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By Design
He says that compiling the history
of the course at Mira Vista has
helped to revitalize the club, “in
a way that has brought pride and
respect to the original design.”
“With the full timeline, we were
able to reference aspects of the
course from both a time and an
intent perspective,” Richardson
continues. “The timeline gave us a
feel for what the founders wanted to
do and how they viewed the course
and club. The intent came from
knowing what Hunter wanted
from the course.”
“Historic materials help to establish
a greater understanding of how a
course might have been originally
conceived, how it has evolved
through time, what sort of influences
took place and what their impact
was,” says Drew Rogers, ASGCA.
“Photos and notes can be
somewhat hard to find, but if
they exist they are usually in club
archives or vintage books, magazines
and newspaper articles. Some clubs
develop books about their history,
and those are like gold!”
For Mark Mungeam, ASGCA,
inspiration came in the form of
the program for the 1928 U.S.
Open. He has recently completed
a project on the North Course at
Olympia Fields CC
in Chicago, and
was able to restore elements of holes
by referring to the hole-by-hole guide,
which included photographs and a
plan image of each hole on the course
that Willie Park Jr. had laid out just
five years before the event was held.
“On the first hole for example, the
plan revealed a bunker with a grass
island on the right side of the landing
zone,” says Mungeam. “And on the
fifth, Park had placed a central bunker
about 20 yards from the putting
surface. These features had been lost
HISTORIC MATERIALS
Note the differing bunker styles in the two aerial shots that informed the work of Robert
McNeil, ASGCA, at River Vale Country Club. The top photo is dated from 1944, while the
bottom photo was taken in 1961
Drew Rogers, ASGCA, has used a range
of resources including Willie Park Jr’s plan
of Sylvania Country Club (above) and
Donald Ross’ sketches of the Country Club
of Columbus (right)