[Mark_Rowlinson]

I've removed the 1920s part of the title as it's not always appropriate.

I’ve whizzed through the 19,000+ photos in the ‘New’ category on the Britain from Above website and these are the remaining ones. They’re all Scotland, but there some good finds. If anyone knows of more than these 19,000 let me know and I’ll get down to it again. Apparently more are added each month.

Balnagask is a course in Aberdeen about which I know nothing. Do educate me. It looks very attractive. This photo dates from 1938.



These pictures of Falkirk remind us that not all Scottish golf is played against an idyllic background. 1938 again.







Turnberry, however, enjoys one of the great sites. This is how it looked in 1936. There will be more pictures of Turnberry later.





Here we have a portion of Prestwick St Nicholas also in 1936.



Port Seton in 1935. I don’t even know where it is. The golf course is pretty rudimentary. In fact the photos were of the aerodrome. Can anyone add detail?





This is Elie harbour in 1932. You just make out bits of the golf courses in the distance.





And from closer to (note the lack of periscope):





St Andrews again, this time in 1932





Fragments of Dollar (cents?) in the background. The subject was Dollar Academy and small town. 1932 again.







There are quite a few shots of the town of Girvan on the site, but this is the only one with the golf course. 1930.



Turnberry again, this time 1930.



















Frustratingly this is the only one of quite a number of images of Gleneagles showing a fragment of one of the golf courses. There are a couple of others which will come later, but they’re also frustrating. Have patience! 1930.



Lochmaben 1929, a three-year-old Braid course.



Royal Burgess and Bruntsfield Links in 1929



North Berwick, another minuscule fragment. 1929



Bellahouston Park in 1928.  I’m not sure that is the name of course. All captions refer to the Park. It appears to be fairly rudimentary.













Glasgow Green in 1928. I’ve included it because I think Glasgow Green was the earliest golfing site in Glasgow mentioned in 1721, the first golf known to have taken place in the west of Scotland.



Clubhouse and final green of Moray 1928.



Gleneagles in the snow, February 1928





Prestwick in 1927



Troon Old Course in 1927. Note the grass bunkers in front of the green, or possibly bunkers being filled in.



Finally, Troon Portland 1927, a few years after MacKenzie’s efforts (1921).



 

[Niall C]

Mark

Best till last and all that, fantastic stuff.

Balnagask I think is the local muni. I've only driven round it so will leave it to others to comment more but looked good basic fun.

Falkirk - not sure if thats Falkirk Tryst which I've only played once. Tight basic layout but with great turf.

Prestwick St Nicks - one of my favourites without much gorse and possibly not even the quarry which these days would be right edge of photo.

Port Seton - basically the next field along from Longniddry. If you look at Google Earth the course was where the caravan park is now.

Girvan - hopefully David Nelson will see this as he lives in a house overlooking the course and possibly one the houses in that photo.

Bellahouston - David Adams design which does indeed look quite primitive which surprises me because I grew up playing one of his courses that was really nicely done with some fairly undulating greens and a bit of alpinisation round the greens etc. Don't think this course lasted much into the 30's if at all.

Niall

[Niall C]

Mark

Lochmaben - I've played this a few times and really love the original 9 holes by Braid and the new ones aren't bad either. Possibly the most horrible clubhouse in Scotland although not unclean or anything, just primitive cheap architecture. Nice people though.

Prestwick - interesting how the larger bunkers such as the cross bunker at the first have now been split to have two bunkers. I presume that might be for agronomy reasons to help golfers get by and spread the ware ?

Troon Old - I recall that Braid put in some ludicrous amount of bunkers for the 1923 Open so every chance that those grass bunkers were some of his bunkers that were filled in.

Portland - fantastic. Interesting to compare and contrast with what's there now in terms of bunkering. Also great to hear that the club are seriously thinking of restoring the original MacKenzie bunkering.

Moray Old - I think that photo was from before the 18 th green was lowered about 5 feet. The bunker on the right also isn't there now. One of the great holes in Scotland.

Cheers Mark, thanks for taking the time to post all these pics, great stuff.

Niall

[Mark Bourgeois]

They’re all Scotland, but there some good finds.
 

I look forward to Bonnar's reply.

Meanwhile this is fantastic stuff, Mark. Will you be curating your finds into a meta-thread, that we may find specific courses more easily?  

[Paul_Turner]

After seeing these final aerials of Scottish links, only a dunderhead could conclude that a circular revetted pot is the traditional form of bunker.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Mark the one I hoped you'd find. ALMOST!!!!  The McDonald Hotel (current name?) is in the centre of the photo.

This shows the 16th green but frustratingly only the very front of it, but with more than a hint of drainage channel  in front of it.
 I am not convinced the rear part of it was there prior to the 1960's and I do hope Google earth gets some historical images to sort it out.


There is alos about 15 yards more room on the left of the fairway which would be the best line for a running appraoach.

I don't knw what the square short grass  below it is, but if thats really the 3rd fairway it must have been 20 yards wider on that side!

[Jon Wiggett]

Mark,

interesting how square the last green is at Elie and how radically different the bunkering and approach were at Turnberry.

Are there no shots of any Yorkshire courses?

Jon

[Marty Bonnar]

Niall,
not the Tryst - just Falkirk Golf Club, sometimes known as Carmuirs. That industrial complex in the foreground is the Alexander Dennis Bus Company. Among their world-renowned products is a certain Las Vegas 'Deuce', baby...:

http://www.alexander-dennis.com/100-million-not-out.php?s=47&subs=77

And just over the road there is Stirling Road Playing Fields which I (well, my minions!) look after. Nice!


F.

[Neil_Crafter]

Niall,
not the Tryst - just Falkirk Golf Club, sometimes known as Carmuirs. That industrial complex in the foreground is the Alexander Dennis Bus Company. Among their world-renowned products is a certain Las Vegas 'Deuce', baby...:

http://www.alexander-dennis.com/100-million-not-out.php?s=47&subs=77

And just over the road there is Stirling Road Playing Fields which I (well, my minions!) look after. Nice!


F.

You have minions? I'm impressed. Henchmen will be the next step up.....

[Tom_Doak]

Mark:

These are terrific photos, this set.  I'm with Tony on the agonizingly close view of the 16th green at North Berwick and only being able to see the front half.  But, as I talked about somewhere just last week, these photos show what I was never sure of before ... how wide the fairways were in Scotland back in the Golden Age.  The 16th fairway at North Berwick alone is much wider than today.  And the 18th green at Elie is huge! 

I'm not as surprised about the variety of bunker shapes as Paul Turner seems to be ... I know from my experience of thirty years ago that they just keep getting rounder every time they're rebuilt.

[Mark Pearce]

Tom,

I'm not sure the 18th green at Elie looks any bigger than it currently is.  Certainly the area of rough between the green and the road at the back of the green is no bigger now and the front of the green in those pictures appears to be coincident with the bank/false front.  Indeed, I wonder if the front edge of the green hasn't moved slightly, so that that bank now is more of a false fron than a valley of sin type bank?

[Jon Wiggett]

Tom,

I'm not sure the 18th green at Elie looks any bigger than it currently is.  Certainly the area of rough between the green and the road at the back of the green is no bigger now and the front of the green in those pictures appears to be coincident with the bank/false front.  Indeed, I wonder if the front edge of the green hasn't moved slightly, so that that bank now is more of a false fron than a valley of sin type bank?

Mark,

one big difference is its shape I think. I seem to recall it is much rounder these days.

Generally, it surprises me how much bigger the fairways are, I guess there was no semi rough and how simple the cutting lines were probably to do with the equipment. I suspect this was down to slower growth rates (no irrigation and low fertiliser) as I have mentioned on other threads. It would be good to get back to these ideals IMHO

Jon

[David Nelson]

On the Girvan picture my house is second from the left overlooking the #8 green. Girvan has 8 links holes that occupys the same views as Turnberry. The remaining 10 holes are behind the house next to the river Girvan. Not much has changed over the years other than the bunkers being now revetted...what a shame!

Great pictures Mark, thanks for posting!

[Mark Pearce]

one big difference is its shape I think. I seem to recall it is much rounder these days.

Jon,

It's still got pretty straight edges front and left but you're right, it's less angular at the back and right.  Looking at Google Maps the green might now be a bit narrower (though it's still wide and may get nearer to the road at the back).  The right hand cross bunker has also been removed, though its outline can still be seen in the aerial image on Google Maps.

Mark

[Ed Brzezowski]

Does anyone know nothing about the smokestack in the St.Andrews photos???  Wondering what was located there that needed that volume of heat or stem.

[Paul_Turner]

Mark:

I'm not as surprised about the variety of bunker shapes as Paul Turner seems to be ... I know from my experience of thirty years ago that they just keep getting rounder every time they're rebuilt.

Not really Tom, I didn't just get off the boat.  Although Turnberry's are more elaborate than expected.

[Tony_Muldoon]

One mystery solved?  Another North Berwick image.



IF you go to
http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/sites/all/lib/aerofilms-images/public/scotland/SAW032096.jpg

For those who are registered, you can zoom right in on the left hand side of the picture, showing the golf course. Seems to me that’s the rear section of the 16th green.  

It’s still a mystery to me why Dickinson, published 1951 and others earlier, didn’t describe it in detail. He talks about the sequence 10-15, mentions the drive on 16 and then describes 17 and 18!!!!!

Can anyone capture the bit I’m talking about, the quality is astoundingly good.
21 August 1950.

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