David's thread on the finding of the Raynor drawings of Fox Chappell & Bob's comments on Mac's Augusta drawing got me wanting to post something that has always intrigued me:

How many of the world great courses have the original plans that their architects drew?

I've seen Mac's stick routings of Cypress in Geoff Shaclefords book.

I've seen copies of Ross's drawings of Oak Hill in the Tufts archives (intersting they told me that there are no drawings of #2).

We saw the Pine Valley drawing by Colt on ebay last year.

Some of the club histories I've seen have renderings (Merion - by Flynn, a very early Shinnecock map) some don't (Kittansett, Winged Foot) but there have to be many many more out there that exist.

Are the drawings in the clubhouse at Olympic the originals?

What else exists and where sre they located

There are a lot more drawings out there than anyone knew about thirty years ago; they just keep turning up.  Neil Crafter wrote a fascinating article for last year's GOLF ARCHITECTURE about finding some of MacKenzie's old routing maps for Royal Melbourne with different iterations of some holes.

You are much more likely to find original routing plans for courses than actual construction plans.  Ross and Flynn (among others) did full sets of plans and kept them archived; Raynor did plans but they were not archived so we only find them at a few clubs; MacKenzie and others did greens plans for some of their courses but perhaps no drawings for others.  But even back in the 1920's, everyone did a nice routing plan, because the investors wanted to see something to put their money on.

Tom Paul,

How can you forget the Macdonald and Whigham sketches for Merion East?  Oh, and the Raynor sketches for Merion West?

Wayne or Paul,

Do you have any contact numbers for David Gordon so we might see if any of those drawings are for sale.

John,

They are not for sale and they will be going to the USGA as a keystone of the golf architecture archive and research center.  

Do you really think nobody else thought of trying to purchase them before now?

Tom Paul,

How can you forget the Macdonald and Whigham sketches for Merion East?  Oh, and the Raynor sketches for Merion West?

Damn, Wayne...you beat me to the punch.  

All of the personal copies from AW Tillinghast were destroyed when the barn they and the rest of the contents of his office and home when it burned to the ground in the 50's.

Yet, as Tom says, there are still a surprising number of his drawings to be found out there. These range fromsrtistically drawn full-color works of art to hole sketches.

I had a person contact some time back who had an original complete set of blueprints, true negative, line on blue paper, blueprints of his design for the Norwood Country Club. He was seeking someone who might help him pay to conserve them or possibly purchase them.

I really do belive that every club should keep a complete andupdated set of plans both in their clubs archives and also at a local historical archive.

Phil - That is horrible!!! What a loss.

Why would much of that work be left in the clubs hands vs the architects hands?

Phil,

Thanks.

In regards to the USGA, I'm suprised to see how little they show of the original works of the architects. Over the past few years we've been to Tilly's Bethpage & Winged Foot and how little of his historical work was shown in the USGA literature.

John,

You can't fault the USGA in this area (not saying that you were). Their library and museum can only display and/or make available for research and/or display items that they have in their collections.

That sounds almost too simple a thing to say, but the people at the USGA, especially in the early years, were made up of golf nuts like us who came to their positions through anything other than a true modern job search and background check. In other words, the same guys who threw drawings out of their clubs because tehy were taking up unnecessary space were the ones who worked for and ran the USGA.

Thankfully today they are doing everything in their power to protect the treasured history of the game. Give him all the grief one wants, but it is men like Tom Paul pushing behind the scenes, suggesting programs such as the architectural history initiative and other programs that many will be thankful for in years to come.  

Tom,

How was Oakmony confused w/ Gulph Mills?

In the hope of not hijacking my own thread, do you have Ross's original drawings for Gulph Mills?

Thankfully the drawings that I had for so many years that wree stored in the barn at David Gordon's property is safely kept in the climate controlled and secure offices of Mike Hurdzan.  I look forward to the day our material is combined with his and donated to the USGA.

Mike's collection of golf material is absolutely outstanding.  I've been behind the scenes of the National Baseball Hall of Fame collection and it blows away much of the stuff on display, especially in terms of quantity.  Mike's collection reminds me a bit of that amount of material in the bowels of the NBHF.  Yet of all the kinds of things he has, outside of the Flynn collection of architectural drawings he has almost no other architectural drawings, save his own.  

I believe a portion of the materials that make up the G Bahto collection are owned by the descendents of Macdonald's first greenkeeper who runs a automobile shop in Southampton.  If they are returned, perhaps the originals might end up either at NGLA or the USGA.  I hope the other institution winds up with facsimile copies and the material is scanned.

I scanned the entire Flynn collection at considerable expense.  The digital files will be stored at the USGA as well the originals.  But it is important to know that the USGA cannot hold a huge amount of original material.  Important works such as NGLA drawings would be great to display and to properly store.  I was glad to finally turn over the Gordon/Hurdzan material to Mike.  I know it is safe.  Likewise when the Arnold Palmer Center is complete, originals will be housed in a state of the art facility.  Digital files will make research accessible to so many.  The control of the images remains very important though.

I look forward to the day our material is combined with his and donated to the USGA

How many of you have originals?

I have had quite a few pass through my hands. Anything that comes my way is scanned and either donated or returned to the club.

There are lots of plans out there in strange locations at clubs like offices (Travis hole sketches), basements (famous painting), lockers (entire set of linen working drawings from 1920) etc. There is just as much sitting in the home of members who stole it from the archives too (entire Colt working drawing set).

I expect this to get worse, not better with key architecture plans. There is an established value for most architects.

I know of a entire collection of drawings for one club that sits with a former green chair. He is concidering returning it through someone to me. I hope he does but I have no control over this because I don't know who he is.

I know of a superintendent who took a very important drawing out of anger when he was let go by the club, only to return it later after some second thought.

If you fell into a motherlode, would you keep something for yourself and pass the rest along?

Food for thought...