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Joe Bausch

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Walnut Lane revisited: original plan found
« on: April 20, 2009, 04:50:42 PM »
Walnut Lane is a course still alive in Philadelphia and it was supposedly Alex Findlay's last design.  In fact, WL is profiled on this site, believe it or not!

Here is a Google Earth picture of WL with the routing:



There are no par 5's on the current layout and many par 3's.  (note, the numbering I've used on that figure has been changed again but that doesn't affect the following discussion).

A month or so ago I made a trip to the Fairmount Park archives, the same place that yielded the original routing for Cobb's Creek, and they also have a Dec 1935 original drawing for the plans for Walnut Lane.  It took some time for course construction, as it did not open until 1941.  The original drawing is perhaps on a sheet 4' x 6'.  Here is a cropped version of a photograph I took of it:



and the dated corner:



You can see the some pronounced differences in this drawing and as the course is currently set up.  For instance, the original 2nd hole was a hole (longish par 3 or short 4) that had the green about where home plate is on the baseball field.  Also,  the original 6th (current 5th) is shown as a big dogleg left par 4 instead of the current par 3.  The original 10th was a par 4, which is now the current 9th as a par 3.  The original 17th was probably a reasonable par 5 along the bend in Henry Avenue, which is now two holes, the par 3 16th and par 4 17th.

I have yet to find any real detailed descriptions of the course holes when it opened.  I'm sure that is out there, and I'm confident the Urban Archives at Temple will have something for me when I get back there.

But.... just today I was looking at some close-up pics I took and noticed some less prominent markings in reddish ink on the original drawing corresponding reasonably well to the current layout.







So now I'm not certain if the original plans of Findlay ever made it completely onto the ground!  Eventually I should have a hole-by-hole description of the course right after it opened or soon thereafter and that should solve this little mystery!

Stay tuned....


@jwbausch (for new photo albums)
The site for the Cobb's Creek project:  https://cobbscreek.org/
Nearly all Delaware Valley golf courses in photo albums: Bausch Collection

Mike_Cirba

Re: Walnut Lane revisited: original plan found
« Reply #1 on: April 20, 2009, 08:10:50 PM »
Joe,

You rock, man.

Dan Herrmann

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Walnut Lane revisited: original plan found
« Reply #2 on: April 20, 2009, 09:21:15 PM »
Joe - Just how good (or bad) an architect to you think Findlay was?

I recently played a course attributed to Findlay but was probably actually done by the members.  It has a lot of routing deficiencies - the type Findlay probably wouldn't have designed.  I happened to run into Mayday out there and we had some good discussions about it.   I also know this club hired a pro 10 years ago to help but didn't really follow his suggestions.

I'll not mention the course out of respect, but it needs some real routing cleanup.

Back to WL (I don't want to hijack) - have you ever played there?  Any similarities to other Findlay designs like Reading or Llanerich?

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