Rochester Golf Club - A.W. Tillinghast in SE Minnesota

[Mike McGuire]

Anyone know anything about Rochester? A friend of mine may be relocating to the area. It look a bit claustrophobic from the photo on their website.

[Tom_Doak]

Mike:

I played it years ago.  Don't remember it being THAT tight.

I thought it was very good.  Tillinghast had family in the area, so he spent quite a bit of time there.

Unfortunately, the club re-routed a couple of holes years ago to build a big practice facility, and wiped out one of their best holes in the process.

[Dan Herrmann]

Not to be confused with the great Country Club of Rochester (NY)  - a Ross gem recently restored by Hanse.

[John_Conley]

Anyone know anything about Rochester? A friend of mine may be relocating to the area. It look a bit claustrophobic from the photo on their website.

Rochester is an excellent golf course.  The most difficult hazard on a golf course is the pine tree, and Rochester has thousands.  As a result, there is very little water and not a lot of bunkering.

Somerby is a new course in the area I haven't seen.  It is supposed to be a very good modern course.

Tell your friend to be sure to go play the old Winona at least once.  I believe it is now called the Bridges.

A nice place to live.

[Rick Shefchik]

The story goes that Tilly's daughter married a doctor at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and when he was asked to look over the existing golf course there and perhaps design a new one, he told the club he'd do it for free in exchange for a lifetime membership for his son-in-law and daughter.

The pine trees were not Tilly's idea. One of their members planted thousands of pines, believing the course needed greening up. Some people like them; some say Tilly's original design didn't need them. I can guess which side of that argument I'd fall on, but I need to play the course first, which I hope to do soon.

[Phil_the_Author]

Rick,

Tilly's daughter married Philip Brown who was going to school at Penn. he was part of a group of students who would spend Saturady evenings at the Tillinghast home. These parties were specifically arranged by Tilly & his wife in hopes that they would meet eligible young college men that they might marry... both did.

Though he came from a main line old money Philadelphia family that looked down their noses at Tilly & his wife, he would marry their eldest daughter and go onto medical school after which he ended up with a position at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. It was during one of their trips to visit them that he was approached about designing the course and he waived his fee in lieu of the Brown's being given lifetime memberships to the club.

[Rick Shefchik]

Philip,

Thanks for confirming and fleshing out that story.

In my opinion, Mr. Brown married well.

[Jeff Shelman]

Rochester Golf and Country Club is a nice golf course, but one that has some flaws as well.

The most obvious is that there are way too many trees on the golf course. It is extremely choked with pines and there are several holes where you are (IMHO) unfairly punished for simply being on the wrong side of the fairway. The trees are everywhere. They could take out 1,000 trees and I'm not sure people would notice it that much. There are so many trees that if you go to the Google map of the course and pull up the satellite view of the course, it is difficult to really gauge the routing because of all of the shadows.

In addition, the golf course is among those that have been hurt by technology. From the back tees, it is just shy of 6,500 yards and is a par 70.

In terms of the routing, they did make a change at some point in the 90s, adding three or four new holes. The routing has since been returned to the original. The new holes were not really in the spirit of the original course. So now, those holes sit on the southeast  part of the property as practice holes.

As John Conley pointed out above, Somerby Golf Club is a still fairly new Lehman-Fought course that is about nine miles away in Byron, Minn. It's part of a housing development, but the golf course is pretty good. It briefly held a Nationwide Tour event.

RGCC is a fun course, but in terms of non-Twin Cities courses in Minnesota, it isn't as good as many others. It certainly isn't nearly as strong as Northland Country Club in Duluth.

[Niall Hay]

Unfortunately, the club re-routed a couple of holes years ago to build a big practice facility, and wiped out one of their best holes in the process.

Which holes were wiped out and which was one of their "best" that was wiped out? I believe they are playing the original course again.

[Niall Hay]

The pine trees were not Tilly's idea. One of their members planted thousands of pines, believing the course needed greening up. Some people like them; some say Tilly's original design didn't need them. I can guess which side of that argument I'd fall on, but I need to play the course first, which I hope to do soon.

Rick, you are correct, Tilly has nothing to do with the pines. That was Pop Shelden.

"One of the original members who has also left his thumbprint on Rochester Golf & Country Club was Walter D. "Pop" Shelden, MD.  "Pop" Shelden had played a great course in Texarkana that was cut out of a pine forest and brought that idea back to Rochester with him.  In the early 1930s he bought 5,000 pine seedlings for ten dollars and started a nursery at the southwest corner of the course.  Over 30,000 trees were eventually transplanted to the course over the next fifteen years.  Unfortunately, "Pop" passed on before the overall project was completed.  He has since been honored by the playing of the Walter D. Shelden Golf Tournament that is now played as our Member/Guest Tournament."

[Niall Hay]

As John Conley pointed out above, Somerby Golf Club is a still fairly new Lehman-Fought course that is about nine miles away in Byron, Minn. It's part of a housing development, but the golf course is pretty good. It briefly held a Nationwide Tour event.

Hearing more and more good things about Somerby. Conditions and layout are very good. How does this rank in the area? Also as a Lehman-Fought?

[Niall Hay]

"In September of 1915 an avid group of golfers took over a lease of 100 acres from Mayo doctors E.S. Judd and D.C. Balfour.  Harry Turple, a Red Wing Course Golf Professional, was brought in to lay out a nine-hole course and Rochester Golf Club was born.  The members desired a more challenging golf course and as luck would have it, a Mayo Clinic physician married the daughter of noted golf course architect Albert Warren Tillinghast.

Tillinghast had become the pre-eminent golf course architect of his time by designing courses such as Winged Foot, Baltusrol and the San Francisco Golf Club.  In 1926, Rochester Golf Club became incorporated and changed its name to Rochester Golf & Country Club.  Construction began on the new course and it opened the following summer."

Good summary or Tilly’s connection to Rochester and SE Minnesota…

[PCCraig]

I played Rochester Golf Club last year and really enjoyed it. The course is routed over a really nice piece of rolling land. It's certainly the easiest AWT course I've seen, and by modern standard's it's a little on the short side. But overall it's a fun course with some really good holes and an interesting set of greens. There are still a lot of trees there, but I was told that they are starting to naturally die (just the natural lifespan of the pines Pop planted) and they are being removed around tees and greens according to the Super's blog. They've also reclaimed a lot of lost corners of greens which was well done and noticeable as it created some fun angles and shots close to the hole.

The course is worth checking out if you're in the area or a fan of AWT.

[Rick Shefchik]

"In September of 1915 an avid group of golfers took over a lease of 100 acres from Mayo doctors E.S. Judd and D.C. Balfour.  Harry Turple, a Red Wing Course Golf Professional, was brought in to lay out a nine-hole course and Rochester Golf Club was born.  The members desired a more challenging golf course and as luck would have it, a Mayo Clinic physician married the daughter of noted golf course architect Albert Warren Tillinghast.

Tillinghast had become the pre-eminent golf course architect of his time by designing courses such as Winged Foot, Baltusrol and the San Francisco Golf Club.  In 1926, Rochester Golf Club became incorporated and changed its name to Rochester Golf & Country Club.  Construction began on the new course and it opened the following summer."

Good summary or Tilly’s connection to Rochester and SE Minnesota…

Note the misspelling of Harry Turpie ("Turple") from the club's website. I was not familiar with the Turpie brothers -- and apparently, neither was anyone at the club -- when I started researching "From Fields to Fairways," but I learned enough to include an interesting section of the Rochester chapter about their lives in St. Andrews, the Edgewater Club in Illinois, then later in California, Minnesota and New Orleans.

I have also played the course since my previous post on this thread, and agree with Pat that it's a fun golf course with some unusual holes fit into its rolling topography. The pines are slowly being thinned, by general consensus, but they do give the course a unique flavor -- and there is evidence that AWT was in agreement over the initial stages of Pop Shelden's tree-planting program. How much farther Shelden took the idea is a little hard to pin down.

The two new holes Tom Doak referred to were designed by Geoffrey Cornish, but are no longer in play. The club decided to revert back to the original holes a few years ago.

[Mike McGuire]

I just saw this thread and thought wtf there is another Mike McGuire on GCA - then realized it was my thread from 2009. HaHa

 Friend never moved there.

[Niall Hay]

A little love, and a little luck, helped create the A.W. Tillinghast-designed Rochester Country Club members know today.

http://www.uminnpressblog.com/2012/04/little-love-and-little-luck-helped.html  nice article and gives a little more background.