Great find Mike After a few Gins to numb help rcover after 9 hours in the car I had to do this to read it.
He was one of the first—I think we might almost agree that he was the first—to perceive the possibilities of inland golf course construction on the finer, grander system
golf boom that was coming, the demand that there must inevitably be for many, new inland courses of a better and more interesting type than were generally in existence then. Upto then the manner of designing and making a hole was to put a plain straight bank across the course in front to be driven over, this arrangement, with a little sand in front of it, being known as a bunker, and, if the hole were long enough, there was similar contrivance set up immediately in front of the putting green. Generally nothing more was considered necessary, though if some elaboration was desired similar banks were stuck-up somewhere on the left or on the right. None of these things were beautiful to look upon, they gave no character to the holes, this being supplied only by such local natural features as trees, watercourses and ponds; they were not in the least interesting, and they made most holes look very much like each other. Nor did they tend to the smallest improvement in the game of any player. This was Victorian golf architecture, the standard for which was set by that indefatigable master of it, Willie Dunn, who made his professional mark on multitudinous patches of land in many parts of the country. Willie Park perceived that there would soon be a demand for something very much better, and he set himself to devise it, to give to inland courses some of the attributes of those at the seaside where the holes were fashioned by Nature and abounded in features and strong character. With imagination and money it could be done. This scheme marked the beginning of the new principles in course architecture that have since revolutionized the whole of inland golf, not merely in England, but imparts of the continent of Europe, all over the United States, Canada, and everywhere. Huntercombe and Sunningdale were Willie Park's first productions. He was responsible for the primary designs of the architecture of the latter, a beautiful course cut out of a wilderness of heather on some high, rolling land in Berkshire. Mr. Colt soon set himself to work on the first designs when they had been applied, and he has carried out vast improvements on the original model, so that Sunningdale, as we know it now, the inland course that I still consider as the best and most delightful to play upon in the whole of Britain, is not at all what it was at first. Still Willie was in at the beginning with Sunningdale; that is a lasting distinction. But he was much more closely concerned with Huntercombe, a fine piece of land in Oxfordshire, very high up on a spur of the Chiltern Hills. In many respects the situation of Huntercombe was ideal, and it attracted great fame to itself, but it suffered from lack of accessibility, a difficult uphill motor-car journey having to be made from the Henley station six miles away. Also it was a longtime before a proper clubhouse could be built, and the only accommodation was in a local farmhouse which was taken over for the purpose, and there was trouble with the water supply. These difficulties have been overcome since then, but, unfortunately for Willie who invested his money in the undertaking, he had to bear the brunt of them. However he laid out on these hills at Huntercombe a glorious course with greens that were wonderfully spacious and splendid. The bunkering was done with imagination and ingenuity, and the holes had fine character. Willie set himself, as a particular labour of love, to copy old "Pandy" at Musselburgh, with its plateau green, and produced a really fine copy—with improvements—making many special journeys between Huntercombe and Musselburgh for the purpose. It was then, and it still is, one of the best pleasures in golf to play the game at this place, but financially the venture did not then thrive. Willie had£11,500 of his own money in it, and it was mostly lost. But for that, America would probably not have had him now.