"Play those courses today and you appreciate the craft and talent involved.”

Very nice story today by Bill Pennington on the impact of Van Kleek and Stiles in northeast U.S. golf architecture.

Some of the names that dominate this era are Ross, Alister MacKenzie and A. W. Tillinghast. You will rarely hear the names of their contemporaries Wayne Stiles and John Van Kleek.

But the Boston-based Stiles was prolific, designing more than 140 courses from Maine to New Mexico. More than 70 remain, including many memorable layouts throughout New England. Van Kleek, his partner for several years, designed courses all over the world and in the mid-1930s was the supervising architect for a renovation of the New York City Park Department’s golf offerings.

Van Kleek put his stamp on golf courses throughout the city, from Split Rock in the Bronx to the Clearview layout in Queens — with Dyker Beach and Van Cortlandt Park in between.

“Stiles and Van Kleek weren’t splashy, self-promoting guys,” said Bob Labbance, who along with Kevin Mendik wrote “The Life and Work of Wayne Stiles” (Notown Communications), a book published earlier this year.

“They didn’t do many big, expensive projects,” Labbance said. “They pleased their clients and their communities with relatively low-cost golf. But play those courses today and you appreciate the craft and talent involved.”

Comments

[Jason B]

I'm very happy to see the recognition for Stiles/Van Kleek- one of my favorite golf courses on Earth is this very quirky 9 holw course in Walpole NH, called Hooper Golf Club- it's one of theirs, and I played it about 2x per week when I lived in the area. At the time the turf was in impeccable shape, too.

[John B]

There are lots of those architects from that era that don't get their just dues around the country.

Here in the Midwest, we have Bill Diddell, he designed lots of Midwestern courses in the 30's-50's and doesn't get much credit. I am not sure that any of his layouts are in anyone's top 100 or even 500, but he has some challenging layouts, and most of them are muni's or small private courses.

[frankD]

TOM WINTON has designed many westchester county NY public courses that at this point one could say have withstood the test of time - i'm just hypothysizing, but of all the rounds played on all the courses within that county, possibly more rounds have been played, in aggregate, on winton's courses over the years than any other single architect !

frankD

[clashman]

Anyone know if Taconic will ever implement Gil Hanse's proposed changes?

[Johnny B]

Clashman,

Gil's renovation is set to begin Monday August 18 and be completed sometime in the spring of 2009. Apparently a lot of tree removal has already taken place. It's a $2.5 million renovation.......http://www.taconicgolf.com/coursemasterplan.htm

[Ronald Montesano]

I'm playing Taconic on Friday, just in time to see the course before the renovations begin. I'll be getting some of the final photographs of what there is. I'll then travel back (if the winds allow) after the renos and get a sense of all the good work he does.