Willie Park, Jr.
Willie Park Junior ( born February 4, 1864 in Musselburgh, East Lothian, † May 1925 in Edinburgh) was a professional golfer who contributed as a player, club manufacturers and golf architect significant pioneering work in golf.
Life and work
Born and raised in Musselburgh, then next to St Andrews one of the great golf centers in Scotland, the professional choice for Willie Park Junior was never a question: his father Willie Park Senior won the Open Championship four times, his uncle Mungo Park once and he could finally two wins recorded (1887, 1889). Initially, he worked as a caddy, greenkeepers and golf teacher, then he took over the family business of the ball and bat manufacturing and built it with the help of some patents to a market- leading operation.
From 1886 he worked as a golf course architect, first in Innerleithen for his sick father entrant. Other designs from his early phase, Silloth - on-Solway (1892, but probably only advisory), Barberton (1893 ), Larne (1895 ), Dieppe (1897 ), Bruntsfield Links (1898), Gullane # 2 ( 1898) and Burntisland ( 1899).
1896 brought the park with "The Game of Golf" the first golf book ever out that had been written by a professional golfer. The chapter contained therein " Laying Out and Keeping Golf Links " is one of the earliest publications on golf architecture. Its become known sentence "The laying out of a golf course is by No Means a simple task" ( the design of a golf course is by no means a trivial task ) interprets the development of an independent professional image.
In 1901 started the park almost single-handedly the later so -titled golden age of golf architecture with the first two domestic courts, which could be measured qualitatively with the leading up to date links courses: Sunningdale and Huntercombe (the latter with considerable financial participation of the park itself ). Although Sunningdale is the much better known place today, Huntercombe can come up with two historically significant innovations: on the one hand there was the first time an applied on two levels Green, on the other hand it was the first golf course, which was designed as part of a housing development.
Because of the onset of its international reputation, these projects soon followed by many orders at home and abroad. Particularly noteworthy are the first 9 holes of Austria in Vienna's Prater (1901 ), but these were destroyed during the Second World War. Two more designs in France followed: Golf de La Boulie at Versailles (1901) and Evian -les- Bains ( 1904), the latter, however, was replaced in 1988 by a new place. Further works were Notts Hollinwell (1901 ), Montrose (1903), Royal Antwerp (1910 ), City of Derry ( 1911), Glasgow Gailes (1912 ) and Shiskine (1913).
Financial difficulties related to his major project Huntercombe forced Park in 1916 to emigrate to the U.S., where he designed more places: among other things, for the Woodway Country Club (1916 ), the Shuttle Meadow Country Club (1917 ), the Battle Creek Country Club (1921 ) and the Maidstone Club (1922 ). In Canada he worked, about 20 golf courses he designed there, for example the Mount Bruno Golf Club in Quebec ( 1919). But the highlight of his work overseas was the U.S. Open course in Olympia Fields, Illinois (1922 ). Total is attributed to between 170 and almost 200 layouts in Europe and North America.
Although Willie Park Junior was one of the main protagonists of the golden age of golf architecture, he represented partly still views that must be attributed to the punitive design philosophy. For example, a good player should never be faced with obstacles, so that parking his bunker often placed away from the line of play. Also, mounds, walls and similar obstacles Victorian one of his trademarks. But for all his courses also plenty of heroic and strategic elements, he preferred example, large, undulating greens and wide fairways. He promoted the strategic game on the ground, by defending its greens rarely head-on. Even psychological tricks, such as bunker 50 yards short of the green, were part of his repertoire. Besides, its natural design fashion was groundbreaking: in ' The Game of Golf " he exhorts the golf architect for openness to the natural conditions and does not speak of " constructing ", but by " finding " of the holes.
In May 2013 Willie Park Jr. was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.