Jim, Could you perhaps elaborate on when Tillie said this and the context, and perhaps provide what exactly he said? Tillie said a lot over the years and I am not sure it was always consistent, and some of it was rather self-serving, so I am curious as to what to make of your summary. Thanks.
Phil Young reproduced this passage in a thread on GCA years ago. He says Tillie wrote it in 1934, during the Walker Cup, as the U.S. team was (again) demolishing Britain's. This was Tillie's explanation for why U.S. players were dominating British...
"Now this query is founded on fact, records of the past decade. Numerous as answering opinions have been, we, too, have our thoughts. We believe that more outstanding players are being developed here in the United States because generally throughout the nation our golfers play over more testing courses than do they in Great Britain. Undoubtedly there are some truly great constructive minds across the water, designing some really fine golf holes and certainly there are great British courses—but too few. But do the golfers of Britain admit this or concede it? A few of them do; most will not.
It seems to us that our cousins are disinclined and reluctant to emerge from tradition, which is a great thing, but newer ideas obviously develop greater golfers. We know that there are many who will listen to no word of criticism of the Old Course at St. Andrews. Indeed, no course in the world is so rich in tradition, but we assert (and we know the old course well) that as a collection of holes it has too many weaknesses to be regarded as truly championship. This seems almost like speaking disrespectfully about one's grandparent. Frankly, we know of no place on earth where we would rather spend a golf holiday, and harking back forty years we appreciated its greatness as we followed a "guttie" ball around a magnificent course of that period. But conditions have changed in forty years. Old St. Andrews has not. We can pick out fifty better championship tests in our own country. So it seems to be throughout the entire kingdom. The reconstruction of
holes, famous of old, but quite without merit in these days, is done grudgingly and frequently in the face of stout opposition. Over here we have no, battle to fight with traditions. When we recognize a bad or unworthy hole we get rid of it quickly and replace it with one that develops skill,—and this practice is getting more general every day.
Certainly the British have every right to play their golf as they see fit. It is not ours to criticize, and our answer to the question of why their golfers seem a bit backward in keeping pace with the times is intended alone for our own people, who are curious about it all, and ask for our opinion."
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