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John Burnes

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the origins of the occupational term "Golf Architect"
« on: November 04, 2014, 06:34:03 PM »
I was wondering when (and where) this came about?  Also interested in when it was used in America first?  In a 1920 census (below line 88), it is reported that Tilly is a Golf Architect and own account (self employed).

However, others during this time are known as golf professional or groundsman, greenskeeper etc.



David_Tepper

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Re: the origins of the occupational term "Golf Architect"
« Reply #1 on: November 04, 2014, 06:41:45 PM »
John B. -

There was a thread on this a year or two ago. There is some acknowledgement that Charles B. MacDonald first adopted/created the term, at least for use in the U.S.

DT

Sven Nilsen

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Re: the origins of the occupational term "Golf Architect"
« Reply #2 on: November 04, 2014, 07:19:02 PM »
If you plug the terms "golf" and "architect" into the search function for Chronicling America (a newspaper database), the first instance of use (the actually use the term "course architect") comes up in this June 27, 1909 New York Tribune article entitled "What Constitutes an Ideal Hole for Golf?"

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1909-06-27/ed-1/seq-57/#date1=1836&sort=date&date2=1922&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&index=5&words=architect+golf&proxdistance=5&state=&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=%22golf+architect%22&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1

Perhaps not the first time the term was used, but a good benchmark.

Sven
"As much as we have learned about the history of golf architecture in the last ten plus years, I'm convinced we have only scratched the surface."  A GCA Poster

"There's the golf hole; play it any way you please." Donald Ross

BCrosby

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Re: the origins of the occupational term "Golf Architect"
« Reply #3 on: November 05, 2014, 07:50:43 AM »
Sven -

I think the term was used earlier than that in Britain. Will check around and get back.

Bob
« Last Edit: November 05, 2014, 08:45:24 AM by BCrosby »

Adam Lawrence

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Re: the origins of the occupational term "Golf Architect"
« Reply #4 on: November 05, 2014, 08:03:08 AM »
Other references: Charles Ambrose referred to Colt as a 'golf architect' in 1911 when advising Walter Tarrant to abandon his initial idea to get house buyers to lay out individual holes at St George's Hill. Darwin used the phrase extensively in The Golf Courses of the British Isles (1910); it seems to have been in fairly common usage by then.

However, this is the earliest reference I've been able to find in the UK press. It comes from the Dundee Evening Telegraph of Tuesday 16 August 1904. I find it pretty unlikely that the paper's anonymous golf writer invented the term; logically therefore I surmise it must have been in relatively common use then.

Adam Lawrence

Editor, Golf Course Architecture
www.golfcoursearchitecture.net

Principal, Oxford Golf Consulting
www.oxfordgolfconsulting.com

Author, 'More Enduring Than Brass: a biography of Harry Colt' (forthcoming).

Short words are best, and the old words, when short, are the best of all.

Neil Regan

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Re: the origins of the occupational term "Golf Architect"
« Reply #5 on: November 05, 2014, 11:47:50 PM »
This thread from a few months ago might help.

Was it CBM who coined the term 'Golf Course Architecture'?

An excerpt:

The term is used in 1896 in Baily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes.
Excerpt below, page 76, courtesy of Google Books.
Mark Bourgeois found this citation a few years ago.







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