Love This Shot - Ponte Vedra GC - 1935 and 1946

[Jim_Kennedy]

Sorry, but I just wanted to post this shot of a good looking bunker complex. Anyone know the architect/course? It's old and located near a bridge.  

Work like this would surely make for a fun time on the links.  

Click on the photo, it will go big. Twice, bigger still.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Jim,

On behalf of the discussion board I accept your apology. Nice pic.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Jim,

On behalf of the discussion board I accept your apology. Nice pic.

[Garland Bayley]

I guess "good looking" depends on the eye of the beholder.
It just kind of looks out of character to me.

[Jim_Kennedy]

I guess "good looking" depends on the eye of the beholder.
It just kind of looks out of character to me.

No waffling Garland.
   
It's on the coast, probably on dredged land, so digging isn't usually an option.. 

[Rees Milikin]

It is a 1935 picture of the golf course in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL.

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2011-aug-cruising-ponte-vedra-beach

[Jim_Kennedy]

You got it Rees. PVGC, a Herbert Strong creation.

Another view of the course, ca. 1946. More manicured look, but nasty little pots, although better than landing in the brillo pad Bermuda.  

Click once for big photo, twice for bigger.

[Robert Mercer Deruntz]

Herbert Strong is easily the most under appreciated architect of the golden age.  His bunkering may have been liberal and severe in places, but he was the master of angles and width--something that can still be found at Engineers and Inwood

[Rich Goodale]

Many thanks, Jim (and Rees)

My first Florida course was PVB in 1960, taking the overnight train from NYC to Jacksonville en famille, and it never looked liked that 1935 bunker complex photo to me.  My guess is that as interesting as it was, that complex was unmaintainable, possibly vis a vis drainage issues but also particularly in the context of the austerities of the depression and WWII.

Ponte Vedra is special to me, as in addition to the 1960 family trip, I took a quick weekend break in early 1982 from business meetings in NYC to play both Sawgrass CC and the new TPC, which eventually led to my living at Sawgrass from 1987-1990, and a NJ/FLA courtship with my first and still only wife.  If and when my wife eventually retires, we will be spending serious time there, partikcularly in the winter.  It is a very satisfyingly non-Floridian place.

Rich

[Mike Hendren]

Thank you, Jim.

Is is fair to assume that the ragged bunker edges are simply the result of sand being splashed onto the surrounds?  I like the look much better than today's pinking shear construction.

In my mind the art of bunker design/construction could have easily stopped its evolution with the small ones depicted in the second photograph.


Bogey

[Jim_Kennedy]

Mike,

The course was only 2-3 years old in the '35 photo, so some of the raggedness could be due to wash outs from rain storms, or the grass having a hard time establish itself along the edges, during the grow in period. Looks like they eventually created a more acute angle in the '46 photo and brought grass over that edge to the bunker floor. That probably lessened the impact of heavy rains at the transition point while making for a neater and more defined edge.



Rich,
Or probably too much for the 'resort crowd' to handle.    

Here's a hole view from 1961. Look more familiar?