The Purverts: The Birth of the Victorian Architecture in America

This evening I will be lucky enough to be delivering a speech to the USGA Green Section at Belleair Country Club in Belleair, FL.

I titled the speech, The Purverts: The Birth & Death of Victorian Architecture in America.

A podcast of the Birth and Death of Victorian Golf in America is in the works on the TalkinGolf History Podcast (https://talkingolf.fireside.fm) but until then, I thought I would share some of the visuals I included in my speech because they are delightful.

The story is a bit too long for this newsletter, but I think you will enjoy what I can share with you.

The Father of Victorian Design

Laidlaw Purves’ Victorian Design Principles

Rather than list all of Purves’ ideas on golf design, I thought we could focus on those ideas that helped formulate Victorian Design.

• Holes should be one or more drives in length, so that any badly driven ball prevents the player reaching the green in the same number of strokes as the player who had driven well. Where the length cannot be obtained, any badly played tee shot should meet a hazard, which will have the same effect.

• Avoid the driver and iron hole, and where this cannot be avoided, the hole should be placed so that, unless the tee-shot bunker is carried, the approach shot is more difficult than if the bunker be carried from the tee.

• There should be a hazard from every tee, the carrying of which gives an advantage. A flag showing the line and distance to be carried is useful.

• The bunkers should be visible, as far as possible, from the lie of the shots intended to carry them.

• The bunkers should be visible, as far as possible, from the lie of the shots intended to carry them.

• The course proper ought to be bounded by hazards of some sort- long grass and bad lies -to prevent a player avoiding the recognised hazards, which should all be accurately laid down on the plan.

• There should be a bunker in front of every green, which cannot be avoided without loss of distance and risk.

• …the putting-green should slope toward the player in approaching.

• A typical hole is one having a hazard from the tee requiring a fair shot to carry it, a hazard for the shot through the green, the carrying of which hazard makes the player, and a drive into the putting green carrying the hazard in front of it. Where each of these shots is properly played, a good lie should be obtained.

From these words Victorian Golf Design spread across the Atlantic and found fertile ground in the New World, where golf was just starting to take hold. Here are some examples of its impact:

How about this past year’s U.S. Open site?

I could go on and on but I fear I am losing the room. From 1884 to 1900 almost 1000 golf courses were laid out in the United States and 99% were designed using Victorian Design Principles.

In my speech and our future podcast we will dive into how Victorian Golf spread across Scotland, England and into the Americas. We will dive into how it died out and how its death kicked off the Golden Age of Golf Design.

For more of that- please tune in to our podcast.

Thank you for taking the time to read this week’s newsletter. If you enjoyed it please consider sharing it with your friends and family. If you disliked it please consider sharing it with your enemies.

Until next time…

Yours in Golf History,

Connor T. Lewis