Matthew:

That's not quite right.  Colt had been a very good player in his day -- at least as good as Abercromby or Fowler, and certainly better than Simpson or MacKenzie.

This is in my RCD book, I will check it up but I think they were refering to 1914 and MacKenzie wasn't a big name then was he? I think it also states that Colt opened the way for others to follow.

Matthew, Colt made it to the semifinals of the British Amateur in 1906, along with two other Sunningdale members.  He was definitely a player.

Even reading all the above I think we can only speculate as to the real reasons but my ‘cultural’ explanation would go like this.

Braid Taylor and Vardon came from an era where you did your design work fast and took your money perhaps going back for a separate   fee.  IN Europe Colt set himself up as a contrast to this approach. He was the Solicitor and they were the prole’s, he could sit in board meetings and they took a one off fee. I can’t agree with Rich that pro’s were treated as anything like equals over here.  Late in life my father, who was a scratch player in his teens, said he would have considered turning pro if the people in Ireland in the 40’s didn’t look down on them. After all it was over here where Hagen chose to change shoes in the Car park outside the front door.

Money. I’ll post later Braids fees at Walton Heath (“Heather and Heaven” is at home), I think you’ll be surprised how high they were and how much time he was allowed off.  I conclude he was ambitious and very hard working taking endless trains to design new courses or collect fees for an enormous amount of exhibition matches at a time when he was already earning far more than his parents could ever have dreamed for him.  One of the surprises in the book is that he actively approached this new club for the position as he could see how much it could do for him.  All three also had the expertise of firms like Strutt & Co to see the projects through (I don’t know enough about the same period in the USA to know if  there were firms who could cover all the states). I believe Strutt and co were still working for many years after the 'old guys' had stakes placed in the ground above them.


The American pros by contrast didn’t have the same background and without that culture and support it wouldn’t have been an easy thing to get into.  It’s a mystery why they didn’t attach their names to local clubs though?


Just my thoughts

I suspect the timing of when golf became popular in the US may have had a alot to do with it.  By the time the first US professionals came of age, let's say Hagen was the first real superstar among US professionals, the first golf boom of the teens and 20's was over due to the depression.  Hagen turned 40 in 1932 and was probably too busy as a professional golfer to pay any attention to design before that.  The second golf boom seemed to hit just as Palmer and Nicklaus were ready to branch out from playing and with the value/marketability of their names in golf's tv era it easy to see why they took off as designers.  

There were huge differences in the sort of wages club professionals could obtain in the UK and while Braid might have done well at Walton Heath, the lot of many others was shocking.  They were required to attend to the members' needs at all hours of day and night.  Many were also required to be the greenkeeper.  A goodly number were also expected to help behind the bar at busy times - the only occasion when they were allowed inside the clubhouse.  many professionals' quarters were insanitary.  There were huge restrictions on taking time off to play in tournaments.  It was not a good life.

Around my part of the UK there are a great many courses designed by local professionals who have little recognition today.  Several are by Tommy Renouf, a Jersey contemporary of Vardon.  Renouf was professional at Manchester and also Stockport.

Who has heard of Eric Parr?  It seems he was the Professional at Blacon Point a one-time links course on the Dee Estuary lost during the Second World War.  He designed the early holes at Vicar's Cross, a pleasant course on the outskirts of Chester.

JA Steer is another about whom few know, but he was the first designer of Fairhaven, next door to Royal Lytham (later improved by Braid).  It was reputed once to have 365 bunkers!  He also designed Chorley.

Tom Williamson, professional, greenkeeper and clubmaker at the Notts Club, somehow found time to design a host of courses in the surrounding area, as well as dear little Coombe Wood adjoining the better-known Coombe Hill.

Tom Vardon, Harry's brother, Professional at Ilkley, designed several Yorkshire clubs.

George Rochester anyone?  He apparently designed Bamburgh Castle and Alnwick.

But you are right.  These things did seem to go in eras and as well as Vardon, Braid, Taylor there were also Herd, Compston, and other players of that era.  There seem to be many courses built prior to the War which have no record of a named architect, and that seems also to be true of even some quite recent courses.  For instance, at Davenport, quite a nice 18-hole local course built in the 1970s, the club has no record of who may have designed it.  When I wrote the Times Guide, fewer than 50% of the 2,500 clubs in the British Isles had any clue about their architect.  

Sean

My understanding is that the US didn't really have a viable tour until the 1930's.  In the mid-late 20's, guys like Hagen made most of their money on exhibitions and other non-tour stuff.  And, as we know, until the King came along in the early 60's even the tour we had was miserly vis a vis the golfers purses, except, of course in George May's event.

Rich

Has anyone asked another pertinent question - was there a "tour" in the UK where professionals could make a decent living as developed in the US?

As Mark mentioned above, the UK golf professional didn't do too much playing for money - he was a club professional when that didn't rank high in the social scale.  He usually was expected to be something of a clubmaker or repairer.  He many times supervised the greenkeeping operation.  And he might earn some extra money designing golf courses.

But it doesn't seem that the Fowlers, Simpsons, MacKenzies fit that mold.  But Braid, Vardon, Taylor, yes.