Selecting the Perfect Site - Tillie’s Binghamton CC
By Richard S. Ringwood, Esq.

BCC putting green overlooking river.

INTRODUCTION

Recognized as one of the twenty oldest country clubs in America, Binghamton Country Club was organized in April 1889, originally as the Broome County Country Club, and with a clubhouse and a six-hole golf course, west of Binghamton. Fifteen years later, the club incorporated, was renamed the Binghamton Country Club (BCC) and constructed a nine-hole course and clubhouse in Endwell. After World War I, the club hired A.W. Tillinghast to explore the possibility of expanding its existing nine-hole course or to find a new location for its clubhouse and golf course, which would be designed by Tillinghast. In October of 1920, Tillinghast came to Binghamton and was shown a number of sites for a proposed golf course. Apparently, certain members of the BCC Green Committee championed their favorite sites, but Tillie’s genius and professional integrity were uninfluenced. What follows is Tillie’s letter report on his site inspections and recommendation.

October 30, 1920

TO THE BINGHAMTON COUNTRY CLUB

I have to make the following report after my first day’s tour of inspection, not only of your present property, but others which your Committee has under consideration:

Your present Course of nine holes is very ordinary as compared with Courses which are being built today along modern lines. The total yardage is short and the prevalence of holes such as numbers 1, 6, 7 and 8 (each a short hole but just beyond the range of a drive) is exceedingly bad. With the exception of the 5^th, there is no place where a brassey is called into play and, even here, it is not a necessity.

In planning a modern Course, it is necessary to include more lengthy two-shot holes than your present land possibly can yield. The very broken character can only result in blind greens or very short holes.

The greens themselves are of antiquated design and absolutely without character. This is true of the few hazards which have been placed.

The turf on the putting greens is of very ordinary quality and, in the event of your remaining on your present Course, all putting greens would have to be reconstructed entirely but, in reality, you would be losing nothing in this work if all greens were re-located and built in other places.

However, your fairway is excellent and shows a fine natural growth which has endured, despite the fact it has received little encouragement.

The foregoing comments apply to the 58 acres of your present course.

I examined the property along the river, on which you have options. I refer to the tracts embraced by the Baxter, Davis and Stack holdings of about 65 acres. This tract is low and, apparently, is subjected to inundations by spring floods, but this may not be a very serious matter if the floods remain but for a short time. I may say that a similar condition exists on a portion of the Course I built at Shawnee, Pa., some years ago and occasionally the water backs up over a part of the Course, but never has it resulted in serious damage, and it must be remembered that these inundations occur at a season when there is practically no play, namely: On the breaking up of winter.

However, the stretch of land along the river does not appeal to me, because of its lack of character; in other words, the rather monotonous flatness of it. In order to avoid running holes directly in to the western sun and because of the shape of the tract under consideration, there would not be so much of it available as might appear at first glance. It would be necessary to waste some of these 65 acres.

The soil on this tract is good and undoubtedly will yield fine turf. Already a portion of it is finely grassed and much of it may be converted to fairway with little work.

Before leaving this I will refer to the present Course again after taking other tracts into consideration.

In the afternoon I inspected the MacArthur property, situated on the south side of the river. Already the owner of this property has had a Golf Course in contemplation, but the low land which he suggested for this purpose would not be acceptable to me, as I consider it absolutely unsuitable. Some of this property, however, is nicely undulated, although the particular point which was suggested as a Club House location is too high and barren. The soil is none too good and there are many stones which would have to be removed. I do not recommend the building of your Course on this tract.

Afterward, in succession, I visited three tracts, which may be designated as follows:

Tract A — the English, Hibbard and Sisson farms.

Tract B — the Johnson and Smith farms, containing something over 130 acres

Tract C — the Jameson farm, containing something over 85 acres.

These three tracts practically join and they may be treated as one, so far as soil conditions and general contours apply.

The soil is better than which I encountered on the MacArthur property, but certainly not as good as that of your present Course. However, with proper treatment, any of it will yield good turf.

Although Tract B was the best of these three, I would not wish it for the requirements of your Course. Some of the contours are very pleasing, but for the most part, it is ordinary and quite without feature. I would advise you not to consider any of these farms.

At this writing I am very much disappointed in not having found conditions which I consider proper, and in the continuation of it, after further examination, I hope that I have something better to report.

While, in my opinion, your present Course has many weaknesses and while I believe that it will never yield a Course of distinction, yet I believe it would be far better for you to resign your options on the low river land, retain you nine holes as they are for the present and until you are able to select property which will be worthy of the expense which a notable Course makes necessary. And I desire to say at this point that a Course such as I recommend to you is one which will prove a test of Golf for any expert, but at the same time, and above all else, a collection of holes which may be played by middle aged or elderly Golfers without fatigue or exasperation by reason of unnecessary punishment; in brief, a Course which will be rolling and neither too low or too hilly, and it is such a tract, combining these necessities with natural beauties, that I am desirous of finding.

I desire to append the following to my report of yesterday’s findings:

This morning I thoroughly explored 240 acres of a property known as the “Sayer Farm” at Gray’s Crossing, and I am pleased to report that I find it exceptionally good. It is located on the crest of the hill, but the tract itself is not too hilly for my purposes; in fact, the grades will be very easy, and undoubtedly a particular fine Course may be constructed there.

There is a splendid location for the Club House and all Country Club conditions are ideal, and, although it is not far from the main road, there will always be the privacy which is so desirable for the Country Club. The panoramic view from this spot is particularly inspiring and, altogether, I consider this site one of the very best which it has been my privilege to examine in a long time.

There are a number of stones in spots and the soil will require considerable treatment in some sections, but there are positive indications that vigorous turf will develop with a little encouragement.

On this tract there are a great many specimen trees and I consider these of great value to our development. There is quite enough room for my purposes and this is really a great opportunity, in my opinion.

After my examination of the Sayer property, I observed two farms on the road from Vestal to Binghamton, south of the river. One of these (the Rood farm) presents particularly fine soil, but the ground is flat, with no character, and subject to the backing up of water in the spring.

Another (the Clark farm) has fair soil, although very stoney, but the contours are good on the part south of the lane. However, there is a great deal of low land included in the acreage, which is subject to spring floods, and also an abandoned canal, which would be of no use. I advocate the rejection of both these tracts.

This afternoon I have still to examine another property known as the “Hotchkiss” tract, and my report on this will be added, but at this time I have absolutely nothing which I consider worthy, other than the Sayer property, which I regard very highly indeed.

While it is difficult to estimate closely the cost of construction, I believe that a thoroughly modern Course of eighteen holes may be constructed there for approximately $75,000.00. Much preliminary work may be done this winter, and if the work is pursued vigorously, preparing the ground for next fall’s seeding, the Course should be ready to play by the first of July, 1922.

I estimate that to reconstruct your present Course a sum of $60,000. would not be in excess of the cost, but I must state that I believe that such a reconstructed Course, while a marked improvement over anything which you have ever had, can never approach the qualities of the Course such as may be constructed on the Sayer place, but a reconstruction of your present Course would, in my opinion, be superior to any Course built on any of the other land (excepting the Sayer) which I examined.

My report of the investigation of the Hotchkiss tract follows:

The property offers some very spectacular individual holes, but, after walking over all the available ground, I do not favor it, because of the very decided slopes, which would make necessary considerable physical effort in a round of any Course I may lay out there. Certainly a vast amount of territory would be necessary if a Course which was at all playable, in my opinion, were constructed. Aside from the physical features which I do not like entirely, the remoteness of the Club House from the trolley lines and existing highways seems to be an added objection. However, this does not influence me in my rejection of said property for your Course. I base my opinion entirely on the qualities of the ground itself and I have absolutely no reason to change from selection of the Sayer tract.

I might add that I looked over a contour map of the MacArthur tract at the request of Mr. Whitelaw, but the new point suggested by Mr. MacArthur showed clearly on the map that it would be not suitable for our purpose.

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