[Patrick Hodgdon]

It is planned to rush the construction work so that the course will be ready for play by the middle of next summer. Until the new course is ready the temporary nine-hole course at golden Valley will be used.[/b]

Rick -- Do you know where that "temporary nine-hole course at Golden Valley" was?

At the site of the current GV G&CC?

Or possibly: At the site of the current Brookview?

Dan

Dan,

It's not clear from what I've found, but I don't think it's Brookview (which used to be known as Superior, and didn't come into existence until a few years later.) I think they're referring to the makeshift course that was built at the current site of Golden Valley Country Club, which the esteemed membership of MGC had recently abandoned. Apparently the members of MGC were counting on the generosity and forgiveness of the 40 members they left behind at GV to allow them to play their course until Park could finish his work at Minneapolis. That's my read, anyway.

That seems to be the correct read per the MGC website: http://www.minneapolisgolfclub.com/mgc/tradition.html

"The story of the Minneapolis Golf Club begins in 1916, when our founders—five members of the Minneapolis Athletic Club—set out to establish a golf club that would foster friendship, sportsmanship, and the love of the game. Members were sought, land was acquired, and nine holes were built on what is now the site of the Golden Valley Country Club. On the first Saturday of August, 1916, play commenced at the MGC.

Later that year, our members voted to relocate the club to a larger piece of land in St. Louis Park. The Scottish golfer and golf course architect Willie Park Jr. was hired to lay out the new course, and an existing four-room farmhouse was converted to a clubhouse. The club's first event at its new location, a match play versus bogey, was held on May 19, 1917.

By 1919, the club had grown to 400 members, and plans for a larger clubhouse were in the works. To accommodate the new clubhouse, the course would need to be re-routed. For this purpose, our members hired another Scotsman, Donald Ross, one of the most respected golf course designers of the 20th century."

[Tom MacWood]

Rick
Willie Park produced at least two very comprehensive lists of his course in the 1920s, as comprehensive as any list I've seen from an architect, and neither one lists MGC. There is no doubt Park was involved early on, but I suspect there is more to the story.

Tom,

I found this article from the Nov. 26, 1916 Minneapolis Morning Tribune:

Willie Park, well-known golf course architect, arrived here yesterday to lay out the course of the Minneapolis Golf Club.

Mr. Park went over the club’s property near St. Louis Park in the afternoon and today he will start the work of mapping the full 18-hole links. He plans to stay here at least two weeks and will supervise the early work of construction.

It is planned to rush the construction work so that the course will be ready for play by the middle of next summer. Until the new course is ready the temporary nine-hole course at golden Valley will be used.

There could be more to the story, but it would have to be something rather extraordinary to have kept Park from finishing this job, and something that never became public. Seems like his failure to list MGC was an oversight.

Rick
It was reported in 12/1916 in American Golfer that MGC was abandoning their Golden Valley site and moving to St. Louis Park, and Willie Park had been engaged to design the course.

In March and April of 1917 Park advertised:
"At present engaged in designing and laying out golf courses at New York, Boston, Minneapolis, Toledo, Detroit, Baltimore, New Britain, Asheville and many other places in America"

In March it was reported the club hired William D. Clark as their professional.

On May 4 1917 it was reported in the Duluth News Tribune that the temporary nine at MGC was open for play, and in the next three weeks the course will be changed somewhat. The permanent nine should be ready July 1. No mention of an architect.

Later in August 1917 Park's advertisement read:
"Ar present engaged in designing and laying out golf courses at New York, Boston, Toledo, Detroit, Baltimore, New Britain, Asheville and other places in America"
 

[Rick Shefchik]

Tom -- I found this story in the Mar. 4, 1917 Minneapolis Morning Tribune:

"The Minneapolis Golf Club members who are now located near St. Louis Park, will have a temporary nine holes arranged as soon as the snow goes and work will be started on the permanent nine. The ground there is arranged so that a fine temporary course can be laid out. Willie Park, the architect, arranged for the temporary course while mapping the permanent one."

Park said he was working on a Minneapolis course in the spring of 1917 --he'd begun that one the previous fall. In late August 1917, he was not longer working on a course in Minneapolis. His work there was probably done, wouldn't you think?

Given the preponderance of evidence -- Park's arrival in Minneapolis in the fall of 1916 to lay out the course, as reported in the Tribune, another Tribune story the following spring referring to work he'd already done, including the temporary course, the Park blueprints in the office of the civil engineering firm that built the course, numerous contemporary media references to the course being design by Park, and the club's own institutional memory that the course was originally designed by Park, I don't think Park's failure to include it on two lists is enough to say that it isn't a Park.

[Rick Shefchik]

It is planned to rush the construction work so that the course will be ready for play by the middle of next summer. Until the new course is ready the temporary nine-hole course at golden Valley will be used.[/b]

Rick -- Do you know where that "temporary nine-hole course at Golden Valley" was?

At the site of the current GV G&CC?

Or possibly: At the site of the current Brookview?

Dan

Dan,

It's not clear from what I've found, but I don't think it's Brookview (which used to be known as Superior, and didn't come into existence until a few years later.) I think they're referring to the makeshift course that was built at the current site of Golden Valley Country Club, which the esteemed membership of MGC had recently abandoned. Apparently the members of MGC were counting on the generosity and forgiveness of the 40 members they left behind at GV to allow them to play their course until Park could finish his work at Minneapolis. That's my read, anyway.

Dan,

See my answer to Tom MacWood above, referring to a newspaper article I came across after this post. I think it clears things up.

[Tom MacWood]

Rick
When was the second nine opened for play?

[Rick Shefchik]

Tom,

A May 6 story in the Minneapolis Morning Tribune said "The formal opening of the new Minneapolis Golf Club course with 18 hole medal play for the club members…[was] the feature of yesterday’s weekend play on local golf courses…More than 100 players turned out for the initiation of the Minneapolis club and entered in the 18 hole medal play."

Update: I read that to mean the entire new course was open on May 5, 1917, but a story on May 8 said that it was still a 9-hole course. I will keep searching for the answer to your question.

[Dan Kelly]

Tom,

A May 6 story in the Minneapolis Morning Tribune said "The formal opening of the new Minneapolis Golf Club course with 18 hole medal play for the club members…[was] the feature of yesterday’s weekend play on local golf courses…More than 100 players turned out for the initiation of the Minneapolis club and entered in the 18 hole medal play."

Update: I read that to mean the entire new course was open on May 5, 1917, but a story on May 8 said that it was still a 9-hole course. I will keep searching for the answer to your question.

Second writer didn't get the news?

As you know, these things happen.

[Rick Shefchik]

Okay, I think I'm getting closer to clearing this up. Here are excerpts from a story in the March 10, 1917, Minneapolis Morning Tribune:

William D. Clark, the Minneapolis Golf Club professional, takes up his duties in two weeks. He will return to the Omaha Field Club, from where he comes, in a few days to wind up his affairs there and will come back here in a week or 10 days. He will be given charge of the construction work on the course, and while the links are being built will be able to give a few lessons.

It is hoped to have the temporary course of the club ready for pay by May 1. As soon as the snow leaves a large crew of men will be put at work to arrange the temporary course for play. The nine holes will be laid out on meadow land, which can be easily converted into ground suitable for play.

From the April 1, 1917 Tribune:

W. D. Clark, the Minneapolis club pro, said last night that by the end of this week he would have the temporary nine-hole course ready for play...Clark is going to pull something new this week in the form of a clay model of the course. As soon as he is able to get thoroughly acquainted with the contour of the land and the plan of the links as mapped out by Willie Park, he will start his model. He plans to have one topographical map showing the entire course and others for each of the holes, showing all bunkers, hazards, the greens, tees, fairgreens and rough.

And here's the story that ran in the Tribune on July 22, 1917, when the full course was finally ready to open:

Members of the Minneapolis Golf Club will formally open the new 18-hole course of the club at a dinner at the clubhouse next Wednesday night.

The new course, which has been planned and constructed by Bill Clark, Minneapolis club professional, is 5,250 yards in length. The out nine holes total 2,975 and the second nine is 2,275 yards long. The longest hole of the new course is the 545-yard seventh."




Now, how did Bill Clark suddenly get the credit? The second writer didn't read the first writer's clips? Clark decided to cut himself in for the architectural laurels? Obviously he worked on the course -- from my reading about Twin Cities clubs back then, most head pros did a certain amount of design work on their courses, from adding bunkers to occasionally moving a green or a tee. But it still looks as though Clark was working off Park's plan when he arrived in Minneapolis in March. The course had obviously been begun the previous fall.

Here's an oddity, though: That 545-yard seventh hole isn't found on the Park routing map that turned up in the civil engineer's offices. On that map,  the seventh hole is a 126-yard par 3 that disappeared when the course was re-routed in 1920. But the seventh hole in the Ross re-routing wasn't a 545-yard par 5, either; it was a 446-yard par 4 -- pretty much identical to the hole as it exists today. The ninth hole on the Park routing is listed at 546 yards -- maybe the writer got the wrong hole. It happens. In any event, that hole doesn't exist today, by any number.

For those who might be following along on this thread without knowing much about Minneapolis Golf Club, it was the site of the 1950 U.S. Amateur and the 1959 PGA.

[Tom MacWood]

I believe the August 1917 advertisement for Willie Park is telling, when he first removed Minneapolis. Everything in those magazines was a month behind, so that ad was submitted in July or while the course was just being finished. Something must have happened, which I believe is confirmed by the fact he never listed the course as one of his designs. By the way I have not found any ads for May, June or July, so its hard to say when a potential change in direction took place.

Willie Park was sponsored by the American branch of Carter's based in NYC. That is where he set up his office, they advertised together, and they constructed the majority of his courses (they constructed a large percentage of the top flight courses during this period for others as well). MGC was built by a different firm, and I wonder if that led to the split, or was it the fact Clark began changing the design, or both.

[Rick Shefchik]

Tom, wouldn't you agree that there was very little time for the course to go from a Park design to a Clark design between the date Clark first laid eyes on the place -- mid-March 1917 (before any work cold commence) -- and mid-July 1917, when the full 18-hole course opened?

I could see Park being angry enough to take his name off the course if he thought Clark had changed a hole or two, sort of like a scriptwriter or director who asks to have his name taken off the credits of a film he worked on when something happens during production that goes against his vision. But I don't see how Clark could have undone enough of Park's work in a little more than three months for us to say that MGC isn't a Park course, no matter how Willie felt about it.

I think the telling point is the members thought it was a Park course. Sometimes the members are right.

[Tom MacWood]

Tom, wouldn't you agree that there was very little time for the course to go from a Park design to a Clark design between the date Clark first laid eyes on the place -- mid-March 1917 (before any work cold commence) -- and mid-July 1917, when the full 18-hole course opened?

I could see Park being angry enough to take his name off the course if he thought Clark had changed a hole or two, sort of like a scriptwriter or director who asks to have his name taken off the credits of a film he worked on when something happens during production that goes against his vision. But I don't see how Clark could have undone enough of Park's work in a little more than three months for us to say that MGC isn't a Park course, no matter how Willie felt about it.

I think the telling point is the members thought it was a Park course. Sometimes the members are right.

Why do you say the members thought it was a Park course?

[Rick Shefchik]

Walter Fleck, one of the club's charter members, wrote a history of the club for the program of the 1950 U.S. Amateur. After describing the original intent of building a course in Golden Valley, he said they decided to move to a site in St. Louis Park:

"The Club was offered our present site by the Hylands Home company, who intended to organize a golf club there. This course was being laid out by Willie Parks (sic), famous Scotch golf champion and noted golf-course architect."

Park is the only architect mentioned in that club history. Fleck writes that Clark was their first pro, but doesn't mention anything about his architectural contribution. Since Fleck was there when the course was built, and thought it important enough to mention that Park was the original architect, and gave no credit to anyone else, that strongly suggests he and his fellow club members considered MGC a Park course.

[Sean_Tully]

Saw that you guys were mentioning MGC so I thought I should include this.

Sept. 1916 American Golfer



Sean

[Rick Shefchik]

Thanks, Sean. I saw that item as I was searching American Golfer for information on Minnesota clubs. The MGC-Golden Valley situation is complicated because MGC started in Golden Valley in 1916, hired Bendelow to design a course at that site, and then moved to its St. Louis Park site that fall. The remaining members stayed at Golden Valley, changed their name to the Golden Valley Golf Club, and went ahead with Bendelow. The two clubs still exist, but have that shared birthright.

[SBendelow]

Rick,
Thank you for providing that piece of info, it clears up several questions.
Stuart

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