[Kye Goalby]

Took a trip around Glens Falls CC  today (Donald Ross, 1918 I was told).  It is a rather bold routing over a sandy, somewhat extreme site  with a few crazy cool greens.  I saw some old photos  in the locker room from the Glens Falls Open in the 20's and 30's, one of which showed a wild, early Pebble Beach dunes-like bunker complex, the likes I have never seen by Ross.




  Nothing like that out there now unfortunately.  The  present bunkers, to my eye, seem to have been largely redone in a  generic, rather repetitive interpretation of Ross.  Anyone know much about this course?  I am really curious about it.

PS  Also saw McGregor Links, by Devereaux Emmet, what a phenomenal piece of golfing land.  I would have loved to have seen that place before the houses grew up around it.

[Kye Goalby]

added photo of  original bunkers to the first post.

[JNC Lyon]

I have never seen Glens Falls, though I think I need to as a Ross fanatic living in Upstate New York.  I have heard good things about the course, and I am guessing it is worth playing despite the alterations to the original layout.

From reading Brad Klein's book, Discovering Donald Ross, it seems like Ross had many different bunker styles for his original designs.  It seems that most of these unique bunker styles have been papered over in favor of one uniform design--the rolled-down turf face.  From my understanding, he did use this style quite a bit, particularly in Upstate New York.  However, it seems he had a different style altogether at Glens Falls.

MacGregor Links is also supposed to be very cool, but I hear the owner has no interest in doing anything good with the course--he simply wants to build wall-to-wall houses along the fairway.  This was a few years ago that I heard this, so things could be different now.

[Tyler Kearns]

Kye,

McGregor Links looks quirky from the aerial on Google Earth. I've never seen bunkering like it appears on #1 or #10 (not sure which), as they seem like a series of 'Road Hole' bunkers running down each side of the fairway. The houses certainly look like they'de detract from the golfing experience, and seem a little too in-play on a few occasions.

TK

[mark chalfant]

Steve Curry speaks very highly  of  the routing and design  of  Emmets    Macgregor layout

[John Blain]

Glens Falls is one of the more respected clubs in upstate New York. Very low profile with a nice membership friendly golf course. I like GFCC but personally I prefer The Sagamore which is another Ross course about 10 miles north of Glens Falls in Bolton Landing.

McGregor Links was at one time a very cool, Devereux Emmet golf course and lots of fun to play. Unfortunately in the past 10-15 the property has been invaded by homes and it has changed the entire complexion of the golf course. The conditioning, at least recently has also declined to the point where it is no longer worth a trip to play. Just a shame.

By the way Kye how are things going at Schuyler Meadows Club and what is your impression of that course?

-John

[Richard Hetzel]

I just purchased a book on eBay, "Golf Courses of the Adirondaks". I will see what it says about Glens Falls CC. As a boy, I lived in nearby Lake Luzerne. Snow aside, I wish I could move back to that area!

[Jim_Kennedy]

It was a nine hole Ross course in 1917. He visited the course in June of that year to see how things were growing in and to make plans for the second nine.

http://tinyurl.com/3595vwx
 

[Neil Regan]

Kye,

  Here is a link to an ABE listing for a book about Glens Falls from 1923. The book has a page for each hole with a map and sideview elevation. It typically sells for $80 - $400. Sample page below.


 click here for ABE listing
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=1008575474&searchurl=sts%3Dt%26tn%3Dgolf%2Bglens%2Bfalls%26x%3D0%26y%3D0

Golf at Glens Falls
Brown, J. Lewis
Bookseller: Valuable Book Group, LLC (Princeton, NJ, U.S.A.)
Bookseller Rating: 5-star rating
Quantity Available: 1

Book Description: Brearly Service Organization, Glens Falls, NY, 1923. First Edition. 63 pp. Illustrated with plates from drawings of the course's eighteen holes tinted in green; frontispiece map of the area surrounding Glens Falls. 8vo. Previous owner name of FFEP. Some chipping to spine and small piece missing near top. Original boards with color pictorial cover label. - Murdoch 89; D&J B27040. Glens Falls is located in Upstate New York near Lake George. The half-title page states "The golf course of the Glens Falls Country Club ranks among the first hundred course of America", this, according to Donald Ross, who was the architect of Glens Falls. Some mild foxing throughout. . One of the most interesting covers in the golf library.

[Norbert P]

  Nothing like that out there now unfortunately.    . . .  

 This look is very cool and it looks to have that much forgotten "fate factor" for a ball that finds it.  Meaning, the lie may or may not result in a troubled swing.  My only resistance to building something like this is that I may have to actually get out of the excavator and pick up, God forbid, a  er um, what was that thing called um, oh yeah!   a shovel.   They do not fit my hands at all.


  . . .
  We used a lot of our backs, a little of our brains
We jacked up the jacks, and snugged up the chains,
We all did our very best to refrain from  ...  shovelin’.
We put what timber we had, underneath the wheels
And we was all out of sand, but managed to steal
Two sacks of the best modern canola seed you ever did see,
That ‘oughta give us some traction

The Chev got stuck and the Ford got stuck
Got the Chev unstuck when the Dodge showed up
But the Dodge got stuck in the tractor rut
Which eventually pulled out the Ford

The Truck Got Stuck       Corb Lund and the Hurtin' Albertans

[Jim_Kennedy]

Found a listing for the GFGC that says:

GLENS FALLS GOLF CLUBS.—Organized September, 1899. Membership, 59. A nine-hole course of 3,000 yards has been laid out by
J. Vickery. Governing committee: A. N. C. Fowler, Mrs. Louis M. Brown, Miss Elizabeth McEchron, Fred F. Pruyn, Henry L. Sherman, Mrs. John R. Loomis, Jr., and Louis Armstrong.

wonder how much of the existing routing, if any, Ross used whenhe built his first nine holes in 1917?

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