For those interested in learning more about Sunningdale ....

[Ran Morrissett]

... I highly recommend the following 95 page booklet entitled The Sunningdale Story which is now available on Kindle:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Sunningdale-Story-ebook/dp/B0084NPYBA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338637380&sr=8-1

It represents everything that you would hope to find on both courses including past and current photos and who did what when. John Churchill is the author and I have had the pleasure of corresponding with him for a couple of years now. A member at Sunningdale for over 55 years, he brings both passion and knowledge to the subject matter. Importantly though, he presents his research material in a factual manner and he does well not to editorialize. Too many historians might have played amateur architect, trying to steer the reader into thinking that x was a good move and that y was a bad one. Not here. You get undiluted facts laid before you and you are free to draw conclusions yourself.

Apart from the raw information, the booklet contains diagrams, photos and paintings rarely if ever seen before.

Here is a recent commissioned portrait of Colt on the old 8th tee of the New Course.



The artist is Arabella Dorman, who is also the UK Government's war artist in Afghanistan where she trains with the marines to be combat fit. You can order a print for yourself at www.arabelladorman.com. The Colt portrait now hangs in the Sunningdale dining room and this 1930 black and white served as the basis for the painting.



John has done a great service to the club by capturing all this information in one place and I think you will find this booklet to be a most welcome addition to your library.

Cheers,

[Niall C]

Ran

Thanks for the link and recommendation. For us technophobes, does John have a paperback copy available ?

Niall

[Paul_Turner]

Thanks  Ran very interesting.  Much of the book is from Guy Bennett who wrote a booklet on Sunningdale in the 1960s (hence the credit) but with some interesting drawings to illustrate the changes.  

But I think GCA discussion group contributers deserve a credit or two here i.e. me

Ten or so years ago, the "lost" Colt holes on the New were basically completely forgotten (not in the club Centenary) and most of the information came to light through the GCA discussion group.  

I'm also pretty sure that the Bennett booklet was completely forgotten about until I brought it to light here on GCA in 2001/2....I copied it from the USGA....it gets forwarded onto the club etc

I also recognize a few of the photos in the book  I posted that Golf Illustrated photo of the 7th here in 2002 (until AOL photo hosting became defunct).   And the photo of the original 1st and 3rd on the New were dug up by me at about the same time.  I have and recognize the original scans/photocopies of both!

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,2868.0.html

Tony Muldoon posted all the Simpson/New photos here several years ago.

I guess I'm just fed up of seeing time/work on the DG lifted and published...it's happened many times now.

Some inaccuracies though:  Park's 7th on the Old was much straighter than drawn in the book; it only turns very slightly left.   And consequently the old 7th green isn't where the photo indicates.  Bennett didn't know that the 15th was changed; I guess the change was too early for even him.

Also, the original tee on the 10th New isn't where it has been drawn in Fig 22... it's much closer to the original 9th green.

 

[Paul_Turner]

delete

[Niall C]

Paul

I assume you've seen a copy of this publication and it makes no mention of either yourself or GCA. Is it possible that he could have sourced the information and photos from the same place you did ?

Niall

[Paul_Turner]

Niall

No the photos were definitely not sourced independently from the same place.  I have the original photocopies and can see the exact same defects in the published reproduction.  The diagram of the remodelled 8th too was also sourced by me (it's from the book "Hazards").

It's not a huge deal, but I've just seen a lot of info from the GCA discussion group recycled into books, magazines etc.  And this information didn't just spring out of nowhere...it took some effort to dig it up.

GCA is credited in the book but just as a useful resource, no specifics.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Thank you for the credit Paul, it's a shame these clubs can't do the same. I hjave more info and now they'll just have to wait.

I did the same for two other GCA fave's who are  preparing  centenary books but I’ve heard nothing more.

I’ve bought the book and it will be interesting to see if this and The Nature Faker are the start of a new trend where cheap epublishing becomes the norm for Club Handbooks and Architecture/history.  Will it make the old ones obsolete? I hope not I have quite a collection.


For anyone interested in Sunningdale avoid the Centenary book, a coplete waste of money.  All it will tell you about is the famous members they’ve had. The man who wrote it is clearly nothing more than a snob.