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Scott Macpherson

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James Braid Links
« on: November 16, 2011, 05:07:46 AM »
Dear GCA Family,

I've been thinking about James Braid recently. He was quite a remarkable man. The first to win 5 Open Championships, author of a few books, and an extensive list of golf courses in his design portfolio. Its hard to pick out the best, but perhaps the most notable are Gleneagles (Kings & Queens), St Enodoc, Dalmahoy, and renovation work at Carnoustie, Brora, Boat of Garten. Actually this list is far to long...perhaps about 170 courses that he designed or renovated.  But here's the question; how many links (not inland courses) did he design (not renovate)?

Considering his prowess on the sandy links, the number seems remarkably low.

Hoylake Muni, 1933 –  (Is this a links?)
St Enodoc
Southport and Ainsdale GC

Any others?

Scott

Sean_A

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Re: James Braid Links
« Reply #1 on: November 16, 2011, 05:57:47 AM »
Scott

I don't know the answer to your question, however, here is some info.

St Enodoc - Braid significantly altered a previously existing course so much so that it could have been called an original at the time.  

Pennard: Braid built a completely new course on a site which already had a course.

Perranporth - I think this is an original on virgin land.  

Fortrose & Rosemarkie: Braid significantly altered a previously existing course - don't know if we can call it an original though.

Holyhead is an original course, but I think it has been altered a bit.

S & A: I think Braid added nine holes - not really an original.  

Ciao




New plays planned for 2024: Nothing

Tom MacWood

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Re: James Braid Links
« Reply #2 on: November 16, 2011, 06:50:01 AM »
Scott

I don't know the answer to your question, however, here is some info.

St Enodoc - Braid significantly altered a previously existing course so much so that it could have been called an original at the time.  

Pennard: Braid built a completely new course on a site which already had a course.

Perranporth - I think this is an original on virgin land.  

Fortrose & Rosemarkie: Braid significantly altered a previously existing course - don't know if we can call it an original though.

Holyhead is an original course, but I think it has been altered a bit.

S & A: I think Braid added nine holes - not really an original.  

Ciao


I was under the impression Braid redesigned an existing course at Pennard. What year did he build an entirely new course?

I'm certainly no expert on Braid, but it seems to me his speciality was redesign. Is it possible he gets too much credit for work he inherited from others?

Dónal Ó Ceallaigh

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Re: James Braid Links
« Reply #3 on: November 16, 2011, 07:02:19 AM »
Kirkistown Castle on the Ards Peninsula in Co. Down (N Ireland)

Sean_A

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Re: James Braid Links
« Reply #4 on: November 16, 2011, 07:47:49 AM »
Scott

I don't know the answer to your question, however, here is some info.

St Enodoc - Braid significantly altered a previously existing course so much so that it could have been called an original at the time.  

Pennard: Braid built a completely new course on a site which already had a course.

Perranporth - I think this is an original on virgin land.  

Fortrose & Rosemarkie: Braid significantly altered a previously existing course - don't know if we can call it an original though.

Holyhead is an original course, but I think it has been altered a bit.

S & A: I think Braid added nine holes - not really an original.  

Ciao


I was under the impression Braid redesigned an existing course at Pennard. What year did he build an entirely new course?

I'm certainly no expert on Braid, but it seems to me his speciality was redesign. Is it possible he gets too much credit for work he inherited from others?

Tommy Mac

1908 the club was reconstituted and Braid made three visits to complete the entirely new course.  Beforehand, only 20 people were allowed on the links to play and a course was never really laid out.  Tees and greens changed with weather and convenience.  So one could say golf was played over the links rather than on a course.  Once the club was allowed to push up to 50 members a proper course could be built.  Although, the general outline of that 1908 course still exists, many individual holes and features have been altered.  Braid himself did much of it over a course of 20+years, but Cotton, at a much later date in the 60s, also did considerable work to the course.  Steel too built a few greens in 1990ish.  We certainly couldn't say the course is a Braid original now - although the bulk of Pennard's design is down to him.   

Ciao
New plays planned for 2024: Nothing

David_Tepper

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Re: James Braid Links
« Reply #5 on: November 16, 2011, 08:40:05 AM »
Scott M. -

There are, in fact, multiple James Braid Golf Trails in Scotland:  

http://golf.visitscotland.com/home_of_golf/james_braid.aspx

Links courses he is associated in Scotland with include Nairn, Brora, Golspie, Fortrose & Rosemarkie, Carnoustie, Elie, Lundin, Panmure, Scotscraig and Arbroath. I suspect his work at most of these courses was renovation/improvement/expansion rather than design from scratch.

DT  
« Last Edit: November 16, 2011, 02:33:20 PM by David_Tepper »

Scott Macpherson

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Re: James Braid Links
« Reply #6 on: November 16, 2011, 12:37:40 PM »
Thanks for all those contributions.

So what courses, anywhere, are links that he designed from scratch? Are we reduced to two?

1. Perranporth
2. Pennard (even if changed a bit now)


Sean, Not sure Holyhead is a links (not listed as one by Peper and Malcolm in True Links)

Scott

Niall C

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Re: James Braid Links
« Reply #7 on: November 16, 2011, 01:41:59 PM »
Scott

Rich Goodale would have been the man to answer with authority on Carnoustie but I'm pretty sure that was a new course on top of an existing one.

Brora - pretty sure you can put that one down to Braid as I think with the previous John Sutherland designed course the routing went in the opposite direction.

The Glen - from memory he extended that course to 18 holes in conjunction with Ben Sayers and even then some might not consider it a links.

I've got a vague notion that he might have been involved with 2 and 3 at Gullane but could be totally wrong.

Turnberry - I think he did no 2 course in the early 1920's (1921 ?) although I think that was an extension or at least built on top of an earlier 9 hole course.

Stranraer - never played it so not sure off the top of my head whether it qualifies as a links but this was Braids last 18 hole course if I remember rightly but then again there was a 9 hole course there already.

Yellowcraig - Braid did a routing for 18 holes but the course never got built. It wasn't unitl relatively recently that Renaissance and Archerfield got built there instead.

Thats about all I can think of.

Niall

Niall C

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Re: James Braid Links
« Reply #8 on: November 16, 2011, 01:55:27 PM »
Scott

Thinking about it a bit more, it begs the question why so few links and I think the answer is that by the time Braid got into his stride doing golf course design as opposed to mainly tournament play, most of the links had already been built. I can't recall ever seeing a list of his courses but I suspect that most of his design work was after the first world war. BTW, only 170 ?

Niall

Mark Pearce

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Re: James Braid Links
« Reply #9 on: November 16, 2011, 02:15:13 PM »
Links courses he is associated in Scotland with include Nairn, Brora, Golspie, Fortrose & Rosemarkie, Carnoustie, Elie, Lundin, Panmure, Scotscraig and Arbroath. I suspect his work at most of these courses was renovation/improvement/expansion rather than design from scratch.
David,

Braid was born in Earlsferry, next to Elie, and the club has on display a letter from him suggesting changes to the course.  However, these were not implemented and my understanding is that he did not actually do any work there over and above these (ignored) recommendations.

Scott,

Braid is credited with the design of Berwick upon Tweed (Goswick).  There have been some changes there since (most recently by Hawtree, I think) but I understand that much of Braid's design remains.  Certainly the club take much pride in their course being a Braid design.
In June I will be riding the first three stages of this year's Tour de France route for charity.  630km (394 miles) in three days, with 7800m (25,600 feet) of climbing for the William Wates Memorial Trust (https://rideleloop.org/the-charity/) which supports underprivileged young people.

David_Tepper

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Re: James Braid Links
« Reply #10 on: November 16, 2011, 02:32:47 PM »
Mark P. -

You are indeed correct! Even though Elie is included in the James Braid Links Golf Trail, it appears (as detailed via the link below) that he had no part in the design features of the course. My mistake.

http://golf.visitscotland.com/courses/Elie.aspx

P.S. I am having lunch at Perbacco today. White truffles are on the menu.

DT

Mark Pearce

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Re: James Braid Links
« Reply #11 on: November 16, 2011, 02:44:39 PM »
P.S. I am having lunch at Perbacco today. White truffles are on the menu.
I'm very jealous!  Enjoy.
In June I will be riding the first three stages of this year's Tour de France route for charity.  630km (394 miles) in three days, with 7800m (25,600 feet) of climbing for the William Wates Memorial Trust (https://rideleloop.org/the-charity/) which supports underprivileged young people.

Melvyn Morrow

Re: James Braid Links
« Reply #12 on: November 16, 2011, 05:31:08 PM »

Brora

Interesting comment by Malcolm Campbell on James Braid re his work at Brora from Campbell’s book ‘The Scottish Golf Book’



Melvyn


Scott Macpherson

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Re: James Braid Links
« Reply #13 on: November 17, 2011, 05:29:45 AM »
Thanks Melvyn for your contribution. Brora is certainly a links, but is it a James Braid original? Or his work just a renovation, and therefore Brora is exempt from this little sub-category of Braid designs we are looking to establish?

scott

Simon Holt

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Re: James Braid Links
« Reply #14 on: November 17, 2011, 08:13:43 AM »
Yellowcraig - Braid did a routing for 18 holes but the course never got built. It wasn't unitl relatively recently that Renaissance and Archerfield got built there instead.

Thats about all I can think of.

Niall
[/quote]

Niall,

Where did you get this from?  It is of obvious interest and I would love to know more.

There was a golf course here before Renaissance and the two Archerfield courses but it was dug up during the war I believe.

S
2011 highlights- Royal Aberdeen, Loch Lomond, Moray Old, NGLA (always a pleasure), Muirfield Village, Saucon Valley, watching the new holes coming along at The Renaissance Club.

Tom MacWood

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: James Braid Links
« Reply #15 on: November 17, 2011, 09:43:06 AM »
Bernard Darwin wrote Braid's biography and this is the list of his best designs found in the chapter dealing with golf architecture:

Gleneagles (w/Hutchison), Carnoustie (r.), Dalmahoy, Blairgowrie, Royal Blackheath (r.), Ramsey (r.), Queen's Park (Bournemouth), Rhyl, Scarborough North Cliff, Leamington Spa, Wildernesse, Burnham Castle, Weir Park, Arcot Hall, Truro, Belleisle, Drayton Park, Kingswood, Finchley, Dunstable, Bangor (r.), Mullingar, Waterford, Hilton Park, Torquay (r.), Stover-Newton Abbot, Eaglescliffe (r.), Dawlish, Middlesborough, Greenock (r.), Welshpool, Oswestry, Forfar (r.), Boat of Garten (r.) and Oresett.

It is interesting there is no mention of Pennard or Brora. I recall reading somewhere Braid was paid £25 for his work at Brora. Isn't that a small amount of money for a complete new design?

This is what Darwin wrote about Braid the architect.

"I should not say that he was very imaginative or subtle in the designing of a hole--and it is possible to be too subtle for ordinary human nature--but he had what the golf architect needs, a good eye for country and, as in everything that he touched, a temperate judgment and a fund of plain common sense. We hear a great deal of the contrast between the penal and strategic schools of architecture and I do not propose to become involved in any discussion on the that thorny question. I do not think that James was deliberately penal in spotting bunkers here and there to catch each and all of the bad shots. He was too good an artist for that, but at the same time he did not like to let the errant play 'get away with it', amd would now and again have a gently malign satisfaction in blocking his too wide and easy road....It was a curious fate that he should live and play for so many years of his life on two of the best inland courses, the Old and the New at Walton Heath, and yet have little or no hand in the designing of them. After Herbert Fowler's death he would no doubt be consulted as to any changes, but as long as Mr. Folwer was there, I doubt if anybody else has much to say in the matter, for he was not only a most accomplished architect, with a touch of genius, but aslo an instinctive despot."

ward peyronnin

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Re: James Braid Links
« Reply #16 on: November 17, 2011, 10:26:37 AM »
Was he not associated with Saunton's design or did he merely play there
"Golf is happiness. It's intoxication w/o the hangover; stimulation w/o the pills. It's price is high yet its rewards are richer. Some say its a boys pastime but it builds men. It cleanses the mind/rejuvenates the body. It is these things and many more for those of us who truly love it." M.Norman

Niall C

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Re: James Braid Links
« Reply #17 on: November 17, 2011, 12:43:12 PM »
Simon

Yellowcraigs - I think I have some old newspaper articles that mention it. I think the reason it got scrapped was that they had problems getting water to it, water being a problem in the district at the time.

In the National Archives in Edinburgh they have a copy of Braids routing plan together with two other routing plans which have no attribution but I appear to be by someone else. All three are on tracing paper over an OS extract. From memory, on Braids routing you can see where he has rubbed out some holes and rerouted them to make the routing work better.

At the time I visited the National Archive didn't let you take photos and it was going to be something astronomical for a copy so I didn't get one. I believe they now let you take photos. So with no plan in front of me its hard to say whether the site equates to thebground used by Archerfield or Renaissance but it did play round Yellowcraigs wood if I remember correctly. I'll dig out what I have and send it to you.

Niall 

Tom MacWood

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Re: James Braid Links
« Reply #18 on: November 17, 2011, 01:34:57 PM »
Saunton was Herbert Fowler.

Melvyn Morrow

Re: James Braid Links
« Reply #19 on: November 17, 2011, 08:10:10 PM »
Brora GC

1892




1906


Did Braid make many changes, is Malcolm Campbell right about Braids rather short visit, whatever, but it’s clear that the course in play was rather good due to the minimum changes actually made.

Braid is credited with making some suggestions to the Greens at Grantown, although Andrew Phimister (trained at Lossiemouth then Forres) is credited with most of the other Greens and overall course design in May 1923.

As for Elie, Braid was requested and I believe made suggestions for the extension of the Ladies course at Elie circa August 1923. As for Earlsferry that was an Old Tom design circa 1857/8
 
Melvyn

Niall C

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Re: James Braid Links
« Reply #20 on: November 18, 2011, 03:49:52 PM »
Melvyn

Thanks for that 1906 report. It would appear I was wrong about the previous routing being clockwise rather than counter clockwise.

Niall