How can you not love Seth Raynor?

   In 1908, Long Island civil engineer Seth Raynor was hired by C.B. Macdonald to survey the property that would become The National Golf Links of America. Macdonald was so impressed with Raynor’s engineering knowledge that he hired him to supervise construction of the course. Raynor went on to build all remaining courses designed by Macdonald. He also designed and remodeled over 50 courses of his own, all in the Macdonald style of superimposing versions of famous British golf holes onto a variety of landscapes. His courses included Fishers Island in New York, Fox Chapel in Pittsburgh, Camargo in Cincinnati, Shoreacres and a revised Chicago Golf Club in Chicago, Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Monterey Peninsula in California and Yeaman's Hall in Charleston, S.C. Raynor died at age 51 of pneumonia. His unfinished projects were completed by his assistant Charles Banks. The geometric nature of Seth Raynor’s architecture worked especially well in hilly terrain. 

Shoreacres and Camargo, which also opened in 1921, were Raynor's first great solo design efforts.  Shoreacres is as close to an original Seth Raynor design as exists. Superintendent Tim Davis, in collaboration with Tom Doak's Renaissance Design Firm, has thoughtfully performed restoration work. Many of the Raynor greens have been returned to their initial size, in some cases increasing the green size by more than one third. A direct consequence of such a restoration is that many of the most interesting hole locations are brought back into play along the outer parts of the greens. Though Raynor in general produced broad greens, getting at hole locations in their far reaches is a study in shot making. For instance take the 5th green. A front left location is diabolical as anything in the middle of the green leaves a putt sloping fiercely downhill and off the green. The golfer may be better off to miss the green left with a draw and have a straightforward chip shot into the green slope. Conversely, a back right hole located a top one of the plateaus requires a running cut shot to scamper all the way back. Everybody talks about the stretch from the 10th to 15th and many feel that it represents Raynor's finest work - high praise indeed.

National Golf Links of American Clubhouse - 1920

 



Bluemound C.C. Clubhouse - 1926

Fox Chapel - 1923

Shoreacres - 1919

Yeamans Hall - 1925

Chicago Golf Club - 1894

Waialae Country Club

Fishers Island Club - 1936 

Camargo Club- 1925