Willie Park

[Eckstein]

Where can we get more information on Willie P the Philmont thread got me interested. Is Labbance the Park expert and does he have a Park book??

[Dan Moore]

There is a recent book an Willie Parker.  Here are the details.  I've seen it at Borders.  Looked pretty good skimming through it.

Willie Park Junior

Hardcover, 317 Pages, Luath Press Limited, January 2006

Author: Stephen, Walter

[Kyle Harris]

Eckstein,

I've been researching Park for over a year in my efforts to put together a master plan for the PSU White Course.

An "alright" start would be the book, "The Parks of Musselburgh" by Douglas Adams. The scanned image of Park's business card from 1922 is from that book.

I've also found "The Maidstone Links" which is the club history of the Maidstone Club to be very helpful.

From my own research:

Park may full well be the first "God" of Golf Architecture. His early work at Sunningdale and Huntercombe (a project in which he had a heavy investment) is widely considered to be the seminal design influence on inland golf courses.

Park was a golf professional first, and literally wrote the book on putting. Some consider him to be the most dominant golfer of his time and he has two British Opens to his credit. He first came to America on a barnstorming tour in the early 20th century and ended up doing a lot of design work as well - I believe Olympia Fields may have been built at this time, Jeff Goldman can provide a deeper insight into the timeline for that.

At this point he considered himself past his prime playing wise and turned to design full time.

In the late 1910s, he permanently moved to America and set up an office in New York City. It was during this time that he designed and built such clubs as Castine Golf Club in Maine, Mt. Bruno Golf Club in Montreal, Maidstone, The College Golf Course for Penn State (which is 9 holes of the White Course), Philmont Country Club, Greate Bay Golf Club (then Ocean City Country Club), 13 holes at Atlantic City Country Club, Glen Ridge Country Club in Glen Ridge, NJ and Berkshire Country Club in Reading, PA.

Here's the business card again:


By 1925, Park began suffering from what may have been a advanced case of Alzheimer's (he'd return to job sites already completed or forget about courses he had designed altogether). As such, his brother Mungo Park took him back to Musselburgh and returned to the US to finish all started projects (of which Philmont, Maidstone and PSU White could be).

[Craig Disher]

The list of courses includes 2 from around Baltimore - Baltimore CC and Rolland Road GC. I'll assume Rolland Road is a mis-remembering of the course Park did design in Baltimore, Rolling Road, which is still there. But what about Baltimore CC? The original BCC (built in the 1890s) was in the area of Roland Park and has long been attributed to Willie Dunn. When Tillinghast built the new BCC course at Five Farms, the in-town course was gradually abandoned. Was there an earlier Park course at Five Farms or did he do some modifications of the course at Roland Park?

I have an aerial of the 1930s version of the in-town BCC and it's quite different than the Dunn course described by Wexler. It has some Park characteristics similar to what he did at Rolling Road, especially a pair of adjacent holes with cross bunkers in almost perfect alignment - much like the ones at RR's #11 and #12.

A reasonable scenario would be that while Park was working on RR, BCC hired him to improve their Roland Park course. For several reasons it just didn't work out and they decided to find a better site outside town.

[Jay Carstens]

Looked pretty good skimming through it.
Willie Park Junior
Hardcover, 317 Pages, Luath Press Limited, January 2006
Author: Stephen, Walter

Dan- It is good and wasn't what I was expecting.  Nice to learn more about Musselburgh too.  It's been a good year with Tillinghast and now Maxwell.

[Jeff Goldman]

The Board minutes from Olympia Fields circa 1922 mention Willie Park Jr. in two contexts.  First, they note that he was engaged as a consultant on the first 3 courses at OFCC, but I have been unable to figure out what, if anything, he did.  There were signficant changes for the better to those courses in the early 1920s, but I have attributed those, perhaps incorrectly, to Jack Daray, then the club pro and a GCA in his own right.

The second  is a short sentence stating that he had been hired to design the 4th course. Can't remember the salary, but the minutes do later note that the plans had been received, and occasionally mention the progress of the course.  It appears that Park was at OFCC for about 40 days during construction.  

Jeff Goldman

[Phil_the_Author]

Craig, you asked, "But what about Baltimore CC? The original BCC (built in the 1890s) was in the area of Roland Park and has long been attributed to Willie Dunn. When Tillinghast built the new BCC course at Five Farms, the in-town course was gradually abandoned. Was there an earlier Park course at Five Farms or did he do some modifications of the course at Roland Park?"

No, the coure(s) at 5 Farms were new designs on property purchased by BCC. Tilly designed 2 courses, the existing East course that is one of the under-appreciated great courses in America, and a 2nd course that was never built because the tennis crowd ended up insisting that they needed 40 tennis courts rather than the three the original plan called for.

What is most exciting is that there are some members now who are pushing the club to consider scrapping the existing West Course and building the course that Tilly designed back then.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Looked pretty good skimming through it.
Willie Park Junior
Hardcover, 317 Pages, Luath Press Limited, January 2006
Author: Stephen, Walter

Dan- It is good and wasn't what I was expecting.  Nice to learn more about Musselburgh too.  It's been a good year with Tillinghast and now Maxwell.

Just goes to show it takes all sorts. I found it a real disappointment.  We learn as much about the author as we do about Park.  Maybe I was hoping for something like "The Evangelist of Golf', Discovering Donald Ross or The life and Work of Dr A Mackenzie and it falls so far short of those.

Someone should tell the author courses like Portstewart have been substantially changed since Park.  He calls it something like Parks toughest course but at least 6 of the most admired holes today have nothing to do with Park.  He also admits to never having been to any of the clubs of libraries in the US.

Jay I would be interested in hearing what you enjoyed about it, what am I missing?

The Park book is yet to be written. IMHO

[Craig Disher]

Philip,
Thanks for the info. I'm convinced that the late-30s course at Roland Park was a Park redesign of Dunn's original. It's interesting that BCC would have been maintaining two courses for 15-20 years. The RP course looks like it had something less than 18 holes, possibly 12 or 13, just enough for a quick round after work. The area available couldn't have supported 18.

[TEPaul]

I feel that Park Jr is the architect who really should be carefully analyzed next. His place in the evolution of architecture outside Scotland with Sunningdale and Huntercombe seems so significant.

The courses of Park's that I know which may number about a half dozen are interesting to me in that they all seem to have a number of relatively bland holes but then other holes on those courses are remarkable for one reason or another.

Maidstone and Mt Bruno are probably good examples.

[Eckstein]

Thanks for all the recommendations.

TEPaul
What do you mean Park Jr is the architect who really should be carefully analyzed next?? By who??