Which NLE golf course would you like to see recreated and to play on?

[Ben Stephens]

Following the recreating of the Lido at Sand Valley. Which NLE golf course would you like to see recreated and to play on?


I will start with the original Open course at Prestwick using hickories even it got recreated for a short while for an historical event however it is not in play at all times.


If I write this in 20-25 years time it could be Brancaster which I would hate to see it go you can't control or beat nature.


 

[Ben Stephens]

Near me would be the 3 holes (original holes 9,10 and 11) at Luffenham Heath which was taken away in WW2 - it they were kept Luffenham would have been a much stronger golf course than the current course.

[Matt Schoolfield]

For me the two easiest ones I can think of are the original Sharp Park and the 1836 era pre-double green Old Course with reversed out and back along single fairways.

[Simon Barrington]

James Braid's "Lost Links" on Lindisfarne, nine raw & stunning holes in the most dramatic dunes.
Huge naturalised sand-scrape Bunkers of the scale of "The Himalayas" at St Enodoc.
Variety of green sites including Braid's first back-to-back double green (1907)
Joined an intrepid group re-discovering them earlier this year (photos include an image of my own Braid GIANT Niblick):
https://x.com/thelinksdiary/status/1789285045284356253.

Failing that (as it's a SSSI and Natural England are not keen) then YellowCraigs, which was routed by James Braid on land sitting between Archerfield and North Berwick West Links (which expanded onto the extremity of the land concerned)

[Ira Fishman]

Overhills.

[MLevesque]

Ocean Links, Newport, RI

[Marty Bonnar]

James Braid's "Lost Links" on Lindisfarne, nine raw & stunning holes in the most dramatic dunes.
Huge naturalised sand-scrape Bunkers of the scale of "The Himalayas" at St Enodoc.
Variety of green sites including Braid's first back-to-back double green (1907)
Joined an intrepid group re-discovering them earlier this year (photos include an image of my own Braid GIANT Niblick):
https://x.com/thelinksdiary/status/1789285045284356253.

Failing that (as it's a SSSI and Natural England are not keen) then YellowCraigs, which was routed by James Braid on land sitting between Archerfield and North Berwick West Links (which expanded onto the extremity of the land concerned)

Simon,
Is this the 9-hole Fidra Course? If so, do you have strong evidence of Braid involvement? The articles I’ve seen only allude to ‘favourable comment’ by Braid of the site.
Cheers,
M.

[Tim_Weiman]

I like Matt’s choice of the original Sharp Park, but for me it might be Pelham Country Club, the site of the 1923 PGA Championship when Gene Sarazen defeated Walter Hagen. PCC exists today, but it is not the same course due to the construction of the New England Thruway.


That said, the NLE course I would really like to play is the course created by Dr. Edward Fowler in Pelham Manor, NY before the real estate development in the area made the land too valuable and was sold off by Fowler. I grew up in a house built on Fowler Avenue, so it would be a joy to experience what it was like as a golf course.

[Richard Fisher]

Really like Ben's point re Luffenham (and I think the club may still own the land) but for me the top two would be, without a doubt,
The Royal Isle of Wight Golf Club's links at Bembridge and the links of the Merionethshire Golf Club at Fairbourne. Both seaside nine holers, and, in the case of RIoW, of massive historical significance as a club: the Merionethshire was likewise a founding member of the Welsh Union in 1895.
I would also like to see Rhyl in its pre-war 18-hole championship incarnation (currently nine holes, with no working clubhouse).

[Niall C]

James Braid's "Lost Links" on Lindisfarne, nine raw & stunning holes in the most dramatic dunes.
Huge naturalised sand-scrape Bunkers of the scale of "The Himalayas" at St Enodoc.
Variety of green sites including Braid's first back-to-back double green (1907)
Joined an intrepid group re-discovering them earlier this year (photos include an image of my own Braid GIANT Niblick):
https://x.com/thelinksdiary/status/1789285045284356253.

Failing that (as it's a SSSI and Natural England are not keen) then YellowCraigs, which was routed by James Braid on land sitting between Archerfield and North Berwick West Links (which expanded onto the extremity of the land concerned)

Simon,
Is this the 9-hole Fidra Course? If so, do you have strong evidence of Braid involvement? The articles I’ve seen only allude to ‘favourable comment’ by Braid of the site.
Cheers,
M.

FBD


Pretty sure the old Fidra course was located to the south of the Yellowcraig plantation with a routing plan in Kerr's book whereas Braid's planned routing went all around the plantation and as Simon says took in the area of the present 9th green and 10th of the present NB West course. The clubhouse was to be located adjacent to the present 9th tee on the West course but from memory the whole thing got scrapped over water supply, or lack of.


Interestingly there were at least two other routings done for the same ground by what appears to have been two other gca's but unfortunately it's unknown who they were.


Niall 

[Marty Bonnar]

Maybe worth a new thread - if there’s anything of interest to take a look at?
F.

[Jim O’Kane]

I'm still fascinated by that one course a Chicago Advertising mogul built at his estate out in the near NW suburbs of Chicago. Apparently he had a long standing offer of a sack full of money if anyone could break par; and I don't think anyone ever did.

The name escapes me. This would be out near the Deerfield area of Chicagoland I think.

[Niall C]

Interestingly there were at least two other routings done for the same ground by what appears to have been two other gca's but unfortunately it's unknown who they were.

Niall

Actually, let me clarify that. I don't know who they are but someone might.


Niall

[Thomas Dai]

Saunton recreated to its pre-WW2 Herbert Fowler layout.
Atb

[David_Tepper]

While I doubt it was a course of any significance at all, I would like to see the original Hollywood GC in the West End of Long Branch, NJ. In the late 1950's my family moved into a home a couple hundred yards from where the course was located. It was long gone by then.

I would also not mind seeing the 1920's Norwood Country Club (Tillinghast?) in West Long Branch, NJ. Also long gone.   

[zachary_car]

Any of the NLEs on the south shore of Montreal Island: the 36 at Royal Montreal (18 by Colt/Park, 18 by Park); Summerlea (27 holes by WPJ); and Elm Ridge (Tillinghast)

[Stewart Abramson]

I'd like to see the Donald Ross iteration of Fairview CC that was built in Elmsford, NY in 1912. When I was a boy scout we used to camp out on the land that used to be the course. The hole corridors were still there as was the club house. The club website says that the club moved to its new site in Connecticut in 1968, but I seem to recall camping on the old site in 1966 or 67.

[Paul Rudovsky]

I have four...all of which were in Queens NY (where I grew up):


1.  the original Fresh Meadow Country Club which closed (the club moved about 5 miles east into Nassau County).  The original course was replaced by the Fresh Meadows Shopping Center and housing development by Metropolitan Life Insurance Co which purchased the original property right after WW II ended...in order to escape rapidly increasing real estate taxes. The original was designed by Tillinghast and hosted a US Open (in 1932), Metropolitan Open (1938), and PGA Championship (1930).


2.  Pomonock Country Club...designed by Devereux Emmet...club moved there in 1921 and closed 1949.  Hosted PGA Championship in 1939 and Metropolitan Amateur in 1933.


3.  Bayside Links...located in Bayside and designed by Alister Mackenzie and opened around 1930


4.  Hillcrest Golf & CC...which sold its land to St John's University in about 1953...and was where St. John's presently sits between Union Turnpike and The Grand Central Parkway...the house where I grew up up was about 0.5 miles away (although I not take up golf  until 1955)


In the early 1980's I got to know Herbert Warren Wind.  We lived about 3 blocks from one another on Manhattan's East Side, He told me once that when WWII ended, the rush of young GI's returning from overseas  resulted in a huge demand for housing near major cities that drove up land costs thereby gobbling up almost all large tracks of land near major cities.  He said this limited the available plots of land for golf course construction and was for sure a major factor in ending the first "golden age".  Until Sand Hills (NE) opened, no one dared try to build a course in extremely isolated areas.  Dick Youngscap and Sand Hills ended that which opened up the "second golden age."

[Ben Stephens]

Really like Ben's point re Luffenham (and I think the club may still own the land) but for me the top two would be, without a doubt,
The Royal Isle of Wight Golf Club's links at Bembridge and the links of the Merionethshire Golf Club at Fairbourne. Both seaside nine holers, and, in the case of RIoW, of massive historical significance as a club: the Merionethshire was likewise a founding member of the Welsh Union in 1895.
I would also like to see Rhyl in its pre-war 18-hole championship incarnation (currently nine holes, with no working clubhouse).

Hi Richard,


Aren't there some missing holes at Royal St Davids? that would have been an improvement on the current course?


Yes - Luffenham still own '60 acre' field and there is a three copse of trees triangle form wise in the middle of the field that is supposedly the location of the original 10th green.


Cheers
Ben

[Ben Stephens]

Saunton recreated to its pre-WW2 Herbert Fowler layout.
Atb

Im intrigued - any chance you have a map to indicate this layout?

[Richard Fisher]

Hi Ben and yes, there were at Harlech ([size=78%]for a very brief period in the 1920s) some holes in the dunes to the south of the current 16th, but blown sand meant the greens and fairways never took. Nowadays, of course…[/size]
[/size][size=78%]Agree completely re the squeezed middle at Luffenham. But there doesn’t seem much appetite for that sort of upheaval at LHGC right now. There is a plan in the clubhouse showing the old holes.[/size]
[/size][size=78%]At Goswick, similarly, would be fab to get back the ground to the south of he current course, beyond the burn, the loss of which during WW2 contributed to the current unsatisfactory squeezing around the clubhouse (which is now being addressed).[/size]
[/size][size=78%]Conscious though that these are bits of courses, rather than (as at Bembridge or Fairbourne) the whole links…[/size]

[Ben Stephens]

Hi Ben and yes, there were at Harlech ([size=78%]for a very brief period in the 1920s) some holes in the dunes to the south of the current 16th, but blown sand meant the greens and fairways never took. Nowadays, of course…[/size]
[size=78%]Agree completely re the squeezed middle at Luffenham. But there doesn’t seem much appetite for that sort of upheaval at LHGC right now. There is a plan in the clubhouse showing the old holes.[/size]
[size=78%]At Goswick, similarly, would be fab to get back the ground to the south of he current course, beyond the burn, the loss of which during WW2 contributed to the current unsatisfactory squeezing around the clubhouse (which is now being addressed).[/size]
[size=78%]Conscious though that these are bits of courses, rather than (as at Bembridge or Fairbourne) the whole links…[/size]

I live 5 miles from Luffenham and know a few people who are members there plus I play for the Old School team in events there. Also have a copy of the history of Luffenham which also has the 3 missing holes. Play my golf at Rutland Water Golf Club which is just down the road from Luffenham.

[Will Thrasher]

Ocean Links, Newport, RI

+1. This may be coloring outside the lines a little bit, but I'd also like to add some Raynor designed but never but never built:

• The second 18 at Fishers Island
• Olympic Club Lake Side Golf Course
• The second 18 hole course at Yeamans Hall
• E.C. Shotwell Private Course (Enterprise FL) https://x.com/docnni/status/1208932482499956737/photo/1

[Tim Martin]

Ocean Links, Newport, RI

+1. This may be coloring outside the lines a little bit, but I'd also like to add some Raynor designed but never but never built:

• The second 18 at Fishers Island
• Olympic Club Lake Side Golf Course
• The second 18 hole course at Yeamans Hall
• E.C. Shotwell Private Course (Enterprise FL) https://x.com/docnni/status/1208932482499956737/photo/1

Yale’s second 18 which was never built

[Will Thrasher]

Ocean Links, Newport, RI

+1. This may be coloring outside the lines a little bit, but I'd also like to add some Raynor designed but never but never built:

• The second 18 at Fishers Island
• Olympic Club Lake Side Golf Course
• The second 18 hole course at Yeamans Hall
• E.C. Shotwell Private Course (Enterprise FL) https://x.com/docnni/status/1208932482499956737/photo/1

Yale’s second 18 which was never built

Yes, another great one! I know this is likely a pipe dream as Raynor didn't document much, but curious if any of these "designs" are available in enough detail for someone to try to bring to life