[Joe Bausch]

Below is the fun read on the introduction of Gulph Mills to the Philadelphia area in 1917 by William Evans of the Philadelphia Public Ledger.

[wsmorrison]

Excellent article, thanks Joe.  What became of the pool?  Perhaps the war changed priorities and it was not addressed again.  As for the practice facilities, I wonder where they were in the beginning.  There wasn't a driving range at the outset, right?

It would appear from this article, which I recall seeing years ago, that the organizers of the club, while they may also have been Merion members, seemed to come from St. David's and wanted more out of their golf course than the St. David's course offered.

[TEPaul]

I asked JoeB to post this article on here because in the second column the writer---Evans, goes into some of the things about architecture that were becoming popular as well as mentioning some of the things that were becoming unacceptable to an extent and detail that I have not really seen before from any of these old articles and writers of that time.

One in particular caught my attention and that was that most of the greens were sort of pitched at the player and there were no greens that pitched away from the player.

I'm not sure how true that is of the greens of GMGC (only 11 of the original Ross greens remain today) and frankly it's an architectural element I'm not sure I even agree with. I know Max Behr didn't. 

[TEPaul]

Wayne:

As I said last night I've seen only portions of that particular article quoted in other places (I think GMGC's only history book writer, Willing Patterson, used parts of it). But I've never seen some of the more interesting parts of it about the architecture.

I was aware that a quarry pool was planned but for some reason I thought it was the quarry on the 4th hole. Obviously not. It's a quarry off to the right of the 7th or 15th hole. Furthermore, I'm not sure the club actually owned it in the beginning but perhaps they did and sold it later at some point. We did buy one of the quarrys back about 25 years ago and unfortunately that created an EPA problem for the club for which they had to pay well over a million dollars to the EPA in cleanup remediation. Alan Wood Steel Co. ended up pumping waste and sludge into it well before we bought it or bought it back.

The other thing I learned from that article is the added importance of Weston Hibbs who really did act as something of our own Hugh Wilson or George Crump on the course and apparently the finding of the land himself.

As far as the reference to St David's GC in the option for GMGC's land that is a really complicated story and I'm afraid is tangled up endlessly with the A.J. Drexel Paul family through the generations and it probably continues on today.

As far as I know A.J. Drexel Paul was a member of St David's GC where it used to be (as was George Crump) and the club needed to move to a better course. Obviously, GMGC's land was available to the club but they did not excercise the option Hibbs arranged. Apparently, that pissed of A.J.D. Paul who probably told St David's to go screw themselves and he and about ten others from Merion picked up the GMGC land option and formed their own club and built GMGC.


Actually the land for present St David's might've been sold to the club by Charles Munn who was a cousin and lived in the place that is now Cabrini College after the death of James W. Paul around 1908. I think he sold it to the club around 1925. If I can manage to do it I will link on here a webpage about the Munn family I just happened upon recently on another and completely unrelated mission. It's a pretty incredible read and the article is entitled "The House of Munn---the First Family of Palm Beach". You will not believe who all is connected to that Munn family over about the last 125 years.

[Dan Boerger]

Tom - I know there are plenty of St. Davids members who wish it was resolved, too! Who knows how the club might use the land (perhaps bring the 13th back to the original Ross par 3?), but for a prosperous club like St. Davids I'm sure they would use it well.

Back to GMCC -- A small thing, but I really like how someone had the foresight to plant those beautiful Sycamore trees nearby so many of the tees. They hardly (if I recall) get in the way of play, but look great and provide some terrific shade on those hot summer days.

Final thought ... can someone explain to me how bogie was equal to par at one point in time?!-Dan

[TEPaul]

Wayne:

By the way, and in the context of golf and architecture, that guy James W. Paul who owned and built Woodcrest or Woodmount or whatever that enormous place was called was apparently the last Drexel family member to work at Drexel & Co. But guess who else worked for the company and made a fortune from it? George Thomas Sr, George Thomas's father and because of that George Thomas also had a fortune to do the things he did for no fee including all his great golf course architecture in California.

[TEPaul]

"Final thought ... can someone explain to me how bogie was equal to par at one point in time?!-Dan"

Dan:

At one early point in golf bogie was considered to be basically what par is considered to be today---eg the hole standard of excellent play for a very good golfer. Originally it was referred to as Colonel Bogie who was some mysterious army officer from the days of the great British worldwide Empire! The name also doubled as something or someone who was supposed to scare the pee out of children---which, on some reflection, is not an altogether bad thing.
 
 
 

[Joe Bausch]

Tom, I ran into the article announcing the opening of Gulph Mills in the June 30, 1918 edition of the Philadelphia Public Ledger.  Here it is with a few photos as well.

[TEPaul]

Joe:

Thanks for that article. That one I have seen before. It was found at the Temple library a few years ago by LuLu's Steve Sayers as he was doing research for the LuLu restoration.

There are some interesting facts and some odd anomalies of the sequence of the course that show up from that article. I'll explain them later and the reasons why.

I'd never seen those photos before though. One thing they do show is the remarkable beauty of some of the wives of some of the members!!

Again, Weston Hibbs and what he did for the club is pretty remarkable but the truth is that sort of responsibility fell to him by default because apparently none of the other founding members wanted to do it or could do it, party due to the war.

My own grandfather, A.J. Drexel Paul, went into the First WW very early (1917) and he had the distinction of being on the first U.S. ship sunk by the Germans in WW1. As they were attempting to land off the ship in France the Germans blew them out of the water. That's kind of the way most of AJDP's life went frankly.

He was the president of the club for quite a few years in the late 1920s and 1930s and the board minutes show about the only issue he was concerned with is to insure that champagne always be served at Board meetings. Eventually his wishes in that vein were over-ruled and he was sent out to pasture. 

[Joe Bausch]

I'd never seen those photos before though. One thing they do show is the remarkable beauty of some of the wives of some of the members!!

Do you believe those gals? What a bunch of dogs.

Tom, I'd like to disagree with you but I'm certain this time that all the facts are on your side!   

[Mike_Cirba]

Tom Paul,

What the hell do their daughters look like?   

[Dan Boerger]

This makes no sense to me. I thought well-to-do men of high society snagged the good looking babes. Forced marriages back then???

[Joe Bausch]

I now have a better appreciation why Mr. Hibbs searched for so long for one-hundred and fifty-seven acres of land.   

[TEPaul]

This makes no sense to me. I thought well-to-do men of high society snagged the good looking babes. Forced marriages back then??? 

Dan:

Not at all. There were probably a few rare "forced" marriages with those kinds of people back then but if you look through the histories of those times and those people you can't help miss that the marriages were more like carefully planned mergers than anything else.

There were some good looking gals around back then too but that's a whole different and massively complex subject in and of itself. 

[wsmorrison]

Tom,

Well, let's see a photo of your grandmother so we can see if she was merged or married to AJ Drexel Paul    

[James Bennett]

I expect the Gulph Mills ladies' tees are quite separate from the mens' tees on just about every hole.  That is, if Gulph Mills enjoys mixed play.

 

James B

[Dan Herrmann]

I see that the initiation fee is $100.  Where do I submit my application? 

Back to the article - I love the line "The Elimination of Parallelism".  That probably deserves a thread of its own.   That's one of my favorite features about my home course.

[TEPaul]

"Back to the article - I love the line "The Elimination of Parallelism".  That probably deserves a thread of its own.   That's one of my favorite features about my home course."

Dan:

I'm glad you picked up on that. That remark was one of a few reasons I asked JoeB to post this article.

Parallelism had clearly become unpopular in golf along about this time. Isn't that a little ironic in some ways particularly if it meant some people and architects over here were beginning to question some of the aspects of some original linksland golf, like TOC which couldn't have more parallel or immediately juxtaposed holes?

From the apparent unpopularity of parallelism came a most interesting new design or more appropriately routing wrinkle often referred to as "triangulation."

[TEPaul]

Wayne:

I wouldn't think of posting a picture of my paternal grandmother.

[Peter Pallotta]

Dan, TE -

I never knew that. 

It seems to me that the "routing wrinkle" called triangulation has become as close to a gospel truth and hard-and-fast rule as modern architecture gets.

Hmm...

Peter

[Mike_Cirba]

I don't know, you guys...Mrs. Crozer is sort of a babe...

...in a whip, spiked heels, and leather Miss Gulch sort of way.   

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