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Lester_Bernham

Desmond Muirhead
« on: May 08, 2003, 12:38:33 PM »
From this months TLgolf :

Eccentric Genius
Desmond Muirhead was an underappreciated intellect who deserves a memorial of his own.

by Curt Sampson  
The story goes, someone in New Jersey with cash, land and a golf-course dream phoned Desmond Muirhead with a request to come look at the project. When the white-haired, white-bearded architect arrived at his potential client's office, looking as always like the English aristocrat who owned the place, he was not pleased to be asked to wait in line with the other suitors. Muirhead didn't do queues, and he didn't think much of his peers and competitors. At last he was shown into the conference room. "You'll sit here, Mr. Muirhead," he was told, "and these ten men will interview you regarding your qualifications and ideas."

"No," Muirhead said. "I'll stand. And I'll ask the questions."

A week or two later, the guys from New Jersey offered him the job. All his conditions having been met, he turned them down.

Friends recalling this anecdote last fall at Muirhead's memorial service also noted that when he told or heard a story about his naughty ways, he would tilt back his head and boom out his operatic laugh: AH-HA-HA-HA! A bit like Sparafucile in Rigoletto, he might say. Which hints at another of his trademarks, a frequent use of allusions that buzzed like jets right over your head. I recall once being particularly dumbfounded when he brought both Ludwig Wittgenstein and Immanuel Kant into a conversation that I had thought was about par threes.

I have often wondered what Jack Nicklaus did when Muirhead worked opera or existentialism into their discussions of routing plans or bunker placement. They were partners for three years in the early '70s, a collaboration that produced several good courses and one great one: Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, home of this month's Memorial Tournament and the first- or second-most popular course among players on Tour. Their pairing was eerily like that of Bobby Jones and Alister MacKenzie, whose masterpiece was Augusta National. But how did straightforward Jack, who stopped short of his degree in pre-pharmacy at Ohio State, deal with the unpredictable erudition of the classically educated Muirhead? Who did the heavy lifting? Why did they split?

Muirhead didn't talk about this collaboration much. Although he resented not receiving his share of credit for Muirfield Village, he hated to appear resentful. But clearly there had been tension throughout their time together. Muirhead saw his partner as a superb critic of a golf hole, but he regarded Jack's inability to draw as a shocking limitation for a designer. Nicklaus thought far more deeply than Jones about golf's playing field, but at Muirfield Village, as at Augusta National, the real architect did the bulk of design and the great golfer added insight and refinement. In the end, however, their egos and intellects were not complementary. They split without a specific spat, both said, but Muirhead got the worst of it. The end of his partnership with Jack soured him on the business so thoroughly that he dropped out, bought an art gallery and didn't return to golf-course architecture for nearly a dozen years.

We met in 1990, when I was working on a magazine piece about Nicklaus. Jack had responded to all my questions politely and briefly, but Muirhead quite obviously decided to cultivate me. He needed publicity for his return to golf design and, boy, was he easy to write about and a joy to quote. "Jack has the memory of an elephant and the legs of a Percheron," he said, by way of explaining Nicklaus's strengths as a designer and a player. And then there was the work Muirhead was doing, which was unlike anything ever seen before: His holes depicted reclining nudes, dragons, a guitar (in Spain), a giant fan (in Japan), Greek myths (in New Jersey) and a sea battle (in South Korea). Themes and symbolism in course design offended traditionalists; the critics loved to hate the new Muirhead. "His courses look like they were made to be played from a helicopter" became the standard dismissal. Architecture writer Ron Whitten built a speech and a slide show called "Archi-torture" that featured some of Muirhead's infamous holes.

On a commercial level, however, the modern Muirhead succeeded brilliantly. Energized equally by success, criticism and vitamin C, he traveled around the world a couple of times a year, visiting his courses and charming potential clients. Sometimes he'd stop in Texas to stay for a day or two with me. Once we went to the Dallas Museum of Art for a Momoyama exhibition, which Muirhead knew reflected the golden age of Japanese art and I thought was something that might go with wasabi. At the Kimball Museum in Fort Worth, he spoke so knowledgeably and audibly about Manet and Monet that four or five Impressionism fans joined us, hanging on every word.

He sure could turn a phrase. "Golf is an invention, not, as some would have it, a divine gift," he wrote in his book St. Andrews: How to Play the Old Course. "While we may celebrate the pleasure it brings us, it's best to remember that we are singing of ourselves when we do so." He gave me words to live by. "Write honestly," Muirhead said. "Golf has enough press agents." He was working on a book of aphorisms when he died. In addition to Muirfield Village, he left behind fine courses at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California; Bent Tree Country Club in Dallas; and La Moraleja in Spain, where in 1977 Bing Crosby, age seventy-three, dropped dead of a heart attack moments after finishing a round of eighty-five.


The speakers at Muirhead's memorial service sketched his life: from Cambridge University to the RAF to the design of classic, and then avant-garde, golf courses. "Desmond played his outsider's role to the hilt, so he doesn't have the reputation as a golf-course architect and a land planner he deserves," said John Strawn, CEO of Robert Trent Jones II Golf Course Architects. "His competitors feared and mocked him and then adapted many of his innovations. He was a contradiction: a gregarious loner, brave and insecure. . . . He was a big ship and he left a large wake."
When I later reached Nicklaus at his home in Florida, he concurred: "Desmond greatly influenced my career. He was a brilliant man and a visionary."

Each May at the Memorial a different golf personage is honored. After twenty-seven years of this, they've gone through the usual suspects, from Hogan to Hagen to Babe Zaharias. One of these Mays, perhaps they could pause to remember the man who helped build the place.


AN ELEVATED DIALOGUE

One of the most eloquent of course designers, Desmond Muirhead was truly high-minded: He liked to build holes that ran downhill, loved elevated tees and had a compelling reason for his preference. He wanted to make golfers feel strong.

"The American male has had his personal sense of power eroded since World War II," he once told a reporter. "I use elevated tees, I suppose, to give him back some of his rightful power on the course. Even a slight rise increases your potential energy tremendously. All increases in height are symbols of power."

Muirhead could get quite gassy on the subject, calling his downhill holes an antidote to everything from foreign cars to women's lib to the national debt. But his passion was real. One day, when we were at Lakewood Country Club in Dallas, he kept having me pull benches to the backs of the tees. We'd stand on a bench and look down and he would say, "See? It's a better hole."
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

mike_beene

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2003, 06:53:43 PM »
I wonder if Muirhead and Nicklaus look so hard for downhill holes because RTJ loved uphill so much.Is it just my perception or did RTJ overdo uphill?Muirhead must have been an interesting man.Bent Tree in Dallas has some very good holes.I don't think I have played any others he did.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

Tommy_Naccarato

Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #2 on: May 08, 2003, 08:52:09 PM »
Probably one of the best most accurate writings on Desmond Muirhead ever. If Ron Whitten is reading this, I always felt that your sotry in Golf Digest a few years back was great too, although I think you, I and many others do know that Desmond was not very fond of it.

Desmond Muirhead had a keen acerbic wit that, in quite honesty was pretty well-timed for the paticular moment that was at hand. I think he would find it hilarious that Curt wrote this as if he was at Desmond's memorial--the fact is, I don't remember him being there, but Curt has grapsed the events of that day quite well:) (I'm assuming that Curt got most of his information off of the video tape that was recorded of the event, which was a warm, windy and beautiful day on the back bay of Newport, at Desmond's home. Never had I ever seen Desmond's house so clean and emmaculate, one could have eaten off of the floors, and that alone is reason enough to know that Desmond would have been irate knowing it was that way!  He loved clutter! So much in fact, when his daughter Romy was cleaning off some shelves one day, shortly before I arrived to help out, she happened upon a check payable to Desmond for like $5,000 that he had never cashed!)

Almost all of the reasons why Desmond and Jack's falling out are listed quite eloquently.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

Forrest Richardson

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #3 on: May 08, 2003, 09:49:32 PM »
Curt's writing, as Tommy N. aptly points out, captured the memorial very well, indeed.

I would not agree completely, however, that it was the falling out with Jack Nicklaus that caused Desmond to retreat into the world of fine art for a few years. He was affected by the falling out, but in the end it was just a part of him. he didn't really care, except that the credit was a nagging thing. Rather, it was simply business in gerenal that caused him to drop out -- the scores of employee problems and developers with little vision and, yes, probably a few golf pros, too. But mostly I recalled Desmond speaking of the tremendous frustrations of keeping a business alive in the turbulent seas of his creativity. Simply put: it is difficult to do both; i.e., be highly creative and death-defying while still catering to the namby-pamby wishes of the "me-too" gangs in their MBA costumes and armies of consultants, each waiting to kill ideas and ban daring acts from ever seeing the light of day.

Curt's writing is excellent, nonetheless. And I miss Desmond more than every once in a while.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »
— Forrest Richardson, Golf Course Architect/ASGCA
    www.golfgroupltd.com
    www.golframes.com

Norbert P

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #4 on: May 09, 2003, 09:14:46 AM »
  Great read and great subject.

 (I've never played a Desmond Muirhead course; only seen pictures of his most symbolic creations.  Sort of like listening to a 'Best Of' album when it probably isn't even the best - only most controversial or photographic.)

 Anyway, there's got a be a great lesson DM gave us with the struggle between unique vision and appeasing the wishes of the oft numbed golfer/owner mentality.  Does anybody know why he chose golf courses as his medium?

 I am not in his corner on his scale of value, in that he placed higher regard on manipulated shapes than he did in naturalness, but I do appreciate his infusement of his personal visions.   He definitely thought outside the normal box and set an example of defiance.  Saaaalute.


« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »
"Golf is only meant to be a small part of one’s life, centering around health, relaxation and having fun with friends/family." R"C"M

RJ_Daley

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #5 on: May 09, 2003, 10:39:31 AM »
I feel it is always a mark of distinction when diverse people come forth upon an individual's passing to speak or write about them in an eloquent manner.  Surely, Tommy, Forrest, and Sampson are people from varied backrounds, but they couldn't have been more eloquent in their rememberances and tributes to DM.  

I think that DM has left us with enough of his life's "clutter" to continue an entertaining discussion for a long time, and the legend shall grow...
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »
No actual golf rounds were ruined or delayed, nor golf rules broken, in the taking of any photographs that may be displayed by the above forum user.

Tommy_Naccarato

Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #6 on: May 09, 2003, 11:12:23 AM »
Great points Forrest. He was in fact VERY dienchanted with everything about develpoment as a whole. There are times I feel that his travels abroad to the land of Oz, during and after his art gallery owner-period, somewhat somewhat soothed him by allowing to prove to himself of his artistic ability of land planning, or in this case, actual "city" planning. He did certainly come back to America recharged. (although talking to Ella--his "Girl Friday", she'll tell you that he realy never left. He just spent a lot of time over there.)

Very well worded Dick. While many of us would never profess any great worth on his golf designs, I can say for fct that I have seen his regular golf architecture work and while it still is far and away from my favorite works, the man had ideas that simply worked in strategy and playability, yet, provoked interesting qualities that were reminescent of the Old Course and other great passions.

Adam Clayman will tell you of my spite after seeing how much had changed at Quail Ranch, a Desmond original stuck in the middle of nowhere between Moreno Valley and San Jacinto. In its heyday, it was a fun and challenging golf course that would get the best of you each and everytime, and it made you want to go all the way back out there to play it again, so you could get your proverbial arse handed to you again and again. I don't think there was a hole in golf that has been more threatening to me off of the first tee of the original front nine (the nines have been switched) I literally pushed it right there everytime! In fact, I don't think I have hit it inbounds there more then two or three times I have played the course out of twenty!) The green complexes themselves were out of a page of the Old Course-literally. Desmond wnet with huge ridges in the middle of greens, slanting to the proverbial, "Mt. Tit" which was off across the valley in the distance. Even the green of the 12th at St. Andrews was recreated at Quail Ranch's 10th, only to be removed some years later by a superintendent that didn't know how to mow it. (this is fact.)

Suddenly realizing that I have strayed completely away from the point, I will go on further to say that knowing the man was an honor, and one of the hi-lights of my life. In the last part of 2001, Desmond was going to do a GCA monthly interview. He actually agreed to do it. We had the questions all typed out, and they were really solid questions that in better times, I think he would have more then answered, not only candidly, but honestly. Now knowing what was going on at that paticular time, it is understandable why he back-out of it after being presented with the questions at hand. He had a lot of stuff going on, and may have even known something was physically wrong with himself at the time. In typical Desmond Muirhead fashion--even his closest family aren't sure if he knew or didn't know he was gravely ill, and it probably best left there.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

Forrest Richardson

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #7 on: May 09, 2003, 01:21:31 PM »
Well, Tommy, we may get our chance at an interview. As you know, I interviewed Desmond for my routing book and have that conversation (about 4 hours) on audio CD. Some bits are rather personal, so I've only copied the CD for Romy, Desmond's daughter. But, I'm sure Romy would allow an edited version focusing on GCA to be published here.

Secondly, about Quail Ranch: One of my fondest memories was playing there in the early 1980s and coming to a par-5 at which the tee shot hits across a canyon to a dog-leg right fairway. The tees were well lower than the fairway and it perplexed me a great deal why on earth anyone would have designed it this way -- no visibility. After inquiring to Desmond he made note that the famous San Andreas Fault runs directly through the site and it was after original construction that Mother Nature decided Desmond's design needed work. I cannot recall his exact response, but it went something like this:

"[Great laughing and "ahhaa, ahhaa's"]  You see, one thing you'll learn is that a golf course is not designed, it merely occupies some space. These so-called 'land planners' are really land designers. We use the land temporarily -- and that's a fact. I'm afraid I was not successful in being able to avert the earthquake that changed the hole -- by the way, how is the new hole? [my response: 'Sort of weird'] -- [More great laughing and "ahhaa, ahhaa's"] "Well, I can live with weird. Anything good and interesting and I'll take tremendous credit for it. You see, I can live with having nature redesign my work. And I can tell you for one that nature is infinitely more talented than [insert any number of last names] and having him and his so-called armada of designers come in and inflict harm on what was once a damn good design. You know, that happens, don't you? I mean these people who call themselves golf architects are really businessmen. They can no more plan and design than your very young daughter -- in fact, I'll bet she can do a hell-ava lot better job than [insert name from above]!"
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »
— Forrest Richardson, Golf Course Architect/ASGCA
    www.golfgroupltd.com
    www.golframes.com

Tommy_Naccarato

Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #8 on: May 09, 2003, 02:05:19 PM »
That hole is one of my favorite on the course! I know it well!

You were supposed to give me a copy of that CD remember!
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

Slag_Bagger

Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #9 on: May 09, 2003, 02:29:30 PM »
Forrest, I am grinning from ear to ear.  I sure wish I could have met that man.  If your audio CD becomes approved... please put me on the list.  Right now, I need a tissue.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

Norbert P

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #10 on: December 18, 2009, 12:03:13 PM »

I found an article by Forrest Richardson that I wanted to give a shout out for and thought I'd better do a GCA.com search first and, well, found this old gem by Curt Sampson.     The thread's pretty good too.


Here's the link to Forrest's article . . .

   http://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/Article/Desmond-Muirhead/1439/Default.aspx

 





« Last Edit: December 18, 2009, 12:07:31 PM by Slag Bandoon »
"Golf is only meant to be a small part of one’s life, centering around health, relaxation and having fun with friends/family." R"C"M

Garland Bayley

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #11 on: December 18, 2009, 03:26:51 PM »
tHANKS, sLAGBERT
"I enjoy a course where the challenges are contained WITHIN it, and recovery is part of the game  not a course where the challenge is to stay ON it." Jeff Warne

Yancey_Beamer

Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #12 on: December 18, 2009, 08:20:51 PM »
At Jasper Park I toured the beautiful lodge that Desmond designed.He was also an architect,The type that designs buildings.
Also Tommy got his wish.The beautiful Soboba Springs course was purchased by a tribal casino and completely restored.
I was there yesterday.

Matt_Ward

Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #13 on: December 18, 2009, 08:53:05 PM »
It's too bad the famed 7th at Stone Harbor is no longer around.

I'm sure people have seen pics of it -- when people scream about the demands of the 17th at TPC / Sawgrass I laugh at them and always mentioned what the original 7th at Stone Harbor was about.

I'm not suggesting the hole was worthy of elite status - but I have never found a hole so utterly different and at the same time so painfully demanding given the length of the shot (190 yards) and the tiniest landing strip you could provide. I always felt that anyone hitting the two bunkers flanking the hole should receive a sleeve of balls for doing so.

BCrosby

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #14 on: December 19, 2009, 10:07:32 AM »
Muirhead's book on the Old Course - St. Andrews: How to Play the Old Course - is one of the best. I strongly recommend it. He goes hole by hole. Very good discussions on the brilliance of features of the course and how they ought to be negotiated. It's a book about where the rubber meets the road in architectural matters. Brilliant. 

You can still get the book at a number of used book sites at a very reasonable price.

Bob

Forrest Richardson

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #15 on: December 19, 2009, 10:26:25 AM »
I believe his daughter, Romy, may have boxes and boxes of copies as well. Should anyone wish to contact Romy, please send me an e-mail to the address in my signature here on GCA...I am bad at checking (even noticing!) GCA messages.
— Forrest Richardson, Golf Course Architect/ASGCA
    www.golfgroupltd.com
    www.golframes.com

Brian_Ewen

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #16 on: December 19, 2009, 08:45:56 PM »
It's too bad the famed 7th at Stone Harbor is no longer around.

I'm sure people have seen pics of it -- when people scream about the demands of the 17th at TPC / Sawgrass I laugh at them and always mentioned what the original 7th at Stone Harbor was about.

I'm not suggesting the hole was worthy of elite status - but I have never found a hole so utterly different and at the same time so painfully demanding given the length of the shot (190 yards) and the tiniest landing strip you could provide. I always felt that anyone hitting the two bunkers flanking the hole should receive a sleeve of balls for doing so.

Plenty of Mr .Muirheads "utterly different" golf holes still exist , if you look hard enough .

Yancey_Beamer

Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #17 on: December 19, 2009, 10:40:15 PM »
Quail Ranch is now overgrown with weeds and closed. Pity,it was in the middle of nowhere.

Andrew Mitchell

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #18 on: December 20, 2009, 05:40:47 AM »
Muirhead's book on the Old Course - St. Andrews: How to Play the Old Course - is one of the best. I strongly recommend it. He goes hole by hole. Very good discussions on the brilliance of features of the course and how they ought to be negotiated. It's a book about where the rubber meets the road in architectural matters. Brilliant. 

You can still get the book at a number of used book sites at a very reasonable price.

Bob

I'll second that recommendation.  A must for anyone planning to visit St Andrews.
2014 to date: not actually played anywhere yet!
Still to come: Hollins Hall; Ripon City; Shipley; Perranporth; St Enodoc

James Boon

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #19 on: December 20, 2009, 12:21:03 PM »

I found an article by Forrest Richardson that I wanted to give a shout out for and thought I'd better do a GCA.com search first and, well, found this old gem by Curt Sampson.     The thread's pretty good too.


Here's the link to Forrest's article . . .

   http://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/Article/Desmond-Muirhead/1439/Default.aspx


Slag,

Many thanks for digging out this early thread and the link to the website, both containing great articles on Muirhead. I only knew of him as the architect of Muirfield Village and then courses using symbolism in way that appears somewhat mad from the outside. It was interesting to read that there was so much more to his character and talents.

I may have to look into getting a copy of his St. Andrews book?

Cheers,

James
2023 Highlights: Hollinwell, Brora, Parkstone, Cavendish, Hallamshire, Sandmoor, Moortown, Elie, Crail, St Andrews (Himalayas & Eden), Chantilly, M, Hardelot Les Pins

"It celebrates the unadulterated pleasure of being in a dialogue with nature while knocking a ball round on foot." Richard Pennell

BCrosby

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #20 on: December 20, 2009, 12:29:35 PM »
I believe his daughter, Romy, may have boxes and boxes of copies as well. Should anyone wish to contact Romy, please send me an e-mail to the address in my signature here on GCA...I am bad at checking (even noticing!) GCA messages.

Forrest - Any of those books signed by Muirhead?  Bob

Ulrich Mayring

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #21 on: December 20, 2009, 05:31:30 PM »
Perhaps one or two could be offered on the "Pay it forward" thread. I'd take one :)

Ulrich
Golf Course Exposé (300+ courses reviewed), Golf CV (how I keep track of 'em)

Forrest Richardson

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Desmond Muirhead
« Reply #22 on: December 21, 2009, 10:29:26 PM »
I doubt any of Romy's books (if she still has them) are signed. Desmond signed one for me a few years before he passed away and I shall cherish it.
— Forrest Richardson, Golf Course Architect/ASGCA
    www.golfgroupltd.com
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