HELP! Metairie C.C. / Jack Daray

[Tom Roewer]

All my info so far agrees that Joe Bartholomew almost alone, built Metairie after studying under Seth Raynor in New York, and that it is a Raynor Design.  I have just seen what must be an uninformed reference to Jack Daray as designer of Metairie.  I know that he was a founding member of the ASGCA, and that he was active on the gulf coast at the same time as when Metairie was built.  Does anyone have any data to link him at all with Bartholomew, Raynor, or the design and build of Metairie??? Thanks..

[wsmorrison]

Ron Forse and Jim Nagle may know the answer as they have done some excellent work there over the last few years.  I see Jim Nagle is on the site right now, perhaps you could IM him.

[Jerry Kluger]

I believe Ron Forse did some restoration of the course - check with Jim Nagle.

[Adam_Messix]

I had the chance to ride around Metairie CC with a member last fall.  Raynor was the original designer of the course.  According to the member that I know, sometime in I believe the 50s, the club sold off some of the golf course land for real estate development.  They had Jack Daray do work on what was left of the original course and build new holes to replace the ones taken by real estate.  Ron Forse came in and did a renovation/restoration and did a good job.  The course starts out rather subdued but gets really interesting at the finish, particularly the greens.  Hurricane Katrina detreed the course which would be considered an improvement by most on this site.  

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

hmm I will get back with the club Historian who is a friend of mine. There were some problems with the job which may or may not have been attributable to oversite by Ron et al. I though Mr. Haas handled the dramatic modifications to the original course. I like the new course but there were some real construction mistakes and of course the hurricanes did not help things either. My question was it budget or design mistakes that led to the lack of drainage and sand cap in the rough. Also a number of strategic trees died from dirt work during construction. I play there fairly often and still feel the work made the course a much better place.

[RSLivingston_III]

With regards to Daray, I did some research on him as he was the pro at a club where I was a member.
He came to Grand Rapids, MI around 1913 from Chicago (The Ridge GC ?). His son said previous to that he had worked as construction foreman to Ross on Pinehurst #4 (NLE). While in GR he designed and built a number of courses in the state including the Highlands GC with Bendelow and then the redo with Ross.
While he was building Cascade CC in GR, W. Park stopped by to see his work and afterwards went back to the Olympia Fields committee and recommended he be hired away. That was about 1923.
He went on to design and build a number of courses in the Chicago area, many of which are near OF. He did also do much work on the OF courses. The timing seems off by about a year but it was suggested Park wanted him there to work on his new course at OF.
All this time Daray wintered on the gulf coast as a pro, teacher and architect. He was highly regarded as a teacher having taught the sitting President of the US to play (Harding?) and Babe Ruth. One of the courses he did down on the gulf coast was supposed to have had the first island green.
He eventually moved out to California.

Sorry for being a bit vague, I am trying to recall this off the top of my head. The research has been buried for about 5 years and I would need to dig it up if you want exact dates.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

I have never heard his name mentioned prior to now with regard to Metairie CC. That does not mean he was not in the story though.

[Chris Moore]

Confirming the New Orleans tradition of just being a little bit wrong, there is a funny grammatical error engraved on a plate placed on the tee of one of the holes at MCC (all the holes have Raynoresque names) - No.  11 is named "Principle's Nose".  

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