The Tillinghast Association is pleased to announce...

[Phil_the_Author]

The launching of our new website!

It is designed to allow for the needs of both the casual reader and the ardent researcher. A great deal of new content has been added as well as many new features. For example, there is an updated listing of his work that contain several new courses here-to-for unknown as his designs. Two of these are the Norfolk CC in Connecticutt and the Lake Valhalla Golf Course that no longer exists in New Jersey. Dates given for the different courses have been researched and verified.

Among the added content is that every PGA Tour letter known has been posted. These can be accessed in two different ways. First, they can be viewed as individual letters by the researcher. They can also be seen through a "slide show" presentation. In fact this new feature is being used throughout the site. We already have a number of slide shows for different Tilly courses and we are working with the historians for several of the clubs to develop additional ones.

There has been a great deal of added content to a number of other sections as well. For example, we have added many new course and individual holes to the "Design Section" and will continue to be doing so. In fact, just today we received a copy of a routing plan for the Kingsport CC in Tennessee, a course Tilly designed and that opened for play in 1919 that unfortunately no longer exists. It is the only entire course drawing or routing that we know to exist and will be added to the site shortly.

We have added numerous articles authored by Tilly and numerous newspaper articles that discuss both his work and his person.

We invite all to visit the site, enjoy it and learn about Tilly and to keep doing so as we continuously expand it...

You xcan visit it at www.tillinghast.net. If you are not yet a member, this should certainly give you a good reason to consider joining...

[Neil_Crafter]

Well done Phil and kudos to all concerned. What a wealth of material which would take months to absorb properly.
cheers Neil

[Phil_the_Author]

Thank you Neil. This was very much a group effort with Bob Trebus, President of the Association, the man behind the site design and programming. Rick Wolffe spent a great deal of time scanning in documents and many others, John Yerger & Stu Wolffe to name just two, did a great deal of research and more to make this happen.

[Mike Cirba]

Phil,

Wonderful work, and thank you for sharing with all of us.

Two quick questions from my early morning perusal of your course listings.

1) I see Old Orchard in Eatontown, NJ is no longer listed.    What can you tell us about that course and might it have been built as Myosotis CC (NLE) in that same town?

2) I read previously in one of the letters about Tillinghast's work at Reading CC in PA where he built a new 6th green.   I believe this was during his PGA tour if I'm not mistaken.    However, I don't see it listed anywhere?

Thanks again!!

[Rick Wolffe]

Hi Mike

Here is the page on the site which lists in chronological order the courses examined on the PGA tour...page down and Reading is listed...

http://www.tillinghast.net/Tillinghast/Couse_Listing.html

The PGA letters thru May of 1937 (we hope to find the balance thru Fall of 1937) are found at this page...the Reading letter is either the October 3 or October 4 letter posted on this page.


http://www.tillinghast.net/Tillinghast/PGA_LETTERS_35.html

[Phil_the_Author]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the nice words!

It amazes me how several people can work so hard and for so long to compile a list of courses that actually begins WITH a list containing a course that gets inadvertently left off and completely miss it! Even more amazing is how someone who is interested in a specific course can peruse a list in a minute and SEE that it is missing.

You're correct, Old Orchard should be there as it is a 1929 Tilly design. We'll re-insert it.

The reason why a number of the courses previously listed in the Reconstruction & Additions category no longer are, and Readin CC is a good example, is because these are courses that Tilly visited during his PGA Tour from 1935-37. He was not paid any monies for this work. Tilly made recommendations to thses courses that many times were done but also many times where some or all of the work was not. Since he was at the clubs through the auspices of the PGA of America, we've decided to view these courses as separate and distinct and as special cases. Within these are a very few special exceptions, made because the follow-up work either occurred after his tour was over or, in the case of a course where they had him design an entirely new 9-holes in addition to redesigning the existing ones, the work was directly followed up and overseen by Tilly separate from the PGA work.

It is because of this that we have created a new section titled "PGA Course Service." This section contains separate sections within it listing all of his stops and a quick summation for each, an introductory overlook about the service and a section within this where one can view all of his known letters.

As Rick pointed out in his response, Reading is in there... 

[Jeff_Mingay]

Wonderful, Phil. Thanks to you and the Tillinghast Association for this "treasure trove". The PGA letters are particularly fascinating.

Thanks again.

[Jud_T]

Phil,

Great Job! FYI- Green Acres Country Club (formerly Illinois GC) is actually in Northbrook, IL not Glencoe (Glen Cove?)....

[JMEvensky]

Congratulations Phil.

Now about that AWT coffee table book...

[Phil_the_Author]

Jud,

The Illinois GC, now Green Acres, seems to have had a history of being wrongly located by well-intentioned gtolf architecture lovers. Even Tilly listed it as being in "Chicago" in his 1925 advertisement listing of courses. We'll make the fix!

JM, that is being worked on! In fact, about 30 minutes ago I received a question from someone that I was able to answer by information that is part of its index!

[Kyle Harris]

Phil, et al,

Cederbrook Hill is now NLE.

[Mike Cirba]

Rick/Phil,

Thanks again for the update/clarification as well as for this tremendous work!  

One course that I suspect is Tillinghast as well is the course abutting Ridgewood, today known as Paramus GC, and formerly Saddle River CC, which opened in 1928.   Some of the bunkering patterns are very suspicious....I'll see if I can dig up any related info.

Mike

EDIT*** Cyril Walker, the 1924 US Open champ was the first pro when the course opened in 1928, so it was not an insignificant club.

[Kyle Harris]

Another correction I think. Lulu Temple in Dallas, PA should read Irem Temple.

Where did you guys find the Frankford High School sited course information? That's pretty neat.

[Jason Topp]

Congratulations Phil.  If I find interesting items related to Golden Valley G&CC I will pass them along. The only thing on the Minnesota Historical Societ website of any interest is a picture of the clubhouse.  http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresources/image.cfm?imageid=30823&Page=1&Digital=Yes&Keywords=golden%20valley&Type=Photo%2CArt&SearchType=Basic

[Phil_the_Author]

Kyle,

Yes, Cedrabrook Hill is NLE & should have been listed that way. Tilly did work at BOTH LULu & Irem Temple. In 1916 he was "engaged to furnish the plans" for an additional 9 holes at LuLU. This was reported by Tilly himself in the February 1916 issue of the American Golfer and in the June 1917  issue he reported that "The LULU Temple golf club announces that their new course will not be delayed (by WWI) which of course it would be...

About the Frankford site. In January 1909 Tilly wrote, "I was invited to run out to Frankford, a suburb of Philadelphia where at that time golf had yet to be introduced. Selecting the most available ground (which, by the way, is almost on the links of the present Frankford Country Club), I laid out a rather crude course, using for holes, tin cans which had once contained French peas. With a group of curious, skeptical citizens around me I next proceeded to demonstrate the various strokes to the best of my ability until one of the spectators expressed a desire to try his hand at it…"

That Frankford CC no longer exists and on its site today sits the Frankford High School and some homes...

Mike, there are a number of people who believe that Paramus GC may be a forgotten Tilly design. We have been looking into it and any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Jason, since you mention the Minnesota Historical Society, their archivist is Tilly's great-granddaughter Monica!

[Mac Plumart]

Alright Tillinghast guru's...here's a question.

I haven't played a Tillinghast course.  What course would you recommend I play as my intro to his work?

[Joe Bausch]

Wonderful site Phil.

Joe

P.S.  When are you going to include all
the articles from Far and Sure?

[Phil_the_Author]

Joe,

That is being worked on by the I Wish He Was Really Tillinghast Society of Philadelphia!  

[Phil_the_Author]

Mac,

Any one you can get on... They are all distinctive and different from each other. For a first-time Tilly player who wants to appreciate the subtleties of his designs, I would take special note of the green entrances. How they extend out from the fairways and an integral part of the putting surface design and bunker placements.

[Mac Plumart]

Thanks Phil...good stuff!

[JMorgan]

2) I read previously in one of the letters about Tillinghast's work at Reading CC in PA where he built a new 6th green.   I believe this was during his PGA tour if I'm not mistaken.    However, I don't see it listed anywhere?

Thanks again!!

I've never been crazy about uphill par 3's but that green is pretty cool despite too much going on in the background (1st tee; 9 green).  Definitely one of the better green contours on the course.  Reading needs someone to go in and cut down lots of trees, yet the course is so tight someone might get killed.