Letter From Frank Harris Bros To Edgbaston GC

[Sean_A]

I stated in an earlier thread that the new book on Colt, Creating Golf Classics was a bit hit and miss.  Some strange courses were profiled, but some of these choices were excellent in that the variety of Colt is properly highlighted.  For myself, some of the best profiles are of the courses in the Midlands.  The letter below is taken from the Edgbaston section.  The cool thing is that the list of courses Frank Harris Bros worked on is incredible.  Presumably, many of these are Colt commissions.  Sadly, the 8 midlands courses are not listed.  Can anybody identify the European courses as they are known today and if Colt did indeed have design input?  I suspect some may NLE, but still...




Ciao

[Neil_Crafter]

Sean
A very interesting letter and it's great this saw the light of day in the Colt book. I know Tom MacWood has recently been looking into Franks Harris Bros and we have found that they did a few courses for Mackenzie as well. Looks like from the list included in the letter that there are a few others as well that we did not know about that they built for Mac, eg Hadley Wood, Eastbourne, Luton (South Beds), Walsall and Felixstowe are all courses Mac designed or substantially redesigned.

So not all of the courses in that list are Colt ones, so I'd expect the same of the Euro ones.

Thanks for posting this Sean. Do you think the book is worth a purchase?

Neil

[Sean_A]

Do you think the book is worth a purchase?

Neil

All in all, yes, I do think the book is worth a punt if only because there is so little on Colt out there.  In a way its a shame that this was the first of its type to come out on Colt because it certainly lags behind the others of its type on Dr Mac, Ross and MacD.  There are some very good elements to it, but as I said before, there is room for improvement.  For instance, the entire section by Critchley could have been much better used, but then I am never too bothered about these lists of best holes.

Ciao

[Alfonso Erhardt]

Sean,

I have seen records of Franks Harris building:

 - Real Club de Campo de Malaga (also known as Parador del Golf, near the airport). 1925-26 and 1930
 - Pedreņa, in Santander, 1928-29
 - Tablada, in Seville, 1923. The course no longer exists
 - First remodelling of Puerta de Hierro in 1930-31. Not sure if they were also responsible for the original construction of the course in 1914.

All of them Colt designs. Unsure about their involvement in San Cugat, the other Colt course in Spain.

[Christoph Meister]

Hello Sean,

I can confirm that Berlin-Wannsee (additional 9 holes designed in 1930 bringing
the total no. of holes to 27), Frankfurt-Niederrad, Stuttgarter GC at Leonberg, Chemnitz-Rabenstein and Aachen where Colt designed Courses - Cologne-Marienburg was a redesign by
Colt.

I have seen historic evidence of Harris Bros. working at Berlin-Wannsee in the German magazine
"Golf" which was edited by Bernhard von Limburger from 1925 to 1943.

Hopefully this information is helpful to you....what a stunning document mentioning all these courses....

Regards,

Christoph

[Neil_Crafter]

Christoph and Alfonso
Excellent supplementary info.

Sean
I might give it a try - many mentions of Mac in there or is he pretty much ignored?

[Sean_A]

Christoph and Alfonso
Excellent supplementary info.

Sean
I might give it a try - many mentions of Mac in there or is he pretty much ignored?

Neil

Mac who?

Ciao

[Lyne Morrison]

Sean - that's an interesting letter, I feel I should pass it on to a modern day contractor I know.

The thing I find most intriguing is the volume of work undertaken and across a number of countries. How many Brothers Harris might there have been to have remained across all of this? Happy clients, only incidental travel costs, limited communication - I guess a combination of local labour and several trusted foremen?

Cheers -- Lyne

[Tom_Doak]

A word of caution here.  All of the courses mentioned may well have been designed by the Harris Brothers ... I do not really know who their competition consisted of in the 1920's, other than the company founded by Charles MacKenzie.  But, I have seen similar promotional materials from modern contractors in which any project where any one of their men worked suddenly became "their" project.  Even from the best of them ... Landscapes Unlimited still claims "Sand Hills" because they put in the irrigation system.

[Alfonso Erhardt]

Tom,

At least in the case of Spain, I have seen Franks Harris letters (signed by W.Murray) with the name of the foreman, an ubiquitous chap named Clements. I guess not much experience in golf course building in Spain back then either.

[Neil_Crafter]

Christoph and Alfonso
Excellent supplementary info.

Sean
I might give it a try - many mentions of Mac in there or is he pretty much ignored?

Neil

Mac who?

Ciao

Sean
Any book on Colt where Mac doesn't even rate a mention would seem rather hollow.

Tom
Surely you mean "constructed" rather than "designed"?

Neil