Bret, you asked an interesting question: “Did Macdonald or Tillinghast ever use the word template?” Off-hand I am unaware of Tilly using the word “template” in reference to a golf hole. He did use similar ones such as “Type,” “Models,” “Replicas” & “imitation.” With apologies for the length of what follows, here are two examples of this:
The first one is found in his 1939 article, “A Veteran Passes,” he wrote: “In 1907 Macdonald became interested in the planning and building of golf courses, although he was a broker by profession, and after securing models of famous holes on British courses of that time, he more or less followed these designs in the building of the National Golf Links of America among the rolling sand dunes near Shinnecock, Long Island. Some years later he designed the beautiful course, the Mid-Ocean, at Bermuda. Numerous other courses were designed by him, still following his custom of working severely to the artificial construction of replicas of British golf holes.”
Now CBM himself, didn’t build these models, yet Tilly also used another word when describing what these “models” actually were: “designs.”
Some might say that CBM simply designed his courses based on his models, and that would be correct. Yet Tilly often included plasticine models of every hole to be built on courses he designed. These were used by his own construction crews and/or the supervisors he left in charge of the building of the courses. They were also left for the club to use, along with specific hole-by-hole building instructions, from which a construction crew under the supervision of someone the club hired or a member/committee of the club itself could build the course.
Although both used models from which their courses were constructed, there was one major difference in how these were used and what they actually were. For CBM, according to Tilly, these were the “designs” from which the course was to be built. Tilly’s models were not. They were the three-dimensional representation of what he personally designed and put on paper from which the courses were to be built. Though used for the same purpose, constructing golf courses, the making of them were done for different reasons by each architect.
The second one is found in the monthly brochure, The Golf Course. In the June, 1916 edition Tilly authored an article with the title “ORIGINALITY IN CONSTRUCTION.” With direct reference to CBM, it stated, “Not long ago I was amazed to hear a well-known golf constructor [note how Tilly didn’t refer to CBM as a course designer or architect] declare that there was but little that might be considered original in golf construction of today. He asserted that our best holes were copies of time-honored and famous holes of British courses. Certainly I do not agree with him, and in my opinion these models which surely were grand holes ten years ago have completely lost caste since the introduction of far-flying balls.
“Nevertheless, Great Britain provides us with some excellent types, even under present conditions, but attempts to copy them have produced holes of extreme mediocrity, and certainly a bit of orginality would have been more effective. American courses fairly teem with Redans and Eden holes. A short time since when inspecting one of the latter type, I was reminded of a story.
“A widow, accompanied by six children, visited the studio of a celebrated portrait painter. ‘We wish you to paint father’s picture,’ they chorused.
“‘Delighted,’ replied the gentle artist, ‘bring the old gentleman around for a sitting.’
“‘It can’t be done,’ sniffled the widow, ‘he has been dead for ten years now. We haven’t even got his photograph; but we thought we might describe him to you.’
“And so, one after another they described minutely Father’s features and general appearance. After some weeks the portrait was completed and the family lined up before the canvass and regarded it in wonder. There was depicted every described feature; nothingwas lacking, but finally the good woman exclaimed, ‘Yes, that’s Father all right; but how changed he seems.’
“As I regarded that attempted reproduction of that famous old hole at St. Andrews there were features which were similar, but the hole looked about as much like the Eden hole as the Eden Musee.
“Every great hole possesses many natural features which collectively make it a great hole, each dovetailing with the others and without all of them there is something lacking which spoils the whole. It is not Nature’s ensemble. So why not consider the material which Nature has given us to work with to the exclusion of any attempt to distort it to a sorry imitation.”
Now this is one architect’s viewpoint as to how to design and build a golf course versus another’s. Both are among the very small handful who might be considered the greatest golf course architect of all time. The reason I bring this up is because upon reading these once again, I realized that they inspired a few questions for Tom. When you designed and built the Lido, did you use just the original design drawings or did you also make models to use in the construction as well? And if you did, which ones came first? Or if you didn’t, did you ever give consideration to having models made?
This is being asked because it is understood how important it was for you to honor the original Lido course by making the new one as close as possible to it in construction.