We first interviewed Phil Young back in 2004 when he released his book,
Tillinghast: Creator of Courses and a decade later we’re checking back in. Coincidentally, his club history of the San Francisco Golf Club has just become available to members.
Tilly's life in golf - from the mid-1890s ‘til his death in 1942 - more or less bookends the Golden Age of Golf Architecture. Coincidence? Perhaps but after several telephone conversations with Phil (as well as Gib Papazian) and piecing together this Feature Interview, I am beginning to believe that Tilly as much as any single person helped drive that Golden Age. His numerous visits to the UK around the turn of the last century gave him a perspective for what golf should be back home in the USA.
Phil speaks of St. Andrews in 1901 when Old Tom Morris was still going strong and MacKenzie and Tillinghast were both visiting. What a gathering of TITANS!
If I could ever be magically present for one event, that would be it – St. Andrews to boot.
Frank Hannigan's 1974 article in the USGA Golf Journal placed a spotlight squarely on Tilly when it focused on the extraordinary number of his courses that were hosting championships that year. However, to truly understand Tilly, you must examine the full range of his work. Phil estimates that Tilly may well have visited and offered advice (and sometimes worked) on nearly 1,000 courses – back then! That’s a crazy high % of the total courses that existed at that time.
Great to see gems like Sands Point and Southward Ho (pictured above) get shout-outs from Phil.Phil shares an unusual take on Tilly and that is what a campaigner he was for work. Tilly seriously busted his hump zig-zagging across the country seeking projects. Listen to this from Phil on one of Tilly's Texas ventures:
Take what he did in 1916 as an example. He arrived in San Antonio the last week of September to design Brackenridge Park. By the time he left 6 weeks later he talked himself into the commissions for the 36-hole design at Fort Sam Houston (18 holes only built due to WW I with an additional 9 built after) and the redesign of the San Antonio CC. While there he drew the plans for each course, staked them out and oversaw the beginnings of the construction and left them with plasticene models which he made himself for each hole. During this stay he also managed to write a daily column in the San Antonio Light newspaper about the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team. That was typical Tilly.Tilly seems almost tireless, especially during the age when transportation was more helter-skelter. He clearly enjoyed a zest for life. While many architects were sidelined by the Great Depression, he was busy working for the PGA (he toured 400+ courses for them!) and the Bethpage complex.
He passed away before the ASGCA was formed in 1947 but like Ross served as a connection from Old Tom to the modern game. As a writer, drawer, thinker, and architect that touched a vast number of courses, it is
impossible to overstate what Tilly meant to American golf. And no one conveys that better than Phil Young.
Switching gears, we speak with Phil about one of his great discoveries, that Bloomfield Hills was actually designed by Colt and not Ross as had long been supposed. Hopefully, the club will carry through with a Keith Foster restoration plan when the timing is right. Such a find creates great circumstance. Obviously, the debunking of misattribution at a club might bruise the feelings of those who had chronicled the events differently. We talk about this and how a researcher can only present the facts and accept the consequences. The better the information unearthed, the more authentic a potential action plan becomes for the club - that's Phil’s ultimate goal.
Mr. Young is making a difference in the busy world of restoration during this period when new course construction is moribund. If only we were all so lucky that our daily work mattered and had meaning!
Yet, that’s emphatically the exciting place where Phil finds himself thanks to his diligence and research.
Stay tuned - It won’t be another ten years before we hear back from him either!
Best,