In the spirit of Scotland: Donald Ross and the Mark Twain golf course.

The famous American author Mark Twain once said, "Golf is a good walk spoiled." It is ironic then that one of America's best, but least-known municipal courses, bears his name. The Mark Twain Golf Course, owned and operated by the City of Elmira, located in the southern tier of western New York state, was designed by renowned Scottish golf architect Donald J. Ross in 1937. The course is significant not only because of its beautiful hillside layout and famous designer, but also because of its well-preserved condition. Managed by Elmira's Buildings and Grounds Division, the Mark Twain is unique because it is one of the few original Donald Ross classic courses that remains significantly unaltered.

Born in the Scottish Highland town of Dornoch in 1872, Donald Ross learned golf under some of the game's greatest teachers. He emigrated to the United States in 1899 at the age of 27, and secured his first job as a club professional at Oakley Country Club in Massachusetts. Ross was an outstanding player who competed in many professional tournaments including the U.S. and British Open Championships. He was also skilled in teaching, club making and repair. However he found his interest primarily concerned the design and construction of golf courses and by 1912 he had become a full-time golf architect.

Donald Ross's early career was aided by his skill as a player and all-around knowledge of the game, which coupled with his Scottish heritage undoubtedly helped him to gain many important contacts and win many design commissions. By 1916, with business rapidly expanding, he formed Donald J. Ross Associates, and opened offices in several locations on the East Coast. His courses were uniformly recognized for their outstanding strategic merits, distinctive creativity and natural beauty. By the 1920s, his designs had gamed him nationwide recognition and he had become a major figure in a sport that was experiencing tremendous growth and popularity.

Until his death in 1948, Ross was the most prolific golf architect in history. Although he practiced before the advent of air travel, Ross is credited with the design of over 350 courses in 30 states, as well as Canada and Cuba. His courses have hosted dozens of national championships and several are heralded as among the greatest in the world/

The Mark Twain is considered one of his hidden gems.

The Mark Twain Golf Course has a rich historic background. The course history traces back to the Great Depression of the 1930s and President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. At this time, millions of Americans were out of work and the country's economy was in shambles. Roosevelt's administration directed the flow of federal funds to local relief programs designed to stimulate the economy and get people back to work. One such program was known as the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

While the WPA was one of many "alphabet soup" federal programs, from 1935 to 1943 it was responsible for more than 11 billion dollars in federal outlays to state and local governments. Through the WPA, jobs were created for eight million skilled and unskilled workers. Communities throughout the country put their citizens back to work on public works projects which included: roads and highways, schools, parks, recreation centers, playgrounds, and golf courses.

For the golf industry, and the architects, landscapers and engineers who built courses, the Depression was a difficult period. Few new courses were being built, while courses closed permanently at a rate of over one per week. Some of America's leading designers, men who had made and spent enormous fortunes during the booming 1920s, were strained financially by the mid-1930s. Although Donald Ross did not find himself in circumstances quite as severe, the Depression did bring his business--that had once employed 3,000 men around the country--to a near halt. Throughout the 1930s he spent most of his time near his home in Pinehurst, North Carolina where he redesigned the popular Pinehurst area resort courses that he had built over the past 30 years.

In January 1937, a prominent Elmira golfer, H. Tryon, and City Engineer Thomas Supple met with Ross at his Rhode Island office. The details of a proposed municipal course were discussed and a cost estimate was prepared and forwarded to the New York state division of the WPA. In February the project was approved and construction began that summer. By late 1939, the second nine holes of the Mark Twain were completed and the course opened 18 holes to favorable reviews. Following an inspection visit in August of 1939 to consult on maintenance and upkeep, Ross stated in a letter to the city manager that, "The course as a whole is fully up to my expectations. It is a grand one and given two more years of careful maintenance it will stand out as one of the finest courses owned by any city in America."

Donald Ross designed the Mark Twain course employing the same philosophies which made his work timeless. Throughout his career, Ross refined a design style that was to become both recognizable and unique. One of the major reasons for Ross's success is that his golf courses focused on strategic, rather than punative, architectural principles. They were not excessively difficult, yet remained interesting and challenging for players of all levels. His courses often included multiple sets of tees, while his bunkering dictated alternate routes to the green depending on the positioning of the tee shot. This allowed a hole to play differently for golfers of various skill levels. Most of his greens were unguarded directly in front to allow mishit shots to roll onto the putting surface. Ross also encouraged aggressive play by designing greens that often sloped downward from back to front slowing the well-hit approach.

From Penal to Strategic

Ross was not a proponent of courses which played to long yardages, contained many water hazards and employed excessive bunkering. He preferred to use water and sand very selectively, but also very strategically. Ross did, however, build intricately contoured putting green complexes which often included undulating mounds and hollows. Unlike large water hazards and deep bunkers, which penalize the widely misplaced shot, these features were more challenging to the low handicap player who was trying to break par rather than the high handicapper who was struggling to break 110. Ross's style is credited with advancing the philosophy of golf architecture from the penal to the strategic, making golf more enjoyable, and thus, a more popular sport.

Unfortunately, of the nearly 400 public and private Donald Ross golf courses designed during his lifetime, very few remain authentic. Most of his courses have been altered to varying degrees through the years in the name of modernization. Although these changes have been made with best intentions, redesigns were often performed by less proficient architects or worse, misguided course committees and club members. Many classic golf courses by Ross and other architects have been stripped of their strategy and charm due to modernization projects (usually to make the course play more difficult). Unfortunately, many of Ross's courses would be nearly unrecognizable to him in their present form.

In 1989 an organization known as the Donald Ross Society was formed to prevent further damage to his historic courses. The New England-based organization, numbers nearly 1,500 members in 36 states and four foreign countries and serves to honor, preserve and promote the Ross name. The society holds an annual meeting and golf tournament, publishes a comprehensive directory of Ross courses, and also offers grants through the Donald Ross Memorial Scholarship Fund. An archive located in Pinehurst houses original documents, correspondences, maps, drawings, and other material relating to the work of Ross. The society and archive eagerly offers its expertise to any Ross course that is considering restoration, or is in the process of researching its past.

Although the Mark Twain Golf Course is nearing 60 years of age, it remains very close to the wonderful design of its creator. The routing of the course makes excellent use of the hillside site's natural elevation change, while the greens contain many subtle contours. Much of the credit for the course's nearly pristine condition lies with Elmira's Buildings and Grounds division superintendent, Leslie "Jake" Hover, and his staff. Along with his responsibilities managing 27 city parks, two pools, playgrounds and ball-fields, Hover has acted as the caretaker of the Mark Twain. As an avid golfer he is aware of the course's historical lineage to Ross and has worked to maintain, and when needed, restore, its condition as close as possible to the classical intentions of its designer.

Preserve and Protect

For the past eight years Hover, a Ross Society member, has worked closely with course superintendent Robert Haskins to preserve and restore areas of the course that have regressed over time. They are careful to follow several sets of original topographic maps and plans that still exist and serve as a blueprint to Ross's intentions. Hover has restored several bunkers that had grassed over, and added subdrainage to some of the course's low-lying areas. In 1995 he completed a redesign of the 14th hole, a short dogleg par four, restoring a small pond directly in front of the green.

Not surprising is the fact that the Mark Twain Golf Course is extremely popular with the local residents. Even in upstate New York's shortened season, the course averages between 40,000 to 42,000 rounds annually. A season pass is available for a reasonable $425, and weekend greens fees are $17. Golf leagues run nearly every afternoon during the week.

Even with the considerable amount of play, Course Superintendent Robert Haskins and his small staff keep the course in outstanding condition. Their difficult job should be made easier as work on a major new irrigation system nears completion. Aging and deteriorated lines were replaced with a newer, more efficient, high-tech system which will distribute water more evenly to the fairways, greens and rough. Hover and Haskins are also planning to further fine tune the Mark Twain by returning the 11th green to two tiers, as dictated in Ross's plans, adding several front tees making the course play shorter for women and high handicappers, and renovating cart paths to reduce the wear of cart traffic on greenside turf.

Hover also hopes to develop a junior program and summer camp and sees Mark Twain's new golf pro as playing an integral part. Paul Walton, a PGA golf professional, recently joined the course and will be working to teach fundamentals to Elmira's younger golfers who no doubt hope to be the next Tiger Woods.

Donald Ross would surely take pride in the fact that golfers have enjoyed the Mark Twain Golf Course for over a half century and that the course has remained as close to his original intentions as possible. He would be even more pleased to know that the City of Elmira has provided affordable opportunities to everyone with an interest in golf. Throughout his career, Donald Ross was a supporter of golf for all classes of people. Although most Ross courses were designed as private clubs, many of his public and municipal courses are highly regarded as excellent examples of his artistic, strategic and beautiful style. Thanks to the work of Jake Hover and his staff, Elmira's Mark Twain Golf Course remains a testament to the genius of its designer and represents golf in its purest and most traditional form.

Other Popular Municipal Courses Designed by Donald Ross

Shennecossett Country Club, Groton, CT          1913

Wilmington Municipal, Wilmington, NC            1925

Myers Park Country Club, Charlotte, NC          1930

Triggs Memorial Golf Course, Providence, RI     1930

George Wright Municipal, Boston, MA             1931