Albert Warren Tillinghast
Albert Warren Tillinghast (born May 7, 1874 in Philadelphia , † May 19, 1942 in Toledo , Ohio ) was an American golf architect . He is considered to be one of the main representatives of the golden age of golf architecture .
life and work
Like Charles Blair Macdonald before him, AW Tillinghast, known as Tillie, came from a wealthy background and was a student of Old Tom Morris . From 1896 to 1901 he made several study trips to St Andrews and regularly took part in top-class amateur tournaments. In 1909 he got the order from friends to build a course in Shawnee-on-the-Delaware, which meant that from then on he worked full-time as a golf architect.
He also achieved a high level of awareness in the golf scene through his journalistic work. From 1899 at the latest, he wrote regularly for various magazines such as the American Golfer published by Walter Travis , there often under the pseudonym Hazard , or daily newspapers such as the Philadelphia Record . Many of his essays were later published in book form, and he also published a number of stories that dealt with the subject of golf.
As a golf architect, he was particularly good at doing business in the 1920s, allowing him to maintain a luxurious lifestyle. After the global economic crisis , however, his career was practically over due to a lack of orders and his health problems - he was an alcoholic - increased. At first he worked as a mobile representative for the PGA of America , advising golf course operators on cost-cutting measures. Ironically, even some golf courses he designed suffered from his recommendations and lost a number of bunkers, for example.
Later he was able to stay afloat as an antique dealer in Hollywood for a while, as he had built up a large collection during the time of his wealth. He had also inherited a successful rubber goods company from his father, which he hardly cared about, but which still earned him a regular basic income. In the end he managed to stop drinking, but he did not reach his previous professional and financial status.
In total, Tillinghast has around 70 drafts and as many redesigns to book. His most famous courses include the San Francisco Golf Club (1915), Brackenridge (1916), Somerset Hills (1917), Essex County (New Jersey, 1918), Brook Hollow (1921), Baltusrol (1922), Philadelphia Cricket Club (1922) ), Winged Foot East & West (1923), Baltimore (Five Farms East, 1926), Quaker Ridge (1926), Ridgewood (1929) and Bethpage Black (1936). Many of his places can still be used today for major tournaments, as Tillinghast foresaw the technological advancement that led to ever greater stroke lengths. From the beginning he made sure to lay out his fairways in such a way that they could later be easily extended.
His way of working was unusual for the golden age, which generally resulted in a professionalization of the profession. Tillinghast, on the other hand, did not make any elaborate plans, but rather relied on spontaneous inspiration during the construction phase. This informal way of working meant that his golf courses were not given a formulaic character, but were very different from each other. In San Francisco, for example, he underlined the expansive character of the area with appropriately sweeping fairways , monumental bunkers (up to 2.50 meters deep) and huge greens . Winged Foot, on the other hand, has small greens, steep bunkers and undulating fairways. In his publications Tillinghast emphasized again and again how important it is that a hole is not only strategically interesting, but also visually appealing.
In October 2014, his posthumous induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame for 2015 was announced.
literature
- Philip Young: Tillinghast: Creator of Golf Courses . Classics of Golf, Pearl River 2005.
Web links
- The Tillinghast Association
- The Terror and the Whiffensnoozer: AW Tillinghast and the Man Behind the Myths ( Memento from September 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
swell
- ↑ http://www.worldgolfhalloffame.org/press_releases/world-golf-hall-of-fame-welcomes-davies-graham-omeara-and-tillinghast-as-the-class-of-2015/
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Tillinghast, Albert Warren |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | AW Tillinghast, Tillie |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American golf architect |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 7, 1874 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Philadelphia |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 19, 1942 |
| Place of death | Toledo , Ohio |