Destroying Donald Ross

[Jerry Kluger]

I played yesterday with a woman who was women's champion at our club for many years and is now 86 years old.  She still makes solid contact with the ball and has a great sense of humor so it was a real treat to watch her get around the course.  The original course at Indian Spring was a Donald Ross design which was taken by the state to build a highway.  This young lady had learned the game on the Ross design and spoke lovingly of learning different shots in order to play the course.  What was interesting was her telling me that back in the 1940s they had decided to build houses around the course and redid many of the holes to accommodate more houses.  She told me that many of the Ross holes were lost and the new ones just did not fit.  It appears that our concerns with housing and its intrusiveness on the golf courses of today is a phenonmenon that has been around for a long time.

[TEPaul]

"It appears that our concerns with housing and its intrusiveness on the golf courses of today is a phenonmenon that has been around for a long time."

That is just so true and it's certainly not just housing!

Honestly, I've not seen a single time where a golf club doesn't end up regretting selling land for whatever reason, and I've never even seen a club not end up reqretting not buying land if it's ever offered to them.

My advice to any club would be to never, never, EVER sell land that's actually part of their originally planned club or course unless they want to regret it someday. This of course does not mean selling the entire club and moving on if something else better comes up or if they just can't manage the place in its entirety.

In every boardroom of ever golf club in the world in a prominent place for all board members to always see should be a sign with the prophetic words of Mr O'Hara and his undying love of Tara in Gone With the Wind---

"The land, Katie Scarlett, there's ALWAYS the LAND!"

[Jason Mandel]

Tom,

We had a great amount of land at White Manor that we sold about 15 years ago, it was the land to the right of #2, it sold it to someone who built a house but the house is no where near the property line and is seperated by the woods that he now owns.  But you are right, the club regrets selling the land, especially when we closed for 15 months, because that land would have been great for an additional 9 holes.

Jason

[Craig Disher]

Jerry,
The original Indian Spring was one of the greats. Bobby Brownell, who won the DC area championship 10 or 11 times in a row back in the 40s and 50s, told me that after Winged Foot, it was his favorite golf course. He was talking about the original Ross design which disappeared around 1940. Most of the older golfers around the area who recall Indian Spring remember the 1940-1955 version which was built after the Ross course was sold to a local entrepreneur who built homes on some of the holes and used the remaining land for a new golf course. In the mid-50s, he sold the course to the county and it was paved over by I495.

Ironically, when the club was sold in 1940, the membership pleaded with the owner to sell it to them. He refused - apparently he was fed up with them and their constant complaining - preferring to sell it to an owner who immediately began converting the course to housing. I've wondered that if the membership had been allowed to purchase the course if they would have had enough political clout to change the I495 design slightly and save the course. It certainly was possible.

In a fit of nostalgia last fall I walked around the old clubhouse and found one of Ross's original greensites. Absolutely nothing else is left.

[Doug Braunsdorf]

Craig-

  I live in Montgomery County.  Where was/is this site exactly?  What are some landmarks in the area/things to look for?  
I have never heard of this before, but you said the clubhouse is still standing, if I am not mistaken.