conoclastic golf course architect George C. Thomas,
Jr. was among the select geniuses who produced golf's "Golden Age of Architecture
in the 1920's.
| Vital Stats
1873-1932
born: Philadelphia, PA
residence: Beverly Hills, CA |
He worked in the days before course design was a profession for which you
trained. Like the other member of the so-called "Philadelphia School" of
design - A.W. Tillinghast, Hugh Wilson - Thomas came from a wealthy family
and took up course design as an amendment to his major interest, which was
gardening. Besides having written several authoritative volumes on the
cultivation of roses, Thomas penned what is still regarded today as among
the most fascinating books on course design, "Golf Architecture in America"
(1927).
Its sketches and black and white illustrations of famous holes alone make
the book worthwhile. More impressive is Thomas' grasp of strategic play and
of the options he thought appropriate to build into a golf course. He was
working - without fee, incidentally - in an era when the only earth-moving
possible was with mule scrapes and hand labor. Instead of bulldozing a site,
the architect had to rely upon the routing to optimize use of the land.
Thomas did stunningly well for himself as designer, building some dozen courses
in all, including an early version of
Whitemarsh
Valley (1908) outside Philadelphia,
Los
Angeles CC-North Course (1921),
Ojai
Valley Inn &CC (1925),
Bel-Air
CC (1927) and most famous of all,
Riviera
(1927). His work in California was undertaken with the considerable help
of construction foreman (and later, designer) William P. Bell.
Sadly, one of his most interesting layouts,
La
Cumbre (1920), in Santa Barbara, is no longer in existence; and many
of the more stylized features of his work at Ojai have been taken out over
the years. Amazingly, when architect Jay Morrish undertook renovations at
Ojai in 1987, he had no knowledge of Thomas' book, nor of its extensive drawings
and photos of the original layout. The club had no records on hand of the
old layout, and all Morrish could rely upon was a few fleeting glimpses of
the course from an old Katherine Hepburn movie. Slightly less ridiculous
but still tragic fates have befallen much of his original most interesting
work at
Bel-Air
CC and
Los
Angeles CC-North Course.
Luckily for golf fans, Thomas' work at
Riviera
displays his full talents. Thomas was not afraid to use exaggerated features
for effect. He built elaborately curled bunkers at Riviera to give his greensites
more definition. He also incorporated ambitious contours, including a massive
buried elephant mound at the par-4 fifth hole or long, slow natural uphill
climbs such as at Riviera's dramatic finishing hole. By placing a bunker
in the back center of a putting surface at the sixth hole, he turned what
might otherwise have been an indifferent uphill par-3 into a lasting visual
icon of classical golf course architecture. The only significant compromise
of Riviera's design is that the double fairway on the par-4 eighth hole has
been removed and the hole now plays down a single lane.
Thomas' work, long overlooked except by a very few architecture aficianados,
has recently received its first full-length treatment in the form of an
analytical biography, "The Captain," by Geoff Shackelford.
| Locate Additional George C. Thomas Jr. Courses
|
George C. Thomas, Jr.'s best:
White
Marsh Valley, Philadelphia, PA (1908)
La
Cumbre, Santa Barbara, CA (1920)
Los
Angeles CC-North, Los Angeles, CA (1921)
Ojai
Valley Inn, Ojai, CA (1925)
Griffith
Park-Harding, Los Angeles, CA (1926)
Bel-Air,
Los Angeles, CA (1927)
Riviera,
Pacific Palisades, CA (1927)
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