History's Mysteries

[Sven Nilsen]

This thread is intended to be an exploration of the questions that remain unanswered about the roots of American golf.  If you have no interest in the arcana of GCA, feel free to tune this out.

I'll be posting a series of old articles covering courses for which I have little information.  Many of these were probably never built, many of them have probably just slipped through the cracks of time.

Please chime in if you have any questions of your own, as the collective resources hereabout may just have the answers.

To kick things off, the article from the Dec. 1931 edition of Golf Illustrated discusses the attempts to get golf off the ground in Albemarle County, Virginia, leading up to the formation of Farmington CC in 1928 (which as the article notes was laid out by Fred Findlay).  The text of the article describes three attempts to form golf clubs, as follows:

1.  An embryonic course that languished when key members moved away;

2.  A club whose development was interrupted by World War I; and

3.  A club that evolved out of small "field" course which moved to new ground after the War, had a course laid out by amateurs and then hired a "world famous player" to improve the initial attempt.

These are the courses for which I can find a record for the time period in question near Charlottesville:

A.  University of Virginia GC - Reported in the 1901 Harpers as a 9 hole course with a date of organization of 1897.  Later Annual Guides note this with a date of organization of either 1895, 1898 or 1899.

B.  Charlottesville GC - described as a 9 hole course in the early guides, with the 1900 Harpers noting a new course laid out last year.

C.  Charlottesville CC - Aug. 1913 newspaper article (see below) reports note Bendelow laying out a new course for this club.  No course by this name is noted in the Annual Guides.  A Dec. 1914 American Golfer article notes Bendelow laying out a course in Charlottesville, North Carolina.  The timing between the two articles could mean that the second article was discussing a separate course from the 1913 reporting.

D.  Albemarle GC - First appears in the 1917 Annual Guide as a 9 holed with a date of organization of 1914.  The article below notes the club was subsumed by the new Farmington CC.

E.  Farmington CC - as described below.

F.  McIntire Park GC - Another Fred Findlay course reportedly laid out in 1930.

Do B, C and D above match up with the course outlined in the article?  Was Bendelow's work only on Charlottesville CC, or only on Albemarle?  Were they one and the same? 








Aug. 12, 1913 The Times Dispatch -

[John Kavanaugh]

Sven deserves better than this for his efforts.  It is a mystery why a bunch of "golf snobs" let it go to the second page with no responses.

[BCrosby]

Sven does deserve better, but it might be simply that the group doesn't have much to contribute. You can call GCA folks many things, but shy is not one of them. The history of golf in Albemarle County is probably a mystery for a reason. There doesn't seem to be much of a historical record. Which might be odd, but it is what it is.

Having spent some time there and having played Farmington often, my only add is that McIntyre Park is a public park. Whether it still has a golf course there, I don't know. The C'ville muni - Pen Park - is a bit farther out of town.

I have no knowledge of a C'ville GC or a university Golf Club. UVA did build a course within the last 20 years or so. It is called Birdwood, located just up the road from the Boar's Head Inn. There are a number of relatively new RE development course outside of C'ville, but they don't bear on Sven's questions.

It is possible that the Keswick Hall course was once called something else.

So in short, not a lot of answers to Sven's very good questions.

Bob

 

   

[Joe Bausch]

Frequently these mysteries take me and my fellow sleuths (many non-GCA members) some time. 

[Jim_Kennedy]

Sven,
Chartered in 1915, the Albemarle golf club was located on the Rivanna river. A 1921 article has them buying property there from someone named Egan, and Farmington CC is nowhere near the Rivanna.

[Sven Nilsen]

Sven,
Chartered in 1915, the Albemarle golf club was located on the Rivanna river. A 1921 article has them buying property there from someone named Egan, and Farmington CC is nowhere near the Rivanna.

Jim:

That was my understanding as well, that Farmington CC was built as a separate club on new land, but took in many of the Albemarle members. 

In the Bendelow thread Bob and I noted the location of Albemarle east of the UVA campus, and that the land Bendelow worked on was supposedly north of the campus, suggesting Albemarle and Charlottesville CC were two separate courses.

Sven

[Jim_Kennedy]

Sven,
CCC was located at Cochran's Park(can't find that yet), but the present day Meadowbrook (built 1974) is located in Pen's Park. In 1917 there was a Meadowbrook Mills GC opening near the property of CCC. Could be Pen's was Cochran's Park, and the location of both courses.  
The property for the course was located about 1 mile from the city, and Pen's fits.

[Sven Nilsen]

Two articles on Albemarle forwarded by Jim.

Richmond Times-Dispatch March 11, 1915 -



Washington Herald Sept. 7, 1921 -



And another from Jim on Meadowbrook Mills and the Charlottesville CC.

Richmond Times-Dispatch Oct. 21, 1917 -

[Sven Nilsen]

Mystery #2 - Water Mill GC

In the midst of the world famous Hamptons lies a sleepy little hamlet called Water Mill, so under the radar that it has only been mentioned a couple of times on this site.

In 1900 Willie Dunn laid out a 9 hole course for the Water Mill GC.  The course doesn't appear in any Annual Guides and does not appear to have stuck around for very long.  The Golf Magazine reports below give us a sense of the scale of the club, one certainly with the resources to hire a well known professional and to have contracted one of the experts of the day to lay out the course.

So what happened to Water Mill?  Why did Water Mill fade away while many of its neighbors stood the test of time?

May 1901 Golf Magazine -





June 1902 Golf Magazine -

[Sven Nilsen]

Jim forwarded a link to a 1900 Map of Water Mill, which notes the Topping property (right around the center of this image at the head of Hayground Bay) which is where we believe the club was located.

[Rick Shefchik]

Sven, I love the concept of this thread, but I wonder if you would get more responses if you broke it into separate threads for each course you're investigating, with the course name in the title of each thread. Those who could contribute information on the specific courses might find the threads more easily, and Barney wouldn't have to browbeat the treehouse for responses.

[Sven Nilsen]

Sven, I love the concept of this thread, but I wonder if you would get more responses if you broke it into separate threads for each course you're investigating, with the course name in the title of each thread. Those who could contribute information on the specific courses might find the threads more easily, and Barney wouldn't have to browbeat the treehouse for responses.

Rick:

If you haven't noticed, there's a noted disdain for these types of threads from many members of the treehouse.  Some don't care about history, some don't think it matters, and some have a general disregard for "cut and paste historians."

With that in mind, I thought I'd keep the intrusion down to a minimum.  The thread might end up being a bit disjointed, but a straight read will give a fairly general sense of how the game developed with regards to many of the courses that aren't highlighted today.

Sven

[Sven Nilsen]

Mystery #3 - A New Club in Topeka

The June 1905 edition of Golf Magazine reported on a new club being formed in Topeka, with the course being laid out by Robert Fullarton.  The early guides note that the first course in the city for the Topeka GC was laid out in 1899 by Willie Dunn.  Later guides refer to the Topeka CC with a date of formation of 1905.

If you read the modern day Topeka CC website (https://www.topekacc.org/Club-Info.aspx), their version makes it sound like plans for the club started in 1899, but it wasn't until 1906 that the course was laid out by Bendelow on the newly purchased Dudley estate.

So what do we make of the article below?  Was Fullarton's work at a separate club?  Was his work at the Topeka CC, and for some reason the club went with Bendelow's plans instead?  Did the CC evolve out of the previously existing GC, which most certainly had a golf course?  

Topeka CC's mysteries continue on into the 20's, where contrary to their own history it has been noted that Langford came in to build an 18 hole course.  The Langford/Maxwell dynamic has been discussed elsewhere on this site.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Rick:

If you haven't noticed, there's a noted disdain for these types of threads from many members of the treehouse.  Some don't care about history, some don't think it matters, and some have a general disregard for "cut and paste historians."

With that in mind, I thought I'd keep the intrusion down to a minimum.

Sven

A few days ago I happened to be clipping a few articles and lo and behold, the same clips were being taken by a well known golf writer.

Within the past two weeks I found myself in good company, and in the workroom of another well known architect/writer. You'll never guess - an untold number of articles and clippings.  

No doubt there is a difference, say, in Bob Crosby's substantial pieces on John Low and Joshua Crane, or Tom MacWood's fine series of essays here on this site, vs. 'cut and paste'.  Is there more scholarship in the former - of course - but at their beginnings were the same quest for information which requires the searching out of the written words of others.

I enjoy reading those pieces, and all the others in the "Opinion" section,  but I also enjoy the live action of 'cut and paste', and how the reveal plays itself out.      

  

[Sven Nilsen]

Mystery #4 - Who is responsible for the Arcola that Pat Mucci remembers?

Arcola was built in 1909 by Barker, and was remodeled in the 1950's by R. T. Jones.  In 1931, it underwent a significant remodeling. 

The following April 1932 Golf Illustrated article notes that every single hole on the course was changed.  There is no mention of the architect.

[Bret Lawrence]

Sven,

I noticed Golf Digest had a Williams G. Wilkinson listed as an architect at Arcola between H.H. Barker and RTJ.  I looked up this name and found a golf architect by the name of Willard Wilkinson.  Willard Wilkinson designed a few courses in New Jersey around this time frame.  I haven't found any evidence that supports he was at Arcola Country Club, but it remains a possibility.  If I find anymore info, I will let you know.

Bret

[Sven Nilsen]

Sven,

I noticed Golf Digest had a Williams G. Wilkinson listed as an architect at Arcola between H.H. Barker and RTJ.  I looked up this name and found a golf architect by the name of Willard Wilkinson.  Willard Wilkinson designed a few courses in New Jersey around this time frame.  I haven't found any evidence that supports he was at Arcola Country Club, but it remains a possibility.  If I find anymore info, I will let you know.

Bret

Bret:

Jim Kennedy suggested the same thing. 

Wilkinson worked with Tillinghast for a while up until around 1922, when he branched out on his own.

Sven

[Sven Nilsen]

Mystery #5 - Where did Tillie copy the Lido model?

The following article is from the June 1928 edition of Golf Illustrated.  In it Tillie writes about filling swamp land to create the contours for a new course, all based off a plaster model.  Sound familiar?

Where did this work take place?

[Bret Lawrence]

Sven,

I think Jim was right on Mystery #4  Here is an article from Golf Illustrated-October 1931, the last paragraph on the right claims Willard G. Wilkinson is the architect:

[Jim_Kennedy]

Sven,
I believe that would be the Davis Shores Islands golf course in Tampa. That's the one that Davis sold a 51% share (250k) of to Stone & Webster. Davis Shores eventually drove him into bankruptcy, and shortly after he either took his own life, accidentally fell, or was pushed overboard while at sea.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Arcola, ca. 1930



vs. Arcola, today.

[Sven Nilsen]

Nice work on Arcola and Davis Islands.

Mystery #6 - What was Willie Park up to in 1916?

This topic was touched on in the Willie Park course listing thread, but I though it made sense to add it in here.  Joe Bausch posted the following Nov. 19, 1916 Asheville Citizen Sun article regarding the Happy Valley/ Kenilworth Inn course.  There were a couple of key nuggets buried in the article, specifically that Park had returned to the U.S. five months prior and had a roster of courses he was busy laying out or remodeling.

The list included the following locations (with my notes added in about possibilities):

Baltimore - Rolling Road (although his work is given a date of 1920)
Detroit (5 courses) - Meadowbrook, Pine Lake?, Cascade Hills?, Flint?, Red Run?
Minneapolis - Minneapolis GC
New Britain - this would be Shuttle Meadow
Meridian - a 9 hole course in Meridian, LA was organized in 1917
Plottsville (Pottsville?) - Schuykill CC (work is given a date of 1921)
Reidsville - assuming this is the town in NC, which didn't get a course until 1931
Boston - possible Milton-Hoosic?

So what exactly were these courses?

[Sven Nilsen]

Mystery #7 - Did Harvard ever get its course?

Unlike Yale, Stanford and many of its other US News competitors, Harvard does not have its own stand alone golf course.  The trade-off is that the college team gets to practice at The Country Club.

Eons ago the early Harvard golf teams played at a course called the Cambridge GC, which was reorganized in 1899 as the Harvard GC.  The club did not last long, as by 1902 the school was looking to develop its own course in Waltham.

I have no record of the Waltham course ever being built.  Perhaps it was, as the backers for the project certainly had the pedigree to make it work.

March 1902 Golf Magazine -



April 1902 Golf Magazine -

[Jim_Kennedy]

Sven,
Harvard was still playing at Oakley in 1908. They were at Riverside, but they gave that up in 1901 0r '02.
 

[Drew Groeger]

Mr. Nilsen,
Regarding Mystery #6, my guess is the Asheville article omitted all of the work in Canada Park was doing at the time. Specifically, Mount Bruno Golf Club. While this may be thin evidence, a Golf Historical Society of Canada article (http://www.ghsc.ca/Quebec_August_2013.php) notes "This was Willies first commission in 1916 and he spent a good amount of time on the site till it was done at the end of 1917. After that he set up an office here and agreed to become the first " Golf Master " of the Club staying for a year until he became too busy and passed on the job to his nephew Frank Glass." Worth looking into perhaps.

Also, he may have spent some time in 1916 in Sylvania, Ohio routing that course, although I have no proof at the moment and have to get back to work!