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

[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

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

Bret Lawrence may have additional information on the second course. The 36 hole drawing is on display in the hallway leading to Widdy’s restaurant in the clubhouse. I’m sure the permitting issues for the Gil Hanse restoration would be minor as compared to the obstacles encountered to build the second course. Dare to dream!

[Colin Sheehan]

Actually, very little of Yale course 2 remains undeveloped. Much of it became the local neighborhood and Hopkins School.


I agree I would like to have played any NLE Golden Age courses, especially Oakland (Raynor) which is now Queensborough Community College and Bayside relatively close to one another in Queens. My mother grew up in Glendale and later Little Neck in Queens and her phone number once began with the letters BA for Bayside.


I would have loved to play the Greentree course on 17 acres and the original Deepdale course. And the original Gibson Island. And Palm Beach Winter Club looks like it was a gem.


Separately, I would have loved to play the original seven hole course on Blackheath Common. That must have been fun. And I'm sure Addington New would have been terrific.

[Tim Martin]

Actually, very little of Yale course 2 remains undeveloped. Much of it became the local neighborhood and Hopkins School.

Colin-Thanks for the correction.

[Paul Rudovsky]

Since others are "coloring outside the lines", allow me to add another. 


In 1921, The Country Club was offered an opportunity to buy an adjacent estate (somewhere between 78 and 100 acres), and Donald Ross was commissioned to develop plans for a 2nd 18 hole course.  A major "battle" developed between those in favor of and those opposed to the purchase of the estate and building of a second 18.  The final vote of members in April 1922 was 309-108 with the opponents winning.  As a subsequent compromise, the club purchased 55 acres (including 25 acres from the above mentioned estate) and in 1927 retained William Flynn who designed a nine hole course which became known as The Primrose (Flynn also implemented considerable changes to the original "Main" course at that time).


A map of Ross's design still hangs on the wall next to the staircase leading from the pro shop to the Locker Room bar.


More extensive details can be found on pages 170-172 of "The Story of Golf at The Country Club" Second Edition 2023, by John de St. Jorre

[Craig Disher]

Indian Spring CC in Silver Spring, MD. Donald Ross designed the course in the 1920s and it was generally accepted by the best local players as the best course in the DC area. Some financial problems in the 1930s led the owner to sell and the new owner decided to use part of the course for housing. Wm Flynn took what was left, kept a few holes and built new ones to give a full 18. The DC Beltway erased the course in the 1950s although the clubhouse still stands as part of a YMCA center. Ross created detailed drawings and descriptions of each hole, all of which still exist although recreating the unique topography would be difficult.

[David Federman]

There are two in the Philly/S. Jersey area that were favorites of mine:


Blue Heron Pines East was a wonderful, links style Steve Smyers design that hosted the NLE USGA Public Links championship in 2003 won by Brandt Snedeker.  It was sold for senior housing redevelopment years ago, but the land sits idle, with the course still somewhere under the brush.


Eagle Lodge was a fabulous 1983 Rees Jones redo of a existing course. I was able to play the course regularly in the 1980s and early 1990's before it was sold, plowed under, and the Ace Club by Gary Player was built. I understand that the Ace Club (now part of the Union League) will be undergoing major changes. I would vote to plow under the Player course and restore Eagle Lodge!

[Mike Worth]

I vote for Overhills.


I know there was a lengthy thread about Overhills. Some think some sort of public/private partnership between a developer and the Army/Fort Liberty would result in the course being restored as it’s pretty well documented that the playing corridors still exist


I’m an Army retiree and I know this would be a non-starter for many reasons.


I would like to see someone cause or force the Army to sell the land where Overhills is located.  The army has only owned the land since 1997. It’s not like they don’t know how to operate or train the special forces who use it since they were able to do that before 1997.


I spoke with an old friend who was once the 18th Airborne Corps Public Affairs Officer. He told me he took his family out there one afternoon just to look around.
He was stunned by how much remains from the original course. then, he said, Range Control showed up and ran him away from the area.


I stayed at the base hotel last year and tried to drive out there. Unfortunately, all the routes are blocked off - one can’t even visit the area with base access.

[Tommy Williamsen]

I was a member of The Country Club at Woodmore outside DC. It had changed its name from Prince George's Country Club. Earlier, it was named Beaver Dam G&CC. Its location had changed in 1981 when Palmer designed a new course at a new location. I would love to have seen the old course. It had held the Women's Open and was, by all accounts, an excellent golf course. There is some question about the architect. I had always heard Ross but there is some evidence that Flynn might have been involved.

[Richard Fisher]

Inland UK my top trio of courses NLE in their entirety would be Rhayader (9 holes, Dr Mac, in the Welsh Marches), Addington New (as cited above) and, perhaps most of all, Bramshot, described by Henry Longhurst as ‘unquestionably the single greatest golfing casualty of the war’. The brilliant Missing Links website has lots on all of these…

[Robin_Hiseman]

Inland UK my top trio of courses NLE in their entirety would be Rhayader (9 holes, Dr Mac, in the Welsh Marches), Addington New (as cited above) and, perhaps most of all, Bramshot, described by Henry Longhurst as ‘unquestionably the single greatest golfing casualty of the war’. The brilliant Missing Links website has lots on all of these…

Richard


You've saved me writing about Bramshot, which is only a couple of miles from where I live. I've scoured the site for signs of the course and none remain, but the old photos suggest it would be a classy heathland course if it had survived.

[Paul Jones]

Iberia Golf & CC in Louisiana.  It was a little 9 hole course in the middle of New Iberia.  I grew up on the 9th hole and think it would be great to still have the 9 hole course in the middle of the city.


The Bluffs in Louisiana.  When it opened it was the best course in Louisiana and stayed at the top for a long time.

[Ben Stephens]

What about the Australian Golf Club pre Nicklaus changes? was it any good?

[Ian Mackenzie]

Mill Road Farm Golf Club in Chicago's north suburbs.


William Flynn.


https://exhibits.lflbhistory.org/stories/115%20


https://better.net/arts-events/explore/a-golf-storied-estate/

[Peter Bowman]

I'm not familiar with too many courses NLE but one that I have a soft spot for is Diablo Grande Ranch Course near Patterson, CA.  My dad helped construct it around 1995 or so and was the original Super for both courses.  I liked the Ranch Course much better than the Nicklaus "signature" Legends Course.
Luckily someone created the course for simulators on TGC19 and it plays like I remember

[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)

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

In 1923 there were several reports of the James Braid routing, and I think Niall has these & the map of the routing.
But the proposal never came to fruition. So not really a NLE but a NW (Never Was).

According to Alick A Watt's "Golf, Recollections and Reflections" a nine hole course was formed and the club was called the Fidra GC
"During the 1930's the villagers were given the authority to design and lay out a course of their own"
So designer unknown, it may have even been a collective effort of design and maintenance in the old manner.
It closed during WW2, and the land was fenced off.

It was distinct from the Archerfield Course which was on land immediately to the West

For more detail see: https://www.golfsmissinglinks.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=169

Cheers

[Simon Barrington]

A couple more NLE's that would be great to see/play:


Tom Simpson laid out a 9-Hole course at Waddeson Manor for the Rothschilds
https://www.golfsmissinglinks.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=555

and

James Braid's famed course at The Naze (Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex)
https://www.golfsmissinglinks.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=596

Cheers

[Joe Andriole]

The original Machrie - pre Donald Steel. Especially, Mount Zion

[Brian Finn]

I would have enjoyed the original blue course at Bethpage. The current yellow and blue each have several strong holes, but neither truly engages throughout the round. Having grown up on these courses, playing the original routing and design would be a dream.

[Cliff Hamm]

Beavertail in Jamestown, Rhode Island. A Tillinghast design… 15 years ago or so Brad Faxon and Brad Booth were going to resurrect it, but never happenned.


https://jamestownhistoricalsociety.org/americas-most-natural-golf-course/

[Tim Martin]

Beavertail in Jamestown, Rhode Island. A Tillinghast design… 15 years ago or so Brad Faxon and Brad Booth were going to resurrect it, but never happenned.


https://jamestownhistoricalsociety.org/americas-most-natural-golf-course/

It would have been the same outcome if Faxon got involved. Think Metacomet.

[Cliff Hamm]

I fear u r correct…I always thought highly of Faxon and now I think very little of him.  He sold his soul..

[Paul Jones]

What about the original Sutton Bay?  I played the original, but have not played the current iteration.  Is the new version on higher land better or worse?  I enjoyed the original which NLE.

[david h. carroll]

Banks' Annapolis Roads all 36.

[Mike Hendren]

Okeena Golf Course in Dyersburg, TN where my father learned the game.

[Jason_Bernardon]

I've always wondered about the lost 9 holes at Uplands Golf & Country Club, A Stanley Thompson just north of Toronto, Ontario.  I grew up playing the 9 holes that remained, never knowing about the 18 hole history until many years later.  There is a VHS out there somewhere that was apparently played at the closing. (if you have copy let me know!)  I'm sure getting some time with Uplands' most famous member Lorne Rubenstein would help to fill in the gap.