Myopia Hunt story

[Jeff_Mingay]

There's a fantastic "Classic Courses" feature in the latest issue of LINKS by Bob Labbance on Myopia Hunt Club. I'm yet to visit, but have to say, this golf course really suits my tastes. What a neat looking place.

More to the point, Bob relays an interesting story. After establishing that the club's neglect of the golf course for a number of years between 1930 and the 1960s was a blessing, in terms of the Herbert Leeds' original design avoiding "half-baked 'modernization' schemes" during that period, he recounts Geoff Cornish being called in to remove the gigantic "chocolate drop" mounds throughout the course at some time during the '60s.

Cornish submitted an estimate and began, only to discover the mounds were full of rocks, stumps and other debris. As a result, his original estimate for the work rose ten-fold and the project was brought to a halt. (Thank goodness.) Nowadays, superintendent Dave Heroian and his crew are building more mounds throughout the course, in imitation of Leeds' rugged originals!

Amazing.

[Rick Shefchik]

Honest question: What differentiates between a "classic chocolate drop" mound and a Rees's piece?

[Jeff_Mingay]

Rick,

This quote from Dave Heroian might sort it out:

"We've built half a dozen mounds since I've been here, and the hardest part is to make them look like they've been here for 100 years. We take contractors to existing mounds and say, 'This is how it's supposed to look. It can't be fancy-looking; it can't be a precision job. Build a mound and do a lousy job.'"

In other words, dump a bunch of debris, spoils, and junk on the ground, throw some dirt and seed on it - no shaping, really - and you're done. Just like Leeds and his crew did 100 years ago. I'm not 100% sure, but I bet Rees doesn't instruct contractors to build mounds on his golf courses using that proceedure!

[Rick Shefchik]

Thanks for the explanation, Jeff. I gather you're saying that classic-era architects had no reasonable alternative than to put unsculptured mounds over their debris, and over time these mounds simply came to be seen as an integral part of the design.

In your view, are there good reasons today for building mounds?

[John_Cullum]

If I can ever get around to buying a digital camera and learn how to post a photo, I'll get some pictures of Southbridge GC in Savannah GA. Possibly the best example of Rees Jones at his worst.

[Highlander]

Why are they adding more mounds?...I don't understand that part of the article. I hope Myopia's newfound fame does not ironically cause it to be tinkered with in the next 75 years, it should never be touched....

[Jeff_Mingay]

Rick,

Sure, there are reasons to build mounds these days. It's all about their appearance. Symmetry doesn't fit my eye. But "dumping piles" - as my good buddy Dave Axland refers to it as - does.

There are some wonderful "piles" at Friar's Head, for example, that look natural. Unlike shaped, symmetrical mounds. In many cases, creating these features involved minimal shaping. Literally dumping a pile of dirt on the ground, perhaps letting the wind do its thing for a speriod of time, then seeding the pile.

That's the way it would happen in nature. And thus, such features appear more natural than a mound sculpted by a bulldozer operator.  

[Pete Lavallee]

Here's a great example of how to build a cool mound. Pile up some of New England's finest granite nuggets, cover with dirt, and let nature take its' course. These are from Kittansett, also in Mass., and look as good as they play:

[Top100Guru]

I know people that have lived in the Boston area their entire lives and have never even "sniffed" Myopia Hunt Club....fortunately, I am lucky enough to play there several times "every year"....I can assure you, they will not "tinker" with this course for the bad....they are slowly rebuilding all of the bunkers, restoring a couple of things that changed over the years, and are improving the conditioning....on #6, the plan was to "raise the landing area" to the left of the pond so that it wasn't always so wet, I will update after I play in early June....they have also been "cutting down many, and I mean many trees" there over the past couple of years, I have about 30 digital pictures that we could post here on GCA if someone wants to explain to me (by private e-mail) how to post them...one of the best things about Myopia, is the coolers of Iced Tea and Lemonade on the 9th tee...you can make your own "Arnold Palmers"...........

[TEPaul]

Today many of us seem to claim NGLA as the course considered to be the first really good golf course in America but if one combs through some of the old material preceding NGLA it looks pretty obvious to me that those in the know back in those very early days of golf architecture in America (including C.B Macdonald) seem to say that Myopia was considered the best in America (preceding NGLA).

[Jeff_Mingay]

That's a very interesting historical note, Tom, isn't it. NGLA might be the better course these days, but you're right, Myopia Hunt might have precluded it as America's first great golf architectural achievement.

[Carlyle Rood]

Here's a great example of how to build a cool mound. Pile up some of New England's finest granite nuggets, cover with dirt, and let nature take its' course. These are from Kittansett, also in Mass., and look as good as they play:

I recognize how nostalgia could endear these mounds to aficionados; but, there's absolutely nothing remotely natural about their appearance.

[Dunlop_White]

In contrast, I love dumping piles....what charm....I see them as old-style....plus these look very natural to me. I wish I saw more of this today.

Bob Labbance wrote a story on Myopia last year in his "Looking Back" section of "Golf and Green Keeping History". What a great read! Cannot find the link though....can anyone help?

[SPDB]

top100 - who are you quoting in your post?

[Top100Guru]

SPDB;

I am quoting directly from the 1st assisitants mouth.....and verifyed thru Safin.

[SPDB]

I know people that have lived in the Boston area their entire lives and have never even "sniffed" Myopia Hunt Club....fortunately, I am lucky enough to play there several times "every year"....

??

[Pete Lavallee]

Carlyle;

You're absolutely right, you won't find these mounds naturally, but for people who have grown up in New England they seem right and feel like home. I haven't heard any residents of Florence, Oregon lamenting that Ree's mounds aren't more popular.

[Carlyle Rood]

Carlyle;
You're absolutely right, you won't find these mounds naturally, but for people who have grown up in New England they seem right and feel like home.

Exactly.  The mounds have an aesthetic that is appreciated by many.

I don't have any problem with obviously artificial features on a golf course.  It's rarely my preference; but, I do enjoy them frequently.  Sometimes, they're actually quite charming.

I know of a course in Kennessaw, Georgia that went to great lengths to preserve bunker remnants from a Civil War battle on their property.  (Of course, these bunkers were far more perilous than the ones we usually encounter.)  Perhaps if Dr. MacKenzie had designed them, the South could have prevailed!  

[dfrey]

SPDB:

I know some people who have been members at TCC, Salem and Charles River for years that have never been to Myopia.  They have called, begged and requested to play there......and no dice.  Myopia is the most private of any course in the Boston/North Shore area.  Should you get out there, take the invite.  

[Patrick_Mucci]

Dunlop White,

Preakness Hills has some of the best debris mounds you'll ever come across, very diverse structures, strewn throughout the golf course.

If I get the opportunity, and if the weather co-operates, I'll try to photo the old ones, as the recent ones are hideous monstrosities.  I think you'd enjoy seeing them.

TEPaul & Mike Cirba,

As soon as the weather turns, come visit, you'll like what you see.

Hollywood also has some gorgeous, unnatural mounds, although some poster, who had never seen Hollywood until recently, thought Rees Jones put them there, when in fact they preceeded his arrival by decades and are probably Travis's work.

Craig Disher,

If you could post the old aerial of Preakness Hills it would be helpful in understanding the use of mounds, although some of them aren't as visible as others.

[ian]

Pat and others

Great mounds feel somewhat evolved, like old mountain ranges worn down by erosion and weather; poor mounds look engineered by the hand of man. While subtle that is the difference.

When we put the mounds back on #14 at CC of Scranton, we intentionally used a local excavator operator (with no experience) to pile dirt in the old locations. The piles were intentionally "top heavy" ready to be worked with a rake. We ran no equipment over it, instead just raked it out by hand and left it as it sort of evolved. We also seeded the pile with fescue instead of sodding with bluegrass to get the old feel.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

There are some very enticing photos of Myopia Hunt in John Steinbreder's 'Golf Courses of the US Open'.  They were taken by one Tom Doak.  It's extraordinary how someone with a real understanding for the subtlety of architecture can take a photograph which says so much more than my pathetic attempts, though mine may be in their hunreds or thousands.  

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I have to say that the photos of artificial mounds simply reinforce what they are - artificial.  Surely it's not too difficult to make them look natural - Mackenzie at his best.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Mark,

Why should they necessarily be made to look natural ?

[jefffraim]

As you drive through the beautiful roads of the North Shore in Mass you will still see acres of farmland that is seperated by stonewalls. The Myopia Hunt Club was built on the old Gibbons (sp?) Farm therefore the stonewalls seperating the paddocks were covered by dirt which eventually grew grass because Leeds' felt the stonewalls were not a fair hazard and maybe dangerous. That is what I think I know.