Who's Read David Outerbridge's Biography on Marion Hollins.....

[TEPaul]

......and what did you think of it?

[Ronald Montesano]

Is that the Sleeping Bear press one?  What other one would there be?  Here's what I wrote in the fledgling day of my website:

"The idea that each of us, no matter how gifted, possesses one fatal flaw, resonates throughout history and literature.  In the case of Miss Marion Hollins, let us dispense with her flaw from the outset.  Although she made a great deal of money in a variety of interests, not only did she manage it poorly, but she also heeded no advice from those who warned her of the consequences of her folly.
       The idea that fate reaches out its hand and touches us, leaving no recuperative possibilities, only a waiting period until the end, is also a common one.  Rarely, though, is it based on fact.  While a noteworthy event may speed a descent toward its abyss, it is rarely the single, defining factor in a collapse.  In the case of Miss Hollins, while her 1937 car accident certainly caused injury to her cranium, forcing peculiarities to surface that had lain dormant, the excesses of food, drink, and even activity had weakened her resolve to the point where such an accidental trauma would certainly speed the descent.
       Putting aside these circumstances, let us now pay homage to a daVinci-esque person of the first forty years of the twentieth century.  How unlikely it is that golfer, course designer/architect, polo player, horse team driver, and saleswoman would mesh in one entity.  The social spheres through which she would need to operate would be multitudinous, and often unlinked.  Yet Marion Hollins possessed all of the aforementioned skills, and developed them to extremely capable, near-professional levels of execution. 
       This story traces Marion Hollin's life and achievements from the days her parents first established themselves on Long Island.  Although the Hollins clan would see its share of ups and downs, move from the manor house to the farm house, their faith and support for each other would not cease, although certain members would certainly test that strength."

So, I guess I liked it.  Do you have concerns about its authenticity or its direction?

Ron M.

[TEPaul]

"Is that the Sleeping Bear press one?"

Yes it is.

[RJ_Daley]

Tom and Ron, thanks for the wonderful teaser, I didn't know that book bio existed.  I think that will be my first book on something related to GCA and the sport for 2009.  Ron, that was some very nice writing.

[Dan King]

It was one of my favorite books of 1998. Having said that, those interested in design might be disappointed. I don't remember much about it dealing with designing Women's National, Cypress or Pasatiempo. I think the book also might have skirted her sexuality (then again I might be confusing it with Babe.)

Cheers,
Dan King

On her days off, she [Marion Hollins] was searching the Monterey Bay area restlessly, looking for the perfect site where she could build the golf course and sports center of her dreams. She found it that day on her horesback ride to Carbonero Ridge, in the rolling foothills several miles north of Santa Cruz on a portion of the historic 1838 Mexican Land Grant, Rancho Carbonero.
 --From The Pasatiempo Story

[John Mayhugh]

I didn't know about this book.  It might make the reading list for 2009.  Thanks for mentioning it.

[Robert Thompson]

I read it after visiting Pasa in 1998. I recall enjoying it and finding Hollins intriguing -- especially her success in business that allowed her to build Pasatiempo and pretty much piss all of that success away...

Strikes me as similar, in a way, to the bio of Walter Travis. I recall enjoying both at the time of reading, but I don't remember a lot of specifics of either. But both have a place in my library.

[Michael Dugger]

I've read it a couple of times, a good read, I liked it.  It was cool finding out more about the process behind building Cypress and Pasa.

The woman could crush the ball.  Sounds like she knew how to party as well.  Maybe that's what Dan King meant with his post!  I didn't get the vibe she was a lesbian, per se, if that's what he was implying, but more she was a "player"

Kept the fellas at arms length, but never had difficulty getting them to come around....   

Tragic end to her life.  Lame.

[rchesnut]

Great book, I'd highly recommend it.  She might be the most influential woman in the history of golf course architecture, and her story is a very interesting one. 

[TEPaul]

"She might be the most influential woman in the history of golf course architecture,"




She might be; in fact there seems little doubt of it considering what it is she was responsible for in that vein. But yet, to think that was probably just a small part of what she did in her life and what she accomplished in a span of just over fifty years.

I find this book most interesting in the subtlety of its tone about her and also its message about her times, the world she came from, and particularly her family. You have to let those things really sink in for a while before you can understand the various meanings of the book's title "A Champion in a Man's World."

Author Outerbridge (the husband of Marion's grand-niece) claims Marion's lifelong motto was "Failure is Impossible" (a Suffragete's motto of which she was one). It would seem so. I grew up right around where Marion Hollins did and women in that time and place did not even dream of doing some of the things Marion did, much less attempt them and succeed.  I recall a few who were absolutely remarkable all around athletes like Marion was but not a single one of them would have ever tried the business world she not only tried but succeeded at on a grand scale, and on her own. Back then people like her from her world just didn't do that.

I'm sure the author thought a good deal about the following lines (perhaps they were even some of his inspiration for writing her biography);

"Some of the information I have gathered came from family members as it passed down through the generations of Hollins descendants. After Marion's death the younger generation would be told she was "the black sheep" of the family, ....."

I find that perhaps the most tragic of all and probably the most ironic!

A single woman of perpetual motion with thousands of diverse friends who was not just world-class in one thing but a number of them. What a roller-coaster like life she lived and a shortish one too. I'd sum her up in my mind with that great line from one of Frank Sinatra's songs----"I did it my way."

[Yancey_Beamer]

Tom,
What Marion Hollins had after she was struck by a drunk driver was an Insular Syndrome.Thats the part of the cortex of the brain that's buried in the brain itself.It's not known what it specifically does however when it's destroyed the person becomes withdrawn and paranoid.Her accident was severe and her recovery lengthy.Her behavior thereafter is classic for this problem.Unfortunately, thereafter,there was no real leadership to keep Pasatiempo on track.

[TEPaul]

Yancey:

Happy New Year to you, pal.

Thanks for that medical explanation of the physical and psychological results of her 1937 car accident. Yancey is a doctor fellows!

Had she never had that accident, I wonder what would have been different with the fate of Pasatiempo or Marion's. Probably impossible to say but you guys out there would know a lot more about that than I ever would.

Marion seemed a bit reckless (kind and ultra hospitable but nevertheless reckless) to me even when she was well or at least one might say her visions and grand schemes may've been a bit too grand. But of course the Depression sure didn't do her grand schemes any good.

When I read a bio like that I really do have this burning desire to imagine as accurately as possible what she was like---for instance if she walked into a room with you and you could analyzer her for a while.

In that particular vein, I just loved that little piece where he mentioned Marion was traveling by train back east with her neice and some stranger tapped her niece on the shoulder and said: "I've never seen that lady before (Marion) but is she famous?" 

It seems like Outerbridge did a pretty fair portrayal of her that way and of course his own background with some of her friends and family sure must've helped.

Coming from Marion's place (Long Island) I remember some people like her (particularly some of the top-notch female golf stars). Some of them seemed to have some of her characteristics----ie incredible energy, perpetual motion, in some ways just larger than life, and the ones I'm thinking of really were all over the world into one sport or another during the thing they always referred to as "The Season" (riding, golf, tennis, shooting etc, etc). In other words, when they were in a room most everyone was aware of it. Interestingly, one of her great friends, Glenna Collett Vare, wasn't that way at all, at least not when I knew her; at least not when she wasn't on a golf course. 

It seems like Marion's entire life was something like a "perfect storm"----the wealth and opportunity when she was young, her father going broke followed by the "manque" (I loved the way Outerbridge used that word), the fact she was the only daughter around four hyperactive fairly reprobate brothers.

Even if Marion may never have been exactly aware of it, it sure seems like she had something to prove and that may explain her "grand vision" attitude about life.

On the proverbial flipside, one of the things that interested me most about her was her seemingly unusual attitude and modus operandi competitively on the course---I've never heard of anyone like that if Outerbridge's description was accurate.

[Peter Pallotta]

TE -

I haven't read the book, and what I know of Marion Hollins I've learned here. But I thought this thread might go in the direction of discussing her golf related activities in the context of/in comparison to the male amateur sportsmen who were her rough contemporaries and/or predeccessors -- most of whom were, like her, wealthy people and very accomplished golfers with fine insight into golf course architecture. But the Crumps and Macdonalds and Leeds and Wilsons etc of the world went one way (designing their own courses) whereas Marion Hollins went another (more like a developer, an earlier version of Mike Keiser.)

But I can't take it any further than that, which may explain why this thread DIDN'T go in that direction in the first place....

Peter   

[PThomas]

i read it many years ago...it is quite good, highly recommended

[TEPaul]

Peter:

Interesting point you made.

Marion probably did act more in the mode of a developer with CPC and Pasatiempo. However, Womans National on Long Island certainly was her brainchild and she apparently did do all the architectural background research for it abroad (and on Long Island) even though she did use perhaps a professional architect in Emmet and Raynor. Macdonald helped with her Woman's National but he never took a fee. And while she ran it Flynn did work there as he did around the same time at The Creek, a club basically connected at the hip (or on the pillow) with Marion's Womans National.

Did Marion ever get paid specifically for architecture? That's a pretty good question and I have no idea. She probably didn't for CPC and she certainly didn't for Pasatiempo as that was her own project but Mackenzie did send her to ANGC in his stead calling her "his design associate." Did she get paid for that? I have no idea. I doubt anyone does, not to even mention the fact ANGC basically stiffed Mackenzie. 

[Peter Pallotta]

TE -
off your last post, it struck me that she was some combination of (or middle ground between) Bobby Jones and Charles Macdonald....with a little Mike Keiser thrown in to account for Pasatiempo

On the one hand, she worked with MacKenzie at Cypress- but I'm only familiar with Dr M crediting her with creating its 16th hole, and as far as I know, there was no long article by Mackenzie on his working relationship with her (and her contributions to the relationship) anything like the article he wrote about designing Augusta with Bobby Jones.

On the other hand, with her Womans National and the architectural research she did for it, she seemed to take her cue from Macdonald, and from his grand vision, i.e. he was promoting the principles of great golf course architecture in America, via a course on Long Island; she was promoting those principles to her community, who all lived on Long Island 

Peter

[TEPaul]

Peter:

Actually, it was Marion's idea to create the Cypress Point Club and it was her job to populate the membership. I think she took an option on the project even though Morse did most of the upfront funding of the place into construction and such.

At some point out there Marion decided to speculate on an oil project known as Kettenwood. She persuaded some of her bigtime eastern pals to go in on it. It looked like a bust but Marion insisted on hanging on and eventually the thing hit and blew more dramatically than any strike ever. She sold her stake to Standard Oil and made a fair fortune (about $2.5 mil in the 1920s) on that and used it to buy nine fricking miles (10,000 acres) of the California coast line (what is today the Big Sur) as well as to create the massive Pasatiempo.

[TEPaul]

"On the other hand, with her Womans National and the architectural research she did for it, she seemed to take her cue from Macdonald, and from his grand vision, i.e. he was promoting the principles of great golf course architecture in America, via a course on Long Island; she was promoting those principles to her community, who all lived on Long Island."

Peter:

Marion's father, Harry Hollins, was a founding member of NGLA and Marion played the course frequently and obviously knew Macdonald well from her teenage years on.