We know from many accounts that the land Macdonald secured in December of 1905 was completely overgrown with various waist-high growth at the time he discovered it, such that it was only passable on horseback. Earlier I asked if folks thought that the land of NGLA was cleared of this debris prior to Macdonald securing the land or after.
Given what sounds below to be quite the significant effort requiring considerable manpower, and all of the associated expense, I have to believe that it was cleared
after Macdonald secured the land. Would anyone disagree? After all, why would he go to such a large effort and expenditure on land where he had no financial control? Would the landowner even permit it without a deal in hand?
My interest in this area relates to the golf course planning and routing process as well as what was possible to do at each stage of NGLA’s architectural development and subsequent construction and when. Frankly, it’s a fascinating topic.
In a 1906 article in Outing Magazine, Macdonald described how important it was to find the right sort of soil and landforms and felt that was half the battle;
Studying the above qualities in detail, there can be but one
opinion as to the nature of the soil the course should be built upon,
as well as the contour of the surface of the fairway green-running
as this should in more or less gentle undulations as at St. Andrews,
breaking in hillocks in a few places, more or less bold in certain
parts as at Sandwich and North Berwick.
The three courses above mentioned fulfill the ideal in this respect.
There can be no really first class golf course without such
material to work upon. Securing such a course is really more than
half the battle…Having the material in hand to work upon, the
completion of an ideal course becomes a matter of experience,
gardening and mathematics. Here’s Macdonald in December of 1906 the day he secured the land describing what lies ahead in coming months.
This snippet from an article in Harper’s Weekly in January 1910 describes how the land was cleared and what events preceded that clearing. It also retrospectively discusses how much effort Macdonald had to put into his agronomic efforts at growing turfgrass.
Finally, here’s Macdonald summarizing those efforts over 20 years later in “Scotland’s Gift”
Read and understood in the proper context, it’s interesting to see the nuances of the developing story at each point in time.
Have a great weekend, everyone.