Restoration Timeline: Philly Cricket's Wissahickon course (Tillinghast / Foster)

[Dan Herrmann]

Mark, good idea.  We know what happens when Tim and Joe make pump houses rulings.

Are you playing Hockey Referee and signaling interference? 

[John Burnes]

http://digitalmag.globalgolfpost.com/20140602/GAP?utm_campaign=GAP%206-2-2014&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=Cricket%20Restoration%20Echoes%20Tillinghast%20Original&#&pageSet=14&page=0&contentItem=undefined

[Jeremy Rudock]

How private is Philly Cricket?  I've got a trip up to Philly in September to play Merion and I'm looking for a couple other courses to play in the area.  Long shot, but figured I'd look into ease of access.

[John Burnes]

I am not sure what you mean by how private.  But I will tell you that if I had 5 courses to play, this would be one of them.

[John Shimony]

Tim's hand signal may be taken from American football but the meaning is clear.  That dang pumphouse is a no go area.  He and Bausch assessed me a one stoke penalty because they considered it an immovable obstruction when my ball decided to come to rest against it.  They won the match.

[John Burnes]

http://www.cybergolf.com/golf_news/philly_cricket_wissahickon_the_once_future_king

[Mark McKeever]

A great write up Jay!!  I hope you enjoyed the day out there. 

MM

[Powell Arms]

Here are a couple of time lapse videos of the patio expansion and driveway removal at Wissahickon.

Wow! What a winter!

http://youtu.be/Jxwkd2GjPRQ

http://youtu.be/cpFiwO5ZmFM

[Powell Arms]

The native areas are starting to brown out nicely, creating some great vistas to frame the course.

The club brought in Evan Schiller (www.golfshots.com) for some professional photos this past week. And went to great heights to get some cool perspectives:



Golf porn update:

View down 2: 396 yard par 4 (distances from the II tees, 6680 yards, 72.8/134)



View behind 2 green



View from right of 3 tee: 115 yard par 3



View from behind 3 green



View from behind 5 green: 197 yard par 3



View from 10 tee: 147 yard par 3



View from right of 17 green, with 1 green background right and 2 tee background left: 419 yard par 4



Hard to believe it was under construction this time last year.

[Thomas Dai]

These Even Schiller photos are incredible. I cannot understand, £$£$ or desire for privacy aside, why some clubs-courses that do not have top quality photos on their websites, their window to the world, and for historical record purposes. Quality photos IMO just scream out "Come and play here!"

As an aside, are the Wissahickon course and the St Martins course used for the recent World Hickory Matchplay Championship on the same site?

I noticed on the hickory event thread mentions that the St Martins was restored three years ago - http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,58898.0.html

atb

[Charlie Gallagher]

Powell,
   Those Schiller photographs are mind blowingly good. Foster and the superintendents staff have polished up a real gem of a property. I will be playing sometime in the next several months I trust. Just phenomenal looking. Can not wait.

[David Amarnek]

Amazing photos of a wonderful course.
The boys from St. Louis sure loved it (thanks again Powell)!

[Powell Arms]

...
As an aside, are the Wissahickon course and the St Martins course used for the recent World Hickory Matchplay Championship on the same site?

I noticed on the hickory event thread mentions that the St Martins was restored three years ago - http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,58898.0.html

atb

The St Martins course is on the club's original campus in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, about 4.5 miles from the Flourtown campus with the Wissahickon and Militia Hill golf courses.  St Martins had been 18 holes when it hosted the US Open in 1907 and 1910 (and when George C. Thomas won two club championships, and Johnny McDermott won the Philadelphia Open)  It did, and still does, sit on land that the club ground leases, and that uncertainty prompted the club to buy the ~375 acres in Flourtown ca. 1920.  Club member AW Tillinaghast designed the Wissahickon course, which opened in 1922.  Shortly thereafter, the club did lose the ground lease on half of the St Martins land, reducing the course to 9 holes.

The St Martins course was restored based on a plan developed by Keith Foster using old aerials.  The overwhelming majority of the work at St Martins was done in-house.

David, glad everyone enjoyed the visit. Charlie , see you soon!

[Dan Herrmann]

Fantastic photographs.  A real pro!

[Mark McKeever]

The pictures turned out excellent, hopefully the club uses them to update the website soon.   

Mark

[Adam Lawrence]

These Even Schiller photos are incredible. I cannot understand, £$£$ or desire for privacy aside, why some clubs-courses that do not have top quality photos on their websites, their window to the world, and for historical record purposes. Quality photos IMO just scream out "Come and play here!"

Thomas - at least on your and my side of the pond, the answer is simply cash. Clubs can't get their heads around the idea of spending several thousand pounds on commissioning a professional golf course photographer. Even if, deep down, they know they will get great value from it.

[Powell Arms]

A few more taken this past weekend by Evan Schiller:

Looking down 1 fairway: 395 yard par 4 (taken from about 18 green)



16 from just left of the tee: 408 yard par 4



from right of 5 green (197 yard par 3) looking down 6: 475 yard par 4



Looking down 14 from behind the green: 411 yard par 4



Looking down 17 from behind the green: 419 yard par 4

[BHoover]

Powell, these photos are exceptional.  What better way to show off the course's fantastic restoration than with a series of professional photographs.  I'm surprised we don't see more of this.

[Powell Arms]

One more from Evan Schiller, looking down 7 over the restored Great Hazard.  Par 5, 514 yards, about 295 yards to the hazard, which is between 40 and 90 yards deep.  And driving just into it perhaps less penal than the bunker fairway right at about 230-250 yards





Moving on to the next holes to shoot.

[Rory Connaughton]

Powell and Mark

I was a big fan of PCC to begin with . . . .this work is outstanding. Hats off to the entire membership. Especially those who spearheaded the project.  You have a lot to be proud of and a lot of great golf to be played!

[Andrew Buck]

Just beautiful photos.  Looks amazing.

[Joe Bausch]

Wow, those are quite the pics from Evan!

Some would think I'm crazy to post a link to my ground level photos from the course last week, but I'm going to!  

Here is the link, where later in the round some of the lighting is pretty good:

http://xchem.villanova.edu/~bausch/images/albums/PCCWissahickon/

Here is my photo tour thread of the course from back in 2011, before Foster's work, but after significant tree removal:

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,47391.125.html

[Jeremy Rudock]

That photo of #7 is amazing.

One of the things I've always loved about this forum is that it's introduced me to many courses I've never heard of in my 36 years.  I'd never heard of Wissahickon, but this thread has made it a bucket list item for my golfing future.

[Jim Sherma]

Fabulous pictures. Course is looking great.

[Powell Arms]

Joe - great photos, as always. And the comparison to Evan's is not appropriate. I am pretty sure he was not playing golf while snapping photos!