PAGE
THE PINEHURST OUTLOOK
GOLD MINES BURIED IN GOLF COURSES
The Lavish Sums Spent by Enthusiasts in Altering the Very
Landscape to Bring More Science Into the Game
By A. Linde Fowler
DRIVING eighteen
stakes into the ground
to indicate the spots for
as many teeing grounds,
and eighteen more stakes
to denote where putting
greens shall be devel
oped, no longer sufficies
in golf links architec
ture, on the word of Donald J. Ross, who
is looked upon generally as the greatest
expert in the country today on the layout
and development of courses. Golf course
construction is now a science, according to
Mr. Ross. The days of haphazard con
struction are nearly done, because the
clubs are spending large sums of money
on their links and they have learned from
experience that not to do the thing cor
rectly in the first place means the exp
enditure of further large sums to undo
what has been done and start afresh.
Moreover, says Mr. Ross, the young
man of today who is looking for a voca
tion will do well to consider golf from
the scientific angle appertaining to golf
course construction .or from the angle of a
man who can combine the knowledge of
greenkeeping with that of clerical duties,
so that he can take on the secretaryship
of a club and apply himself both to
directing his forces on the links and those
in the running of the club house.
It is not often that Donald Ross finds
time to philosophize on golf or any other
topic. There is such a demand upon his
services for laying out golf courses all
over the country 'that most of his talking
is done before a board of directors and
other officials of various clubs, or else in
leaving directions for, the men who carry
out his plans for a course while he is off
to some other point. It was only a few
years ago that he resigned as professional
of the Oakley Country Club, after a long
tenure, to go to the Essex Country Club
at Manchester, ostensibly as professional,
practically to re-design that course and
bring about the many and striking altera
tions which have developed the Essex
course from a second-rate test to one of
championship quailty.
In the course of his work at Essex, and
as a result of being sought in an advisory
capacity by officials of other clubs, Mr.
Ross realized that golf course construc
tion is an applied science. He soon found
that it was necessary for him to be able
to master engineering problems ; to be able
to show on paper what could be done for
golf on a piece of rough property; how
money could be saved by utilizing for one
spot the waste material from another and
how it also was necessary to study land
scape architecture, in order to have his
greens, bunkers and other features con
form to the natural contour of the land.
Realizing all these things, he studied hard
and, as golfers know, with great success.
Hence he advises any who hope for suc
cess in the line of golf course construction
not to enter upon the work unless pre
pared to apply themselves tirelessly to the
task in hand.
THE ARCHITECT AND THE CLUB
There never was a time when golf and
country clubs were more ready to go deep
into the exchequer to provide a first-class
golf course than is the case today. There
never was a time, on the other hand, when
the club officials and influential members
were less inclined to make heavy expendi
tures blindly and find themselves, eventu
ally, with a fortune of outlay and a sec
ond or third-rate course. They are will
ing to grant the expert's superior knowl
edge of what should be done, where haz
ards should be placed, where trees should
be cut down, where rocks should be
blasted but they want to know the whys
and wherefores.
That is where the blueprint figures.
The expert links architect, like Mr. Ross,
visits the property on which a golf course
is to be laid out, or where there is one
needing alterations. He goes over the
property and makes a minute study of its
configuration, from a golfing standpoint.
He may spend one day tramping over a
piece of property, or he may spend several
days. To illustrate with a local instance:
Mr. Ross was asked to lay out he present
nine-hole course of the Kernwood Country
Club at Salem. He spent three days
there doing little else than studying and
then restudying the property. He went
into a clump of trees, sat down on a rock
there and finally concluded that there was
an ideal spot for one of the putting
greens.
There were holes which he saw would
have to be drained; points on the course
where hundreds of loads of dirt would be
nedeed and other points where this dirt
might be hauled from. When he finally
presented a draft of his ideas for the
officials to look over well, one of them
told the writer he thought at first Mr.
Ross was crazy. When the development
was worked out along the lines proposed,
it was not Mr. Ross who was crazy, but
this member was " crazy' ' about the
layout.
Going from a club committee with his
blueprints, with all the details and speci
fications jotted down, Mr. Ross finds a
satisfactory start for his work. The com
mittee can study the plans, see "what it
likes and does not like; ask the architect
why he favors this or that and specify
wherein they may disagree with him.
They can post the plans for the study of
all the members and get a majority opin
ion on the desirability of the layout as
given. Therein is protection for all
hands. If the majority of a club 's mem
bers are satisfied with the layout as it
appears on the plans, and have some idea
of the amount of money to be expended,
the committee which has to do more
directly with the final steps is relieved
of the responsibility. The architect,
knowing that he is undertaking something
which "involves a large expenditure, feels
much more comfortable if he has given
the club a fairly definite idea of how the
course will shape up in its finished state
and has his ideas approved
COURSES ALREADY SPOILED
The haphazard laying out of courses in
years gone by has been exceedingly costly
to many a golf and country club in this
country. Some of them have the member
ship and the wealth to undo the damage,
but 'there are others which are obliged to
stick by an unsatisfactory layout for lack
of funds. There was one such which Mr.
Ross visited this Summer and character
ized as "hopeless." It was laid out
badly at the start and subsequent changes
made the situation worse rather than bet
ter. To make this course over into what
Donald Ross would consider worthy the
expert's skill would require double what
already has been spent. Possibly it could
be done in the manner Alec Campbell once
suggested as the only way of improving a
certain course, viz., have an earthquake to
change the configuration of the land and
then use plenty of soil dressing.
There is a course down in Connecticut
where thousands of dollars have been
wasted because someone in ignorance of
what a good golf hole embodies put
through several fanciful ideas, one of
which involved the expenditure of $12,000
for just one hole, which was played a few
wreeks and then abandoned. A large slice
of the $12,000 was spent n the construc
tion of a teeing ground, which now serves
as a constant reminder to the club 's green
committee of how easy it is to throw
away money on a golf course.
The Country Club of Detroit, where this
year's National amateur championship
was played, was pronounced by Harry
Vardon and Edward Hay (according to
reports) as the best course in America.
when the majority of the country's lead
ing amateurs went there for the cham
pionship they in great numbers agreed
that while the course has wonderful turf,
its fair greens are far too wide and its
artificial bunkers too far away from
points they are supposed to guard. If the
club's committee in charge acts upon
these criticisms, it will cost considerable
money, both for the services of an expert
to supervise the changes and for the cost
of labor and materials. On the other
hand, the club probably realizes now that
in having such wide fairways it not only
provides too much freedom for the golfer
in his long game encouraging long hit
ting as against long hitting plus accuracy
but that such wide fair greens cost a
large sum of money to develop and then
more disproportionate sums to maintain.
The wider the f airgreen, the more time it
takes to keep the grass down to required
length, and time is money on golf course
upkeep, as in other lines.
Although the question was not put to
Mr. Ross, the probabilities are that at
least fifty per cent of the demands upon
his services as an expert come from clubs
which desire to have their courses remod
eled. Golf is a game in which there is
more chance for favorable or unfavorable
comparisons of playing conditions than in
almost any other sport which can be men
tioned. The golfers, especially those who
attain sufficient proficiency to make open
tournaments an attraction, visit many
courses. They soon recognize if their own
is inferior to the average and then begin
to criticise, or else use their influence to
bring about a change.
With many a club, money is no object,
so long as there is a satisfactory return
upon the investment, the "return," in
this connection, meaning a first-class lay
out. Anywhere from $50,000 to $300,000
or even more is spent on acquiring prop
erty, developing a course and erecting a
clubhouse. The money invested in golf
and country clubs in the United States
runs high in the millions, how high would
be simply a guess.
But the attitude of some men, or clubs,
is reflected in some of the experiences of
Mr. Ross. He was sought out on one oc
casion by a man of wealth who had made
up his mind that he would have a golf
course on a large tract of summer-resort
property which he owned. Mr. Ross did
not feel like accepting the task, for the
reason that he concluded it was more a
passing fancy than a real purpose, and
that the course wrould be of an inferior
nature, hence reflect little credit upon the
architect, if not an actual discredit to his
ability. His plan to rid himself of the
commission and at the same time to create
no hard feelings, was to set what he
thought was a prohibitive figure for his
services. He named the figure and was
taken aback when the response was:
"Oh, that's all right, perfectly satis
factory. When can you begin work?"
Subsequently Mr. Ross found that it
was not an inferior summer course he was
to build, but one of thorough up-to-dateness
and about as interesting an engi
neering and aesthetic problem as he ever
tackled. The sum of $100,000, in round
figures, has been spent on that links up
to the present, with most pleasing results.
A group of wealthy men in Connecticut
have empowered Mr. Ross to start in on a
course which they aim to have second to
none in point of scientific layout, regard
less of expense. A new course is being
laid out by him at Nantucket, where con
ditions will be similar to the British sea
side courses; i. e-, with the ocean close at
hand; natural valleys and undulations,
sand dunes, and other seaside features.
Mr. Ross is at work on remodelling the
Portland Country Club links; he has re
modelled the Exmoor Country Club course
in the Chicago district; has laid out new
courses at Milwaukee ,Minneapolis, Day
ton, St. Augustine, Memphis, Topeka,
Warren, (Pa.), Grand Rapids, (Mich.),
and Detroit. He has remodelled the Oak
wook Country Club of Cleveland, besides
advising on changes or laying out other
courses which he could not remember
offhand.
These courses mentioned have been all
under the architectural supervision of one
man, taking no cognizance of the work
being accomplished by others. Arthur G.
Lockwood is laying out two or more eigh
teen hole courses at present, and A. W.
TiUinghast is busy along the same lines in
the South. Charles B. Macdonald was the
architect of the National links, on which
approximately quarter of a million (more
rather than less) has been spent to have a
course with holes copying the best fea
tures of the recognized great holes of best
courses in the world.