[Michael Powers]

Geoffrey Cornish has been credited with almost 150 golf course designs (some say it's more than 200).  Cornish's work took place during what many would consider the dark time of golf course architecture.  He often worked with smaller budgets and on land that was not ideal.  Here in New England, the area is full of courses designed by Cornish, or designed by Cornish and Silva, or Cornish, Silva, and Mungeum.  So, was Cornish a positive for golf and golf course design by bringing affordable golf to the public as well as private golf clubs?  Or are there so many poorly designed courses that his impact could be viewed as negative?

[Ray Richard]

    He should be thanked for putting together hundreds of deals with farmers and land rich but money poor golf course developers that expanded golf in the Northeast. I grew up on a quirky Cornish design and it was built cheaply but it provided enjoyment for many players.
     
    Back in the 1960's and 1970's money to build golf courses was in short supply, and if we waited for a full blown tricked up design with 2400 sprinkler heads and an overblown clubhouse-we'd still be waiting. I wouldn't sell him short of the architecture either, check out Quechee Club in VT for a couple of functional but pleasing layouts.

[Michael Powers]

Ray,
I have played both Queechee courses as we used to play the NE Open there before it became a mini-tour event.  The one on the mountain was better than the lakeland.  In general, do you think anyone else could have done better given the limitations on money, land, permits, etc?  Some of the layouts are pretty bad.

[Tom_Doak]

He designed the public course [Sterling Farms] that opened a mile from my house when I was ten years old, and made golf possible for me.  I've heard his design fee for the course was $1,000, and maybe that's partly why juniors could play for $1 after 3 p.m.  So I, for one, am eternally grateful to him.

[Matt_Ward]

I cut my teeth playing one of his designs -- Bowling Green in Milton, NJ. Became extremely wooded in the later years but had plenty of unique and fun holes -- most notably the closing par-5 finale.

Sad to say when changes were made to the course to add housing they ruined a few of his original holes (3rd and 4th).

[ANTHONYPIOPPI]

Mr. Cornish was the Pied Piper of Golf in the Northeast. Throughout his career he worked with owners and clubs to make sure they could build a course, including cutting his design fee if needed. In other cases he  convinced courses to build the layout, including bunkers, but not put sand in them until they had the money. When the revenue came in, the bunkers were filled.

I'll bet only Donald Ross had more of an impact on golf in New England that Mr. Cornish.


Anthony

[Peter Pallotta]

Nice posts on a positive thread. A tip of my hat to Mr. Cornish. From the comments, he reminds me of George Bailey from "It's a Wonderful Life" -- it's amazing how many other lives are touched by one life, well lived. Was it a simpler and more generous time back then, or does it just seem that way?

Peter

 
     

[Ray Richard]

MP-Cornish came into the area with plenty of design credentials and hands on experience learned from Stanley Thompson. The problem was in the actual construction of the course. He always put in a big cloverleaf bunker and few were built properly. His patience was amazing-I remember seeing the back nine of Poquoy Brook (Lakeville,Ma)under construction in the late 1960's-Tony Marcos and his two sons built the place with some beat up equipment and a couple of junk cars with the trunks flattened out, serving as dirt trucks. The greens were all push-ups.
I worked on a Cornish course in New Hampshire that ran out of money after they built 8 greens, so they dredged a pond near the last,green site dumped the spoils, seeded it and it's still in play today. He always got the deal done, and he never quit trying to make a golf course deal work.

[Mike_Cirba]

An unqualified and enthusiastic "YES".

Mr Cornish designed a number of the best public courses in northeastern PA that I played as a kid (Wilkes Barre Muni, Le Chateau, Mill Race, Sugarloaf) and they all stimulated a heightened interest in golf architecture for me in my formative years.

So, YES, Thank You, Mr. Cornish!! 

[Tom_Doak]

Peter:

It was a simpler time, in many respects.  The profession then was not nearly as glamorous or as well-covered as it is today -- and strangely, Geoff contributed to that change when he co-authored "The Golf Course" with Ron Whitten and brought all the old designers' names to light, compounding the effect of the Signature Design era.

Mr. Cornish's goal was always to build a good course for the least amount of money possible, and that extended to keeping his own fee low instead of rationalizing how much he was saving his clients and charging them for it.  There was no expectation that anyone should get rich from being a golf course architect.  His humility puts us all to shame. 

Of course, he did not have clients who were charging top dollar, and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to p.r. firms to promote their courses ... that does tend to change one's perspective on the value of the work.  And because he wasn't paid much, he did a lot of jobs simultaneously to support his modest lifestyle, and didn't spend a lot of time on-site at any of them.

[Tim Gavrich]

I've groen up playing his Hop Meadow Country Club in Simsbury, CT and count myself very lucky.  I've played a bunch of his other courses (my high school golf team practiced at Simsbury Farms, also in Simsbury) and have never found one I disliked.  Sometimes his courses can be a bit on the bland side, but usually things are solid.

He's still alive, isn't he?

[Peter Pallotta]

Tom - thanks, that makes perfect sense, all around.

Michael - I thnk what you're asking is whether the existence of poor/mediocre courses somehow harms golf course architecture in general. It's a good question, and I think the answer a complicated one.  But, although I have strong preferences for the kinds of courses I'd like to see more of, I'd still say the answer is "no"...especially in the long run.

Peter

[Randy Thompson]

I grew up just outside where he lived, the man is a legend in my opinion. His books, his golf courses, his teaching in the winter school of Umass, the mother theresa of golf design in my opinion. Of course he had some bad designs, your only as good as your team, the shaper, the owner, the countruction superintendent and the final superintendent. Golf design is not a one man show, not now and not back then and the architect is only a factor in the equation of the final product! Congrats to the thread so far, nobody has trashed this great human bieng so far, kinda of weird!

[Mike_Cirba]

I'd love to see Ran interview Mr. Cornish for GCA.com.

I'm sure it would be fascinating and educational.

[Randy Thompson]

I am not sure he is still alive, if he is, he is getting close to 100. If I remember correctly when I was in college at Umass, he was like 72 and New England Medicine and Science Journal did an article on him in relation to the fact he had the heart of a 42 year old. They attributed to this to his high amount of walking, ie. site visits!

[Craig Sweet]

I played his course at Mt. Snow in Dover Vermont many times as a teen...great fun.....did Cornish do the "new" nine at Dorset?

[Cliff Hamm]

Just want to ditto what others have said.  Simply put - where would public golf in New England be without Mr. Cornish?  To me he designed enjoyable courses, playable for golfers of all levels.  No there was not a lot of eye candy but they were solid courses.

 I do not at all agree that they were poorly designed.  Poquoy Brook in Mass comes to mind as a very solid effort among others.  I wish more designers today would build affordable, enjoyable courses.  I might add that to some extent Brian Silva has continued that legacy with solid, affordable designs - Old Scotland Links and Achusnet River Valley both in Mass.  So with that I thank Mr. Cornish for his contributions to public, affordable golf.

[Brad Tufts]

I agree with all that has been said.  Although there aren't many "great" G. Cornish designs, he was the bridge between the Golden Age and today in New England.  I think even his more recent courses have benefitted from better finances behind the projects, and they have delivered.  If there was ever a negative, it was perhaps his remodeling of several Golden Age layout into a more 60s-70s big bold style.  However, his long career and accomplishments outweigh any negative.

Also, the back 9 at Dorset was designed by Steve Durkee, who also did 12 new holes at the very fun Neshobe GC in Brandon, VT, and will someday build the planned course for Middlebury (though I might die first, and I'm only 26).  I've found Dorset to be one of the toughest courses to get on in New England, due to it's remoteness.  It's the oldest of only about 10 private courses in Vermont, and the new nine was designed to mimic the old 9 in its quirk.

[Craig Sweet]

Brad....regarding Dorset...the new nine is nothing like the old nine...but Durkee did a good job capturing some of the quirkiness of the original nine....I was a member at Dorset for a while....fun stuff....but a bit stogy.

[Dick Kirkpatrick]

Yes, Geoff is still alive and quite lively!
He  was born in Winnipeg, Canada, August 6, 1914
He worked for Stanley Thompson along with Robbie Robinson, Robert Moote and Robert Trent Jones.
He is an honourary member of the Stanley Thompson Society here in Toronto.
I went to UMass in 1963 (short course in the winter) and he was one of our instructors.

[Jeff_Mingay]

I was fortunate to spend a couple days and an evening with Mr. Cornish at Highlands Links a  number of years ago. He's amazingly thoughtful, knowledgable, entertaining, classy, humble and genuinely interested in people.

While the people of Ingonish, Nova Scotia greeted him as a celebrity (who worked on the original construction of Highlands Links, with Stanley Thompson), Mr. Cornish was sincerely more interested to learn about what had happened to all of the men and women and families he'd met and known there nearly 70 years ago.

Mr. Cornish told me Stanley Thompson's lack of attention to budget bothered him. He'd bring budget concerns to Thompson's attention, and would almost always be dismissed. Perhaps this is, at least in part, why he ended up being so conscience of spending other people's money on golf course design and construction. 

Back to Mr. Cornish, the person.

One of the most shocking, and satisfying experiences of my life was receiving a letter (also a number of years ago, now) from Mr. Cornish complimenting me on all of the "wonderful writings" he'd enjoyed by Jeff Mingay, and encouraging me with my ambition to design and build golf courses. With regard to being thoughtful, and genuinely interested in people, Mr. Cornish truly sets the standard.

Funny, I've never played one of his golf courses.

[Brad Klein]

I regularly drive by his house at Amherst Green on Southeast St. in Amherst. Mass. Cornish is amazingly generous with his time, and was extremely encouraging to me when I was getting started in golf architecture journalism.

He's been a tremendous asset as a historian and defender of the lore of golf course architecture. Also, as an an educator. And while many public golfers should be thankful for his numerous, modest, courses, I think the story is more complicated and regretable when it comes to the extensive renovation work he undertoook on the classic golf courses whose history he documented. Here the irony is that for all his sensitivity and crusading about the value of golf course architecture, his own renovation work wasn't close to that spirit or sensibility.

[dsilk]

gents,

i was reading this thread with great pleasure when i learned of Mr Cornish's birthplace- Winnipeg, Mb.
Once, after a round of golf, a fellow from another foursome asked if I had played hockey in Winnipeg (prior to their move to Phx) and when I responded "yes" another golfer at the table scoffed, "only 2 things come from Winnipeg- whores and hockey players..."
one my foursome leaned over and mentioned to the dolt that my wife was a winnipeg native- to which the fellow replied, "Really, what position does she play?"

I was set up...

[Paul_Daley]

Geoffrey Cornish is as decent a fellow in golf-course architecture that one could imagine; a view held by many, especially those who have never met him. His profilic letter writing to those, similarly, he has never met, sets him apart. Having never played any of his solo or co-designs, I can only add that his pastoral presence in research, training, mentorship, editorial, publishing matters has been telling. It seems almost eons ago, in 2002, that Golf Architecture: A Worldwide Perspective - Vol One materialised. Pondering who to approach for a Foreword, Geoffrey seemed the obvious choice. It was during the year leading up to publication that showed me what a deeply knowledgeable and caring person he is.   

[Rich Goodale]

In the mid-70's I was in a regular Saturday 4-ball at Stow Acres.  The 36-holes there comprised (and still do, in my memory) among the best value for money public access facilities in the world.  There are very few courses I have played that I would return to expecting a lump in my throat when I walked onto the 1st tee.  Two of them are at Stow.  Thanks, Mr. Cornish.

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