SFGC a new look at the past...

[Sean_Tully]

It has long been repeated that SFGC is a Tillinghast design dating  
back to 1915. In my short time researching the course I was able to  
find out a little more about the history of the course and some of  
the changes it went through.

The early history of the course is pretty confusing as little seems to be written about it. Along with that the names of the courses in the area shared similar names and added to some of the confusion.   When they moved from the Presidio to the SFG and CC at Ingleside site about 1905(where the SFSU is today) they stayed there for a number of years and then moved to the current site in 1918(while still retaining the same name). The old Ingleside course was then taken over by the California Golf Club in 1920 up  until they moved to their current location in 1925. The old Ingleside course remained until SFSU needed to expand the university in the early 1940's.

If that sounds confusing, that’s because it is and I still struggle with it even after looking at the info for the last 6 months...

heres some more info, most of this should be new if you only know the old story of Tillie designing the course in 1915. Source of information is from the SF Chronicle.

1915--new course proposed at current site of SFGC

1918--Feb 22 Course is opened to play...Willie Lock is given some  
mention as a possible architect, "Lock, the SFGC "pro" has seen to it  
that there is plenty of trouble to trap the balls that stray from the  
beaten path." I have also seen a mention of Neville&Grant.
Low score on the first day was 91.

1920-Tilllinghast brought in reform SFGC course, for the most part  
Tillie endorsed the the plans already outlined by Lock

1920-Tillinghast was to relieve the monotony of the last three holes  
and his plans along with those of Neville's where to be followed. Changed the routing of the existing course.

1924-Tillinghast is onsite and making a number of changes to the course
1.adding new bunkers(61 new bunkers)(GIJUNE1924)
2.changes to the greens at the 7th, 8th, and 11th
3. some lengthing of the course, par stays at 71
Tillie contemplates with addition of bunkers and yardage the course  
will be a stiffer test of par.

1930-Excess traps removed from course
greens regrassed with cocoos bent replacing the poa and Fescue
"all greens being recontoured so as to allow for a power cutter to  
be used right up to the green"(sounds more like surrounds)

The first green was moved after the club purchased some adjoining property.

All but three greens were regrassed (2nd, 10th, 12th)

Par threes length
4th    210 yards
7th    150
11th  165
13th  120

Sept. 1930 course to be finished.
William P. Bell and E. Byrne-Cavendish completed work.

Your first thought should be bunkers!

Not surprising that Bell was involved, as he was a partner of Tillie's for a period of time. Although Bell was involved he was following the plans as set forth by Tillie. Except for what I believe was the reconstruction of the remaining bunkers. The bunkers have been  
misinterpreted as Tillie's as he has been given credit for the entire course. It is obvious through my research that Tillie played a big part in the courses evolution, but had some help from his friends.

I  had always struggled with the bunkers at SFGC and how they had the lacy edge look to them in 1918! and had lost that look already by the 1924 pics. When I finally looked at the dates for the article in the book "The Course Beautiful"  I found the piece of info that I had been missing, the dates for the lacy edge bunkers. They were taken in the early 1930's, with that info and the article on Bell's work at SFGC in 1930 I finally understood for me at least, that the bunkers that have been called  Tillie's are actually Bell's, which makes a lot more sense anyway as seen by his work in SoCal ie Riviera.

There is more info to be found, but I thought I should share the info so credit can be shared with the people that were involved. So here is my early and still under construction timeline for SFGC

1915-1918---course goes from planning  opened in Feb 1918
Design credit William Lock.

1920---Tillinghast brought in to renovate the course and add some value to the last three holes. Tillinghast is paid $2500 dollars a week. As a comparison, Ross was said to have asked for $2600 to work at Beresford but his schedule was full for a year and a half. He would not make it there until 1922.

1924---Tillie brought in to toughen up the course adds bunkers, changes to some greens etc. Adds 61 new bunkers to course.UPDATED

1925---Vernon Macan writes an article for the Fairway Magazine referring to the 12th hole at SFGC and mentions that the green is not in view from the fairway and that the large mound in front should be opened up to allow a site line to the green. Not sure who finally did it, but interesting information.

1930---Course changes overseen by Bell

1949-50 Harold Sampson's plan dated December 13, 1949.  His work most likely done in the spring of 1950.UPDATED---Re-recorrection Tom D.

1951-2005---not sure if anything at all happened here, time frame is not my focus of research

2006---Club is in process of restoring holes back to original design work overseen by Tom Doak/Jim Urbina and crew.

I have some pics and early maps at the following link…

http://homepage.mac.com/tullfescue/PhotoAlbum5.html
UPDATED, I added a picture of the 13th from 1926. Compare that with the 1934 timeframe pic.

Tully

[ed_getka]

Tully,
   Keep up the good work. You are going to turn in to one heckuva historian at this rate.

[Joel_Stewart]

I agree trying to put together the history is difficult.   I was told by a fairly good source that Tillie actually reworked the course at least twice and possibly 3 times if you count the bunkers.

The work on the freeway which eliminated the 13-15 holes was done in 1947?

The 12th green was actually outlined and built by the head of the green committee some time ago (1930's or 40's).

On another subject, did you hear that Kyle Phillips was hired to do a renovation of the California Golf Club?

[Tom_Doak]

Sean:

Thanks for that bit of info.  We already had Tillinghast as not getting involved until 1920, but I didn't know that Bell was there in 1930.

The date on Harold Sampson's plan is 1946, I have a copy of it.  I have always seen and heard that the work was carried out in 1947 so I don't know where your 1950 date comes from.

[Mike_Cirba]

Sean,

That's some awesome research.  Thanks very much for sharing it with us.  

[wsmorrison]

Sean,

Great job.  I really enjoy this sort of effort and yours seems particularly fine.  Is there an historian at the club or members that are interested in your research efforts?  How do your findings jive with the club history (they have one published, right?)?

[Sean Leary]

I played at SFGC on Friday and the tree removal (or at least most of it) has been completed for the restoration. The bunker outlines have been painted and it looks like it is going to be awesome.  The new 14 is going to be significantly better than the old 13 (par 4's playiing in the same general direction) and Little Tilly is going to be a monster short par 3.

[Emmy]

ST,

I found your detailed information on SFGC extremely enlightening, (especially with being based from Nor Cal).  Thanks for sharing. Keep the info coming!

[Mike_Cirba]

Just to add some additional info, Willie Lock was credited with the original design of Lake Merced CC in 1923, before MacKenzie arrived.

I'm also very curious, Sean, to hear some details around the "mention of Neville and Grant".  

[Sean_Tully]

Joel,

Yes, I am aware of the work to be done at Cal-Club. I have actually forwarded on some photos for them. See below...

Tom,
I actually used the date that you had referenced in the SFGCoholics thread, but have updated it with your current info, thank you!
All of my research is focused on the Bay area from 1895-around about 1932 with Sharp Park, so anything past that is too modern for me  .


Mike,
Lock was a pretty busy guy for a period of time designing a number of courses in NorCal. The look of his work for me, falls between early golf architecture and that of the golden age. I'm sure you have seen the 8th or 17th hole(depends on the time period as they switched nines) at Lake Merced in some of the past threads on GCA that show his work pretty well. As a sidenote he left(I do not know why yet) the Cal-club job and the club had Vernon Macan finish the job after work had already started. Not very long after the course was done Mackenzie came in and did some work to it.

Regarding the Neville and Grant references, I am certain from the articles that Neville played a role in the design of the course as the article mentions some of his ideas for the routing against those of Tillie's. The Grant reference is from an article from 1930 that gets the early history of the club messed upso I have put little credence in that info. Neville no doubt was involved as he was not only a top player at the time, but he was also a member.

To note I added an earlier photo of the 13th hole dated 1926 from the Fairway magazine that shows the hole after the 1924 work done by Tillie. Interesting to see how the hole was changed subsequently in the 1934 pic.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Sean,
All interesting stuff that we're going to have to investigate some more at the Ralph.  (Also ground-breaking for some of us and which makes a lot of sense!)

The funny thing is that in any of Bell's advertisements, he never really ever promotes SFGC as a course he had something to do with--even if it was bunker work.

To date, the only stuff I had on Tillinghast and Bell was starting in 1938 and ending sometime before 1942, shortly before he left for Ohio. while he was out here selling antiques and the like, even doing several remodel jobs with Tillinghast--none of them ever led to them building an actual new course. However, probably the most intensive of their work--Virginia CC in Long Beach has about 12 holes that are for the most part Tillinghast and Bell together--but drastically cannibalized and then further butchered by John Harbottle. However there is one hole in particular which you can look at and see the construction technique and design of the green and say out loud to yourself--"TILLIE."

[DMoriarty]

Interesting stuff.

The bunkers definitely look like Bell.  Here is a photo of a Bell course from Southern California taken around the same time.

[Sean_Tully]

DMoriarty

What course is that, I have a pic of a green from the Pasadena Muni that looks similar. I have also seen an advert of his that shows some very insteresting bunker work at Santa Catalina Island.

Tully

[DMoriarty]

It is the old tenth green from Brookside 1 in Pasadena-- I believe this course was called Pasadena Muni for a couple of years before the name was changed to Brookside..  A photo of this green is used in one of his advertisements; maybe even this photo.  

Brookside No. 2 was severely damaged in the flood of 1938 (along with just a bit of No. 1) and I think that there is some evidence that Tillinghast worked with Bell in rebuilding the course. I think Tommy has a Tillie article where he discusses the redo, but Tommy hasnt let me see it.  Maybe you can convince him to share . . .

I've got some photos of photos, but I'd like to try and get scans at some point . . .

Alas, Nos. 1 and 2 are scheduled to go under Harbottle's knife and his plan is to "restore" them into oblivion.  A shame.

[Sean_Tully]

DMoriarty

The photo I have is from a Bell advert  it's of a very similar green at Pasadena Muni the third. The bunkering is very similar, just that the bunker on the right side of the green in my picture is in front of the green.

Are you doing research on Bell or is it just a casual interest? Take a look at my other post as I think the one picture is a possible Bell course.

I have only played Castlewood so I am not very familiar with his design ideas as not much seems to be left there after some of the changes made over the years. Hope to get down to see Stanford before too long to see what is there. Last year we had a member give us a plan(1928) for the Stanford course that a friend of his gave him. The guy doesn't recall how he came into it, so there is always hope that a plan for Meadow Club will float to the surface.

Regarding research, have you tried the LA times archives online? It costs some money, or try to access it from a University library as they might have free access for their students. I have found some very good info looking at Indexes for local papers from the 20'-30's, but will have to say that they are missing 90% of the good info.

Tully

[Tom_Doak]

Sean:

I write to correct my earlier "correction".

The date on Harold Sampson's plan is December 13, 1949.  His work must have been done in the spring of 1950.

The green chairman at SFGC is the one who dug up the blueprint for me.  It was pretty interesting to display as part of the presentation to the membership last fall on our proposed restoration of the course ... the actual blueprint of Sampson's work and the lack of detail in it.  It sort of cut off arguments about the historic nature of the three holes as they exist today!

[Sean_Tully]

Tom
Thanks for the correction.

Sampson was busy that year as he was also at Meadow Club. Looking throught the minutes I found a mention of his being hired and through a series of aerials can see the changes that he made. He was definately a better golfer than architect from the changes he made to the course.
Would be interested in seeing the plans to see what he was all about. From the sounds of it I should not expect much but it would shed some light on him.


Tully

[Rick Wolffe]

To Joel and Tom's notes on Sean's timeline in the 1930's,  the Tillinghast Association Archive shows that Tilly was actively involved with SFGC in the 1930's and for a period of some 30 years commencing in late teens.  I am not sure why much of it was not included in Sean's timeline.

As documented in the following letter from Tilly to PGA President George Jacobus, in the mid-1930's several significant design changes were constructed by the Club.

"March 5th, 1936

President of the P.G.A.

Dear Sir;

Today I drove to Ingleside at the request of P.G.A. member William McWan.  His assistant, Harold Stone, is also P.G.A.
 
I made a complete inspection of the course of the San Francisco Golf Club, and inasmuch as planned this lay-out it may not seem entirely proper for me to praise it too much.  But it is regarded out here as a truly great course, I will string along.
 
I was accompanied throughout the day by McEwan, Knox Maddox (president of the Club) Dixwell Davenport (Chairman of the Green Committee) Frank Dolp (California Champion) Jim French Jr. (another club member and rated one of the best players in the state) and other officials.  At noon, President Maddox presided at a fine luncheon, at which were additional club officials.  Altogether it was a wonderful reception.
 
It must be mentioned that greenkeeper George Paulson accompanied us throughout the day, and I must compliment this man especially for the able manner in which all of my plans have been carried through, particularly the new first and second holes, as well as the new twelfth, which I designed when here last winter.  Today I gave them a rearrangement of the trapping of the fairway of the fourteenth, which has been the only weakness of the course.  The new plan will bring it up properly.  While I made numerous suggestions for the refinements on nearly every hole, they were of minor character and not at all expensive to accomplish.
 
Dixwell Davenport is also a member of the United States Golf Association's Green Section and he told me that in a recent letter to national president, John G. Jackson, he told him that, in his opinion, the P.G.A. had 'put one over' the U.S.G.A. in sponsoring the course service.  truly it was a day of wonderful accomplishments.
 
Very truly yours
 
AW Tillinghast"
 

The Tillinghast Archive has many other Tilly letters on SFGC.  I seem to recall another one in the late 1930's where Tilly wrote that SFGC was considering hosting a US Open.

Phil Young is the official historian for the Association and is always most accomodating in helping research on Tillinghast.

[Tom_Doak]

Rick:

You don't happen to have a plan of the changes he proposed to the fourteenth, do you?  I'm not sure if they were ever carried out or not, but one of the few objections from the members to our change is that the bunkering on the 14th per our aerial photograph looks pretty uninteresting ... some members thought that threading their tee shot through the trees on the current 13th was a superior hole!

I know the greenside bunkering was once different than today from a late-1920's photo we have -- there was a bunker almost straight in front of the green, although I can't for the life of me figure out how it didn't get washed out in any rain event.

[Mike_Cirba]

Rick,

Thanks for weighing in and putting more flesh on the bone.  

Would it be your considered opinion that perhaps Bell was the guy on the ground in the late 20s/30s who implemented to Tillie's plans?

[Rick Wolffe]

Hi Tom

Phil Young has a photo of the 14th, which may date to after his bunker plan of mid-1930's.  Maybe he can post it or send it to you directly.  There are other SFGC photos in the archive which may be helpful.

- RW

[Sean_Tully]

Rick

The information that I included in my original post is from my research on SFGC. There is one big reason that I did not include your information from the Tillinghast Archives as I did not know that there was one. That is wonderful that you have a collection of his papers and such, but as I am in CA I’m forced to go through newspapers and magazines. I still have a number of years to research and hope to find more information.

I found your post interesting in that Tillie mentions that he had recently reworked the 12th green. In my timeline, you probably noticed that in 1924 Vernon Macan was critical of the hole for its blind shot over the mounding in front of the green, does the plans make any mention of eliminating that feature by creating the opening that is there today?

I would be very interested in sharing the rest of my information with you and Phil as we are all working to the same end. The last time I talked to Mr. Berry he mentioned that they were looking at updating their club history so they could benefit greatly from any further findings. I still have a number of pieces missing, like the original(Lock) routing of the course so I can see the changes to the course and its routing. Like I said earlier, I do have more detailed info, I just need to get a better understanding of the routing to see the big picture.

I have a number of articles, pictures, and adverts for Tillinghast that I have collected from the SEGL archive that I can make available to you or Phil.

Mike-
Just to clarify on the Bell angle, his work was carried out under plans that Tillinghast had already set out and given to the club to improve the course. It would be interesting to note the period that Bell and Tillie were partnered, I am not familiar with that info, maybe Rick or Phil can pipe in.

Tully

[Rick Wolffe]

Tom

In regard to the 14th, Tilly returned to SFGC a year later and in his February 6th, 1937 letter to George Jacobus he wrote:


"San Francisco, California
February 6th 1937

President of the P.G.A.
(Box 231, Sarasota, Florida)

Dear Sir:

It was fortunate that I managed to get through with the examination of Beresford yesterday, for no sooner had I returned to the hotel than the hard rain started in again and fresh storms predicted all along the California coast.

This morning it was raining again and a telephone message from Dixwell Davenport advised me that it would be foolish to attempt the visit to the San Francisco Golf Club.  Consequently this was postponed until tomorrow (Sunday).  However at ten o’clock Davenport telephoned again as there were indications of clearing and asked me what I thought about it.  I replied “Let’s go” so I drove to the club.  Of course it was very wet underfoot and sticky.  Out here it is not the falling rain which hinders nearly so much as the bad footing, on the ‘Dobe soil.  However at the San Francisco Golf Club there is a somewhat different soil condition, more sand than usual in these parts, so it is possible to walk around.

Here I contacted P.G.A. members William McEwan and Harold Stone.  I checked on all work, which I recommended last March.  Of course I am particularly familiar with this course as I laid it out some fifteen years ago.  However some of the construction work has not altogether pleased me and gradually this is being corrected.  They have applied for the US Open for 1939 and by that time the course should be altogether satsifactory.

Today I additionally instructed them concerning the raising and contouring of the right side of the 3rd green; the left front of the 5th and located a new site for the 10th green to the right of the present (one of their own making, which has left much to be desired).  All other opportunities for improvements were made note of on my last visit and definite records made at that time by the committee.

I am informed that you paid a short visit to this course when on your recent visit to San Francisco.

Will it be possible to supply Dixwell Davenport with back copies of the P.G.A. magazine, containing my montly articles.  He asks for them urgently and says that he had his subscription sent but with no reply.  Will you advise him if he may subscribe?  He is a member of the executive committee of the United States Golf Association.

This completes my present visit to the Northern California P.G.A. Section and I leave for San Jose tomorrow (Sunday).

Very truly yours


A.W. Tillinghast"

[wsmorrison]

Rick,

Were any reasons given why SFGC did not get the 1939 US Open?  I would think given the 1938 Open was at Cherry Hills that it was very unlikely the Open would have been held out west the next year.  

Instead it was held on a second consecutive Flynn course, Philadelphia Country Club.