It wasn't St. Andrews that had the most influence!

[Mark_Fine]

It was Old Tom Morris and “what he did” to The Old Course at St. Andrews that had the greatest influence on golf and golf course architecture!  

Many people think the St. Andrews was completely natural and never changed.  This is not at all true.  In fact, golfers who played the course in the 1860’s claim they could hardly recognize the course by the late 1890’s after all the changes made by Old Tom.  It was all these changes to the course by Old Tom that had the greatest influence on golf course architecture and the designers who would follow him.  

It was Old Tom who cleared the whin and gorse at St. Andrews and created a variety of playing angles and options.  These changes helped make the original course, which was nearly unplayable for the weaker golfer, more fun and strategic for everyone.  

It was Old Tom who believed in the concept of width to create strategy rather than the typical long narrow avenues between tee and green.  He believed that a wider, more expansive playing area could give golfers alternate routes to attack the hole.  This was the first real introduction of strategy into the design and alteration of golf holes.  

It was Old Tom who first decided putting greens should be brought up to a higher standard.  He even rolled his greens to smooth them out.  

It was Old Tom who realized throwing sand on greens could be good for the grass.

It was Old Tom who started moving his tees away from his greens to protect them from golfers teeing their ball too close to them and tearing up the ground.

It was Old Tom who added multiple teeing grounds to accommodate different playing abilities and the changes in equipment e.g. the ball.

It was Old Tom who decided golf courses that lacked natural features could have artificial ones added.  

It was Old Tom who loved plateau greensites.  Most don’t realize the 18th green at St. Andrews for example is not natural at all.  It was built by Old Tom and the Valley of Sin is the depression that was left from where they got the dirt to build it.

It was Old Tom who realized golfers might be tiring of too many blind shots and he designed the New Course at St. Andrews with only one blind hole.  

It was Old Tom who first built courses then came back after they had been played for a while to add new hazards.

It was Old Tom who inspired, tutored, influenced,…the  likes of Colt, Ross, Tillinghast, MacDonald, Mackenzie, Foulis, White,……on and on.

St. Andrews may have been the course that set the standard for design, but it was Old Tom that set many of the design standards for the Golden Age and still used today.

Just my opinion,
Mark

[T_MacWood]

Mark
Where did you come up with your information?

[Mark_Fine]

Tom,
Is there anything there that you would disagree with?
Mark

[Sr Fortson]

Mark,
  A very nice post and I couldn't agree with you more.  Over the years I have heard or read just about all of your observations on Old Tom's influence on TOC. So, he certainly deserves much of the credit.  Of course, he had a pretty good site to work with.

[Norbert P]

 Mark, exellent post and one that'll I'll ponder all weekend and probably further.    

[T_MacWood]

1. It was Old Tom Morris and "what he did" to The Old Course at St. Andrews that had the greatest influence on golf and golf course architecture!   Alan Robertson had an equal if not greater influence - the greens.

2. Many people think the St. Andrews was completely natural and never changed. This is not at all true. In fact, golfers who played the course in the 1860's claim they could hardly recognize the course by the late 1890's after all the changes made by Old Tom. It was all these changes to the course by Old Tom that had the greatest influence on golf course architecture and the designers who would follow him. Most of the golf course is natural.

3. It was Old Tom who cleared the whin and gorse at St. Andrews and created a variety of playing angles and options. These changes helped make the original course, which was nearly unplayable for the weaker golfer, more fun and strategic for everyone. The course was widened during Morris's era, but much of the whin and gorse died from natural causes. Bunkers were added to replace the lost whins.

4. It was Old Tom who believed in the concept of width to create strategy rather than the typical long narrow avenues between tee and green. He believed that a wider, more expansive playing area could give golfers alternate routes to attack the hole. This was the first real introduction of strategy into the design and alteration of golf holes.   Old Tom stated that he was proponent of width?

5. It was Old Tom who first decided putting greens should be brought up to a higher standard. He even rolled his greens to smooth them out. The greens of St. Andrews were 'flattened' during the Robertson era almost 200 years ago. Those wild greens are pre-Morris.

6. It was Old Tom who realized throwing sand on greens could be good for the grass. Was he the first?

7. It was Old Tom who started moving his tees away from his greens to protect them from golfers teeing their ball too close to them and tearing up the ground. Was he the first?

8. It was Old Tom who added multiple teeing grounds to accommodate different playing abilities and the changes in equipment e.g. the ball. Are you certain?

9. It was Old Tom who decided golf courses that lacked natural features could have artificial ones added. Who says? Robertson greens pre-date Old Tom.

10. It was Old Tom who loved plateau greensites. Most don't realize the 18th green at St. Andrews for example is not natural at all. It was built by Old Tom and the Valley of Sin is the depression that was left from where they got the dirt to build it. Are you certain?

11. It was Old Tom who realized golfers might be tiring of too many blind shots and he designed the New Course at St. Andrews with only one blind hole. The New course was completely overhauled by Colt. When did Morris comment on blind shots?  

12. It was Old Tom who first built courses then came back after they had been played for a while to add new hazards. Are you certain?  What course?

13. It was Old Tom who inspired, tutored, influenced,…the likes of Colt, Ross, Tillinghast, MacDonald, Mackenzie, Foulis, White,……on and on. Who did he tutor? Morris was a beloved character, but my impression, his influence on these men was not architectural....unless it was what not to do.

[Mark_Fine]

Tom,
There are some real good books out there that are worth studying if you really want to delve into this further.  I'd recommend The Book of St. Andrews Links, by Bennett, The Golf Courses of Old Tom Morris, by Kroeger, The Life of Tom Morris, by Tulloch, The Badminton Library, Golf, by Hutchinson to name just a few.

In some of the issues of Golf magazine in the early 1890's, Morris wrote articles outlining his design principles, etc.  All very interesting stuff.

Finally, it sure helps to have played/visited many of his courses as some of the clubs have information you can pick up/copy and or read while you are there.  

No need to get into a point by point debate about who did what but as Mr. Fortson echoed, all that information I stated is out there in various places if you want to look for it.  

One thing I will say is that I'm not sure Robertson did as much as you say he did to the Old Course.  Remember he died in 1859 and many of the major changes to the course took place over the next 40 years while Old Tom was there.  J. Gordon McPherson in "Golf and Golfers" (1891), compared the Old Course in the 1860's to what is was like in 1890 and there according to him, there was no comparison.   Old Tom really made a lot of changes.  

Mark

[T_MacWood]

Mark
An interesting theory, but what good is your theory if you are not able (or willing) to back up your individual points?

Instead of asking you to elaborate of all 13 (an overwhelming prospect), lets just focus on a couple related to architecture and Morris's influence.

Colt, MacKenzie, Tillinghast, Macdonald and even Ross wrote extensively about the subject of golf architecture (and their influences)...did they ever mention Old Tom as an architectural influence (or ever mention Old Tom and architecture together) ?

I find it odd that none of Morris's design principals have ever been outlined in any books or magazines in the last 100 years. Have you read the articles that Old Tom wrote on golf architecture...what are some of his principals?

My understanding of St. Andrews -- the R & A had a Green Committee that recommended changes. For example Hutchinson wrote about Sutherland's Bunker being filled in under orders of the Green committee, "....but in the dead of the night, men who resented the meddling with a traditional feature stole out, full of enthusiasm and claret from Strathyrum House, then in the tenancy of Mr. John Blackwood, editor of the "Old Ebony" Magazine, and undid with spades all the work of the committee, so that on the morrow it appeared as if a miracle has been wrought."

[T_MacWood]

I believe that 'Family Tree' was in Sports Illustrated.

Douglas Rolland was a pro and evidently boyhood idle of Colt. The story goes that Colt envited Rolland to assist him at Rye. To make him the father of so-called family tree seems to be a stretch to say the least.

It was interesting excercize, but I don't think it was that useful in identify who influenced who..perhaps with the exception of the Dye and Fazio trees. Tillinghast's tree had one branch and it wasn't Burbeck.

[Mike_DeVries]

The "splitting of hairs" is important in endeavors of research, because one false premise ultimately leads to other inaccurate information, which upon repetition can unknowingly become "fact."  I think Tom MacWood is raising some very valid points with regard to this and it would be important to the clarification of the golf architecture family tree.

Sounds like a grand project for someone to take on!

Mark, I like the idea of Old Tom's influence, especially when you look at the great courses he designed or modified.  I don't know that he directly influenced individuals with regard to golf architecture, but his teaching of the game to many of the great architects certainly involved his philosophy on how the game is played and that would directly affect how one views the design of a hole.  So, maybe he "The Father of Golf Architecture"?!?!?

[TEPaul]

If one is to believe Cornish & Whitten and other corroborating writing it certainly was Allan Robertson who was given the responsibility of widening out the narrow fairways of TOC around the time of 1848-1850 and possibly the greens too allowing for double pinning them instead of the single pins where golfers going out and coming in had to alternate and wait on each other to hole out on the greens (the 1858 St. Andrews rules still explained the etiquette of different groups approaching the greens at the same time).

Robertson is considered by C&W to be perhaps the first golf designer ever even specifying that the 17th green and the road hole bunker may have been the first dedicated man-made architecture---not bad at all frankly for old AllanR's first crack at man-made architecture which, again, apparently happened to be man's first crack at man-made architecture.

Robertson was also Old Tom's boss and actually fired Old Tom for playing a gutta percha ball (Robertson had apparently virtually cornered the market in making "Featheries"). Old Tom was dismissed from TOC in 1852 and apparently didn't return until 1865 after Robertson had died.

According to C&W and other old written material Robertson's widening of the rather narrow fairway corridors of TOC (actually melding them together into near 100 yds wide) is when golf first went from basically a game of somewhat penal elements to the highly strategic style of the super wide fairways that TOC has always been known for.

Cornish and Whitten and others sometimes either say or at least imply that Old Tom, although his influence on early golf is unquestioned, might not have been much of an architect when viewed in the context of what some of us think about architecture, certainly including some of the fine architecture beginning in the last decade of the 19th century and carrying through the so-called "Golden Age".

But if someone is looking for the man who may have had the greatest INITIAL influence on man-made architecture there seems to be ton of evidence from those of that early time that the nod should probably go to Willie Park Jr for his remarkable feat of Sunningdale Old!

But there certainly is little question that for most of the best architects of that early time and into the 20th century the architectural laboratory was TOC!

The thing I find so ironic is even being that admitted architectural laboratory the imitation of it was so much more one of very loose principle only, than in fact. But if you ask me one needn't look much further than the shape of the site of TOC to understand the primary reason that was so!

[Forrest Richardson]

Mark,

I do not believe there is any more influencial course to golf architecture than The Old Course. It was indeed a testing ground for all sorts of things — and still is regarded as THE golf course.

It may well have been the great scholars of St. Andrews University who — well before Old Tom and Alan Robertson — spent time tinkering and experimenting with the course who deserve the most credit. Morris and Robertson came along about the time that record keeping and newspapers were popularized and they serve as the poster children. But I agree with those who say the course is the real hero, for it was (and is) TOC that stands for so much we hold in the past as being still good today.

[Mark_Fine]

I am by no means saying that The Old Course does not deserve credit.  Surely it is "The" course as Forrest states.  I am just suggesting that is was many of the changes in the design led by Morris (that other architects found when they played and studied the course) that influenced the standards for design.  

C&W’s book does not go into great depth about Robertson or Morris.  There are more complete references out there and I have listed a few on Morris.  I realize it is difficult to get all those books, etc. but if you could get your hands on a copy of even just Kroeger’s book, you will learn quite a bit.  

From the research I have done, I am convinced that Morris is the one who widened the fairways, etc. at St. Andrews and not Robertson.  When Morris came back to St. Andrews in 1965 (by the way he and Robertson buried the axe in 1952), Morris was given almost unconditional reign over the Old Course and that is when the real changes started to happen.  

Furthermore it took 15-20 years (an ongoing process) to clear much of the whins and gorse and widen the fairways.  This was done primarily between 1865-1885.  Remember even in 1860 there were very few golfers who played the course.  There are some good pictures in the book “A Year at St. Andrews” for example.  

In the book “Reminiscences of Golf on St. Andrews Links”, Balfour wrote about Morris’ alterations to the 6th hole, “It used to be one of the most dangerous on the Links, but two or three large and important bunkers have been filled up to make a double course.  This reduces the number of hazards materially, and the whins have so much disappeared that it is safe to go round the bunkers, playing well to the right, instead of being compelled to play over them."  

This sounds like increased strategy and options to me!

In 1857, two years before he died, Robertson changed the custom of one hole per green to two (but the greens were still small).  It was Morris who later on enlarged the greens to accommodate play in both directions.  The book Bygone Days of the Old Course is another good one that cites many more of Morris’ changes.    

Mark

[ForkaB]

Great thread, Mark.  So far I think you are well ahead on points in your battle with the two Toms.

Shivas, et. al.

Douglas Rolland (from Earlsferry in Fife) was one of the very top players in the late 19th century, and was James Braid's uncle and early mentor.  I don't know about Colt, but he sure had a lot of "paternal" influence on the history of GCA through (the still too much unsung) Braid.

[TEPaul]

"There's all sorts of interesting stuff in this lineage chart.  The most impressive family trees, in terms of direct lineage and influence, belong to Allan Robertson (33 architects trace directly back to Allan Robertson) and Stanley Thompson (29 architects trace directly back to Thompson).  Others include:  23 that trace back to Robert Bruce Harris, 23 to Pete Dye, 20 to Harry Colt,"

Tom MacW:

Man, those are some pretty damn exact family trees. I knew a lot of architects influenced one another in some ways but I never knew so many of them had sex with each other to create family trees that precise!

[T_MacWood]

A great deal of the whins and gorse were lost during the Morris era, but he didn't remove them. Overplay killed much of it over a period of years. (It was free to play St. Andrews and the games popularity exploded about this time). In 1880 the sides of the course was bordered by whins.

The course played comparatively easy in the late 90's and early 00's. JH Taylor won with a score of 309 in 1900 with a gutty. In 1904-05 there were a large number of bunkers cut to replace the lost whins. A very contraversial move I might add, it brought about a fire storm criticism. In 1905 Braid won with a score of 318 with a rubber ball.

Mark
I'd be very interested in what Morris wrote about golf architecture in those articles from the 1890's...what were some of his theories?

[Mark_Fine]

Tom,
I’m not sure gorse and whins get wore away by golfers or lots of play?  I don’t know about you, but my experience with the stuff is if you hit your ball into it, you don’t go in after it, your caddy surely won't  .  Part of the reason Morris took much of it out was because of the loss of golf balls and to accommodate more play on the course.  Gorse also grows and grows.  

I agree with you much of what Morris did was controversial.  Many claimed he made the course much easier which he definitely did.

Morris wrote a letter to the editor of Golf magazine in the early 1890’s.  It was in response to a gentleman’s question of how to lay out a links and form a golf club.  Here are portions of that letter:

•   As to the length and breath of links.  If you have so many miles of ground, you can put holes down at say from 100 to 550 yards varying them accordingly.  The breadth may be from 50 to 100 yards.  
•   If the putting-greens had to be laid out it would require 5 pounds for each green.  If the course had to be cleared of gorse bushes or whins, it would likely cost about 200 pounds.
•   The best way to form a club would be to get as many of your friends together as possible and form a club; then advertise that such a club has been instituted.  
•   There is no necessity to have trees on a golf course; large sand-pits dug in the course, called bunkers, or a whin or two to serve as a hazard to all players.  

My earlier posts cover many of the things Morris advocated and/or did and some of his theories.  
Mark

[T_MacWood]

Mark
If that is Old Tom's treatise on architecture, there is good reason why his thoughts were never reprinted. And why Colt, Macdonald, MacKenzie, etc. never mentioned Morris as a positive influence upon the art.

Who claims Morris actively removed the whins?

[Mark_Fine]

Tom,
That was just one brief letter he wrote.  How many more authors/books, etc. do you want me to tell you about?  I must have listed five or six at least and several others have said they have found and/or studied the same about Morris.
Mark

[Forrest Richardson]

Tom...Mark...I ran into the same "grey area" (appropriate for Grey Town) when I undertook research for Chapter 2 of Routing the Golf Course. Here is how I described these mens' contributions:

"Prior to 1832, when two holes were placed on each green, the breadth of fairways was unchanged from their rough form as mere pathways to and from each individual hole. The holes were still named individually, even though each green now sported two actual holes.

Sir Hugh Playfair of St. Andrews is credited with reclaiming land torn away by the forces of the sea, specifically land along the once narrow fairway for Holes No. 1 and 18. Playfair allegedly sank old boats to shore up the coastline, eventually regaining enough land so that play could expand beyond the single-width fairway that formed a pathway for these two holes. His efforts were just part of the groundwork for one of St. Andrews’ greatest features, the defining of fairways for each of the 18 golf holes that are now in play.

Old Tom Morris and Allan Robertson were the first to undertake serious clearing of the links to widen what originally amounted to pathways connecting the greens. This development spawned the glorious fields that span out before golfers at each hole. These expansive areas, flanked by roughs and bushes, revealed the undulations and subtle ridges that are now such an integral part of The Old Course. Many have attempted to duplicate their grandeur and intricacy, but there is no equal substitute for the originals.

This improvement to the Links proved highly significant to golf course routing, as it marked the first recorded design of golf holes where alternative routes to the target were encouraged. When the areas of the holes were widened, the interspersed bunkers and contour changes created multiple choices for negotiating each individual hole."

Perhaps Playfair deserves some of the credit as well.

[TEPaul]

Cornish reports in his book "Eighteen Stakes on a Sunday Afternoon";

"Around 1837, a decade or more before the gutta percha golf ball replaced the earlier feather ball, the first true example of golf course architecture was seen in Scotland. There, Sir Andrew Playfair, provost of St Andrews, induced Allan Robertson, clubmaker, professional and the greatest golfer of his day, to upgrade the Old Course. Robertson complied by widening the fairways, enlarging several of the greens into the double monsters we know today, and creating a new green on the Road Hole--the first planned by man."

According to Cornish when Morris returned to St Andrews in 1865 he continued the expansion of the greens and built the 18th hole.

C.B Macdonald reported;

"From what I can gather, it was about 1857 that two holes as widely separated as space permitted, were cut in each putting green." Robertson, of course, was at St Andrews until he died in 1859.

I can't find it at the moment but recently I read the mention that St Andrews raised 25 pounds for the purpose of widening the golf course which was carried out by Robertson and at this point the width oriented "strategic" idea of golf came into being.

Mark:

Old Tom Morris was a most significant man in many ways in early golf but I really doubt anyone should try to give him the kind of blanket credit for the architecture of TOC you did in your initial post. As famous as he was in many things to do with early golf at TOC if he really was responsible for all you just gave him credit for architecturally at TOC I'm sure that would've been more than known for many years. From all accounts going way back TOC was far more evolutionary and the man-made architecture of it appears to have clearly begun with Robertson and those there during his earlier tenure.

[Forrest Richardson]

"St. Andrews Golf Links – The First 600 Years" by Tom Jarrett sheds the best light on Mark's position.

"Tom Morris was keeper of the green at Prestwick at this time [doubling of the greens], so he could have no part in the origins of the double green. He was, however, closely involved in the subsequent development of the Old Course — widening the fairways and strategic planning of the new lay-out."

and...

"When Tom Morris returned to St. Andrews and took over as curator of the links, he found Playfair's land reclamation opened up the course for the formation of a new green on the west side of the Swilcan Burn, which golfers know today as the first green."

and...

"With the introduction of the new green just to the west of the Swilcan, golfers realised that it was possible to play the course either on the original left-hand circuit or on a right-hand circuit..."

Again, Playfair may deserve much of the credit for it was his land creation which ultimatelty allowed the course to widen. And, let's also not forget the ball. It was beginning to travel further...and further means also more adrift left/right...which would account for a necessity to widen and marry both in and out holes at some congested locales.

[T_MacWood]

From what I understand there were two clearings one deliberate, the other not.

Originally there was a single path going out and coming home....which eventually resulted in conflict. The course was widened at some point to created a seperate paths out and back -- lessening the conflict and also spreading out the wear and tear. The widened course was still bordered by the whins. The loss of the wins occured in the latter part of the 19th C. from the increased play.

According to HG Hutchinson the greens were "flatened" in the first half of the 19th C. He described them as dome like and very difficult targets. That occured during Robertson reign. The greens were thought to be totally natural and HGH claimed this event was proof that artificial features could be made to emulate Mother Nature.

[Paul_Turner]

I don't know mcuh about Old Tom and TOC.  But I do know that very little remains of Old Tom's work on other famous links like Royal County Down, Muirfield...  So how good was he?  

The Old Tom version of RCD was the epitome of blindness.  So I find it doubtful that he was a pioneer of removing blind holes.

[Forrest Richardson]

Tom,

- - -

"The course was widened at some point to created a seperate paths out and back -- lessening the conflict and also spreading out the wear and tear..."

Yes, but first there was the simple act of placing two holes on a single green.

- - -

"The widened course was still bordered by the whins. The loss of the wins occured in the latter part of the 19th C. from the increased play."

Yes, but mostly due to the decision to create large double greens where there had been only one single (smaller) previously.