1939 US Open at Philadelphia CC - William Flynn the first "Open Doctor"?

[Jim_Kennedy]

The 1939 US Open on the Spring Mill course of the PCC was quite an affair.  Byron Nelson, the eventual winner, was in an 18-hole three way playoff with Denny Schute and Craig Wood after 72 holes. Shute fell back, Nelson and Wood remained tied after the 18-hole playoff, and it took another 18 holes between the two of them before Nelson came out on top. It was Byron's second of his five major championships. Sadly, as the story goes, Sam Snead was told he needed a birdie to win on the last hole of regulation play when all he really needed was a par, which caused him to be more aggressive than prudent. His triple bogey 8 on the hole knocked him out of the tournament. No swag for Sam.  



Over the course of the event Nelson hit six flagsticks with six different clubs - driver, the 1, 4, 6 and 9 irons, plus his wedge. He must have kissed the 1 iron as he holed out with it for an eagle on the 4th hole during the second 18 hole playoff against Wood.  

There's a 23 minute video of the tournament here. It comes from the Trenham (Pete) Golf History site.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojLSy8UCXow&feature=youtu.be

But now, onto the topic. PCC wasn't going to let the Pros tear up their course, so they decided to change par from 71 to 69  (supposedly the first time the Open was played on a course with a par under 70), and bring William Flynn in to strengthen the layout. As  the article below shows, the club felt that they needed to make the changes due to advances in the ball, the equipment, and the improved physicality of the players themselves.  




So I guess it could be said that William Flynn, courtesy of PCC, was the first Open Doctor, at least until we hear something to the contrary. ...and a first for the course and tournament with 69 as par.

[Tim_Cronin]

Midlothian bought in Donald Ross to "inspect" its course before the 1914 U.S. Open, but it was only months before the tournament. There no detail of any renovation in the club's centennial book.

[Joe Bausch]

An article (two clicks to a larger size) from the NY Sun a little later (June 8, 1939):

[Rob Marshall]

Had the pleasure of player PCC this summer. Wonderful course. The club house used in 1939 is know the maintenance facility so the playing order of the course has changed. It took Snead a few shots to get out of the fairway bunker on the old 18th which is now the 3rd. We all hit shots from the Nelson eagle plaque in the 17th fairway which was the old 4th. First time I've ever seem a rock wall in green side bunker at 17. Classic course and my one and only Flynn.

[Niall C]

Jim

I suppose it depends on which "Open" you are referring to  . In the UK, Braid famously added 80 bunkers to Troon before it held the Open in 1923 and again Braid totally redesigned Carnoustie in 1926 ahead of it hosting the Open several years later.

Niall

[Dan Moore]

Ross was engaged by the USGA and sent to Midlothian in April 1914 in an attempt to toughen up the course for the August US Open.  It appears he added over 100 bunkers to the course.  Max Behr was unimpressed. 

Chicago Golf Club made numerous improvements to its course prior to hosting the 1900 and 1911 national championships but don't know if those were at the behest of the USGA or simply part of their ongoing efforts to improve the original course. 

[Rick Shefchik]

An interesting note about the '39 Open: amateur Bud Ward missed that three-way playoff by one shot. He won the 1939 U.S. Am, and won it again in 1941. Ward also won the Western Open at Minneapolis Golf Club in 1940, beating a field nearly as strong as that year's U.S. Am. There's a case to be made that Bud Ward was one of the half-dozen best players in America at that time.

[Peter Pallotta]

Thanks Jim (and Joe) for the articles. Interesting to note the architect's desire to be -- and be percieved to be -- strategic instead of penal in his 'doctoring'.

Peter

[Bill Crane]

Friends:

Very interesting comments in the NY Sun about Flynn’s predilection to make features appear natural and his approach to bunkers:

 “I avoided anything that savored of the artificial.  Even the bunkers and greens were cut in irregular shapes – the ragged outline that Nature seeks – instead of being made square or circular.   Notice the jagged, overhanging lips of the sand traps.  I planted sheep fescue grass to get that tousled mane effect. It looks as though it had always grown there.”

This very much marks a difference between Flynn designs and McDonald/Raynor courses, for instance.
 
Also interesting that over the last few years Merion’s bunkers exhibit this style more than 20 years ago.   I would be curious to know how much more expense (or less) is needed to maintain bunkers in this style; more Golden Age courses seem to be going in this direction with the style of their bunkers.

I had a discussion about Flynn’s bunkers with Ron Forse this fall and he made the comment that Flynn’s bunkers varied somewhat from course to course.  Despite his reputation for flash faced bunkers, it does seem like his bunkers varied by site.  When you compare bunkers at Manufacturers CC versus Lancaster or Huntingdon Valley they really seem different, despite being re-worked through the years these shapes and lip heights are significantly different.

Thanks, again for posting.

Wm Flynnfan

[JNagle]

Couple of interesting tidbits leading into the '39 Open.  The club needed to rebuild the greens a few years prior and Flynn was consulted.  For one reason or another he decided to not be the lead designer (this would have been the second time the original greens were rebuilt).  He suggested to the Club that they hire Perry Maxwell who was in town doing work (possibly at Gulph Mills.  Not sure of the years he was at GM). 

As for the plaque on #17.  We heard the story before and I confirmed it last year while there rebuilding the 17th fairway bunkers and adding another.  Nelson was invited out to celebrate the opening of a Library at the Club in his name.  At the time he was 80 years old.  The ceremony included a stop at the plaque on #17.  Someone asked him is he cared to hit a ball into the green.  He declined.  As a short time passed, he began to get the urge to hit the ball.  The pin was in a similar location to Open when he holed out.  Without warm-up, 80 years old and with someone else's clubs he proceeds to hit a ball that strikes the flagstick and nearly holes out.  How great is that?

[Jim_Kennedy]

Ross was engaged by the USGA and sent to Midlothian in April 1914 in an attempt to toughen up the course for the August US Open.  It appears he added over 100 bunkers to the course.  Max Behr was unimpressed.  
Chicago Golf Club made numerous improvements to its course prior to hosting the 1900 and 1911 national championships but don't know if those were at the behest of the USGA or simply part of their ongoing efforts to improve the original course.  

Midlothian bought in Donald Ross to "inspect" its course before the 1914 U.S. Open, but it was only months before the tournament. There no detail of any renovation in the club's centennial book.

Ok Chicagolanders - which is it?  

JNagle,
BN owns the "Iron" moniker.  

Edit:I did a little searching I found an article posted by Joe Bausch that agrees w/Dan. This same thread also mentions Donald Ross' many changes to several different courses in preparation for their upcoming USGA events, w or w/o a mandate from the USGA.


http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,57771.0.html

  

[BCrosby]

Call for Wayne Morrison. Please pick up the white phone.

[Peter Pallotta]

JNagle - thanks for that post and for the info on Lord Byron at 80. My goodness, he did indeed live a blessed golfing life, and from what I can tell it could not have happened to a nicer man.

Peter

[Jim_Kennedy]

309 yds. were also added to the course.

I recall reading that Nelson's pin-hunting during this event was the reason the USGA named their first swing machine "Iron Byron".
The Nelson plaque:

[Jim_Kennedy]

There are a handful of aerials on the Dallin site that show Spring Mill GC, and two of them are taken from similar angles - one from 1938 and one from 1939.

Here they are:

1938
http://cdm16038.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p268001uw/id/2407/rec/12

1939
http://cdm16038.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p268001uw/id/3578/rec/6

By enlarging and comparing sections you can see the many changes made at Spring Mill for the US Open, most of which are to the bunkers - their sizes, shapes and placements, and to the greens - some enlarged and a couple made smaller. The bunkering really stands out - the "1938" bunkers are likely to be Flynn's work from 1927 and they are quite a bit different from the "1939"  group.

Here's a small sample - top two are 1939/1938, bottom two are 1938/1939



 





  

[Will Lozier]

Bummer.  Those earlier versions look much more organic.  I thoroughly enjoyed my one round at Spring Mill over a decade ago and hope to get back some day. 

I do recall thinking 10 & 18 must have been shadows of there former selves before the new clubhouse caused the "rerouting" and redo of those two holes, then 5 & 6.