From Phil Young:
Thank you for that nice compliment on Tom Macwood's TD asking why Tillinghast never wrote a book? I see that he CHANGED the title as it had included the pharse "or pamphlet." The reason that he changed this must be due to a realization that Tilly DID write a "pamphlet." It was published in 1917 under the title "Planning A Golf Course." A copy of this can be seen on the Tillinghast Association website. I discovered this copy and scanned it during a research trip and it is only the 5th known to exist. The last one sold at auction for more than $40,000. It is a compilation of a number of articles that he wrote for the journal "The Golf Course" which ran from1916 onward for several years. It was published by Peterson, Sinclair & Miller "in conjunction with Carter's tested seeds."
As to why he didn't write a book, one needs to look at Tilly's ENTIRE life to understand this. Yes, he was incredibly busy designing courses, but very few people know the full extent. For example, we can identify just under 100 courses that he originally designed, yet in 1934 Tilly wrote that he had "designed and built several hundred courses..." during his career. That means that there are more out there that are unknown than known. In May, 1924, an article in that months edition of The Canadian Golfer magazine reported that "Mr. Tillinghast, who has no fewer than 51 courses at present under construction or improvement in the states this year..." Can any of the architects on this board even consider what it would take to have 51 jobs ubderway in a single year today? Imagine back then when travel was brutally difficult and the closest thing to a computer was a pencil & paper.
Without question Tilly may have been the busiest architect during those years. He was so busy that he stopped publishing advertisements for his work for long stretches of time during this period.
Tom Doak appreciates a portion of the reason (in my opinion) in recognizing that it really is a difficult thing to create a meaningful book. It was even more difficult 100 years ago when it was a hand-written process without the use of computers, spell-check, etc... In those days an Editor REALLY earned their money. Remember, Tilly also was the Editor at a number of newspapers and magazines during these same years.
I believe that the real answer lay in what Tilly enjoyed most OUTSIDE of the golf architecture profession. When one understands this it becomes quite clear that whether he had a desire to write a book or books on golf architecture or not, he simply had many better and more pleasurable things in his life to involve himself with that took up a great deal of his time. Here are a few of them:
1- Tilly owned and operated a quite active antiques business. He would have three different stores during the teens & 20s. This was a life-long passion of his and would end up with he & his wife opening one with Nedda Harrington on Rodeo Drive in 1938. His business was large and successful enough that galleries held major auctions of his collections throughout the 1920s & 30s. A number of these were advertised in the New York Times and elsewhere.
2- His passion for photography remained a constant throughout his life. In the mid-teens Walter Travis wrote how everywhere that tilly went, to every golf course and tournament, Tilly would bring his camera and dark room equipment. (Yes he did his own developing) A great many of the early, unattributed photos found in American golfer were taken by Tilly. He would also be captivated by motion pictures. In the early 19230s Ben Hogan spent a week with him at his Harrington Park home. Tilly filmed Hogan's swing and then, after developing it, went over it with Hogan one frame at a time. These films would end up being lost to time when a fire destroyed the barn where all of his documents, drawings, etc.. were being stored on the Philip Brown Farm in 1952, 10 years after he died.
3- He travelled with his wife quite often throughout their lives until he died. He owned a summer home in Shawnee from 1902 onward which the family spent a great deal of time at. Once their daughters were grown, especially from the late teens onward, Lillian accompanied him on most of his design trips. For example, when he went to California in 1919 and spent the early winter redesigning sand greens to grass ones at a number of courses and finished up this swing at SFGC in December & January, his wife Lillian was with him. It was at that time that the wonderful photograph of her standing and pointing at the monuments for the Duel which inspired the name for the 7th hole at SFGC was taken. They also visited their daughter and son-in-law, the Browns, at least once a year in Minnesota. Lillian also travelled with him during the 2+ years of the PGA Course Consultation Tour.
4- He was a "Broadway Angel" in the early 1920s, investing in a number of flops, none of which amounted to anything. Still, he was fascinated by the theatre, movies and everything to do with show business. It is no surprise that he designed the private estate course for Adolf Zukor that Jim Urbina is restoring/renovating to day and is known as the Paramount CC. He went to Broadway from is various New Jersey residences through the years to enjoy both plays and movies, something that he would also enjoy doing by bringing his granddaughter Barbara along with him when his wife didn't choose to go. He was also fascinated by those in the acting induistry and so also spent a great deal of time entertaining many of these at his home in Harrington Park.
5- The Tillinghats both enjoyed spending time with the grand-children which is why the Worden's would end up next door to them in harrington Park where Tilly built a house for them.
6- In additon to all of that, after his father, B.C. Tillinghast, died in 1918, he also inherited the Tillinghast Rubber Goods Company. It would remain viable and open until Tilly's wife Lillian closed the last store in 1947, 5 years after Tilly himself died.
Tilly enjoyed a very rich and enjoyable life outside of golf architecture and simply wasn't motivated to, nor did he have the desire to take away time from this, in order to write a book. From his perspective he may have felt that he had already written a number of books. As the Tillinghast timeline will show (it is well along now and we hope to have it publishable soon) he wrote far more than of what most are aware. He often did series of articles on golf architecture design, philosophies, etc... throughout his career.
I hope this helps in understanding an answer to this question. If anyone has any questions regading this or about Tilly feel free to email me at philwritesbooks@aol.com. I'll be more than happy to answer them if I can.
Phil Young
www.goldenageresearch.com