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Discovering Donald Ross
The Architect and His Golf Courses
By Bradley Klein
Sleeping Bear Press, 2001
ISBN: 1-886947-55-4 $85.00
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At their best they're examples of landscape folk art, American expressions of Scottish sensibilities. Simple and modest in design and construction, a Ross course is not only aesthetically pleasing, it's as structurally sound as a Shaker chair.
The pleasures go beyond the seamless fit of the course with its surroundings. The challenges for the golfer are straightforward, yet the options require imagination, skill and luck. The designer's mastery can be as simple as varying the lengths of par fours and asking ideally for a draw to be played off the tee and a fade to be played into the green, ideas that may strike some as compatible with the ancient harmonious precepts of feng shui.
Clearly, a sense of order underscores Ross's genius. This clarity helps explain why he continues to delight and vex golfers against a backdrop of near constant change and "progress," and why he is deserving of study (and maybe even $300+ green fees).
The Scots émigré was a modest but modern man. "There was a devout humility and honesty of presentation in everything" Ross did including his courses, suggests the author, a longtime Golfweek curmudgeon who has dirtied his hands in design and construction.
Ross was not as prolific nor skilled a writer as his more noted contemporaries, nor was he as educated or adept as a self-promoter. His pedigree in golf, however, most notably as an apprentice to Tom Morris (he was also a fine competitive player), provided the foundation for a methodically successful career.
Ross is credited with several hundred courses, then or now an unbelievable body of work. It is also the source of discussion. A careful businessman, he created a framework for mass production innovating his profession. He assembled a gifted staff, stuck to the letter of scientific law (with drainage and other agronomic principles) and honed a system that would at least increase the odds of creating a desirable golf course. What happened once construction started was outside his control. The task invariably depended on the quality of many factors, including green committees. These factors largely explain the confusion regarding "Ross" courses he never saw.
The author also notes the debilitating addition or growth of trees on Ross courses over the intervening years. In numerous cases trees have limited the variety of shots that Ross originally envisioned. The careless addition of cart paths, neglect and good intentions has also eviscerated many a lovely view.
To say that there was uniformity to Ross's method is certainly fair, but the same cannot be said about the final product. The land and the limitations he faced in working with it ultimately dictated the decision-making process. A Presbyterian upbringing gave him an Old World view of fairness, virtue and human weakness. As with all the classic architects, Ross had an appreciation for the variety of links golf, and the slings of fate. All these traits are sufficiently evidenced in his work to discourage those who would seek to box him in. He was also, as were his contemporaries, a strong advocate of public golf.
This exquisite production squires us along on a comprehensive visual, biographical and archival tour. The paper trail on Ross, thanks to his association with Pinehurst and the work of the late W. Pete Jones, who passionately researched Ross, is considerable. Along with more revered addresses like Pinehurst and Seminole, numerous small private New England gems are examined. The author took many of the splendidly reproduced photos himself (no doubt bringing along his clubs).
Ross's drawings were rudimentary, if serviceable. When he hired artist Walter Johnson, they took on a descriptive, evocative quality. With mounds and bunkers, often thought of as tell-tale signs of Ross's hand, there were numerous variations. Some suited certain drainage complexities, others in place would add delicious deception and provide a myriad of options.
One wonders how Ross and his penchant for understatement, his "devout humility" and the economy he brought to his craft, will play down the road. Devout humility is not what first comes to mind when thinking of modern courses. The '99 U.S. Open would seem to auger good things for the Ross legacy. Would it help to remind those designing courses today that no golfer enjoys losing balls?
Duly Noted - Edition I - Shouting at Amen Corner
Duly Noted - Edition II - Precision Putting
Duly Noted - Edition III - In the Women's Clubhouse
Duly Noted - Edition IV - Royal and Ancient
Duly Noted - Edition V - Into the Bear Pit
Duly Noted - Edition VI - The Biography of Walter J. Travis
Duly Noted - Edition VII - Uneven Lies
Duly Noted - Edition VIII - Sir Walter & Mr. Jones
Duly Noted - Edition IX - The Golf Ball Book
Duly Noted - Edition X - Balls!
Duly Noted - Edition XI - To Brookline and Back
Duly Noted - Edition XII - The Golden Era of Golf
Duly Noted - Edition XIII - The Story of Golf in Oklahoma
Duly Noted - Edition XIV - Fourteen Clubs and the Auld Claret Jug
Duly Noted - Edition XV - A Golfer's Education
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