The Ross Bandwagon

[JNagle]

This might help settle the Concord matter.  Forse Design was involved with the restoration of Concord C.C.   At the beginning of the process the Club made it known they did not know whom their architect was.  The speculation was that it might have been Ross or an associate.  At the time no drawings were known to exist. This happens all too often, as everyone knows.  Our tours of the course revealed bunkering and green complexes much in the style of Ross.  Concord’s bunkering and greensites do not reveal Flynn (this may have as much to do with Flynn changing his style at the course, because of his strong presence in Philly and a different site superintendent)    The proximity of the club to J.B. McGovern’s office, the greensites and bunkering led us to believe it may have been Ross.  We never stated that as fact.  A couple additonal contributing factors were as follows;

1. The original 5th hole at Concord played much like the original 5th at Oak Hill East.  The use of the stream, the green orientation and design were all very similar.
2. The par 3, 8th green with its bunkering and small lower left “appendage” are very similar to the 16th green at LuLu C.C. (although LuLu #16 is a par 4) and the par 3 5th on the No. 1 course at Detroit Golf Club.
3. The design of the greensites undulations and greenside bunkers have the appearance of Ross more so than any other architect.

We were informed at one point that an associate of the Club had visited Pinehurst and viewed the drawings for Brinton Lakes.  Upon hearing this we contacted the Tufts Archives and Christine Januzak could not recall the plans nor find any such plans.  Knowing this we still only speculated that Concord was a Ross course.  We stood firm on that thought, but still wanted to see verification.  Well, verification came in the form of a great night at Wayne Morrison’s house.  While viewing the many documents in his possession we came across the plans for Brinton Lakes.  Interestingly, the first plans we looked at were for a nine-hole course.  But then we came across an 18-hole routing plan that was a dead ringer for a b/w photo the club has from the late 20’s.  We then came across the individual hole diagrams with field markings on them.  What a find!  I notified, Harry Gardner, the course Superintendent, the next day.  The night we viewed the drawings (there was Tom Paul, Wayne Morrison, Mike Cirba, Ron Forse and myself) and after confirming it was in-fact Flynn, Ron brought up Philmont and its bunkering and greensites also deviate from what might be perceived as a Flynn course.  

The good thing about Concord was that the restoration/renovation work was site sensitive.  The bunker style infused there is what was found there.  We had the use of the b/w photos, plus what was found in the ground and the greens were so distinctly plateaued that their expansions were obvious.   Regardless of whether it was Ross, Flynn or Tillinghast the work proposed is intended to restore what was there, not what was speculated.
 

[TEPaul]

Jim Nagle:

Good points. Not to mention there was some sale/purchase of land at Concord (AKA Concordville, Brinton Lakes) over the years. Not all the holes are Flynn and not all of Flynn's original routing that's left is in the same routing set-up and par progression.

I think Geoffrey Cornish added some holes for the Flynn holes that were lost with land sale etc. Even having worked on the course like that maybe back in the 1960s Cornish never realized the course was Flynn--nobody seemed to--not for a lot of years that is.

[Chris_Clouser]

Rich,

How about I use my old persimmon headed driver that has a loose faceplate?  That might be a little less damaging that the driver I carry.  

[ForkaB]

Chris

No need to gear down.  As a matter of fact, due to COR effects (as well as relative elasticity and mass/speed ratios) I would far prefer to be hit with a Titanium head the size of a serious goiter than some whimpy (sic) little piece of persimmon.  On second thought, bring the one iron.  Only Tom Paul, myself and god can hit a one-iron.  Unless you show up in a beard and flowing robes and/or promise to grant me total consciousness on my deathbed I think I'll probably be safe.........

[ian]

Travis completed his work with Westchester in 1919 (source Travis Society Directory). "This does not mean the course was neccessarily completed at that time."

Tom: Ed Homsey is the best source on everything Travis. travissociety@yahoo.com. I have his personal number and e-mail available off site.

[T_MacWood]

Wayne
I don't know the first name of Peters, but I will forward on the ad along with some other stuff, including the articles indicating a Macdonald involvement at Merion. I did dig up an interesting fact for you, Howard Toomey died on Dec.10, 1933 in Philadelphia. It was noted he and Flynn had been partners for 12 years, unfortunately the last two years Toomey had been in poor health. A local obituary may lead to more info on this mystery man.

[T_MacWood]

TE
In the early 20's many of the seed merchants were also busy constructing golf courses. The British seed merchant Carters and their construction arm were very active. Another company Peterson, Sinclair and Miller was involved in the Phila region - they constructed both Green Valley and the new Atlantic City for Willie Park around 1919-20. Toomey or Flynn might have been connected to one of these outfits.

I'm not surprised Wilson recommended Flynn join up with Toomey, he evidently was well known as a constructor which would allow Flynn to concentrate on design. A partnership with Alison would probably would not have been the best if Flynn had design aspirations. Of course this is all pure conjecture.

[wsmorrison]

Tom MacW:

Thank you for your contributions and research efforts.  I look forward to reviewing the materials you mentioned as forwarding (to Tom Paul?)  

In the correspondence between Hugh and Alan Wilson (they also had a brother Wayne that may have been involved in golf courses out west (Arizona?)) there is quite a bit concerning grass seeds for golf turf.  It seems that R.A. Oakley was the government's seed agent.  I recall the names of Mitchell, Peterson, Carters and other seed merchants.  There were some underhanded dealers and most of the batches of seed were sent to the US Dept of Agriculture for analysis.  Often the seed was misrepresented and were contaminated with other strains.  The use of bent grasses (Rhode Island, German, and others) were coming into usage through the efforts of the nascent Green Section, particularly Hugh Wilson, C.V. Piper, and R.A. Oakley.  The seed was relatively scarce.  As Tom Paul stated, it seems as though Howard Toomey tried to corner the market on providing bent grass for golf courses and a patented method for applying the seed or stolons.

As for the working relationship between Toomey and Flynn, we know that Toomey worked at Merion Cricket Club, was a railroad engineer and came over to the new golf club early on(the movers and shakers at the club were railroad men).  There is a large gap in what Toomey was doing between the start of Merion in 1911 and when he seemed to be working with Flynn in 1921 on design and construction projects.  Perhaps the Cricket Club archives will shed some light on this time period.  Maybe he was helping with the Cobb's Creek, Phoenixville, Doylestown, Harrisburg, and Seaview projects.  The business skills that Toomey apparently had would certainly allow Flynn time to concentrate on his design activities.  

It does seem obvious that Flynn and Wilson were working together at a number of sites.  They were involved in both agronomic and design capacities.  There is not much documentation as to what they were doing, we need to find out much more.  What seems clear through the correspondence between Wilson and Dept of Agr is that there was only a small circle of people that were proficient in agronomics and an understanding of turf for golf courses in the early 1900s.  There was a great need for informed men such as Wilson and Flynn to help out at golf courses that were having agronomic problems.

As to Alison and Flynn going into business.  Hugh Wilson on the surface seemed to think it a pretty good idea.  Alison designed and Flynn constructed the alternate 9th green at Pine Vallye and worked together on the 1921 Committee.  Perhaps they got along well enough to consider going into business.  I don't know if Flynn was to be the junior design partner, if so, I doubt Flynn would have stayed comfortable in such a position.  Piper and/or Oakley did not think it wise for Flynn to go into business with Alison, although it was never stated why.  Wilson, Oakley, and Piper did think think that Flynn was developing a strong reputation as golf course architect and had a great future ahead of him without a design partner.  It is interesting to note that Horace Hutchinson wrote some scathing reports about Alison regarding his excessive spending, lack of cost control, and poor revenue collection skills.  Apparently these traits were known and may have contributed to the Flynn-Alison partnership never happening.  

The St. Louis golf district wanted Flynn to come in and manage the agronomics at all the courses.  Wilson did not think it right for Flynn but brought it to Flynn's attention anyway. Flynn's design business was taking off and he quickly decided against it.

[Forrest Richardson]

The credit issue is always full of humorous stories -- unless they involve you!

Recently I was in a meeting with five golf architects all listening to a private club outline their plans for a remodel. They were interviewing us -- and we, them. One of the architects "we all knew" had designed one of the original nines. Even the club "knew he had designed one of their nines". Interestingly -- and quite humorously -- this architect finally spoke up and explained that he had been given credit for the work right after the course opened -- but he had only visited the site once and it was to interview a shaper for another job. While there he was asked his opinion of a bunker and suggested a few options. That was all. He had not designed the course! Today he still can't overcome the notions that he designed the entire course.

[T_MacWood]

"....his excessive spending, lack of cost control, and poor revenue collection skills..."

That sounds familar - this malady must have been catching. When did Hutchinson write about Alison and to whom?

[wsmorrison]

Tom,
I'll check my notes and materials when I get home from work and let you know the source and exact quote.
Best,
Wayne

[TEPaul]

Tom MacW;

We should go over that agronomy correspondence again between Hugh Wilson and Piper and Oakley to try to get a better sense of what they were implying about Alison and Flynn. At first blush it seemed to me they might have been implying that Flynn just didn't really need Alison to further his future in architecture.

There appeared to be a certain amount of almost good natured ribing and jibing in some of those letters particularly toward the European contingent--also toward things like C.B Macdonald's irrascible attitude and personality. There's an hilarious reference in there to Max Behr.

It appears to me that correspondence can set a pretty interesting atmosphere for us now about what exactly was going on back then in the world of golf course agronomy and related matters.

Basically there just wasn't anything anywhere that allowed for resource or information sharing on agronomics for golf. Everything that was going on with architectural projects was just sort of individual project OJT and there were a number of really significant agronomic blowouts such as NGLA and PVGC. They didn't seem to even understand how to treat growing mediums at certain sites and soil conditions.

Weeds, grubs, worms, diseases, total agronomic failures were constant and wide-spread. The Dept or Ag had an experimental forage farm in Arlington Va where they could experiment with various applications and grass disease and survival analysis. Certainly Merion was a great source of information for the Dept of Ag and Piper and Oakley but after all Merion was trying to grow grass successfully to play golf on not to be just an agronomic experiment center.

And Hugh Wilson was a really efficient man attempting to collect and deseminate information as comprehensively and rapidly as he could. He was always sending grass and soils packets to Washington replete with diseased material for analysis.

Colt wrote him to try to tap into their research for England and what eventually transpired is the US Dept of Ag/Merion continginent just wrote everything they knew and could think of down and turned it into the National Green Section which morphed into a SUB-committee first and then into the full-blown USGA Green Section. The reports produced were the single best resource available---possibly even the single resource available at that time--ceertainly in a central resource manner.

It was an interesting time and interesting correspondence, it was so voluminous. Reading through the minute details of agronomy back then is certainly not as sexy as finding comparable information on architecture and how it came to be in detail. It's odd that there was so little written by Wilson on architecture, particularly Merion--as he appeared an amazingly comprehensive man. Wayne and I are hoping that comparable architectural material exists somewhere--just that we haven't found it yet..

After-all this enormous agronomy correspondence file appeared out of the blue and was delivered to the USGA Green Section within the last year after being probably in someones basement for 50-70 years.

[Craig Disher]

Tom MacWood,
Do you have or know where I could find a photograph of Toomey? I have a film shot at Manor CC in 1931(?) which shows Flynn and a few other golfers teeing off. The other golfers, except for one who appears to be the club president, are unknown. Why Flynn is there is also a mystery. If the film was taken in 1931 (the Flynn section is spliced into another film that definitely was shot in 1931), there's no indication as to why he's there. I had the idea that the film may have been taken in 1926-7 just after his design was completed and was intended as a "ribbon-cutting". I'll have to study the scene a bit more to see if that's possible. In any event, we'd sure like to know who Flynn's partners are.

[wsmorrison]

Craig,

Boy would Tom and I like to find a photo and more info on Howard Toomey.  I even cold-called all the Toomeys in the Main Line and Philly phone books to see if there are any relatives out there.  Struck out more than Dave Kingman and came up empty.  I believe Piper had died before Manor opened, maybe in 1925, but perhaps one of the men is Oakley.  I gave a file of Oakley and Piper to Tom Paul that has the death write-ups in the Green Section journal, maybe he can let me know when the Oakley article was written so that I can go back and find it and send you his picture.  

Flynn, Wilson, and Toomey often went to Washington DC to meet with Piper and Oakley as well as checking out the Arlington turf farm, Washington GCC (Flynn), Columbia (1922 redesign by Flynn of holes 1 and 2), Friendship (Flynn redesign), Chevy Chase, and Burning Tree (perhaps a Flynn construction with redesign work).

Wilson, Flynn, and maybe Valentine had an experimental grass station at Merion (on the West course I believe).  Flynn and Toomey had a turf farm where they tested various grasses.  Flynn tested upwards of 50 strains of grasses on farmland opposite Mill Road Farm in Lake Forest, IL.

The advancement in understanding of turf grasses was greatly due to Piper, Oakley, Wilson, Flynn, Toomey, Valentine, and others.  These advancements were sought out by Colt and others around the golf world.

Craig, the film you found is very interesting and Flynn's daughter was thrilled to see it.  We are trying to locate an opening day film from Rolling Green that was shown regularly at Springhaven Club on Springhaven Day.  If anyone knows anything about this film, maybe we'll see clips of Flynn, Toomey, members of their staff, and some of the high profile golfers of that age.

[T_MacWood]

Craig
I've not found a picture of Toomey.

[Willie_Dow]

Stopping in Richmond, VA on my trip back from Florida.  Playing Westhampton course, Country Club of Virginia, the question arises - "what was Donald Ross's input?".  His name is on the card.  Thoughts provoked by this discussion of Norfolk C.C (Sewell's Point), listed by W Pete Jones little book in the Tufts Archives archives, as 1927 by Donald Ross, might suggest a visit to Richmond at that time.
The practice range was an obvious part of the original course.  I guess the question here is what evolved from the opening day, June 1910.  

[T_MacWood]

Brad
You were right about Metacomet. The club moved to its present location in 1917-18. Willie Park-Jr. designed a new course at that time but despite the fact it had several very good holes the club was never completely satisfied with the total layout.

Ross redesigned Park's golf course in 1925 and it opened in 1926. It included 12 completely new greens, and nearly 200 bunkers!