When we speak of the "Golden Age", as well as the modern "Renaissance", we should probably all say a silent "thank you", because he started it all.

Mike,
I could name a boring one or two, but not when taken in the context of the whole course.

"Seriously, I think I'm ready to argue that he's the guy who deserves the most credit for taking the inland game from the geometric, cross-bunker, steeplechase game to a very natural, strategic, and inviting game quicker and with more long-term influence than anyone in history, including CB Macdonald."

MikeC:

Seriously indeed. I've been thinking about this for well over two years now. Some of this has been precipitated by this USGA architecture archive thing but somebody in America made a breakthrough in INLAND (manufactured) golf architecture from the rudimentary geometric stuff to a more naturalized adaptation.

The only possible candidates I've been able to think of that early who may've done that are either Emmet, Leeds or Wilson. It sure wasn't Macdonald.

And I've checked this out and Emmet, Leeds and Wilson were all familiar with the English heathlands before their projects. I think that definitely tells us something very important about the more naturalized style of the first really good "naturalized" INLAND architecture in America.

Somebody started it over here and the only question is who.

There's no sense in carrying on a guessing game here. Who is the fellow in that photo?

Tom,

I agree.

Turning to America, if there's anything more natural or more revolutionary than this, I'll eat my hat.



Matt may think this course is overrated, but GMAFB!



Isn't this what everyone from Tom Fazio to Tom Doak is looking to achieve 80 years on?

Phil,

Yes, his style translated quite nimbly inland, as well, as is evidenced by a few frames below;

Come on Mike, from about 6am on for the next five days I'll be gone. Who is this guy? From the photos you have an excellent point.

All I need to know is who he is and how early he did work in America that looked like those photos above.

If it's earlier over here than either Emmet's GCGC, Leed's Myopia or Wilson's Merion East, you have a helluva point here.

Forget about Macdonald and what he said about how good Chicago GC was back in that early day, at least as far as a natural inland look was concerned. It wasn't.

Who is this guy and what were his earliest American courses, particularly INLAND?

Is it Willie Anderson? If it is I don't know anything about him or what he did over here INLAND or how early or what it looked like.

Here's another clue:

His old man and uncle won the Open Championship.....as did he.  

CPS

Tom,

This fellow designed the first nine holes at Misquamicut, as well as the last 18 holes at Philmont.

Why we don't have a sacrificial altar to him here on golfclubatlas is beyond me because he's the avatar.

I wonder if Kavanaugh will think this thread is over-rated or under-rated?

Tom,

I'm not exactly sure that he was the first to do it over here either, but from the Maidstone history it seems he was a prime candidate, with at least some significant impact to that course prior to 1900.

Beyond that, his inland heathland examples in Great Britain had to serve as an inspiration to Macdonald, Wilson, and even Colt and Hutchinson.

Others may have written about it much better, but Park did it in the dirt.

Hutchinson was important as one of the first "name" Golf journalists. Previously whoever wrote about Golf (and there were not many) had his own agenda and didn't write regularly. Golf architecture was not deemed to be something to write about, as it largely didn't exist in the minds of people. Hutchinson and later Darwin were the ones, who brought mainstream awareness to Golf architecture.

As far as architects go, a case could be made for Willie Park junior to have started the Golden Age with his efforts at Sunningdale and Huntercombe. The architectural brilliance of Sunningdale, as we see it today, is partly due to Colt's reworking it in his time as the club's secretary. But the main point is not that Park somehow single-handedly invented Golf architecture - Colt and MacKenzie did more in this regard. But, as far as I know, Park was the first architect to think of the design and building of a course in terms of a larger project and trying what was previously deemed impossible.

Before Willie Park junior people looked at something like the Surrey heath and said: impossible to build a Golf course here. One of the reasons why inland courses were so dull in the 19th century is that they were built on "suitable land". Flat and uninspiring terrain, but easy to stake out some fairways on it.

Ulrich

Huntercombe actually opened a couple of months before Sunningdale, even though it was started later. But I think the first course in the heathlands was Woking. The infamous incident, where John L. Low and Stuart Paton put in the center line bunker and thereby invented strategic design, took place around 1904(?). I don't know about the architectural merits of the course before then.

I second your opinion about Fowler being early out of the gates and would like to add that J. F. Abercromby came shortly after and is also often neglected.

Ulrich

From 145 yards;



From 200 yards;



From 220...;

Silloth?