[Kyle Harris]

Can anyone shed some light or point me in the direction of articles/pictures of Park's bunkering?

I am imagining gaping pits integrated with the fairway and taller grass on the mound side.

[David_Tepper]

Kyle -

Scroll down a page or two to the "New Biography of Wille Park, Jr." thread. There are comments from Mark Fine saying he and Forrest Richardson are doing a book on hazards and are including some Willie Park material. They may be able to help you find the info you are looking for or point you in the right direction.

DT

[Mark_Fine]

Kyle,
I'd be happy to talk with you about Park.  You may be aware that he wrote a book called The Game of Golf in 1896.  Some of the thoughts from Park about hazards that we include in our book came from this source.  This one may have been discovered in the rare books section of The Golf House.  I apologize but I just can't recall off the top of my head where we found it as we had so many different sources of information.  Some architects wrote little to nothing on their design philosophies and searching for something useful to print was difficult at best.
Mark

[T_MacWood]

From what I have seen of Willie Park's bunkers here in the States, I would not describe them as pits. His bunkers built on flatish ground are of moderate depth (two or three feet below ground level), usually defined by mounds (or irregular built-up banks) behind and to the side opposite the fairway or green. The mounds range between two to five feet high. The result can be a fairly significant effective depth. The mounds behind and the mounds to the side are often of different heights, and vary as to which are the larger. With his bunkers built into hillsides or rises, the mounding is less evident.

[Ian Andrew]

There has been a long held falicy that his bunkers were simple or grass faced.

The bunkering at Islesmere in Mointreal was very elaborate. There were lots of capes faces and movement. We have all the documentation needed to confirm they were his bunkers.

I have photos of the Dixie course at Royal Montreal, and the bunkering was flashed but relatively simple. The combinations were quite well done.

At Laval-su-le-lac, there are plenty of bunkers with depth and stern sharp faces, but the bunkering appeared to be middle ground between the two. There were capes and faces, but not quite like Islesmere.

(of note: Weston's bunkers were by Alison - due to Park's ill health - Park had an office in Weston Ontarion on King Street)

[Kyle Harris]

Thank you all,

What exists on the PSU White Course today very much corroborates Tom MacWood's description. Luckily, it appears that the bunkers themselves haven't gotten any deeper or moved too much from the original positions. Right now, I am attempting to gather photographic evidence to corroborate this. I am about to head up to Pattee Library on campus to take a look at a Golf team film from the thirties and also look up one William Steven Flynn for Sir Wayne of Morrison.

I am trying to get an idea on how he may have used higher grass on the outside banks of the bunkers, and how that was presented/integrated with the fairway.

Mark,

I'll take a look, I knew the book existed but had read in various places that it dealt with the playing of the game in lieu of architecture.

Ian,

I know several bunkers on the White Course had grass islands that have since been removed. There was/is also complex integration with surrounding features and greens.

[TEPaul]

I feel a really good guy to talk to about Willie Park bunkers is Ron Forse. He's fascinated by them. I spent a day a couple of months ago with Ron at his project at Park's Glen Ridge G.C. in New Jersey. Park's bunkers there can be real interesting, pretty unusual and to me they show a fascinating evolution in golf architecture in America at that early time. They show some of the old rudimentariness of architecture but they also show some real burgeoning artisitc expression. It's a fascinating expression of an evolutionary perod in golf architecture. From whence did it emanate? Who really knows? Some think it all came from Country Life Magazine, Horace Hutchinson and William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement!  

[T_MacWood]

TE
I agree it would interesting to learn how Ron determined what was Park, what was Bendelow, what was Tillinghast, what was any of the other architects who contributed to Glen Ridge over the years.

[Philip Gawith]

I am playing at Sunningdale tomorrow so I will take careful note and report back (on the Old Course).

At Huntercombe, there are only about twelve bunkers, spread over nine holes, roughly as follows:

 5th: shallow bunker, left centre of fairway, 70 yards short of green.
7th : three pot bunkers on right side of the green.
10th - one bunker protecting right front of the green.
11th - bunker across fairway of short par 4 at 240 yards
12th - bunker protecting front right of the green
14th - 20 yards short of green, on the right
16th - greenside bunkers on the right
17th - chain of three bunkers across the front of driveable par 4.
18th - fairway bunker on right elbow.

It is possible these have changed over the 104 years since they were built, but none of them qualify now for being described as pits. The ones on the 17th are quite deep in relation to the green, but generally they are not particularly severe.

On a number of holes - 3,5,6,9,13,14,15,16 and 18 - there are some very fine grass bunkers which give the course much of its links style feel.

The reason there are so few bunkers, I think, is that the soil is quite heavy clay (in contrast to Sunningdale, which is sandy and has a lot more bunkers).

[Ian Andrew]

Philip,

I have found a huge difference in any of the Park work I have looked at in the UK, and the parkland work he did late in his career in Canada.

Tom and Tom,

The reason I always bring up Islesmere is the photographic proof versus the mixed lineage at Laval and other clubs.

[Jeff Goldman]

Folks,

Didn't Colt redo most of the bunkering at Sunningdale Old?

Also, I have a piece of a very low altitude aerial of the North Course at Olympia Fields circa 1925 or so (It could just be a photo taken from the clock tower, but it seems too high for that, but too low for a real aerial).  It graces the cover of one of the club's monthly magazines from then.  The picture shows a terrific pentagonal bunker with a big grass island in the on the right side of the first fairway.  I have (at home, unfortunately) a cd of the old magazines, and if I can find a way to send that page to Tom M. or Tommy or someone else maybe they can post it (I would have no idea how).

The bunker style that was on the North Course seems varied.  The greenside bunker on the right of the perched third green looks like a big catcher's mitt, with sand faces.  Very intimidating.  Now it is 2 stair-step bunkers (done I think in 1991).

Unfortunately, I believe that most or all of the Park bunkers no longer exist.  There were a few centerline fairway bunkers that were apparently removed prior to the 1928 U.S. Open, and the program for the 1961 PGA championship has an article by the superintendent at the time stating that he redid most of the bunkering for the tourney, mostly because the fairway bunkers were too short off the tee, and the greenside bunkers were too far from the greens.

It appears that some of the old Park style was returned to the course by Mark Mungeam in his bunker redo before the 2003 Open.  The old publications talk about how deep and rugged some of them were, and that is now back.  

Jeff Goldman

[TEPaul]

"TE
I agree it would interesting to learn how Ron determined what was Park, what was Bendelow, what was Tillinghast, what was any of the other architects who contributed to Glen Ridge over the years."

Tom MacW:

Right. Well, that's what they pay guys like Ron Forse and Ron Prichard et al the big bucks for.

[T_MacWood]

TE
I can't think of a more difficult course to try indentify Park than Glen Ridge. From what I understand the original architect of the course remains a mystery (1912-1913). Park enherited a relatively awkward routing from this mystery man, and what he added and what kept is not entirely clear...complicated by Tilly's remodeling in the early 20's, and God knows who else.

Bruce Hepner has restored a number of Park designs...he probably knows as much as anyone about his bunkers.

[TEPaul]

Tom MacW:

To understand who did what and when at Glen Ridge, the club, like any other club, needs to have an architectural evolutionary history of sorts in place....a time-line, so to speak, of who was there when and what was done when. They do have some pretty good old photos and aerials. What they need to do with them is place the architects who worked on the course in some accurate time-line within those photographic  (or drawing) staggers. While Park seems to have had a fairly distinctive bunker style, and green style, I doubt just saying if something looks like Park it must be Park is that accurate. Evidence that's turned up later on some courses of other architects has certainly proven that modus operandi to be wrong before.

[T_MacWood]

TE
What exactly did Park do at Glen Ridge? Has anyone been able to figure out who the original architect was?

[TEPaul]

"TE
What exactly did Park do at Glen Ridge? Has anyone been able to figure out who the original architect was?"

Tom:

I went over there with Ron Forse a few month ago for the day to look at his project (restoration project?). We spent the day with the man from the club who was responsible for the project. We spent most of the day on the course looking at the work being done. If you want to find out more about the evolution of the course and the architects involved I could give you the numbers of Ron Forse and the man at the club responsible for the project. He and the club seem very proud of their Park heritage but how many of the evolutionary architectural details of the course they understand I can't quite say. I'm sure they'd be happy to discuss it with you though.

[wsmorrison]

I can't find my copy of Willie Park, Jr.s "Game of Golf"  this might be of help.  Classics of Golf sells the reprint for $33.

My guess it is somewhere deep in the recesses of Tom Paul's messy office along with my Hutchinson book "Hints On Golf."  Tommy, keep a look out, will you?

[Ian Andrew]

The Park's of Musselburgh is a good read.

[T_MacWood]

Ian
I agree with you, The Park's of Musselburgh is a good one. I find your observations about Islemere interesting. I've only seen one old picture of Islemere and the bunkers look fairly typical of Park. By the way Islemere had a very cool clubhouse...I hope it has survived.

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