Should a Victorian Style Golf Course Be Recreated?

[Michael Chadwick]

I doubt Sand Valley's Lido will open a Pandora's box resulting in an abundance of recreated NLE courses of old. I also doubt that the Lido will be the last.


Should an example from the Victorian era of design be resurrected? Which course(s) would serve as the most representative example?


I think it'd be interesting for the golf community to be able to experience a sampling of what came before the Golden Age. In a way, golf course design is a participatory form of living history. I for one would like to see and play shots similar to what someone might've had in the 19th century.


Par 3 courses have grown popular on properties wanting to add extra, non-regulation holes of golf. Opting instead for a sub 5,000 yard Victorian layout could be an interesting pivot that could pull the dates back, so to speak, for the kind of golf architecture to which we currently have access.


I'd particularly like to know, from those more historically aware, which courses might make the most sense. 

[Jim Sherma]

I am not sure what the definition of “Victorian” cuts off at but I would like to see the original 18 hole course of  Huntington Valley CC course in Jenkintown - became Baederwood GC when they built the Flynn 27. The course’s reputation that I can discern plus some old pictures have always intrigued me.


The Lido is unique in the documentation of its build. Are there any other courses of the era that even could be approached the same way?

[Thomas Dai]

Not sure how many original ‘Victorian era’ courses are still around in the U.K., she died in 1901, but there are quite a few rural and rustic 9-holders still about from the pre-WW1 period although some of the features may well have been filled in or removed.
These days however, such courses, maybe non-lengthened, are being played with modern era equipment (and thus the distances the modern ball travels) rather than with the kind of gear folks were using when Messrs Braid and Vardon and the like were laying them out.
How the then vrs now equipment changes will impact a resurrected or replica course is a question that ought to be considered.
Atb


PS - if such a course were resurrected or a replica built it would be fascinating to see it built using horses and scoops and men with shovels and rakes.

[Adam Lawrence]

The Lido is unique in the documentation of its build. Are there any other courses of the eta that even could be approached the same way?

I don't think so.

[Niall C]

As David says, Victoria died in 1901 however the change in monarch didn't herald a new style of golf course architecture. Any change in style was gradual so the "Victorian" style if you want to call it that, was still "current" leading up to WWI even if a more natural style was coming into vogue.


There are still a few remnants of that style of architecture remaining in this country (Scotland) even if many of the courses have been modernised over the period. A good example of the style would be the nine hole Bridge of Allan course with its square greens and shots over stone walls. Also for a lot of those courses, existing stone walls and hedges were used as obstacles rather than cop bunkers.


Niall 

[Peter Flory]

The Lido is unique in the documentation of its build. Are there any other courses of the era that even could be approached the same way?

I'd say that the main thing that made the Lido rebuild feasible is that it was originally constructed on a dead flat site. 

Other lost courses would be great if they could be restored where they currently are- like Overhills for example, or High Point in MI.  But if you took a course like Mill Road Farm, I don't think that it would make any sense to try to replicate it somewhere else... even though you theoretically could do so.  You'd have to move a lot of dirt to replicate even the gently rolling terrain and I'd say that the results would probably be somewhat cheesy.  And even though that course was highly regarded, I don't think that there would be enough demand for it's reincarnation. 

A lost course in Florida would probably work, but again, I don't think that anything rises to the level where it would be worth it. 

I do think that the Lido project was one of one, in terms of a fully lost course being restored in a separate location.