George Thomas and his Attributions in "Golf Architecture in America"

[MCirba]

George Thomas was almost uniquely positioned in American golf history, knowing most of the early architects personally.  He lived in hotbeds of architectural development, being in Boston early on, Philadelphia after that, and then on the West Coast after serving heroically in WWI.   When he wrote "Golf Architecture in America" in 1927, he makes clear that the book was a group effort with input coming from sources as varied as A.W. Tillinghast and Norman Macbeth, from Donald Ross to H. Chandler Egan.

Many of the photos and drawings in the book also come from various architects as well as men associated with some of the clubs in question.   One of the great values of the book to me comes in the form of the architectural attributions associated with almost every picture and drawing in the voluminous book.   

Most of the attributions come as no surprise to students of history, but one item in particular struck me yesterday.  For years it was thought that Frederick Hood was the designer of Kittansett, and indeed he was the driving force at the club and supervised construction.   In recent years, the finding of original hole drawings of Kittansett drawn by William Flynn were found and documented well in Tom Paul and Wayne Morrison's "The Nature Faker", which also documents that Hugh Wilson spent some time visiting that site in an undocumented role.

Yet, it appears that perhaps this attribution perhaps wasn't such a historical mystery after all.   Following are a drawing and photograph of the third hole at Kittansett provided by Hood to George Thomas, and take note of the architectural attribution in the lower right of each, as understood by George Thomas.

[Tom_Doak]

Mike:


The best part of that is that on some courses Thomas would divide the credit when he understood a certain hole to be someone's idea.  For example, the photo of the 8th green at Pebble Beach is labeled (Mackenzie).


I'll probably get in trouble for doing the same thing on a few courses in The Confidential Guide.  As we've discussed here before, correct attribution is in the eye of the beholder ... and sometimes the guy paying for the p.r. wants it to sound different than how it really was.

[MCirba]

Tom,

I noted that attribution for the green on the 8th at PB for Mackenzie, as well.   Very interesting.   Similar is that Harry Colt offered some help with the original course at Huntingdon Valley, assisting Green Committee chair Ab Smith.

Unlike some of our collective modern speculative efforts at attribution, I think George Thomas's opinions deserve special weighting, as in many cases he was either there or he was close friends with those who were.   

A bit more on Kittansett...

According to letters found in the Piper & Oakley collection, in March of 1922 both Hugh Wilson and William Flynn visited Kittansett, first Flynn alone and then with Wilson for two days.   I don't have copies of the original letters but understand from "The Nature Faker" that Hood wrote asking if Wilson was available, saying he'd pay his way to come up there.   

Wilson subsequently wrote Oakley on March 31, 1922;

“I have just gotten back from Marion, where I spent two days with Mr. Hood and
Flynn. It certainly is a pretty piece of ground and it ought to make a bully Golf
Course."

Less than two weeks later, on April 10th, 1922, the "Butler's Point Associates" was incorporated.   Five days later the following appeared in the "Boston Christian Science Monitor".   If anyone with better eyes than me can make out the first line of the heading I'd be most appreciative.

I believe it quite likely that the map was drawn by William Flynn, but have others who know his style better than me looking into it.  I've included it in condensed and larger sizes. 
 

[Jaeger Kovich]

Now that I think about it, almost any time one sees a historic attribution on Hells Half Acre at Pine Valley, it is credited to Tillinghast.

[Kyle Harris]

MCirba,

Thomas attributes Seaview Bay to Ross, with additions by Wilson-Tillinghast and Robinson. (Page 168)

This book is notable in that, in my opinion, much of the agronomic stuff is both ahead of its time and regrettably forgotten in modern greenkeeping.

[MCirba]

Great post Kyle.  I'll respond as time permits soon but you've hit on an important point.

[MCirba]

MCirba,

Thomas attributes Seaview Bay to Ross, with additions by Wilson-Tillinghast and Robinson. (Page 168)

Kyle,

Joe Bausch and I have done a lot of digging related to Seaview and I think we're still convinced there's more to the story.   We know in early 1913 it was reported that Clarence Geist had a few Philadelphians (E.K. Bispham (Head of Green Committee at Philly Country Club), Gil and Ben Nicholls (local pros) down to visit to see the land and get their opinions and had hired William Robinson, a well-known local pro to be his onsite guy to supervise things.

We also believe that same spring of 1913 Harry Colt was onsite with Hugh Wilson.   

Is it possible that Thomas was correct and the course was built to an original plan by Donald Ross?   Sure, I guess it is although it's not something Ross ever claimed in any of his literature.   We do know that Geist had Ross come in 1915 to devise a more difficult bunkering scheme than what was originally anticipated, some of which was done.

By August of 1913 it was reported by an Atlantic City paper that the "course has been laid out by a number of golf experts who have had experience along these lines".     We know in the fall of 1913 Wilson was writing Piper & Oakley seeking advice regarding the Seaview project asking for any experts on reclaiming land from salt meadows.    In those letters he referred to Clarence Geist as "a friend of mine". 

In October of 1913,  golf writer William H. Evans of the “Philadelphia Public Ledger” noted, “Hugh I. Wilson, chairman of the Green Committee at the Merion Cricket Club and who is responsible for the wonderful links on the Main Line, has been Mr. Geist’s right hand man and has laid out the Sea View course.   Mr. Wilson some years ago before the new course was constructed visited the most prominent courses here and in Great Britain and has no superior as a golf architect.”
 
 In January of 1914 a large storm meant the abandonment of four seaside holes and the creation of what are today the northern-most four holes, and we do know that Hugh Wilson planned those.

By June of 1914, other local papers were crediting Hugh Wilson and William Robinson for the course that was already being played several months before an official opening seven months later, audaciously in January 1915.   At the opening, Hugh Wilson was in attendance and four months later played in a widely publicized golf match partnering with Frances Ouimet against Geist and Wilfrid Reid, who Geist had just hired as pro.

I guess the point of all of this is to show how often these early courses were collaborative efforts.   I think it's human nature to want to assign primary responsibility, to assign authorship, although I think in many of these early cases they were simply golf friends with time for these endeavors and they worked collaboratively, thus blurring and sometimes frustrating our modern day attempts to understand the complete picture through the framework of our modern understandings of how these things transpire today.


**ADDED**  Regarding Kittansett, there is evidently a 1924 "Boston Evening Transcript" article by famed golf-writer A. Linde Fowler that was published either 10/11/1924 or 11/11/1924 that credited Wilson and Flynn, referring to the "scientific architecture" they implemented and which they learned at Merion.   I'm trying to find a copy, but it's not a paper widely available.

 



 

[MCirba]

One other related thing I forgot.  Hugh Wilson claimed in a letter that he once again tried to use Fred Pickering (who he previously used at Merion to supervise construction) at Seaview but that his drinking problems were even worse.

Taken from "The Nature Faker", by Wayne Morrison and Tom Paul;

In a February 8, 1924 letter to C.V. Piper of the US Department of Agriculture from Fred
Kortebein, an assistant to Hugh Wilson who corresponded for him while Wilson was
taken ill, it is written that:

"Mr. Pickering was employed to look after the practical work in the actual
construction of the East course at Merion, and it is Mr. Wilson‘s feeling that in this
particular class of work he is a very practical man. He, however, had one fault at that
time, which was the excessive use of liquor, and he was likewise employed in the actual
construction work of the West course, when conditions became more acute with him,
and he practically "blew up".   Flynn worked under Pickering and, when he was let go
from Merion, Flynn succeeded him.   Mr. Wilson subsequently tried him out in the
actual construction work at Seaview (1915), and his characteristics during his
employment there were even more pronounced than at Merion."