This week’s AT&T National is taking a two-year hiatus from the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland and moving north to the Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. Where? I hear you saying. Oh yeah, that’s where the 1962 PGA Championship , 1977 U.S. Amateur, and the 2003 Senior PGA Championship were played, but you knew that, didn’t you? Those of you in the know will also recognize the name Aronimink Golf Club as the 1928 Donald Ross design that, over the years, has been recognized as one of the top courses, then not so much, then once again, then... well you get the picture.
One thing that we all know is that Donald Ross was one of the most influential golf course designers in history, and the folks at Aronimink think their golf course is his best work. They anchor their opinion with Ross’ own words, uttered in 1948, "I intended to make this my masterpiece, but not until today did I realize that I build better than I know."
The folks at Aronimink like what Ross said so much that they put up a plaque that will no doubt be on display during the tournament.
Over the years a list of golf course architects, including Robert Trent Jones and some guy named Fazio, have taken turns so called modernizing the Aronimink course until it became somewhat of a hodgepodge that no one recognized as a Donald Ross design. Eventually, and luckily, the members got the message, especially after Aronimink's national rating took a dive. In 1994, they contacted the Donald Ross Society to find an architect who could return the course to something closer to its original design, and from whence came Ron Prichard, a Donald Ross buff who specialized in restoring classic courses.
Like a golf course Indiana Jones, Prichard dug through the archives and found Ross’ original field sketches and old photographs of what the course used to look like. The obvious changes were the bunkers and greens. When Prichard arrived there were more than 200 bunkers on the course, only 80 of which belonged to the Ross design.
The greens had also been changed over time simply from mowing patterns where workers on rider mowers were rounding out the corners instead of making them sharper. Prichard, a Ross historian, knew that the rounded corners severely reduced the available hole locations. Using Ross’ own sketches the greens were restored to their original sizes with the swales and plateaus that made them so unique and so Ross.
Whether Aronimink is Donald Ross’ masterpiece is not for me to say, but I like the idea of bringing it back to Ross’ original design. And although you and I may never get an invite to play Aronimink, there are plenty of opportunities to play a Donald Ross designed course… maybe just down the street.
By the time that Ross had retired to the big golf course in the sky, he was credited with a whopping 600 designs and redesigns, although some were during what is referred to as his "mail order'' days when the demand for his work was so high that he would route courses for property he never saw. Planted firmly at his desk overlooking Pinehurst No. 2, Donald would use topographical maps, lay out a course on the top, and the club's greenskeeper or engineer would oversee the construction. However, most golf historians believe that Ross did actually oversee work on as many as 400 of the courses that bear his name.
His most famous course, Pinehurst No. 2, is open to the public. Granted, the green fee is a bit steep at $345 plus, but it’s not like you’re going to play there twice a week, so if you get the chance tee it up….
Interestingly, Pinehurst, was also Ross’ first design. After serving as an apprentice to old Tom Morris at St. Andrews (yes, that old Tom), Donald invested his life savings in a trip to the U.S. in 1899 at the suggestion of a Harvard professor named Robert Wilson, who found him his first job at Oakley Country Club in Watertown, Massachusetts. In 1900 he was appointed as the golf professional at the Pinehurst Resort where he began his course design career and eventually designed four courses there.
For you purists, Ross was not just a greenskeeper turned architect; he could play, in fact, he finished fifth in the 1903 U.S. Open and eighth in the 1910 British Open.
If you’re wishing there was a Donald Ross course close to you, their just may be one. Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Donald_Ross_designed_courses and check it out, tee it up, and let us know what you think of our boy Donald’s work.
