Alpinization Latest Word in Golf Architecture

[Joe Bausch]

Well, it was in this article by William Evans in the 1913 Philadelphia Ledger.

[Phil_the_Author]

Tilly was quite proud of the fact that it was he who introduced this architectural feature in America at Shawnee in 1911.

In fact Ray and Vardon, as mentioned in the article, as well as a number of other UK players, had come over in 1912 and played in the first Shawnee Open (name later changed to the Eastern Open). 

[Jeff_Mingay]

Was it Bernard Nicholls who originally laid-out Inverness, in Toledo?

[Dan Herrmann]

I find it interesting that the article calls flat land a "natural defect".

I still recall fondly Bill Coore* talking about the totally flat land in AZ that they built a great golf course on.

* At the wonderful GCA,com Hidden Creek outing a couple of years ago

[Joe Bausch]

Was it Bernard Nicholls who originally laid-out Inverness, in Toledo?

See this earlier thread I started:

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?topic=33079.0

[wsmorrison]

Tillinghast may have been proud to have introduced Alpinization to America.  Frankly, I'm more proud of the guys that got rid of it 

[Paul_Turner]

Very interesting that Berkhamsted is cited as the first course where this was tried.  The course is well known for its lack of sand bunkers and the humps and hollows are quite interesting there.

The course is worth tracking down,  a hidden gem.

[Mike_Cirba]

I'm becoming more and more curious how much of Whitemarsh Valley is really George Thomas, and how much of it was even George Thomas before Ross and Flynn respectively worked there in 1930 and 1934.

My strong sense is that most of what GT learned about golf course architecture he learned during the building of both courses at Merion, Pine Valley, Sunnybrook, Ross's changes at the original Philly Cricket, and Cobb's Creek, all of which came well after he did Whitemarsh Valley in 1908.

We know that Marion Golf Club in Massachusetts resembles a steeple-chase course more than anything natural, his 1910 design at Spring Lake got completely revamped by Tillinghast in 1918, and now Whitemarsh Valley seems to have been something short of strategically sophisticated when it was built by Thomas.

If someone has information to refute this understanding, I'd certainly like to hear it, but from everything I've seen recently it seems that most of what Thomas learned came later, and was then applied masterfully on the west coast.

[TEPaul]

"If someone has information to refute this understanding, I'd certainly like to hear it, but from everything I've seen recently it seems that most of what Thomas learned came later, and was then applied masterfully on the west coast."

That could be Mike, but it seems a bit illogical. I think it's pretty hard to deny that most of Thomas' work on the West Coast was some of the best and most innovative work ever done in architecture. Something tells me that didn't just come to him in some instanteous flash once he hit the West Coast.

George Thomas very well may've taught some of those he came to call his mentors in his book of 1926 a thing or two about architecture before he took off from Philadelphia for the Left Coast.

On the subject of "Mid Surrey" mounds or "Alpinization" I think it's pretty hard to deny it was an interesting experiment which got some press but then just died on the vine rather quickly as American golf architecture began to really point at naturalism and/or the look of it.

But you know me---I love the idea of the examples of evolution in architecture as well as some of its diversity in look and style today. It's the "Big World" theory. And on that note I'm very glad that a course like Somerset Hills never took out Tillie's "alpinization" while some of the other courses of the era like Merion and Pine Valley took theirs out early on.

[Tom_Doak]

Perhaps Thomas just didn't know enough about construction to build a great course until he met Billy Bell, and that's why one of the chapters of his book is devoted to construction, which many previous golf architects' books had omitted.

[Mike_Cirba]

Tom Paul,

I'm just beginning to believe that Thomas learned a heckuva lot more about architecture by 1916 than he knew in 1908.

Unfortunately, WWI intervened and he really never got to show much here in Philly.

However, what he learned incubated and then went into full bloom after his return from the war and his move to the west coast, pun fully intended.

[TEPaul]

Mike:

As to whether Thomas' original Whitemarsh Valley course was rudimentary and unsophisticated before Ross or Flynn or someone else got involved with it I won't be convinced of that until someone proves it and to date noone has.

As for Thomas' Marion Mass nine hole course before the teens that one really is remarkable for its lack of architectural sophistication and architectural rudimentariness. I don't know how to explain that one as Thomas wasn't that young when he did it and he did have examples like Myopia and GCGC at that time.

On the other hand, from my perspective today it really is so unsophisticated and rudimentary and resembling of steeplechasing, it is pretty cool to behold.

In my opinion, as apparently in the opinion of a few others such as GeoffShac, Thomas just may've been the most freethinking, ultra-innovative architect the art has ever known, with perhaps the single exception of Behr who never really produced Thomas' kind of LASTING architectural expression on the ground.

[Patrick Hodgdon]

Great thanks Joe! Now I know what to call the large mound/hill/"SWFL mountain" we have at Calusa Pines. It's the beautiful "alpinization" of the land!

[wsmorrison]

Shawnee Alpinization, published photograph in January 1913:



I find this a vast improvement over linear mounds and bunkers, yet too contrived for most settings.

[Mike_Cirba]

Mike:

As to whether Thomas' original Whitemarsh Valley course was rudimentary and unsophisticated before Ross or Flynn or someone else got involved with it I won't be convinced of that until someone proves it and to date noone has.

As for Thomas' Marion Mass nine hole course before the teens that one really is remarkable for its lack of architectural sophistication and architectural rudimentariness. I don't know how to explain that one as Thomas wasn't that young when he did it and he did have examples like Myopia and GCGC at that time.

On the other hand, from my perspective today it really is so unsophisticated and rudimentary and resembling of steeplechasing, it is pretty cool to behold.

In my opinion, as apparently in the opinion of a few others such as GeoffShac, Thomas just may've been the most freethinking, ultra-innovative architect the art has ever known, with perhaps the single exception of Behr who never really produced Thomas' kind of LASTING architectural expression on the ground.

Tom,

I'd agree with everything you've written here.   I'm just pointing out that the top golfers in Philly during that time period didn't seem to comment very favorably on much about the original WV except the length as being suitable for tournament play after the advent of the Haskell ball.   

It certainly didn't seem as hailed as Shawnee (although much of that was Tillinghast trumpeting his own work), but closer to home, the original HVGC course seemed to be the only thing approximating a "Championship course" prior to Merion, and even that one took some time to get up to that level.

It also seems that WV was evolved thru the teens (as this article mentions) and again in 1920 it is referred to as recently revamped.   I also am curious about Samuel Heebner's involvement, because he also did a a lot of "on the ground" work at both Sunnybrook and in implmenting Ross's changes to the original Philly Cricket, as was Thomas.

[wsmorrison]

Another photo from Shawnee.  To judge the scale, note the head of a golfer in the middle rear of the mounds.

[Mark Pearce]

I played both RMS and Berkhampsted way before I had an interest in GCA.  The two courses left a very different impression on me.  At RMS the humps and hollows were a very noticeable feature and were decidedly quirky.  I wasvery aware that RMS was a very "different" kind of golf course.  At Berkhampsted, the humps and hollows, whilst obviously man-made, seemed like an appropriate replacement (not substitute, they have very real merit in their own right) for sand bunkers and other hazards.  Paul Turner is right, Berkhampsted is a very fine course and well worth a visit.  Of the two, I would revisit RMS now for architectural interest, I would prefer Berkhampsted every time for a round of golf.

[Ulrich Mayring]

Believe it or not, but here a course opened recently, where they said its peculiar design style follows the newest trends in the USA and this dunes-like look is unique in Germany:








The course is called Bachgrund and is lcoated near Frankfurt. So, alpinization apparently is the latest word in German golf architecture! ;-)

Ulrich