remains a mystery.
The course started as part of the Norfolk Yacht & CC, which itself started as the Norfolk CC.
Norfolk CC (aka CC of Norfolk) dates back to 1896 and was first located in the Edgewater section of Norfolk. The 1899 Golf Guide notes golf was a recent addition while the 1900 Harpers Guide notes a 9 hole course that was laid out by J. Saunders Taylor in September of 1898.
The club history notes a move in 1902 to a location near Sewell's Point, and the construction of a new 9 hole course. The club moved yet again in 1908 to a location along the Lafayette River with yet a 3rd 9 hole course being constructed which was expanded to 18 holes in 1915 (as noted in the 1916 Annual Guide). This course would be gone within ten years time as the land was needed for naval expansion. The clubhouse of the Norfolk Yacht & CC (the name adopted in 1936) remains at this location.
It is my understanding that around this time the club built a new course at the site of today's Sewell's Point Golf Course (the Norfolk CC course being taken over in 1942 when the name would change).
The Annual Guides in the 20's note the following:
1920 - An 18 hole 6,190 yard course as well as a 9 hole 2,931 yard course.
1921 - An 18 hole 6,000 yard course.
1922 - An 18 hole 5,863 yard course with an additional 9 holes under construction.
1923 and 1925 - An 18 hole 5,571 yard course.
1926 - An 18 hole 6,015 yard course and a 9 hole 2,700 yard course.
1927, 1929 and 1931 - An 18 hole 6,471 yard course.
The additional 9 holes noted in the 1920 Guide is a bit of a mystery. If it did indeed exist, it appears to have had a very short life.
As for the 9 hole course noted in the 1926 Guide, this too does not appear to have lasted very long as an 1932 Golf Illustrated article notes only the 18 hole 6,471 yard course.
The 18 hole course which opened around 1926 corresponds to Flynn's 1924 plans, as well as later aerial photographs of the course (as noted above).
So was Ross involved? The Ross Society gives his work a date of 1927 (after Flynn's involvement and after the course opened) yet Cornish & Whitten note that Ross preceded Flynn here. Did he have a hand in one of the earlier iterations of the club's courses? The 1915 date for the expansion to 18 holes would be early in his career, but would be plausible. Or did he have a hand in one of the two 9 hole courses noted in the Annual Guides, if indeed they were ever built?
Or is this attribution simply a mistake?
Sven,
I think it's entirely possible that attributing Sewells Point GC to Ross is a mistake. The Ross Society list of golf courses was started in 1986 by Pete Jones with the original list taken from Whitten and Cornish's
The Architects of Golf, in which Sewells Point is attributed to Ross. According to the Ross Society, Pete contacted the courses on the list and surveyed them for information and supporting documents. So maybe the answer lies in the Tufts Archives. Or maybe with Ron Whitten.
There's at least one printed source naming Ross as the designer. I have a copy of a newspaper article written by Tom Fergusson, Virginian-Pilot sports writer, and published February 24, 1961 as part of a series of articles about Tidewater (as the region was once known) Virginia golf courses that names Ross as the architect.
"In 1926, the Norfolk Country Club officials wanted nothing but the best for their new golf coarse and so they hired the late Donald H. Ross of Pinehurst, N.C., perhaps the leading golf course architect of his day, to design the course.
The late Jim McMenamin of Hampton (ranking amateur and and professional golfer) was hired a year later as the first pro. He also proved to be of valuable assistance in building the course."
One thing's for sure, the course as built is the same course represented in Flynn's September 27, 1924 routing, Golf Course of The Country Club, Norfolk, Virginia.
Whether the Ross attribution is accurate or not, club management proudly markets that connection. But don't go there expecting to see anything more than Flynn's routing. During a course renovation by Ault, Clark and Associates, the greens were completely altered and expanded to nearly double their exist dimensions.