A Profile of Lookout Point Country Club (Travis)

[Jim_Kennedy]

Niagara Falls Gazete from May 13, 1921 reported:

The work on "Lookout Point" golf course and country club at Fonthill was started this week. Four men were clearing the land under the direction of William Tull, the expert from New York.  Mr.Tull states it is one of the finest natural layouts he has ever seen and that it will not he excelled by any on the continent when completed.

Did Tull build it for Travis?

[Ronald Montesano]

No clue...if you go to the club web site as a guest and try to access the history, nothing comes up.

[Ian Andrew]

Tricks,

I have photos of the General Brock Open at Lookout Point in 1935. I know it had an outstanding field and was considered a high profile event at the time. The event seems to end in 1937 because the RCGA had coaxed the Seagram sponsorship because of the events success and eventually over to the Open in 1936 through till the 60's. They did sponsor the event through 37', but there appears to be nothing beyond that.

The 1935 event had Byron Nelson and 1937 did in fact have Ben Hogan in the field (among others). The US and Canada used to play a team event in addition to the stroke play event.

(source for all is Golf in Canada)


Jim,

William Harries (builder and golf architect) built Cherry Hill for him. That I can confirm from minutes at the club. I would expect he would have needed a field man for Lookout Point too.

[Ronald Montesano]

WAIT A SECOND, IAN...are you saying that William Harries, master of boring stateside greens, was in some way responsible for the treacherous Cherry Hill putting surfaces?

[Mark Saltzman]

Does this:



Equal this:



Source: http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/GolfIllustrated/1923/gi194c.pdf


And this very cool photo of the 16th green.  Looks like a biarritz green there, perhaps similar to the current 6th(?) green.  Hard not to notice the absence of trees.  Hard to imagine what LP would be like almost treeless.



Source: http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/GolfIllustrated/1924/gi213n.pdf

[Matt Bosela]

Nice find Mark.  Hopefully Ian can chime in with an answer to your questions.

Perhaps there has been a change in the sequence of the holes since the photos were taken?  The bottom photo certainly looks like the current 6th green.  Not sure on the first picture...I suppose it could be the current 8th but from the angle it is shot at, it looks eerily similar to the current 18th.

[Ian Andrew]

The 8th green in the photo was the old finish for the current 18th hole.
It is still in the trees on the iright of the green.
I've asked, they won't go back.


The current 8th is the original 17th *green is a rebuild
Course used to finish 7th, 8th, 9th
 
Other nine finished with 16th and 17th combind as a super long five (16th)
The 18th as dogleg mid four to that green in the first photo
The old 9th played across the valley (where the storage pond is now) to the practice green beside the current 9th as a short four.


SOB, that's the original green for the current 7th!!!!  That I've never seen that before!

[Matt Bosela]

The 8th green in the photo was the old finish for the current 18th hole.
It is still in the trees on the iright of the green.
I've asked, they won't go back.


The current 8th is the original 17th *green is a rebuild
Course used to finish 7th, 8th, 9th
 
Other nine finished with 16th and 17th combind as a super long five (16th)
The 18th as dogleg mid four to that green in the first photo
The old 9th played across the valley (where the storage pond is now) to the practice green beside the current 9th as a short four.


SOB, that's the original green for the current 7th!!!!  That I've never seen that before!

Ian - is the current sixth green (the biarritz) an original?  If so, does that mean the course at one time had TWO biarritz holes in a row??  Mind blowing, if so!

[Ian Andrew]

Yes, but they were not in a row

Course routing was
(current numbering) 1-6 16-18
10-15, 7 - 9

They occured on opposite nines