What are the best preserved Colt courses

[David_Elvins]

No-one agrees with me but I will nominate Merion West.

[Scott Macpherson]

Paul,

I am always interested in your informed comments on Colts courses.

As some courses have significantly altered much of Colts bunker work, are you able to post a photo of one or two of you favourite original Colt bunkers?

regards,

Scott


PS- I noticed in Hawtree's book on Colt he has Crowborough Beacon has a Colt course, but the Club itself have uncovered it as a Mackenzie?

[Cristian]

Glad to see some H.S. Colt threads as of late.

I'm by no means an expect, but from what little digging I've done it sure seems like some of the best preserved Colt work would be in Holland and Belgium.

We need our Dutch and Belgian GCAers to weigh in on this.

http://www.golfarchitecturepictures.com/Pages/holland.html

De Pan, Eindhovensche, Royal Hague, Kennemer, Hilversumsche (partly) Dommel and Toxandria are all Colt courses. I believe many holes are still in or have been restaurated to Colt's original look. 

This site is a great source of Colt original's pics (by Frank Pont). See also his feature interview on this site regarding restauration work on Colt and Simpson Classics. Golden Age courses in Holland are almost all Colt, in Belgium all Simpson, except Royal Zoute.