Golf Course Aerial Photography Exhibit

[Colin Sheehan]

For the next week--through Friday morning, April 2nd--there will be an exhibit of golf course aerial prints in Silliman College's gallery space known as Maya's Room. (Silliman is one of Yale's 12 residential colleges, it's located at 505 College St. New Haven, CT 06520). The compressed proofs can be seen on this Picasa link. Please realize the online versions don't do the full prints justice.

http://picasaweb.google.com/colinsheehan/GolfCourseAerials?feat=directlink

The 38 items on display include 23 courses from the 1934 CT state aerial survey, another eight of the Yale course of the years ('51, '65, '70, '86, '91, '95, '04, '08) and 13 relatively recent images of Macdonald and Raynor Courses. Viewers please note, I did not re-label the Yale prints after 1934 with any titles other than credit to the photographers. And seven proofs did not make the cut on the grounds of gallery space, they are: New Canaan, Race Brook, Ridgeway, Madison, Manchester, Misquamicut and Waterbury.

The ones from '34 aerial represent an impressive collection of designs from Golden Age architects: Walter Travis, Donald Ross, Devereux Emmet, A.W. Tillinghast, Seth Raynor, C.B. Macdonald, Charles Banks, Robert White, Willie Park, Tom Bendelow, etc. In most cases, the aerials show these courses in their "as-built" conditions. The list includes: CC of Farmington, CC of New Canaan, CC of Waterbury, Greenwich CC, Hartford, Longshore, Madison, Manchester, New Haven CC, Race Brook, Ridgewood (in Danbury), Round Hill, Shennecossett, Shorehaven, Silver Spring, Tamarack, Wampanoag, Wee Burn, Woodway and two just over the Connecticut border, Blind Brook in Rye Brook, NY and Misquamicut in Watch Hill, RI.
 
The prints of Macdonald and Raynor courses came out much better than I could have anticipated, especially National Golf Links, Fishers Island. The other include Westhampton, Creek Club, Piping Rock, Shoreacres, Chicago Golf Club, Mountain Lake, Yeamans Hall, CC of Charleston, Camargo, Fox Chapel, and a combo of National & Shinnecock from 1994. (Regrettably, I couldn’t get an acceptable version of St. Louis CC, Mid Ocean or Lookout Mountain.)
 
The gallery is open weekdays from 9am-7pm and weekends from noon-7pm. I will have a very informal reception on Monday afternoon from 4pm-7pm for anyone so inclined to attend. Let me know if you can make it.

All the best,
Colin


 

[Grant Saunders]

Hey Colin

Best of luck with the exhibit. It sounds like you have put a lot of effort in and I hope it gains the deserved recognition.

Let me know if you are ever heading out to NZ as we never got a chance to have a game together and I would love to show you around some of our courses out here.

best wishes

Grant

[Chris Shaida]

Colin,

These look fantastic! Any chance of seeing them after the show ends? (I'm live in Westchester but am out of town until after Easter).

Also, in your aerial researches you haven't by any chance come across an aerial of Ardsley Country Club (Dobbs Ferry/Irvington) from the 30s or 40s by any chance?  We've done a fair amount of looking and have come up with one from the 50s but not earlier.

[Tom MacWood]

Colin
Those images are fascinating. Good luck.

[BCrosby]

Colin -

A fantastic idea for an exhibition. Unfortunately I will not be in the area to see it. (My wife was at Silliman, btw.)

Could you give us more background about who organized the exhibit, the origins of the idea, etc? I have thought for a long time that aerial photos of golf courses have their own unique appeal. I was going to finish that sentence with "... as objects of art". But I'm not sure that is the right way to put it. Perhaps their appeal has more to do with capturing a moment in time that we would otherwise be guessing about. Perhaps others have some thoughts.

At any rate, I would love to hear more about the genesis of the exhibit.

Bob    

 

[TEPaul]

"I have thought for a long time that aerial photos of golf courses have their own unique appeal. I was going to finish that sentence with "... as objects of art". But I'm not sure that is the right way to put it. Perhaps their appeal has more to do with capturing a moment in time that we would otherwise be guessing about. Perhaps others have some thoughts."



Bob:

I agree with you and I would stress the word "unique" in unique appeal with aerial photos of golf courses.

I happen to believe that with most people and golfers, particularly those not all that much into golf course architecture, the most instantly fascinating photos of golf course are the on-ground photos of holes if they are significantly different in some way from the particular holes at the present time that golfers are so familiar with.

But after that and perhaps for those most interested in the details of golf course architecture aerial photos are probably more fascinating and more appealing because they offer a visual perspective on golf courses and architecture that most all golfers have never seen or ever considered----eg since no one plays golf from 1,000 to 5,000 feet in the air! 

It was aerial photographs of my course and some others around here I was so familiar with that first hooked me into my interest in golf course architecture. It and they were so significant to me it is still burned in my mind exactly where I was when I was first told about them and who it was who told me. Over time looking back on that moment on the patio of Manufacturers GC I think of it as a turning point in my life and it was all about aerial photographs.

When I went to see them a few weeks later (at the Hagley Museum in Wilmington, Del. with their Dallin Collection) it pretty much hooked me right there to get involved in golf course architecture and to do a design evolution booklet for my own club.

On-ground photos and aerial photos----aerial photos and on-ground photos----they offer completely different perspectives and sensations, the on-grounds pretty much offering the vertical dimension without too much in the way of the length and width dimension or at least not compared to the aerial photos that pretty much only offer length and width dimensions which tend to blow you away in how much things can change over time, even ten years, with shrinkage of fairways and greens and particularly bunker sizes.

That is just something that even the closest and most regular observers of golf courses even maintenance depts would never notice because it sneaks up on them so gradually----but when they compare a stagger of aerial photos over time they tend to be immediatly shocked and blown away. I sure was and it hooked me into golf course architecture. It was the old aerials that first did it.

On ground photos and aerial photos----aerials and on-grounds----they offer such different perspectives and keys and clues, and generally speaking of all the restorations projects of old courses I have seen or been involved with in some way, the biggest mistake I have ever seen, and by a mile, is if the project only uses one without the other. They are both so different but completely necessary to use together to do proper restorations of old golf courses.

[TEPaul]

Bob:

Matter of fact, and additionally, I would strongly recommend that when clubs hang aerial photographs on the walls for people to consider that they also hang immediately next to each of them a textual explanation of the significant items to be found within them that viewers can and should key in on. I find if that is not done most people miss so much and so many of the parts and pieces in just looking at the whole which tends to completely minimize concentration! It is sort of the reverse of the old adage---"Missing the forest for the trees."  

[David Lott]

If it isn't too proprietary, perhaps at your convenience you could explain how you researched this, what kind of intellectual property rights are involved, why you chose the 1934 ariel survey and other points you consider interesting. Thanks for the effort. Wish I lived close enough to go.

[Mike Nuzzo]

Nice work Colin
I hope it is going well
I'm interested to know more about exhibit also
cheers

[Patrick_Mucci]

Colin,

This is a terrific compilation.

What I find fascinating about your collection is the tendency on the part of the ODG's, to surround the greens with bunkering.

Bunkering seems to be far more extensive in the old photos, causing me to wonder if bunkering was a concession to the penal nature of the game.

It also causes me to wonder, despite the invention of the Sand Wedge subsequent to most of these courses, if the playing field that the game is conducted upon hasn't been softened in order to accomodate the broader spectrum of golfer, the women, juniors, seniors and marginal players.

Having a good number of CBM, SR and CB courses in the nearby area, I favor large, deep bunkers that come into play, along with random bunkering that comes in and out of play with the wind.

It's my belief that the lure of the NGLA's, the GCGC's is the retention of a good deal of that bunkering over the years, versus the sanitizing of the golf course, as many clubs have done.

There's a spectacular aerial of NGLA, Shinnecock and Southampton that you should add to your collection.

Nice work, I really appreciate it, AND, there should be a seperate section in GCA.com that could accomodate aerials of courses, especially aerials that depict the courses on or near their opening dates

Thanks again

[Colin Sheehan]

Chris,
I could point you to where you might want to begin when it comes to New York State 1930/1940s. I haven't dug into Westchester County as much as I did for Nassau and Suffolk.

BCrosby,
The background goes something like this. A year ago December I wanted to track down an acceptable image of the Yale course from the 1934 aerial. The version online was too low res and there wasn't any way they were going to let me scan the image at the Connecticut State archives.

I figured out a way to zoom in on the course and scroll across and down and gather 144 images and stitch them together into one file. This way I could export them into a 100meg file, which you could print in very large poster form. I discovered a very small, boutique art print shop in a basement in New Haven by this gentleman called John Hill. He is the consummate layout and design guy, using very fancy German paper, and 40 year old printing presses that cost over 100k. He was very helpful with color correction and layout, titling etc. And we listened to old blues albums in the process and I gifted him a Bo Diddley record in the process.

Anyway, that cost over $100 and while it's quality is undeniable, I knew it was cost prohibitive to print more or gift them.

I then used a different print shop in New Haven, Merritt Graphics, to do a version for much less and with much greater ease. It came out really well and with an additional line of customization, they make for fabulous gifts on our spring trips, like "In Appreciation of the Yale Golf Team's Visit to Palmetto Golf Club, March 15, 2009"

Following Yale, I did the same for CC of Fairfield where I spent the bulk of middle to late teens as a caddie and pro-shop/bag room staffer, when I wasn’t mostly playing the course. And then I assembled one of Brooklawn CC where my high school golf team played our home matches…and then I did one of Tamarack because the bunkers looked so gnarly and I wanted one by Banks for my office. Eventually I put together files for 23 courses from that one aerial survey. I pre-sold many of the prints to members of the courses and I think the black and white images have such an attractive texture. The Fairchild Aerial Survey Company used a very large film format and it's richness of image quality surpasses anything from the subsequent 60/70 years.

Aside from using these images as archival blue-prints, the aerial perspective renders the delineation of fairways and greens in a very intriguing way. (I call it art, the way they become somthing else.) Some courses do this better than others, but the holes on Blind Brook, Wee Burn and Shennecossett in particular, allow the holes to look like a school of whales. And check out the abstract elements of Round Hill, even if it's not very useful for the purposes of defining the golf course.

The 1934 images also show a Connecticut prior to its eventual suburban sprawl. Other than Bridgeport, New Haven, Waterbury, Stamford and Hartford, the state was positively rural, linked by small villages along the Sound and rural farming hamlets up north. There were no major highways of any kind and the courses along the coast, like Longshore, Shorehaven, Madison, Shennecossett and CC of Fairfield pre-date any development of density.

The CT library also listed additional aerial surveys over the years. With rather ease, I was emailed a slew of other images of the Yale course. Eventually I gathered a total of nine over the years.

The final portion of the survey came about when I downloaded the '08 image of the Yale Course from the US Geological Survey's website. It was in color and in high res, and the process is very easy. I decided to quickly add another dozen recent images of the most famous Macdonald and Raynor courses that would go well in the clubhouse or locker room or our indoor team room on campus. The ulterior motive being I want influential Yale alums to be see the course in it's appropriate peer group with National, Chicago, Fishers, etc, where it justifiably deserves.

I'm delighted that the images were intriguing to some of you.
-Colin

[Eric Morrison]

Nice work Colin...good luck with the showing!

[Colin Sheehan]

Most of the aerial images were moved to the less-dignified location of the men's locker room at the Yale course.

I was able to successfully track down Lido Golf Links. Created in poster form. Last in the slideshow.

http://picasaweb.google.com/colinsheehan/GolfCourseAerials#5475640011108395810
 
Photographed November 1940. The same service is tracking down Deepdale and Links Club from that era.
-Colin 

[Phil McDade]

Colin:

Thanks for updating this -- I must have missed it the first time around. Some great aerials -- those old Raynor courses are really cool to look at from on high!

[Neil_Crafter]

Colin
Great erials and good work with all this.
I am very interested in tracking down an aerial of Jones Beach, LI from the mid 30s to see if I can locate the second pitch and putt course that Dr Mackenzie designed there (see the current thread on this subject). Wondering if you could give me some guidance in this regard? Many thanks.
Neil

[Mike Cirba]

Colin,

Terrific pics.   Thanks for sharing.

[Colin Sheehan]

I just wanted to share this link again since there have been quite a few additions since this thread went dormant 18 months ago.

https://picasaweb.google.com/colinsheehan/GolfCourseAerials


I've since added: Hotchkiss 1934; Yale 1949, 1966 and 2006 and 2010; the full 1934 aerial snap that happens to have the Yale course in its bulls-eye;The Everglades Club 2009; Hackensack 1940 (low-res, unfortunately) and an oblique image of the Yale course that appeared in a program for a 1940 Navy-Yale football game. (Mike Sweeney shared this one with a separate thread once.)

But the real finds are four Macdonald and/or Raynor courses on Long Island that no longer exist, all within a relatively short drive of each other: Lido (1940),  Oakland (1956), The Links Golf Club (1940) and Deepdale (1940)--the last two courtesy of Craig Disher. I've included a current google earth aerial of the those four locations as they exist today. There is some wonderful, long and lean bunkering at Oakland and The Links Gofl Club in particular.

I'd really like to see any images Tom D has from his early 80s visit.

Note that the names of the streets in the development that was once the Links GC include: Links Drive, Doral Court, Firestone Circle, Augusta Court, Pinehurst Court, Baltusrol Court, Dorado Court, Greenbrier Court and National Court.


http://maps.google.com/maps?q=roslyn,+ny&hl=en&ll=40.765331,-73.678308&spn=0.008776,0.017338&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=37.546691,71.015625&vpsrc=6&hnear=Roslyn,+Nassau,+New+York&t=h&z=16

[Ed Oden]

Colin, this is a fantastic exhibit.  Thanks for sharing the updates.  In particular, the aerials of Lido and The Links Club are fascinating.  I'm not sure I've seen overhead shots of either of those courses before.  The aerials bring some real perspective to these two NLE clubs.

[Brian Finn]

Colin - really wonderful work you have done here.  As a rather new member of the site, I am really glad you bumped the thread up.  If you ever have another exhibit, I would certainly like to attend.  I love all of the aerials, most of all The Lido.  

I played quite a bit growing up at the "new" lido, which (as mentioned in some old posts) can't even be mentioned in the same paragraph as its legendary predecessor...but it was a really fun place to play, especially as a young kid learning the game.  We used to play a fair amount of "cross-country" games around the front 9 with the winner choosing the next target.  I guess we liked the holes we designed better than RTJ's!

Anyway, some of the old timers used to tell us of the incredible course that once occupied much of the site, and even ran across the road down all the way down to the oceanfront.  I am always excited when I come across new Lido materials and this a real prize.

[Craig Disher]

Anyway, some of the old timers used to tell us of the incredible course that once occupied much of the site, and even ran across the road down all the way down to the oceanfront.  I am always excited when I come across new Lido materials and this a real prize.

Brian,
We go over this story every few years so here it is again  . The new Lido shares none of its site with the original Lido GC. For reference, Lagoon Dr. and the inlet are located near the original lagoon and the 4th hole. The small pond that can be seen on a current aerial is probably a leftover from the original.

[Brian Finn]

Anyway, some of the old timers used to tell us of the incredible course that once occupied much of the site, and even ran across the road down all the way down to the oceanfront.  I am always excited when I come across new Lido materials and this a real prize.

Brian,
We go over this story every few years so here it is again  . The new Lido shares none of its site with the original Lido GC. For reference, Lagoon Dr. and the inlet are located near the original lagoon and the 4th hole. The small pond that can be seen on a current aerial is probably a leftover from the original.

Thank you for clarifying...that makes perfect sense.  I actually spent some time this morning reviewing the old and current aerials and thought that might be the case based on the position of the hotel...to help clarify (you had not yet posted to "set me straight"), I gave my Dad a call to see what he knew.  He still lives locally in Rockville Centre and knows the beach area well as a long-time surf fisherman.  My Dad explained that the holes bordering the ocean were basically on the land now occupied by the Lido West beach parking lot and the channel-side holes were on/around what are now a couple of school properties.  He reiterated the military use of the site, some of which I was familar with from Wexler and other sources.  I also went back and re-read the articles referenced on previous posts, which helped refresh my memory on all of this.

Anyway, I suppose you can't blame the old timers and regulars at the current course for trying to link themselves to the mythical CBM Lido.  In fact, the current course website shows a '1914' in the club logo (not sure they even had a logo when I used to play there) right above where they clearly attribute the course design to RTJ (who was ~8 years old in 1914).  Perhaps the club lived on and transferred through its membership, but I don't think so.

I am glad to be able to come on here and learn so much about something for which I have such a passion.  I am far less knowledgeable than most site contributors (so much so that I am often hesitant to weigh in for fear of looking foolish), but have spent countless hours over the last few years (only recently as a site member) reading and learning.  It is wonderful to pair all of the discussion and insight I access on this site with my reading and re-reading of many of the classic books on GCA.  I am appreciative to have access to such a great source of information and hope to get to know many more enthusiasts via the site.  It might be the only way I survive the OH winter!  Happy Holidays to all.

[Patrick Kiser]

Colin,

Wow!  Great effort here and that's the first time I've ever seen an aerial of Lido from back in the day.  Fantastic.

Also, the time series on Ray Tompkins Memorial is quite neat.  Very cool.

Thanks for posting and sharing.

[Colin Sheehan]

Craig,
Thank you for clarifying that. I had the current view of the former Lido property incorrect. I always assumed those water hazards on the current one were from the original, with the holes re-routing around them. I corrected the current view on the slideshow.

Brian,
Nearly all of the Macdonald and/or Raynor and/or Banks courses are available for viewing in the men's locker room at the Yale golf course. I recently moved the 13 versions of the Yale course to the maintenance facility so Scott and his guys could have them available for their viewing.

I'm still looking for good versions of St. Louis, Mid Ocean and an original version of Sleepy Hollow (pre-Tillie), although I think that will be difficult. Other possibilities include Monterey Peninsula, Blue Mound, The Knoll, Elkridge, Brookville, the Oneck Course at Westhampton (unlikely), North Shore (a vintage version) and Gibson Island (also unlikely). I found partial images of the Mid Pacific and Waialae that weren't any good.

If anyone can help, I would be very grateful.

I do have a question for everybody: is there another architect (or firm) that has four NLE courses within such close proximity to one another? And if you count Greenwich CC and CC of Fairfield (as the crow flies, both very close), that would be four no longer existing and two far from original condition.

 

[Craig Disher]

I do have a question for everybody: is there another architect (or firm) that has four NLE courses within such close proximity to one another? And if you count Greenwich CC and CC of Fairfield (as the crow flies, both very close), that would be four no longer existing and two far from original condition.

Colin,
I'll try. Depending on what you consider "close", the DC metro area at one point had 4 William Flynn courses, all of which are NLE.

-Indian Spring CC, a revision on the site Ross's great original when part of his course was turned over to real estate.
-Town and Country GC, now under the NIH library in Bethesda
-Prince Georges CC (Beaver Dam GC) in Landover, MD
-The private course of JR McLean in Washington DC.

[Tom MacWood]

I do have a question for everybody: is there another architect (or firm) that has four NLE courses within such close proximity to one another? And if you count Greenwich CC and CC of Fairfield (as the crow flies, both very close), that would be four no longer existing and two far from original condition.

Colin,
I'll try. Depending on what you consider "close", the DC metro area at one point had 4 William Flynn courses, all of which are NLE.

-Indian Spring CC, a revision on the site Ross's great original when part of his course was turned over to real estate.
-Town and Country GC, now under the NIH library in Bethesda
-Prince Georges CC (Beaver Dam GC) in Landover, MD
-The private course of JR McLean in Washington DC.

Craig
Are you certain Flynn designed McLean's course?