35 to ‘restore’. We call our process a sympathetic restoration, trying to address 21st century demands to an early 20th century design. We suspect the greens were surface drained and, thus, had distinct slopes on which pin positions could still be placed because the greens were mowed higher in those days. But the greens we found at Swope today were those installed in a 1989 remodelling. While they tried their best to give it some Tillinghast flavour; in my opinion, they failed for the most part (and primarily an ill-advised ‘Great Hazard’). Many of those rebuilt greens were two-level affairs, with the transition slope invariably placed perpendicular to the angle of approach, resulting in a collection of very similar, almost monotonous two-step greens. We have some decent photos of each green (except the second) from 1934, and while a couple of two-level greens could be found among the originals, there weren’t that many. As there are no original detailed hole-by-hole green plans from Tillinghast, we’ve had to guesstimate on his original contours with what little photographic help we could muster, keeping in mind present day green speeds. Architects Todd Clark and Brent Hugo have developed what I think are a superb set of greens that we’re now installing, ones that will reflect those shown in photographs, but massaged to provide far more pin placements. One example is the third green, which will have a left-to-right flow to it to help move shots down and around a master trap in the right front portion of the green. The green on the par-three fourth (which had been two levels) will now feature a slightly convex putting surface with the front half pitched toward the tee and the back half flowing away from the direction of play. There will be bigger greens that previously existed, partly to provide the superintendent with more potential hole locations and partly to allow us to create some Tillinghast slopes within the greens without sacrificing hole locations. A page from Tillinghast’s 1916 brochure, The Golf Course, where he advocated for ‘Dolomites’, multiple and freefrom mounds that act like a miniature mountain range
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