Why isn't more of Newport CC along the ocean?

[Wayne_Kozun]

Watching the senior open and I checked out the site on Google Maps.  The course is in close proximity to the ocean but only a few holes could be described as being along the ocean.
Why isn't more of the course right along the ocean, say in the area where the Benton Point State Park is situated?  Was that park already existing in 1890?
There also seems to be other land along Ocean Ave east of the course that look like it could be good for golf.  Including a cove where you could have a Cypress Point 16th type of hole.

[Michael Morandi]

I don’t know but I do know that the road between the course and ocean can flood. It’s very tidal and when the wind and the rain comes up the road gets pooling of water in places. The 13th (members 4th) hole plays with the ocean off to the left. It’s a great par 3. Water does not come into play. In fact, the ocean does not come into play other than via the wind on the entire course.

[Dan_Callahan]

The 13th (members 4th) hole plays with the ocean off to the left. It’s a great par 3. Water does not come into play.

Speak for yourself. I played that hole a few years ago into a very strong wind. Took out driver, hit a very ugly hook, and my ball absolutely splashed down into the ocean. Two years ago, a kid on the high school team I was coaching aced that hole during a match. Was pretty cool. I'd bet my guys on the drive down there that no one would birdie that hole. After the round, I had to explain to them that an eagle isn't a birdie, therefore I win.

[Wayne_Kozun]

@Dan - Did you go straight into the ocean or did you bounce off the road first?

[Jeff_Brauer]

I'm going to guess it was because they didn't own the land?

[Wayne_Kozun]

I'm going to guess it was because they didn't own the land?

But wasn't the club started by some of the wealthiest people in the country, at a time when the "robber barons" had extraordinary wealth and power?  Presumably they could have acquired additional land, especially the land that is the state park as I don't think that the concept of state parks existed in the 1890s.
This is the history of the Brenton State Park at the time of the club's founding.  It seems like the land would have been available for purchase between 1915-1969.  It seems like much of the existing course was constructed by Tillie around 1921.  Maybe the club didn't have the money to purchase that land in 1921?

When the war was over, the town of Newport and its surrounding farms were devastated for decades to come, eventually rescued by a new form of 'invaders' in the guise of summer fun seekers. Many farm houses on the island before the American Civil War were converted to guest rooms. Victorian social life at first centered in great hotels, but then wealthy industrialists from New York, and as far away as Pittsburgh, began to build mansions along the Cliff Walk and out along the Ocean Drive that circled through Brenton Point.
Here, a fine house, known as 'The Reef' was built in 1885 for Theodore M. Davis by the Boston architectural firm of Sturgis and Brigham. An elegant shingle and stone-clad Queen Anne villa was erected to house Davis's collection of paintings and Egyptian artifacts, collected during his wanderings between 1903 and 1912. Under official license by the Egyptian government, Davis directed expeditions that uncovered nearly a half dozen major tombs, establishing important holdings for Egypt. The Reef was also famous for its walled gardens and green houses. The entire estate took up some eighteen acres.
After Mr. Davis' death in 1915 the estate went into the hands of Mr. and Mrs. Milton Budlong of Providence. The property suffered in the '38 Hurricane, but the members of the Budlong family used it until 1941. During World War II, the site's position as one of the gateways to Narragansett Bay made it an ideal location for a coastal artillery battery. Footings for these guns can be seen today. Returned to the Budlongs in 1946 the house and grounds remained unoccupied. The house continued deterioration in the 1950s, and a fire destroyed the villa in 1960. Two years later it was demolished. Surviving on the site are a bungalow and carriage house. In 1969 the site came under the control of the State of Rhode Island as an 'open space' property in the Green Acres Program. In 1976 it became a state park.

[Dan_Callahan]

@Dan - Did you go straight into the ocean or did you bounce off the road first?

Tough to say, because at the time, the shrubs along the fence down the left were pretty high. But the wind was howling, I hit it hard, and it took a sharp left turn about 150 yards from tee and was gone. Water really isn’t that far from the road at high tide.

[Bret Lawrence]

Wayne,


The Brenton Point State Park was home to T. Suffern Tailer’s Ocean Links in 1921 when Tillinghast redesigned Newport Country Club.


Bret

[Phil Young]

Bret, although Ocean Link's was founded and built in 1920 (per the American Annual Golf Guide), Newport Country Club goes much further back.
      According to their club history, "Theodore Havemeyer brought golf to Rhode Island after having played at Pau in the south of France where he had spent the previous winter. On his return to Newport, he, along with several friends, leased 44.4 acres near Breton Point and laid out a very primitive 9-hole course.
      "The lease on the 44.4 acres on Brenton Point was not renewed. Havemeyer and H.A.C. Taylor, purchased the 140-acre Rocky Farm from Mary King for $80,000. Within a month the deed was bought by a syndicate, led by both gentlemen, and in early 1894, the incorporation of Newport Country Club was established."
      In 1893, the original 9-hole course was "modified by William F. Davis, the professional/designer previously employed at the (Royal) Montreal Golf Club. Davis designed two new courses in 1894 on the newly acquired Rocky Farm; the 'long' course and the 'short' course. In 1895 the 'long' course was lengthened slightly and in 1897 an additional 9 holes were added making Newport an 18-hole course...
      "The original 18-holes were all located east of Harrison Avenue. In 1921, the Club purchased two parcels of land, west of Harrison Avenue. One parcel was the same 44.4 acres from Mary Gammell. The same property that Havemeyer and friends had rented some 25+ years earlier. The second parcel of 4.38 acres was bought from Ethel Rinelander King family. These purchases made possible the addition of 7 holes and the re-routing of the course to the east side of Harrison Avenue, thus alleviating the long-standing complaints about fairway proximity, poor drainage and wet conditions. The redesign of the course with the new 7 holes on the west side of Harrison Avenue was done by A. W. Tillinghast.
      All of that to say that NCC chose where they wanted their golf course(s) going back before the turn of the last century... 
     

[Bret Lawrence]

Phil,


Newport had to buy a parcel of land to extend their course across Harrison Avenue in 1921.  I think it’s more of a coincidence that the land was still available for purchase 25 years later.  I don’t think Havermeyer envisioned the 1921 course in 1894. If he did, he likely would have bought the land in 1894 at a much better price?


T. Suffern Tailer built the Ocean Links in Newport, because he was a member at Newport CC and he was not happy with the outdated golf course and the lack of interest in golf around Newport in the late teens. He wanted to show the community what a real golf course looked and played like.  I think it’s safe to say, Tailer’s plan came to fruition. Even if Ocean Links no longer exists, his main goal was to push the membership of Newport to build a modern championship golf course and that’s what the seniors are playing this week.  Kudos to T. Suffern Tailer!


Bret

[Bret Lawrence]

Here is a link to Peter Flory’s Ocean Links thread.  There are a few aerials where you can see the proximity to Newport Country Cub.


https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,69172.msg1660506.html#msg1660506

[Phil Young]

Bret, Mary Gammell who owned the original 44.4 acres refused to sell it which is why she leased it to them through 1893. They purchased the 140-acre Rocky Farm site because she told them that she wouldn't renew the lease in 1893. She still wouldn't sell the land regardless of the price.
      There purchase of the 140-acre Rocky Farm was fortuitous for originally they only planned on having a 9-hole course regardless of the amount of acres they purchased. Per the Club History, "In 1897 an additional 9-holes were added making Newport an 18-hole course...Havemeyer had not wanted a 2nd 9 holes built, but after his untimely death in 1897, the second nine holes were built."
      There certainly was a great deal of unwanted coincidence in the evolution of the club and golf course...
      As for Tailer's Ocean links inspiring Newport to build a modern championship golf course, I agree with your assessment and evidently the Club does as well. In 1916, Newport's 2-man green committee, "Hired Seth Raynor to 'go over the course.' According to the minute's of the club's annual meeting, Raynor 'had submitted a tentative plan for the rearrangement and improvement of the course as shown by the plans and profile that were shown at the meeting.' The Green Committee was then 'empowered to employ Mr. Raynor and to request him to submit an estimate of the cost of the improving and rearrangement of the course.'
      "But the on-course work was never done [I believe this was due to restrictions in the availability of both materials and labor due to WW I and the Spanish Flu] and, in 1919, NCC Board member T. Suffern Tailer hired Raynor and Macdonald to build nine holes on four nearby parcels of land. By the summer of 1921, Tailer's course, Ocean Links, was completed.
      "The minutes of NCC's annual meetings, taken by Harry O. Havemeyer, the club secretary and son of founder Theodore Havemeyer, and frustratingly cursory, but NCC, perhaps spurred  by Tailer's quick work on Ocean links, finally began to make decisions.
      "The club received a proposal from Raynor for an 18-hole course, but judged his layout to be 'too congested.' A proposal was received from A. W. Tillinghast, then completing his well-received two course construction at Baltusrol, and this plan called for the purchase of additional land. Tillinghast's concept was accepted...
      "It is curious that although NCC was looking to expand from its dry, first nine holes (the second nine holes having proved  to be a soggy disappointment), and Tailer had just finished a highly praised nine holes across the street, no evidence exists that Tailer had ever offered to sell his new course to the club [on] whose board he still belonged."