Golden Age (Golf Architecture)
The golden age of golf architecture was a period at the beginning of the 20th century in which an unusually large number of today's classic golf courses were built. For example, the entire top ten of the best 100 courses in the USA according to the Golf Digest Ranking 2007/2008 were built in the golden age. In Great Britain this period is marked by the appearance of the first quality domestic courses, until then a championship course was basically on the coast and was a left one . In the rest of the world, where there was no comparable tradition, the golden age of golf architecture coincides with the development of golf in general.
The comparatively simple and purely purpose-oriented constructions of the Victorian era were opposed to a philosophy that for the first time included aesthetic aspects and can thus be classified as architecture in the sense of a demarcation from mere building . Technological advances and developments in the social field also had a major influence on the new design principles that fundamentally changed the game of golf through the introduction of strategy .
Terminology and delimitation
The term Golden Age generally denotes a period of particular creativity and great success in a particular field. In this figurative sense, the golden age was also used in the field of golf in various contexts, for example 1929 with regard to technological, agronomic and social advances since the turn of the century. However, in relation to a period of golf architecture, the first use dates from 1976 when golf architect Donald Steel introduced the term in the first edition of the World Atlas of Golf for the period between the two world wars. This temporal delimitation is controversial, however, there is only agreement that the golden age of golf architecture began around 1900 at the earliest and ended at the latest with the outbreak of World War II .
A view particularly widespread in the USA dates the golden age between 1909 ( National Golf Links of America ) and 1937 ( Prairie Dunes ), since almost all major American golf courses were built during these years. Michael J. Hurdzan is only assuming a golden decade , since this is the period in which he refers to the 1920s, the three books on golf architecture that, in his opinion, have been published to this day. Without any specific justification, Geoffrey S. Cornish and Ronald E. Whitten also take this view in their standard work The Architects of Golf . They define the British development from the turn of the century as the Heathland period , which continues to this day and thus ran parallel to the golden age. But there are also American representatives of a comprehensive view: for example, Steve Sailer lets the golden age begin in 1901, the end he dates to 1934 (death of Alister MacKenzie and the beginning of the transformation of Augusta National into a place of modern character). The golf architect Tom Doak takes a similar position, he speaks of a "classic period" between 1900 and 1930.
Several facts speak in favor of a comprehensive consideration: on the one hand, important golf courses were built during the entire period, as the changes characteristic of the golden age did not occur in all countries at the same time. Great Britain led the way until the First World War, after which the boom followed in the USA and in the 1930s important places emerged in continental Europe, Canada and Japan. On the other hand, the productive phases of Harry Colt and Donald Ross , two of the most important protagonists of the golden age, lasted over the entire period. In the meantime, the World Atlas of Golf also follows this point of view and dates the golden age in its 2008 edition to “circa 1900–1939”.
The Victorian golf architecture
In 1857 there were no more than 17 golf clubs in Scotland and fewer than a handful in the rest of the world. By 1888 the total number of places in Great Britain rose to 138 (Scotland 73, England 57, Ireland 6, Wales 2). It was not until the late Victorian era that there was a real construction boom of almost 100 spaces per year, which lasted until the First World War .
First of all, new golf courses were simply marked out by the local professional , who was often also a greenkeeper . As a rule, he had only one qualification, which should not be underestimated: he grew up on the legendary links courses of the British Kingdom . However, these natural places had developed over centuries mainly through the influence of wind, weather and animals, so they did not follow a stringent, human planning. For this reason, no one initially succeeded in abstracting the decisive architectural features that turned a natural area into a championship course. The inland courses that emerged in the 19th century therefore not only lacked important natural features such as well-draining soil and wind, but also lacked the technical playing qualities of the old coastal courses.
The method of designing a course at that time consisted of walking through an area and marking the mostly 9 tees and greens with posts, occasionally supplemented by the indication of the positions for obstacles still to be created. This work seldom lasted longer than a few hours, so that the golf architect only had to hand over instructions for building the course and could leave on the same day. The term “18 Stakes on a Sunday Afternoon” has become established for this way of working. Historical wages for this work are £ 1 or $ 25 later in the US. Most of the work still had to be done after the architect's departure, so many of these marked golf courses were never built. The most productive "18-stakes architect" was Tom Bendelow in the USA, who is credited with between 500 and 1000 golf courses.
Before him, however, men like Old Tom Morris or the brothers Tom and Willie Dunn were in great demand. They traveled all over the British archipelago and discovered quite spectacular golf holes where nature provided suitable landforms. By and large, however, the Victorian ideal of straight lines and symmetrical shapes dominated golf course architecture. The representatives of this first generation of golf architects simply lacked the theoretical knowledge, technical resources and sufficient budget to create a high-level golf course from nothing. However, in a number of cases, a conscious, creative decision in favor of the formulaic can be proven.
In 1886, Willard H. Moss wrote that one is used to regular playing fields from other sports and that therefore golf holes of a fixed length (100, 200 and 300 yards ) are used. Later, the multiple American amateur champions, golf architect and author Walter J. Travis speaks of a "scientific" way of building a golf course, in which the lengths of the fairways and the layout of the obstacles do not follow the natural conditions, but a "proven" scheme , which should ensure a balanced game. For similar reasons, Joseph EG Ryan considers the game of golf on American courses to be more edifying than elsewhere, whose “scientific” placement of the bunkers is more consistent in rewarding the good and punishing the bad game. In an article on private golf courses from 1900, even the gardener is referred to as the archenemy of the golf course, as he preferred trees and bushes to more effective artificial obstacles for purely aesthetic reasons. However, “landscape effects” would not be the goal of golf.
A typical Victorian fairway consisted of a blind tee - the few natural obstacles and elevations of the area were almost exclusively used to place the tee boxes exactly behind them. If there was no such option, a ditch filled with sand or clay was dug at right angles to the fairway and across its entire width, and behind it a kind of wall of exactly 6 feet and 3 inches (approx. 115 cm) high rose. This wall mostly prevented a play out to the front, so that an additional blow was definitely hit on the scorecard. Such an obstacle also had to be played over with the second and possibly third stroke, so that the par (then still: bogey) of a hole could often be calculated from the number of these so-called “cop bunkers” plus two putts. The greens were oval or rectangular, flat and to be played according to scheme F , as they were rarely defended. There were hardly any green bunkers or water hazards anywhere, enclosed or raised greens were the absolute exception. Only conical mounds of earth were occasionally piled up, although this practice often extended to the entire square. Overall, this resulted in the image of an obstacle course rather than that of a natural area or park landscape .
It is unclear when the term “Victorian Gulf architecture” came to be used for this type of design. However, by 1917 at the latest, Henry Leach used the term in an article on Willie Park Sr. and Jr.
Pioneer of upheaval
A number of specific developments accelerated the transition to the golden age towards the end of the 19th century.
The Haskell Ball
In 1898, Coburn Haskell invented a new golf ball that featured a three-layer construction. A rubber core was wrapped with rubber threads under pressure and finally provided with a sheath of gutta-percha . Compared to the previously common, pure gutta-percha ball, the so-called Haskell ball allowed significantly longer tee-offs (often 20 meters) and, above all, an almost equally large gain in length with the irons. Haskell's partner Bertram Work, who ran a factory for the BF Goodrich Company , introduced an industrial production method so that soon every golfer could afford the new "wonder ball". When Walter Travis won the US amateur championships of 1901 with the Haskell ball and the best professionals swung around, the "Gutty" finally disappeared from the market. As a result of this development, many golf courses simply became too short almost overnight and had to be expanded accordingly. Last but not least, this increasing demand made it possible for the first time to live alone from the activity as a golf architect, which led to the professionalization and social recognition of the job.
Golf journalism
The golf architecture of the 19th century, which was largely arbitrary and rather casually operated, was also based on the idea of the construction of a golf course as a necessary evil that could be accomplished as cheaply as possible. Although there was a significant tradition of landscape parks and horticulture in Britain , aesthetic factors played virtually no role in golf. The sports facility required for this was built according to functional criteria. Country Life , first published on January 8, 1897 and launched by George Riddell and Edward Hudson after a joint round of golf in Woking , gave a decisive impetus to rethinking . It was supposed to present “life in the country”, as it was just beginning to be practiced by the prosperous citizens in the urban centers. In addition to the description and mediation of country houses, it was also about rural leisure activities such as equestrian sports, hunting, garden design and golf.
Horace Hutchinson was initially responsible for this area , who in 1886 had written Hints on Golf, the first ever golf textbook. Famous Golf Links , the first book on golf courses, followed five years later, and in 1906 he published Golf Greens and Green-Keeping , the first book on golf architecture and course maintenance. Probably the earliest critical statements regarding the Victorian style or, as Tom Simpson would later write, the "dark age" of golf architecture come from him. In 1898, Hutchinson described it as a big mistake that the artificial bunkers of the inland courses in England were drawn in absolutely straight lines across the course. This type of construction has a hideous aesthetic and is as far removed from nature as possible, and it reduces all golfers equally to an identical style of play.
In 1908, Bernard Darwin , a grandson of researcher Charles Darwin , began as golf editor of Country Life and subsequently became one of the most important golf authors of the 20th century. His impact on the sport was so valued that he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2005 as the second author . With the help of the Country Life platform, it was possible for the first time to create a sensitivity for golf architecture in the general consciousness. An example of this is the design competition in the edition of June 20, 1914, when readers were asked to design the “best par 4 hole”. Before Country Life, such a competition would not have been considered relevant and certainly not have been discussed in a mainstream magazine. The winner ( Alister MacKenzie ) and the actual implementation (by Charles Blair Macdonald as hole 18 of the Lido Golf Course on Long Island ) testify to the influence of the magazine on the golf scene.
Other magazines, such as Outing (Golfartikel from 1886), The Golfer (from 1894), and Golf (from 1898), also played an important role, but neither had authors and photographers of comparable talent, nor did they appear nearly as frequently as the weekly magazine Country Life. Only later foundings, such as The American Golfer (from 1908) and Golf Illustrated (from 1914), had comparable quality standards.
But the golf architects themselves also wrote books about their design principles. One of the first and most influential was "Concerning Golf" by John L. Low (1904), where he presented a central idea of the golden age with the strategic design philosophy.
The discovery of the heather
Before the golden age, golf courses were laid out where the terrain was already "prepared" and where you practically only had to mark tees and greens on wide lawns. In the interior of the country, therefore, unprofitable cattle pastures came into question, which almost inevitably led to less attractive golf courses. In addition, there was the predominant clay soils away from the coast, which are muddy in winter and extremely hard in summer, which made golf unattractive for most of the year. Larger clearing work or other land transformations, as they are necessary for the development of aesthetically and technically interesting terrain, only became possible with the advent of agricultural machinery. Due to these developments, the British heathland came into focus around 1900.
The United Kingdom accounts for around 20% of the world's heather, with a large part of it in the counties around London. In Surrey , Berkshire , Hampshire and Oxfordshire , large areas are found with sand or limestone. These are referred to in English as "Heathland" ( heathland ) and "Downland" (chalk hills, see also southern English chalk formation ). Similar to the Linksland on the British coasts, these barren soils could not be managed profitably with the means at the time and, as in Ascot , at most served as terrain for equestrian sports. The rapidly growing community of golfers was able to meet their requirements for the development of new areas in this region. For the first time, ideal terrain was available for building golf courses inland: quickly draining, elastic soils, open, heavily undulating terrain exposed to the wind and natural obstacles in a rough and largely untouched landscape.
Daniel Defoe described the area as "desolate, loathsome and frightening, of not only little use but no use at all". In April 1899, the heather belt around London was largely unknown, because Horace Hutchinson described the English downland as the second best area for golf. He justified this with the fact that there the grass grows almost as dense and short as on linksland and that there are good locations for the golf ball. However, the soils would be loamy or clayey and full of worms, and there would be no sand and therefore no sand bunkers. He also mentioned two golf courses in Surrey (Richmond Club and Mid Surrey Club) that had links quality due to the sandy soil. However, he did not draw the connection to a possibly larger heather area, rather he brought the "strange phenomenon" into connection with the Thames , which is said to have deposited the sand there.
Old Course
The great model for the architects of the golden age was the Old Course in St Andrews , as it were representative of the important links courses in Great Britain . Equipped without any conspicuous natural landforms, this area developed over centuries into a place of the highest strategic quality, which at the same time was integrated into nature with the greatest possible subtlety. The numerous facets and options are only revealed to the player after many rounds, so that the course remains interesting in the long run and - even if it were less famous - would be classified as worth preserving for that reason alone.
An article by Walter Travis on the subject of obstacles shows how unusual the strategic game that the Old Course required was back then. In it, he criticizes some of the bunkers on the Old Course as unfair, as they are not visible from the tee and punish a long, straight drive - i.e. a good shot. After all, Travis already had some experience as a golf architect in the USA at this point, so he cannot be considered a uniformed layman in this regard. In fact, he also recognized a great fascination in this “unfairness”, which would consist in the fact that the player would be stimulated to think about the right way to the green.
Geoff Shackelford describes this confrontation of the golf architects with the championship course of St Andrews in such a way that one pursued a common goal on both sides of the Atlantic: namely to find out which elements and principles made the Old Course so fascinating and then to transfer them to new golf courses.
Stuart Paton and John L. Low were the first to put this idea into practice. They were members of the Woking Golf Club, whose course was laid out in 1893 by Tom Dunn according to the traditional Victorian principles. Gradually, Paton and Low redesigned the course, recreating various strategic elements of the Old Course. The 4th hole, for example, was modeled on the 16th hole of the Old Course, with two central bunkers taking on the role of the Principal's Nose Bunker.
The Golden age
Sunningdale and Huntercombe
The golden age started in 1899 when Willie Park Jr. received the first contract for a heather site: Sunningdale in the county of Surrey. The area was overgrown, the ground was almost pure sand and for a long time it was uncertain whether grass would grow there at all. With great effort, it was finally possible to uncover enough playing area and for the first time to grow an entire golf course from grass seeds: in September 1900 the seeds were sown and a year later the course was playable. This agronomic breakthrough, as well as the extensive clearing and earthworks, brought the golf architecture to a new level. Another achievement of the Sunningdale project was that the golf architect no longer limited himself to planning the layout, but also took responsibility for the construction of the course.
While work in Sunningdale was in full swing, Willie Park Jr. and a handful of investors bought another property near Oxford and began construction on the Huntercombe golf course there in the fall of 1900. Since the area there was much more open and already had grass cover, he was able to open two revolutionary inland courses in 1901: Huntercombe in May and Sunningdale in September. It soon became clear that Park had actually opened a new chapter here: Horace Hutchinson called Sunningdale the best domestic course ever, while Huntercombe was called the best course he had ever played by Walter J. Travis.
As a result, both places not only played a major role as a design model, but also functioned as the nucleus of the founding generation of the golden age. Willie Park Jr. withdrew from Sunningdale soon after it opened to focus on his own space in Huntercombe. This cleared the way for Harry Colt , who was hired as the first secretary in Sunningdale and from this secure position began his highly productive career as a golf architect. Alister MacKenzie , CH Alison and John Morrison followed in his wake . Huntercombe spawned John Frederick Abercromby , who later partnered with Tom Simpson and Herbert Fowler . The latter, in turn, got his first assignment at Walton Heath in direct response to the success of Sunningdale and Huntercombe.
Note: the adjacent illustrations from 1913 may not show the original condition, as Harry Colt made extensive changes during his time as club secretary in Sunningdale.
Design principles
Not every architect of the golden age worked according to exactly the same scheme, but there was broad agreement on a number of design principles. Some of these principles were revolutionary new, others had been known for a long time, but had not yet been enforceable and still others were even considered outdated and were revived in the context of the golden age.
Natural impression
Old Tom Morris already postulated that the golf course should be adapted to nature instead of the other way around. From today's point of view, however, it is no longer understandable what he meant by this in detail, since he did not publish any books and some of his layouts do not seem to follow this principle. From Willie Park junior, however, it has been handed down that a golf hole should not be constructed on the drawing board, but “to be found” in nature - a metaphor that is still often used today. Herbert Fowler added that God builds golf courses and the less man interferes, the better. Perry Maxwell found it a futile effort to turn an unsuitable terrain into a good golf course. Charles Blair MacDonald spoke of "monstrosities" and "travesties of nature" that are created on some golf courses in the name of innovation. Max Behr, one of the most prominent and productive authors in the field of golf architecture, pointed out that an inexperienced landscape designer simply could not imagine planting trees in any other way than in rows and the lawn in front of his house only in the form of terraces.
The influential American Walter J. Travis, who a few years earlier and ignorant of the British places, argued quite differently, took the side of nature. Only recently, as he wrote in 1909, was people beginning to understand that the “Willie Dunn System” was wrong in every respect. It seems they have tried to get as far away as possible from the real, natural coastal courses with ramp tees, the ubiquitous cross bunker (transverse bunker over the entire width of the fairway) and rectangular, rolled greens. It was inexplicable to him why this was done.
However, the natural design principle made higher demands on the nature of the area to be built on. Until then, monotonously flat, formerly agricultural plots without natural landforms were in the foreground, as these were easily accessible and inexpensive to purchase. Due to the general golf boom, however, there was now more money available, so that many very scenic areas could be developed. In addition, there were almost no official requirements at the beginning of the 20th century, so that the golf architects practically had a free hand in the design. In particular, the protection of the environment and animals , which nowadays imposes clear barriers on golf course construction and usually designates scenic areas as protected areas, did not play a role at that time.
Strategic instead of punitive design
There are a number of different classification systems for golf holes with regard to their playing characteristics. Forrest Richardson distinguishes five types, Michael J. Hurdzan four, but most golf architects limit themselves to the three traditional philosophies: punitive, heroic and strategic design.
The first man-made squares - in contrast to the links formed by nature - were characterized by punishing design. This means that a very specific golf shot is required and any deviation from it is punished by obstacles. Since the most common failure at the time was the topped stroke (a ball flying just above the ground), the bunkers were provided with high walls. This was to prevent an actually unsuccessful ball from rolling over the bunker and reaching approximately the same position as a good hit. In 1901 Walter J. Travis recommended in Practical Golf to lay out the fairways in such a way that, depending on the hole, one, two or three perfect strokes were required to reach the green. Less perfect strokes should be intercepted by bunkers, so that the better player would definitely be on the green with a lower number of strokes and could only lose the hole by poor putting. Even Horace Hutchinson, who emerged as a critic of the Cross Bunker, pointed out in an article in 1899 that fairways whose length was not a multiple of a perfect drive (then about 180 yards ) were inherently unfair. For example, if a hole were one and a half or two and a half drives long, a player could compensate for a bad shot and still be on the green with the same score as the player who made no mistake.
One of the most famous examples of punitive design is the Oakmont Country Club , designed by Henry C. Fownes in 1903. Numerous drainage ditches, narrow fairways, extremely fast and undulating greens, as well as almost 220 bunkers should ensure that a bad shot was irrevocably a lost shot. Despite the high reputation of this place, which has been regularly selected for the most important tournaments since its opening, the punishing design philosophy could not prevail in the area. From a statistical point of view, golf clubs consist mainly of recreational players of average skill level, who are mostly not willing to finance a course as a member that they can hardly manage themselves.
The strategic design philosophy that emerged in the golden age addresses this problem of different playing strengths by offering several paths to the green on each fairway. They differ in the type and difficulty of the obstacles or the strokes that are necessary to overcome them. Already at the tee, the golfer is forced to think about the strategy of the hole and to choose a route that promises a good risk-reward ratio according to his skill level. The shortest route to the green is usually the most difficult, so that only a good player can tackle it without losing a stroke. The average player should choose a simpler variant and thereby achieve an optimal score for him despite the additional stroke that the longer distance requires.
But even the good player should not be stereotypically forced to hit long and straight, rather he should have to use every club in his bag over the course of a round , so that in the ideal case the most versatile golfer achieves the best result in the end. In addition, a golf course that offers very different challenges is much more varied and therefore more interesting to play. This is the main reason why golf courses like the Old Course in St Andrews have retained their fascination over the centuries.
A main feature in the implementation of the strategic design is the variable placement of obstacles. Most players have typical failures, such as deviations to the right or left, strokes that are too short or too flat. For this reason, the obstacles are sometimes on the left side of the fairway, sometimes on the right side, sometimes directly in front of the tee and sometimes exactly in the middle of the fairway, in order to demand a decision from the player. Some obstacles are flat (bunkers, rough) and others can only be overcome with a high impact (trees, water). In this way it is also possible to take into account the different levels of play: typically a long hitting golfer can work his way into the green by risking a bunker, whereas the short player can safely put his ball in front of the bunker, but then on the second Stroke is faced with a difficulty that does not come into play from the long tee position.
Probably the first conscious attempts at strategic design were made in 1900 by Stuart Paton and John L. Low at Woking Golf Club. For example, they put two bunkers in the middle of a fairway to force a strategic game. This redesign of the fourth hole was highly controversial, as many members expressed the opinion that a long, straight tee should not be penalized. However, Low believed that no bunker could ever be unfair, no matter where it was placed. With a central bunker, the golfer can play left, right, short or above - but if he hits it, he has obviously made the wrong choice and is therefore his own fault.
A strategically planned course includes wide fairways, because several paths to the green naturally require more space. For the same reason, larger trees are a hindrance. Many strategic golf holes have become punishable over the course of decades due to the planting of initially attractive trees, which, however, blocked interesting corners and game corridors. The single-row sprinkler systems, which were widely used for a long time, also made the fairways smaller, as they could only water about half of a fairway. Because of the greener grass, many golfers automatically only played on the watered part, the greenkeepers let the grass grow taller to the side because it didn't look so brown then. Many of the options originally envisaged by the architect were thus forgotten. During restoration projects in recent years, several generations of lateral distance posts or other golf course elements up to 30 meters deep in the forest have been found on some courses. Regular clearing programs are therefore being carried out on more and more classic golf courses, sometimes secretly in winter or at night due to considerable resistance from members.
Exclusions also narrow the playing field and were therefore rarely used in the golden age. However, there were also significantly fewer safety concerns than today, where residential developments on the golf course are very popular and many facilities are adjacent to public transport routes. Liability risks, claims for damages and other legal problems were largely unknown, so that there was seldom a need to restrict golfers to a precisely defined area.
Another advantage of the open area is that, due to the variable "wind", additional strategic variants come into play. With the wind behind you, the player can choose a more challenging route than usual, as he can now overcome obstacles that he would otherwise not be able to reach. With a headwind it is often the other way around, obstacles come into play that are otherwise easy to overcome. Sideways wind can also significantly affect the strategy of a hole. Since there is often a prevailing wind direction, this can be included in the planning of the site.
The green as a determining element
From Charles Blair Macdonald the aphorism has been handed down that green relates to the square as the face relates to a portrait. The simply structured and flat putt surfaces of the Victorian era did not play such a central role; pitting the ball was seen more as a chore than a free routine. In the golden age, on the other hand, veritable green complexes emerged that were larger, more undulating and faster than ever before and whose immediate surroundings were included in the design.
As a result, the difficulty of a fairway was largely determined by the structure of the green. Traditionally, holes were planned from the tee over the fairway to the green. In the golden age, however, the architects reversed this order and thus developed a central principle of modern golf course planning. The golf architect first looks for a suitable place for the green, only then does he determine a few places from which the flag can be played with varying degrees of risk. He creates these angles, for example, by deliberately undulating the putt surface or by placing bunkers. The height of the grass around the green and significant slopes should also influence the decision of the player. Starting from the more or less ideal positions to face the green, the fairway is now planned further back. In order to reveal the best angle into the green, the architect usually calls for a difficult previous shot. The weaker player can only reach one of the worse positions with a less demanding stroke.
The golf architect Arthur Hills cites as an example of this type of planning that a bunker to the right of the green usually creates an obstacle on the left side of the fairway. Anyone who successfully confronts this obstacle will be rewarded with a free shot into the green. If you place your ball on the safe, right side of the fairway, you have to overcome the green bunker. This type of design is sometimes described as "defending the par on the green".
The strong emphasis on green complexes is often seen as a feature of the strategic design philosophy, as it favors the emergence of several alternative routes. But there is an additional effect that is independent of the golfing character of the course. With the introduction of various technical innovations in clubs and balls, especially in the 1920s, there was a considerable gain in length for all golf shots, only the short game hardly benefited from the improved equipment. An end to this development was not in sight (and in fact has not occurred to this day), for this reason investments in the design of the greens simply seemed more promising. Herbert Fowler put it so that the golf architects had no other option but to make the greens difficult, as the ball manufacturers had already compromised the integrity of the leading golf courses. An extension of the fairways, on the other hand, was viewed critically, Alister MacKenzie came up with the catchy formula that one had already reached a point where too much was going and too little golf was being played.
Renouncing rough
In contrast to the design features mentioned above, the lack of rough is not a development that should overcome older principles. In fact, the concept of "rough as a deliberate obstacle" did not become popular until the middle of the golden age. Insofar as the architects of the golden age rejected this development, one can nevertheless speak of a design feature that in particular allows a distinction to be made from modern golf courses. The today important functions of the rough as ecological compensation area and visual delimitation played no role at that time. The tall grass on the edge of the fairways should serve to make the golf course narrower and more difficult on the one hand, in order to be able to stand up to the players who are hitting longer and longer. On the other hand, danger points should be eliminated on the increasingly popular golf courses, for which there was also less and less space available.
Max Behr was one of the first to criticize the introduction of rough on golf courses. He pointed out that rough was not a strategic obstacle as it would neither defend the direct path to the green nor create an indirect one. Instead, only balls that go astray would be punished even more severely. Thus, the player has to compete against his own inadequacy, which leads to frustration and negative thoughts. On the other hand, a positive engagement with the various options on the way to green is desirable. Alister MacKenzie also questioned the effectiveness of the rough as a safety buffer: Because of the existence of rough, golfers do not hit straighter, but rather simply extend their stay in the danger zone that is actually to be protected. In addition, golf courses with narrow fairways and rough produce bad golfers, who lack any harmonious playing rhythm and who, for lack of alternatives, have a cramped and unimaginative style.
The architects of the golden age also unanimously criticized the fact that balls are often no longer found in the rough, which, together with the longer search times, can significantly impair the enjoyment of the game. MacKenzie even postulated that no hole could be considered perfect if it were not entirely playable with a putter. In addition, a strip of rough that extends 100 meters from the tee is on the one hand completely uninteresting for a good player, but on the other hand extremely annoying for a beginner.
"Fast and Firm"
In the 19th century, when greenkeeping was not very well developed, golf courses dried up in summer and the fairways became hard and fast. After landing, the ball rolled out a considerable distance, so that the unevenness of the fairway could be used tactically to achieve a favorable position. Many areas of the golf course that could hardly be targeted by the air could be reached by a rolling ball without great risk, as it followed the natural undulations of the terrain.
However, these course conditions were not popular with all golfers. On the one hand, good shots occasionally jumped into an unfavorable position, and on some fairways the ball was even completely uncontrollable. On the other hand, the dried, brown, dead looking grass contradicted the aesthetic perception of most players. For these reasons, especially in the USA, people began to water the greens and later the fairways. It became a quality criterion if the ball stopped immediately on the green and only rolled out briefly on the fairway. So-called “target golf” was born, a style of play in which the ball was always landed directly on the target. Previously, it was rarely possible to play a green directly, you usually had to land the ball long beforehand and let it roll on it. With well-watered and therefore soft greens, however, the ball stopped immediately after landing or even rolled back a bit due to the backspin.
As a result, the architects of the golden age turned against ever greener golf courses, because the "ground game" (playing with the ball rolling across the ground) fell victim to almost all of them. A whole facet of the game of golf disappeared, most of the players didn't even learn the so-called "run-up shot" because they never needed it. Only the British Championship Links retained traditional care practices, so that even professionals found it extremely difficult when they first had to compete under these conditions. The most famous example is Bobby Jones , who tore up the scorecard and gave up on his first appearance on the Old Course in 1921 . However, he later learned the ground game and changed his mind diametrically. For Augusta National , his own golf course, he chose a proponent of fast and firm fairways as the architect: Alister MacKenzie was of the opinion that most American greens were overwatered and expressed his hope that this mistake would not be repeated in Augusta.
Countermovements
Not all golf architects who were active during the golden age committed themselves to the design principles mentioned or even saw themselves as part of an innovative movement. In particular, some professional players - on the front line John Henry Taylor - turned against the new ideas. One reason was certainly that the professionals wanted to maintain their quasi-monopoly in designing golf courses. The argument was therefore often made that only a very good player can build a challenging golf course, as only he knows all the facets of the game of golf from personal experience. Some successful tour players still hold this opinion today, such as Jack Nicklaus , who switched to golf architecture after his professional career.
Further criticism of the design principles, which were new at the time, focused more on the preservation of traditional traditions, for example, JH Taylor regretted the abolition of the Cross Bunker and predicted that sooner or later the quality of this fairway separator would be recognized and the "old order" restored. He was wrong, however, the formal design of the Victorian period no longer plays a role from today's perspective.
Joshua Crane's opinion, which he presented in a series of articles in 1926, proved to be far more consistent. He had developed a rating system for golf courses that assigned each part of a fairway (tee, fairway, rough, obstacles, green) a certain number of points for both the architectural value and the maintenance status. He then offset the sum of these scores against general course factors (wind, par number, length, routing) and at the end received a measure of the value of the course. Of 14 British courses that he rated, the Old Course at St Andrews landed last, which was criticized by Alister MacKenzie, Max Behr and Bobby Jones, among others. Cranes System contradicted the design principles of the golden age, for example, in that it positively assessed the presence of rough. In addition, the maintenance status of the square played a role that was as important as its design. Blind strokes and random factors led to points being deducted, and the system generally seemed to require a certain degree of standardization. A cornerstone of thinking in the golden age, however, was diversity and, derived from this, the abandonment of any formalization.
Today's course rating and slope calculation by the USGA is in many ways similar to Joshua Crane's system and his idea of a "fair" golf course still plays a big role, especially when it comes to building golf courses for professional tours.
Another argument that is used against the importance of the golden age is that naturally only the best places survive in the long term, whereas mediocre and poor facilities disappear over time in favor of financially more attractive uses of the respective site. In this respect, the consistently high quality of the golf courses preserved from the golden age can be explained by this inevitable development rather than by a phase of particular creativity. In addition, at that time the architects could have chosen the best areas and - in the absence of environmental or animal welfare requirements - could have used them as they wanted.
Today's reception
Many of the places created in the golden age no longer exist or have been completely redesigned. In particular, the important golf architect Robert Trent Jones , who stood for a heroic design philosophy (quote: “hard par, easy bogey”) and popularized the so-called “target golf”, ensured with his influential designs that the principles of the golden age after the second World War largely forgotten. In particular, the principle of green as a determining element fell victim to the green speeds required in modern times. If the strongly undulating green complexes of the golden age were to be trimmed to today's usual speeds of more than 10 on the stimpmeter , they would be unplayable even for tour professionals. For this reason, the putt areas of many championship courses have been flattened.
Towards the end of the 20th century, more conservative renovation approaches and even restoration emerged . So-called minimalism, which propagates a return to many values of the golden age, also established itself in the construction of new squares.
A well-known counterexample, on the other hand, is Augusta National , which is constantly being changed in order to be able to withstand today's players at the Masters . A good part of the originally strategic character was lost, for example through the introduction of rough and the planting of many trees. Some classic, punishing courses such as Oakmont or Pine Valley have increased in importance, not least because of their high level of difficulty, even for world-class players.
Most golf courses, however, are naturally of average quality, where the implementation of the design principles of the golden age often falls victim to tight budgets or a lack of background knowledge. Only the idea that arose at the time of realizing different track lengths through several tees has prevailed across the board. Otherwise, deep rough, narrow fairways, artificial landforms and a general lack of options, especially for playing over the ground, are not uncommon.
Nevertheless, the number of places that have been preserved from the golden age and their significance, as can be read from the various rankings, speaks for the validity of the design principles that emerged at the time. For example, Golf Magazine currently (2007) only lists eight modern layouts in the top 50, five of which are minimalism. The "Top 100 Golf Courses" project (see web links ) presents a similar picture year after year , for which rankings from various sources are consolidated in a database.
Architects of the golden age
Willie Park junior (1864--1925)
- Main article: Willie Park Junior
In addition to a successful career as a player and club maker, Willie Park junior devoted himself to golf course architecture at the age of 22. Because of his pioneering work in Sunningdale and Huntercombe in particular, he is considered one of the most important representatives of the golden age. Although he sometimes still used Victorian obstacles such as earth walls and cone-like elevations and he was not unfamiliar with the punitive design philosophy (bunkers off the line of play), there are enough strategic elements in his layout. Park's natural design method was a novelty at the time, at least for inland squares, as was his willingness to take on the construction of the squares in addition to the design. As one of the first golf architects, he dared to undertake complex projects in order to develop inaccessible, but ideally golfing areas. In total, he has almost 200 layouts in Europe and North America, including the important US Open course in Olympia Fields, Illinois.
William Herbert Fowler (* 1856; † 1941)
- Main article: William Herbert Fowler
Herbert Fowler, a good amateur player, was commissioned by his brother-in-law in 1902 to create a golf course at Walton Heath . Shortly after the opening in May 1904, the square had already gained an enormous reputation, so that Fowler soon received further orders. After the First World War he entered into a partnership with Tom Simpson, later JF Abercromby and Arthur Croome joined them. In the early 1920s, Fowler focused on the United States (Eastward Ho !, 1924). One of his trademarks were the so-called “Fowler Graves”, particularly deep, but fair play bunkers, as their front only gradually rose towards the green. With regard to punitive elements and the natural design, he continued the line of Willie Park junior even more consistently. So he practically never used walls or other borders to accentuate his greens. Instead of defining the course of a fairway by using bunkers or other elements that are not technically necessary for the game, he preferred to leave it with an open area. Fowler is considered one of the most measured architects of the golden age. In total, he worked at almost 50 places.
Harry Shapland Colt (* 1869; † 1951)
- Main article: Harry Shapland Colt
Harry Colt worked as a lawyer from 1894 and also assisted the professional Douglas Rolland in building the golf course in Rye. In 1901 he became club secretary in Sunningdale and revised the place there from Willie Park junior. He soon acquired significant external contracts: Alwoodley (1907, with Alister MacKenzie ), Stoke Poges (1908), Swinley Forest (1910), Woodhall Spa (1911), the Eden Course in St Andrews (1913) and St George's Hill (1913) are now among the most prestigious courses in Great Britain. In the USA in 1914 he worked out the routing for Pine Valley. He was responsible for the redesign of Royal Lytham and St. Anne's (1919), the New Course in Sunningdale (1922), as well as for Wentworth (1924), Kennemer (Netherlands, 1927), La Mer in Le Touquet (1930) and as Coronation of his career at Royal Portrush (1932). In Germany he designed the Frankfurt GC (1928) and the Hamburg GC in Falkenstein (1930) with John Morrison. About 115 golf courses are considered Colt's solo projects. He was the first golf architect who was not a professional golfer and who made drawings for his routings and planting plans. Along with this professionalization, he also advised the golf clubs on agronomic issues and did pioneering work in the integration of residential developments. In keeping with the program of the golden age, he stood for a strategic and as natural as possible design and was of the opinion that a good course must be so varied that every club could be used. He tried to achieve this with different track lengths and economical, but extremely variable and effective bunkering. He was one of the first to think in angles: he defended the advantageous line of play more strongly than the safe path to the green.
John Frederick Abercromby (* 1861; † 1935)
- Main article: John Frederick Abercromby
At the turn of the century, JF Abercromby was hired as private secretary for an investor who, a few years later, commissioned him to build a new moorland-style course. "But", so his nickname, was completed by Worplesdon in 1908 with the help of Willie Park Jr. and subsequently received the order for Coombe Hill (1909). There Abercromby ballooned to find the best route through a forest. He was probably the first to look for a perspective from above when exploring the available terrain - a procedure that is now part of the standard repertoire of golf architects. Then he launched his own project: The Addington (1912), which is now considered his best place. After World War I, he teamed up with Herbert Fowler , Tom Simpson and Arthur Croome, but only worked sporadically outside of The Addington, which would become his life's work. Despite its comparatively low productivity, Abercromby is one of the most important representatives of the golden age, as he significantly shaped the new style with his early work.
Charles Blair Macdonald (* 1855 - † 1939)
- Main article: Charles Blair Macdonald
One of the most important pioneers of American golf was Charles Blair Macdonald. In addition to a successful career as an amateur player, he was also one of the founders of the USGA and in 1902 coined the term "Golf Course Architect". After learning the game of golf at Old Tom Morris in St Andrews , he returned to Chicago and built the Chicago Golf Club in 1895, which still exists today. After further study visits to Europe, he created his life's work with the National Golf Links of America (1910). From the beginning, NGLA was considered the only American course that could compete with the British models. One of the reasons for this was that Macdonald consciously adapted the strategic principles of some famous golf holes for his purposes and thus invented the principle of the “template hole”. From him the quote is passed down that there are only four or five good golf holes and the local scenery has to provide for the variety. Although he seemed to give little room for creativity, his designs are not considered mere copies, but rather interpretations. He never copied the appearance, only the strategic principles of the originals, which he often changed.
Donald Ross (1872--1948)
- Main article: Donald Ross
The Scot Donald Ross was one of the most productive architects of the golden age with 413 new layouts. After training in Dornoch and St Andrews at Old Tom Morris he came in 1899 to the United States and settled there as Head Professional of the resorts in Pinehurst hire. From this position, which he held all his life, he built the first real “architectural empire”. At one point 3,000 people worked on the construction of its golf courses across the United States. In addition to Pinehurst # 2, on which he continuously refined, Oakland Hills (1918), Oak Hill (1926) and Seminole (1929) are considered to be his best works. Ross popularized the domed plateau green, which was usually open at the front, but allowed a less than perfect approach stroke to roll in all directions, as Ross cut the grass very short around the green. He paid special attention to the routing, so that only short distances had to be covered between the green and the next tee. Its places appear harmonious and often even inconspicuous, also due to the economical but targeted bunkering. Occasionally he even made use of the Cross Bunker, actually a relic from the Victorian period, which, however, could not hold up against modern views on most of the Ross-Platz. A year before his death, Donald Ross founded the American Society of Golf Course Architects and became its first president.
Alister MacKenzie (* 1870 - † 1934)
- Main article: Alister MacKenzie
As a resident doctor, Alister MacKenzie founded the Alwoodley Golf Club with friends, where he implemented his ideas about golf architecture, which were radical for the time. Harry Colt acted as his mentor from 1905, later as a partner. After a few commissions in northern England (Moortown 1909, Headingley remodeling 1913), he achieved national fame in 1914 when he won the Country Life magazine's golf architecture competition. In the 1920s he used his knowledge to promote the development of local skills in square design and construction in many places. In particular, his stay in Australia (Royal Melbourne West, Royal Adelaide, Kingston Heath, New South Wales, and Titirangi in New Zealand) is considered to be the nucleus of golf architecture on the fifth continent. In 1929 he moved to California and created a number of important places in the USA (Pasatiempo, Crystal Downs, Cypress Point and Augusta National ). The quality of his work is considered by many experts to be unmatched, for example Ian Andrew leads him to number 1 in his golf architects ranking. MacKenzie had such a large repertoire of design options that it cannot be assigned to any particular stereotype. Every element of his golf courses, whether routing, bunker design, greens or natural areas, plays an independent and clearly defined role, both strategically and aesthetically. Nevertheless, MacKenzie succeeded time and again in creating the impression of a harmonious playing area that follows the natural course of the terrain. In difficult terrain, in particular, he repeatedly stood out for his unconventional solutions. Occasionally, he even did without the strategic design, if this could create a particularly dramatic game situation.
James Braid (* 1870, † 1950)
- Main article: James Braid
James Braid was one of the best players of his time, including winning the Open Championship five times . After retiring from competitive golf, he worked as a golf architect on over 200 courses in the UK. His most important designs include St Enodoc (1907), Pennard (1908), Gleneagles (Queen's Course 1917, King's Course 1919), Brora (1923), Royal Musselburgh (1926), Perranporth (1927) and Boat of Garten (1930). He also reworked a number of Open Championship courses such as Prestwick (1908), Royal Cinque Ports (1919), Carnoustie (1926) and Royal Troon. Due to his limited travel activities, Braid relied on topographical maps and made detailed plans and sketches, which were often implemented without his intervention. However, his best work correlates strongly with the projects in which he showed a high presence on site. He had a special talent for difficult terrain, his designs repeatedly defy traditional layouts and consistently follow the terrain given by nature. For this reason, many of its holes are blind and the greens are often small and hidden. Instead of bunkers, which were often not possible due to lack of space, Braid liked to equip his putt surfaces with steeply sloping flanks, which made the face extremely difficult.
Charles Hugh Alison (* 1882; † 1952)
- Main article: Charles Hugh Alison
CH Alison began his career in 1906 as Harry Colt's assistant, and from 1908 to 1914 he was club secretary of Stoke Poges Golf Club. As a result, he assisted Colts in other places and eventually became a partner. John Morrison joined in 1923, who then concentrated with Colt on Europe, while Alison went to the USA and in 1930 to Japan. Similar to MacKenzie in Australia, Alison started a nucleus of local golf architecture in Japan with courses such as Hirono (1932) and Kaiwana (1936). In particular, his large and deep bunkers became very well known and were even named “Arizons” after him, as there had not been any similar obstacles in Japan before. Some of its bunkers were larger than the green they were defending. Its further design features are plateau greens and in particular the use of large areas of water, which in the golden age (and also in Alison's publications) were actually frowned upon due to their punitive nature.
Tom Simpson (* 1877; † 1964)
- Main article: Tom Simpson
According to Bernard Darwin , Woking's infamous central bunker inspired attorney Tom Simpson to pursue a career as a golf architect. In 1910 he joined Herbert Fowler's company , who became his mentor until he went into business for himself in 1928. A year later, the book "The Architectural Side of Golf", written together with Herbert Newton Wethered, was published, in which he presented the strategic design philosophy and - albeit in a different context - introduced the concept of the Golden Age. Simpson was an uncompromising eccentric both in appearance and in his work, his designs were often criticized as too capricious and occasionally unfair, which he took as proof of the quality of his work. One of his specialties were small and seemingly insignificant depressions and faults around the green, which distracted many supposedly well-played balls and caused them to roll over the short-cut grass into a difficult position. He considered length to be the wrong way to make a golf course more difficult for the sake of length, instead he gave a lot of space to chance and optical illusion up to half-blind greens. Bernard Darwin spoke of "diabolical antics" (devilish antics) and Simpson himself of "mad masterpieces" (crazy masterpieces). In addition to new designs such as Chantilly (1909), Fontainebleau (1909), Morfontaine (1911, 1927) and Hardelot Les Pins (1931), some redesigns are significant: Cruden Bay (with Herbert Fowler, 1926), Royal Antwerp (1930) or Royal Porthcawl ( 1937). He worked extensively with Molly Gourlay in the 1930s, becoming the first golf architect to consult a woman. Since he personally supervised the construction of his seats, he only came up with just under 50 new layouts and 30 revisions, including a series of collaborations.
Albert Warren Tillinghast (* 1874; † 1942)
- Main article: Albert Warren Tillinghast
Like Charles Blair Macdonald before him, AW Tillinghast, known as Tillie, was a student of Old Tom Morris. 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. Until the Great Depression , he was good in business with places like the San Francisco Golf Club (1915), Baltusrol (1922), Winged Foot (1923), Baltimore (Five Farms East, 1926) and Bethpage Black (1936). Many of his seats are still used today for major tournaments, as Tillinghast foresaw the technological advances 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.
William Flynn (* 1890 - † 1945)
- Main article: William S. Flynn
William Flynn got his first permanent job in 1911 with Hugh Wilson, who was assembling a team to build Merion's East Course, which, along with the National Golf Links of America, would soon become one of the most important courses of the early golden age. After the First World War he teamed up with the civil engineer Howard C. Toomey, as his mentor Wilson was no longer able to work as a golf architect for health reasons. With Toomey he built a number of renowned courses until his death in 1933: Lancaster CC (1919), Cherry Hills (1923), Cascades Course at Homestead (1923), Manufacturers CC (1925), Philadelphia CC (1927), The Country Club at Brookline (1927, expansion by 9 holes) and, as the culmination of his career, the completely new construction of Shinnecock Hills (1931). In total, Flynn can be attributed a little more than 30 new designs and redesigns each. What is particularly noticeable about his fairways is that he often led them against the natural contours of the terrain and created particularly difficult-to-hit targets with sharp breaks and inclines. He was extremely methodical in planning, his construction drawings are among the most detailed of the golden age. Flynn's bunker design was therefore less shaped by aesthetic considerations, rather the strategic benefit was in the foreground. He renounced everything that did not bring additional options into play, so that his places are occasionally criticized as something simple or too similar to one another. Nevertheless, in 1995 Shinnecock Hills was selected from among many applicants for the 100th US Open .
George C. Thomas Jr. (* 1873; † 1932)
- Main article: George C. Thomas Junior
In addition to AW Tillinghast, William Flynn, Hugh Wilson and George Crump, George C. Thomas was also part of the inner circle of Philadelphia's golf scene . He built Whitemarsh Valley, his first 18-hole course, in 1908 on his family's property; before that, he had already designed a 9-hole course in Marion . In 1919 he moved to California and designed in the next ten years, mostly with his assistant William "Billy" Bell, around 25 seats, of which only a few have survived and these few have been more or less changed. These primarily include Riviera (1926), the North Course of the Los Angeles Country Club (1921, 1926), La Cumbre (1920), Griffith Park (36 holes, 1923), Ojai Valley (1925) and Bel-Air (1927) . Despite his relatively small portfolio, George C. Thomas is an important representative of the golden age, as he had outstanding skills in the field of strategic design and documented the underlying principles in his book "Golf Architecture in America". For example, the north course of the Los Angeles Country Club could be played in four different ways: the bandwidth ranged from a short, idiosyncratic par 69 to a long, difficult par 73 - only achieved by repositioning the flags and tee markings. Because of this extremely high variability, he did not have to undulate the greens quite as much as many of his colleagues, he rather determined the strategy of a hole from the tee and fairway. With the help of cleverly placed bunkers he opened - sometimes only seemingly - several alternative routes to the green and often rewarded the player who could control the trajectory of the ball (draw, fade).
Seth Raynor (* 1874; † 1926)
- Main article: Seth Raynor
The Princeton graduate and civil engineer from Southampton initially had nothing to do with golf until Charles Blair Macdonald hired him in 1908 to survey the site of his planned National Golf Links of America . He soon promoted Seth Raynor to construction manager and in 1914 to partner. Together they realized Piping Rock (1913), Sleepy Hollow (1914), The Greenbrier (1915) and the Lido Course (1919), whereby Macdonald withdrew more and more often and left the field to Seth Raynor. One of Raynor's first own projects was the course on Fishers Island in 1917 , further important courses followed with Camargo (1921), Shoreacres (1921) and Yeaman's Hall (1925). Also of note are his redesigns of the Chicago Golf Club (1923) and Augusta Country Club (1926). Raynor hired two assistants, Ralph Barton and Charles Banks, in 1921, but his workload remained heavy and he died of pneumonia five years later. Charles Banks completed the projects that were running at the time and subsequently designed a number of places on his own before he died in 1931. Stylistically, Seth Raynor took the “template design” to extremes by sometimes combining several templates in one hole. The 4th hole on Fishers Island, for example, is of the Alps type and also has a punchbowl green (a green that is shaped like a funnel so that the ball always rolls into the middle). Overall, however, he maintained a somewhat more moderate style than his mentor Macdonald, in particular he was able to combine the templates with natural terrain shapes over and over again. He worked on around 50 layouts, almost all of them new designs.
Stanley Thompson (* 1893; † 1953)
- Main article: Stanley Thompson
The Canadian Stanley Thompson founded a company for golf course construction after the First World War and quickly gained a reputation for "Rock and Forest Courses", golf courses that were cut and blasted with great effort from spectacular forest and rock landscapes. His major projects in the Rocky Mountains and other national parks in particular achieved world fame, such as Jasper Park Lodge (1926), Banff Springs (1929) and Highlands Links (1939). St. George's (1930) and Capilano (1936) are also among the top places in Canada. In addition to strategic design, Stanley Thompson placed particular emphasis on the aesthetics of the landscape and the influence of agronomic factors on playability. Like Harry Colt before him, he first determined the par 3 holes when routing, so that they are often of outstanding quality. He was also happy to use naturally designed streams, ditches and ponds; his bunkers are mostly complex and individually designed. Occasionally he even placed them, purely for aesthetic reasons, in places where they did not come into play at all. His particular weakness for dramatic productions was also evident at the 9th hole in Jasper Park, which he called "Cleopatra" and designed in the form of a woman lying on her back. This makes him the first golf architect to integrate symbolic set pieces (faces, horseshoes and an octopus were also found) in his courses. In total, more than 120 new places and around 40 redesigns are assigned to him.
John Stanton Fleming Morrison (* 1892, † 1961)
- Main article: John Stanton Fleming Morrison
JSF Morrison began partnering with Harry Colt in 1923 and was appointed director of Colt Alison & Morrison Ltd. in 1928. From 1952, after the death of his partner, he continued to run the company on his own until the end of his life. In terms of style, Morrison's work hardly differed from the Colts, but it is of particular importance for the development of golf architecture in Germany. Together with Harry Colt, he designed the first places of international standards there. These included the Frankfurter GC (1928), the Aachener GC (1928), the Lübeck-Travemünder GC (1928, now largely changed), the GC Bergisch-Land (1929), the Hamburg GC Falkenstein (1930) and some layouts in East Germany (Chemnitz, Saxony, Saalfeld), which perished during the GDR regime. In 1957, the Hamburger Land- & Golf-Club Hittfeld followed. In addition, Morrison was also active in France (Hossegor 1930, St. Cloud Jaune 1930) as well as in Wales (St Mellons 1936) and Italy (Circolo Golf Torino 1956, GC Biella "Le Betulle" 1958). His most significant redesign was the Prince's Golf Club (1950 with Sir Guy Campbell), which was largely destroyed in World War II.
Perry Duke Maxwell (* 1879; † 1952)
- Main article: Perry Duke Maxwell
Perry Maxwell, who lives in Oklahoma , started his career as a golf architect with a one-year study trip to Scotland, where he met Alister MacKenzie, who was preparing the 1921 Open Championship . After his return, Maxwell established himself in the mid-west and south of the USA, from this period, among others, Dornick Hills (expansion 1923), Muskogee (1924), Twin Hills (1926), Old Town (1928) and Oklahoma City G&CC (1930) come. He was the first to build grass-based greens in Oklahoma, until now there have only been sand greens due to the dry climate. When Alister MacKenzie moved to the new world, Maxwell was able to work as a partner of the Scotsman on the world-class layouts University of Michigan (1931) and Crystal Downs (1933). MacKenzie's influence shifted his own, up to now quite straight forward style towards flair and drama. His two masterpieces Southern Hills (1935) and Prairie Dunes (1937) are also in this tradition and are generally regarded as the last designs of the golden age. However, Perry Maxwell worked in various places until the 1950s, supported by his son James Press Maxwell after the Second World War. His specialty were greens with sharp inner contours, which were soon called "Maxwell Rolls". Not least because of this talent, he was called in to renovate some famous courses, such as Pine Valley (1933), Augusta National (1937), Merion (1939) and on Long Island Maidstone and the National Golf Links of America. In total, Perry Maxwell came up with about 70 new places and 50 revisions.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Visible online at: Archive link ( Memento of the original from January 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 29, 2008.
- ^ A b Tom Simpson, Herbert Newton Wethered: The Architectural Side of Golf. Longmans, Green and Co., London 1929.
- ↑ a b Pat-Ward Thomas (Ed.): World Atlas of Golf. Mitchell Beazley, 1976, ISBN 0-85533-088-0 .
- ↑ a b Michael J. Hurdzan: Golf course architecture. E. Albrecht Verlags-KG, 1999, ISBN 3-87014-090-9 .
- ^ A b c Geoffrey S. Cornish, Ronald E. Whitten: The Architects of Golf. HarperCollins, New York 1993, ISBN 0-06-270082-0 .
- ↑ Steve Sailer: Fairway to Heaven. In: The American Conservative. Edition April 11, 2005.
- ^ Tom Doak: The Anatomy of a Golf Course: The Art of Golf Architecture. Burford Books, 1999, ISBN 1-58080-071-8 .
- ↑ Mark Rowlinson (Ed.): World Atlas of Golf. Hamlyn, 2008, ISBN 978-0-600-61794-5 .
- ^ Willard H. Moss: The American Naturalization of Golf. In: Outing. Edition December 1886.
- ^ A b Walter J. Travis: Practical Golf. In: Golf. Official Bulletin USGA . Issued May 1901. Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York.
- ^ Joseph EG Ryan: Bunker Architecture. In: Golf. Official Bulletin USGA. Issued April 1901. Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York.
- ↑ Richmond: The "Pocket" Golf Course. In: Golf. Official Bulletin USGA. Issued November 1900. Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York.
- ^ Henry Leach: Park and the Past. In: The American Golfer. Issued March 1917. The American Golfer Inc., New York.
- ↑ Horace Hutchinson: Artificial Bunkers. In: Golf. Official Bulletin USGA. Issued February 1898. Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York.
- ^ A b c d Alister MacKenzie: The Spirit of St. Andrews. Sleeping Bear Press, Chelsea (Michigan) 1995, ISBN 1-886947-00-7 .
- ^ N. Michael: Lowland Heathland: Wildlife Value And Conservation Status. English Nature Research Report No. 188. English Nature, Peterborough 1996. ISSN 0967-876X
- ↑ a b Horace Hutchinson: On Links and Style. In: The Golfer. Issued April 1899. Golf Publishing Company, Boston.
- ^ A b Walter J. Travis: Hazards. In: Golf. Official Bulletin USGA. Issued April 1902. Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York.
- ↑ a b c d e f Geoff Shackelford: Lines of Charm. Sports Media Group, Ann Arbor 2005, ISBN 1-58726-260-6 .
- ^ Reginald Beale: Turf and Golfing Turf. In: Golf Illustrated & Outdoor America. Issued April 1914. The Stuyvesant Company, New York.
- ^ Max Behr: Art in Golf Architecture. In: The American Golfer. Issue August 1927.
- ^ Walter J. Travis: The Care of Golf Courses. In: The American Golfer. Issued March 1909. The American Golfer Inc., New York.
- ^ Forrest Richardson: Routing the Golf Course. Wiley & Sons, 2002, ISBN 0-471-43480-9 .
- ↑ Michael V. Uschan: Golf . Lucent Books, November 2000, ISBN 1-56006-744-6 .
- ^ Walter J. Travis: Course Architecture. In: The American Golfer. Issued April 1909. The American Golfer Inc., New York.
- ↑ Peter McCleery: Mission: Unpopular. In: Golf Digest. October 2002 issue. The New York Times Company, New York.
- ^ Arthur Hills: The Evolution of the Green Complex. In: Golf Architecture: a worldwide Perspective. Volume 3. Full Swing Publishing, Glen Waverley 2005, ISBN 0-9581363-3-5 .
- ^ Alister MacKenzie: Golf Architecture. Simpkin, Marshall, Kent and Co., 1920.
- ^ John Henry Taylor: The Evolution of the Bunker. In: Joshua Taylor: The Art of Golf . Werner Laurie, London 1913.
- ↑ Joshua Crane: Rating Famous Golf Courses. In: Golf Illustrated. Issued January 1926. Golf Illustrated Inc., New York.
- ^ Frank Hannigan: Contemporary Golf Course Architecture - Saga or Satire? In: Green Section RECORD. Issued March / April 1989. United States Golf Association, Far Hills .
- ^ Paul Vermeulen: It Takes A Team. In: Green Section RECORD. November / December 2006 edition. United States Golf Association, Far Hills .
- ^ Thomas Dunne: Love at First Site. In: Travel + Leisure Golf. March / April 2006 edition. American Express Publishing Corporation, New York.
- ↑ Devereux Emmet: A Test of Skill. In: Golf. Official Bulletin USGA. Issued February 1902. Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York.
- ↑ Visible online at: Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated February 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 29, 2008.
- ↑ Available online at: http://thecaddyshack.blogspot.com/2007/07/architect-1-alister-mackenzie.html Retrieved March 1, 2008.
literature
- General
- Geoffrey S. Cornish, Ronald E. Whitten: The Architects of Golf. HarperCollins, New York 1993, ISBN 0-06-270082-0 .
- Geoff Shackelford: The Golden Age of Golf Design. Clock Tower Press, 2005, ISBN 1-886947-31-7 .
- Publications by architects of the golden age
- Willie Park Junior: The Game of Golf. 1896.
- Harry S. Colt, Charles H. Alison: Some Essays on Golf Course Architecture. The Country Life Library, London 1920.
- Alister MacKenzie: Golf Architecture. Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co., London 1920.
- Robert Hunter: The Links. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1926.
- George C. Thomas: Golf Architecture in America. The Times-Mirror Press, Los Angeles 1927.
- Charles Blair Macdonald: Scotland's Gift: Golf . Charles Scribner's Sons, New York / London 1928.
- Tom Simpson, Herbert Newton Wethered: The Architectural Side of Golf. Longmans, Green and Co., London 1929.
- Literature on architects of the golden age
- John WL Adams: The Parks of Musselburgh. Grant Books, 1991, ISBN 0-907186-16-5 (via Willie Park junior)
- Fred W. Hawtree: Colt & Co .: Golf Course Architects. Cambuc Archives, 1991, ISBN 0-9517793-0-3 (via Harry Colt, Charles Alison, John Morrison, Alister MacKenzie)
- George Bahto: The Evangelist of Golf. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, 2002, ISBN 1-886947-20-1 (via Charles Blair Macdonald)
- Bradley S. Klein: Discovering Donald Ross. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, 2001, ISBN 1-886947-55-4 (via Donald Ross)
- Tom Doak, Dr. James Scott, Ray Haddock: The Life and Work of Dr. Alister MacKenzie. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken 2005, ISBN 1-58536-018-X (via Alister MacKenzie)
- Philip Young: Tillinghast: Creator of Golf Courses. Classics of Golf, Pearl River 2005. (via Albert Warren Tillinghast)
- James A. Barclay: The Toronto Terror. Sleeping Bear Press, Chelsea 2000, ISBN 1-886947-93-7 (via Stanley Thompson)
- Geoff Shackelford: The Captain: George C. Thomas Jr. and His Golf Architecture. Sleeping Bear Press, Chelsea 1996, ISBN 1-886947-28-7 (via George C. Thomas)
Web links
- Thomas MacWood: Arts and Crafts Golf (English, overview article)
- Steve Sailer: From Bauhaus to Golf Course: The Rise, Fall, and Revival of the Art of Golf Course Architecture (English, overview article)
- Top 100 Golf Courses of the World (English, a database that consolidates golf course rankings from various sources)