Old golf course lengths

[Chronicslicer]

I'm not sure if this is the right thread to post this in, but i was wondering back in the day when Harry Vardon was playing how long were golf courses then.

[iacas]

It's a good question. I figured the best chance might be to look up the yardages for the 1913 U.S. Open at Brookline, because it's well publicized, but a quick Googling didn't return actual yardages.

Though I did find a PDF of the original article written back in the day in the sports pages showing his win.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FB0D15F63A5F13738DDDA90A94D1405B838DF1D3

[ApocG10]

Great question. Seems info is hard to find. Ill keep looking and let you guys know if I find anything.

[ApocG10]

4,423 yards — Shinnecock Hills G.C., Southampton, N.Y., 1896

That is the only official distance for an old course I can seem to find. Though it seems 6000+yards only came around after WW2.

[lumpuckeroo]

From Wikipedia on Chicago Golf Club, "in 1894, the members bought a piece of property to build an improved 18-hole course. They purchased a 200-acre (0.81 km ² ) parcel of the Patrick farm in Wheaton, for a then-considerable sum of $28,000, which became "a first class 18-hole course of 6,500 yards."

[WUTiger]

Charles Haskell patented the rubber-core golf ball in 1898. Two years later....

The Goodrich Rubber Company patents a machine for winding the rubber threads around the core of a Haskell ball. Mass production of Haskell balls begins, and gutta percha balls ("gutties") fade out.

A golfer named Lancelot Servos wins a long drive competition at a pro event in Tampa, Fla., with a blast of 230 yards.

http://golf.about.com/cs/historyofgolf/p/timeline1900.htm

Spalding increases durability of the Haskell golf balls in 1903 by using balata as a cover rather than gutta percha (AboutGolf.com, 1903).

Dimples start appearing on golf balls, making them fly higher and farther. (AboutGolf.com, 1905)

Between the Haskell golf ball and the introduction of dimples, the ball is going a lot farther. I read somewhere - can't find the source, of course - that Oakmont C.C. near Philadelphia was built to 6,900 yards in the early 1900s to counter the changes in the ball.