Outstanding! Growing up on the west coast Thomas quickly became my idol and the basis for my design philosophies. These types of presentations combined with Geoff's efforts have been a blessing.
Fascinating, engrossing and immersive trip back in time. Brilliant input from Geoff Shackelford who must be so excited for this week. A great appetite whetter....again! Thank you so much!👍
Terrific piece, Garrett and I would go so far to say an excellent mini documentary on the life and times of George C. Thomas, Jr. My takeaway from this is that Thomas got into golf architcture design almost by happenstance. It wasn't his profession by trade, but he fell into it through his committee work at LACC and then partnering with Billy Bell, who also somewhat fell into to it having been a greens superintendent at the time. Would have been great to see what the two could have potentially done together outside of the confines of California or even So. California at that, but we'll never know. That said, I've been excited about the upcoming U.S. Open ever since the USGA announced it was coming to LACC and this only amped it up another couple of levels.
Thank you! I agree with a lot of this; I'm not sure Thomas really intended to be a prominent golf architect when he moved to California. The one thing I'd add, though, is that his experiences in the "Philadelphia School"-seeing Merion and Pine Valley built, designing Marion and Whitemarsh Valley, getting to know Wilson and Crump and Tillinghast, etc.-were critical to Thomas's understanding of the craft and ability to operate in the business.
@@garrettmorrison1455 It was because of Thomas' involvement and experience with the archies from the Philly School of Golf Course Design that made him a no-brainer for chair of the Greens Committee at LACC shortly after he joined. After board president, greens committee chair is arguably the next most powerful position at a private club and brings with it a lot of influence. Had Thomas not ascended to that position much, if not all of his design work may never have happened. Thus, a series of events had to take place, including his participation in WW1, in order for him to go from point A to point B. Had he never been drafted and fought in the war he may have stayed out East his entire life, which isn't to say he wouldn't eventually gotten into course design there. Fortuntely for us God had other plans and knew opportunities would be more abundantly available for him in So. Cal.
@@drewp.weiner2473 Was he a lead in those projects just involved as an onlooker or apprentice, as this is the first I've heard of this? The only courses I'm aware of he's credited with are those he designed/built in California.
@@MikeBodo Whitemarsh Valley was the first course Thomas designed as it was on his family’s estate. I don’t believe he hadca direct hand in Merion or Pine Valley but he definitely was there as a student of Hugh Wilson and George Crump as they built Merion and Pine Valley. Thomas was one of the first members at Pine Valley
Riviera was such a great place to watch tournaments in the 90's and ,'00's. now its just for TV. ropes moved back, driving range at s distance. i saw Sergio at his best, hitting balls 5 ft from me
The production value of this (and all of your) videos is off the charts!!! Patience, my golfing friends. Your 19.5K subs will soon be 195K, and much more... WELL DONE.
No mention of the third guy in the photo...that obscure (non-American) Dr Allister McKenzie? Why? Is the assertion that Thomas and Bell were not influenced at al lby the work of McKenzie and other architects?
Dude - You make such wild assertions as to make it hard to take you seriously at all. The video mentions that George Thomas was a student of the Philadelphia School of course architecture. So he absolutely was influenced by George Crump (Pine Valley), Hugh Wilson (Merion) & AW Tilinghast, as well as others, as he was friends with that group. He saw Merion & Pine Valley as they were built and was one of the first members at Pine Valley. So, there is no doubt he was influenced by what he saw as those courses were built. Since McKenzie didn’t design any courses in SoCal, Thomas may not have ever been up to Pebble Beach or Santa Clara to see McKenzie’s work on Cypress Point and Pasa Tiempo and the picture with McKenzie may have very well just been a friendly picture they took. Thomas came to SoCal for health reasons, so presuming that he never made a trip to NorCal is not at all a stretch. If Thomas was influenced by McKenzie it was most likely from what he read versus what he saw of his work in person. But he was infinitely more influenced by those in the Philadelphia School, as he knew them as friends and picked their brains as he saw their great courses built, so much so, that when he came to SoCal Thomas & Billy Bell were able to create some very excellent works from the very start of their design work even though Thomas wasn’t a trained golf course architect. This video wasn’t an exhaustive documentary on George Thomas, nor was it intended to be. To the extent you really want to know about George Thomas and those who influenced his course design work, you can avail yourself of Geoff Shakelford’s biography about Thomas, The Captain.
Grateful to have you guys documenting all of this history at such a high of level
Outstanding! Growing up on the west coast Thomas quickly became my idol and the basis for my design philosophies. These types of presentations combined with Geoff's efforts have been a blessing.
Fascinating, engrossing and immersive trip back in time. Brilliant input from Geoff Shackelford who must be so excited for this week. A great appetite whetter....again! Thank you so much!👍
This is making me salivate for the US Open
This was a beautiful video. The artistry of it all and the perfect music to go along with it. Made me go and buy George Thomas’ book
Easily some of the best, unknown, well presented, and plain cool golf history I’ve digested in yrs. Thanks guys.
best ever. roaring 20s are back
Garrett, one of your best pieces to date, well done and keep them coming.
Grateful as well. This piece is so well done. The Fried Egg is such a treasure to us golf geeks and we're so fortunate to get to enjoy this fine work.
Bravo!! 👏
Awesome guys!!
Thanks👍.Well done!
I geek out on a Fried Egg production.
Just outstanding work!
Terrific piece, Garrett and I would go so far to say an excellent mini documentary on the life and times of George C. Thomas, Jr. My takeaway from this is that Thomas got into golf architcture design almost by happenstance. It wasn't his profession by trade, but he fell into it through his committee work at LACC and then partnering with Billy Bell, who also somewhat fell into to it having been a greens superintendent at the time. Would have been great to see what the two could have potentially done together outside of the confines of California or even So. California at that, but we'll never know. That said, I've been excited about the upcoming U.S. Open ever since the USGA announced it was coming to LACC and this only amped it up another couple of levels.
Thomas designed courses back east before he went west.
Thank you! I agree with a lot of this; I'm not sure Thomas really intended to be a prominent golf architect when he moved to California. The one thing I'd add, though, is that his experiences in the "Philadelphia School"-seeing Merion and Pine Valley built, designing Marion and Whitemarsh Valley, getting to know Wilson and Crump and Tillinghast, etc.-were critical to Thomas's understanding of the craft and ability to operate in the business.
@@garrettmorrison1455 It was because of Thomas' involvement and experience with the archies from the Philly School of Golf Course Design that made him a no-brainer for chair of the Greens Committee at LACC shortly after he joined. After board president, greens committee chair is arguably the next most powerful position at a private club and brings with it a lot of influence. Had Thomas not ascended to that position much, if not all of his design work may never have happened. Thus, a series of events had to take place, including his participation in WW1, in order for him to go from point A to point B. Had he never been drafted and fought in the war he may have stayed out East his entire life, which isn't to say he wouldn't eventually gotten into course design there. Fortuntely for us God had other plans and knew opportunities would be more abundantly available for him in So. Cal.
@@drewp.weiner2473 Was he a lead in those projects just involved as an onlooker or apprentice, as this is the first I've heard of this? The only courses I'm aware of he's credited with are those he designed/built in California.
@@MikeBodo Whitemarsh Valley was the first course Thomas designed as it was on his family’s estate. I don’t believe he hadca direct hand in Merion or Pine Valley but he definitely was there as a student of Hugh Wilson and George Crump as they built Merion and Pine Valley. Thomas was one of the first members at Pine Valley
Im so glad I know about the elevator hole now, crazy what they thought up in the 20s.
Superb, thank you,
Fascinating.
Riviera was such a great place to watch tournaments in the 90's and ,'00's. now its just for TV. ropes moved back, driving range at s distance. i saw Sergio at his best, hitting balls 5 ft from me
Excellent
Excellent documentary- well done. Definitely puts me in the mood to watch th Open this week!
Awesome work guys, really really great video
Where can I find the book or diagrams shown at 20:15
and at 22:02
The production value of this (and all of your) videos is off the charts!!! Patience, my golfing friends. Your 19.5K subs will soon be 195K, and much more... WELL DONE.
Dude, PLEASE come do a video on Whitemarsh and Philly cricket, being mentioned in these makes me want to see you make some awesome stuff over here!
How do The Fried Egg videos keep getting better?
Apparently, Mr. Thomas designed Palos Verdes Golf Club. However, it's
It seems most likely that Bell built it and Thomas may have just been a consultant on the project
Ibid credited th Billy Bell.
No mention of the third guy in the photo...that obscure (non-American) Dr Allister McKenzie? Why? Is the assertion that Thomas and Bell were not influenced at al lby the work of McKenzie and other architects?
People just find the strangest things to be mad about!
Dude - You make such wild assertions as to make it hard to take you seriously at all. The video mentions that George Thomas was a student of the Philadelphia School of course architecture. So he absolutely was influenced by George Crump (Pine Valley), Hugh Wilson (Merion) & AW Tilinghast, as well as others, as he was friends with that group. He saw Merion & Pine Valley as they were built and was one of the first members at Pine Valley. So, there is no doubt he was influenced by what he saw as those courses were built. Since McKenzie didn’t design any courses in SoCal, Thomas may not have ever been up to Pebble Beach or Santa Clara to see McKenzie’s work on Cypress Point and Pasa Tiempo and the picture with McKenzie may have very well just been a friendly picture they took. Thomas came to SoCal for health reasons, so presuming that he never made a trip to NorCal is not at all a stretch. If Thomas was influenced by McKenzie it was most likely from what he read versus what he saw of his work in person. But he was infinitely more influenced by those in the Philadelphia School, as he knew them as friends and picked their brains as he saw their great courses built, so much so, that when he came to SoCal Thomas & Billy Bell were able to create some very excellent works from the very start of their design work even though Thomas wasn’t a trained golf course architect.
This video wasn’t an exhaustive documentary on George Thomas, nor was it intended to be. To the extent you really want to know about George Thomas and those who influenced his course design work, you can avail yourself of Geoff Shakelford’s biography about Thomas, The Captain.
Great work…it’s hard not to point out how bad the bunker and roughs aesthetic look at Bel Air post the Doak work