BTW, what American born gca designed a course earlier than 1898?
CB Macdonald, Lawrence Van Etten, Arthur Fenn, CC Worthingon, Ed Tufts, George Wright, Leonard Tufts, D. Leroy Culver, CE Orr, PE Bowles, FD Fairbanks, E. Conde Smith, FQ Brown, SE Blunt, and WS Pierce are few American born designers in 1898 or earlier. According to the Harpers Golf Guide there were 872 golf courses in America in 1899 my guess would at least fifty were laid out by Americans, probably more.
TMac,
Thanks for that list. I figured there had to be some, but wasn't going to go through Whitten and Cornish to find out, at least yesterday. It is so nice that someone has enough intererst to have researched that era so much and have it at their fingertips.
I also figured most were laid out by Scottish golf pros, which would be the stereotype for pre 1900, and if only 50 were laid out by American's I guess that would fit the general perception.
Going back to the question of Tillie being the dean, it appears that the use of that term included longevity, and the quality of work during that longevity. Certainly, Tillie had earned those kind of accolades, even if some might question the exact wording as an academic excersise.