Perry Duke Maxwell
Perry Duke Maxwell (born June 13, 1879 in Princeton , Kentucky , † November 15, 1952 in Tulsa ) was an American golf architect and the main representative of the golden age of golf architecture .
life and work
Perry Maxwell was a graduate of the University of Kentucky and moved to what is now Oklahoma in 1897 to recover from a tuberculosis infection . There he made a career in the banking sector and took up golf in 1909. His wife came up with the idea of building a golf course around their house. This idea was realized from 1914 and later the Dornick Hills Golf Club developed from it. When his wife died in 1919, Maxwell decided to quit banking and pursue a career as a golf architect instead.
Maxwell's first step on this path was a one-year study trip and a. to Scotland, where he met Alister MacKenzie , who was preparing the 1921 Open Championship in St Andrews . After his return, Maxwell established himself in the American Midwest and South. a. Dornick Hills (expansion 1923), Muskogee (1924), Twin Hills (1926), Old Town (1928) and Oklahoma City G&CC (1930). In addition to the Scottish links courses, he mainly used Charles Blair Macdonald and his "template design" as a model. Maxwell was the first to build grass-based greens in Oklahoma ; Until now there was only sand greens due to the dry climate.
When Alister MacKenzie moved to the new world, Maxwell was able to place him with his first assignment and subsequently work as a partner of the Scot on the world-class layouts University of Michigan (1931) and Crystal Downs (1933). Maxwell's own, to date quite straightforward style shifted through MacKenzie's influence 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.
See also
literature
- Chris Clouser: The Midwest Associate: The Life and Work of Perry Duke Maxwell . Trafford Publishing, Bloomington 2006. ISBN 141207746X
- Geoffrey S. Cornish , Ronald E. Whitten: The Architects of Golf . HarperCollins, New York 1993. ISBN 0062700820
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Maxwell, Perry Duke |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Maxwell, Perry |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American golf architect |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 13, 1879 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Princeton (Kentucky) |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 15, 1952 |
| Place of death | Tulsa |