Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2019 - 27

" People join the club
Minnesota Valley superintendent Mike
Brower has spent years searching for evidence
of Raynor's presence, but so far has
had to rely on expert opinion (from contemporary
architects and the late golf historian
George Bahto, who devoted years of study to
Raynor) and circumstantial evidence.
" In trying to put together a whole bunch
of little tidbits, facts, timelines, who was
where, who was doing what for who, that's
the best we can do, " Brower says. " The timing
all points to Raynor laying it out when he
was in town doing other work, then leaving
oversight to Ralph Barton. "
Barton was a math professor at the
because it's close, because
their friends are there, etc.
Whether it's Ross, Raynor,
all of these architects, it's
not like the art world, where
everybody wants to own
a Rembrandt or a Matisse.
I don't know that we're
there yet-except for the
geeks. " -John Hamburger,
Midland Hills historian
University of Minnesota and a Midland
Hills member when he met Seth Raynor
and supervised Midland Hills' construction.
He subsequently was hired by Raynor and C.B. MacDonald to
supervise construction of such famous courses as Yale and MidOcean.
In later years, Barton claimed credit for being the primary
architect on both those projects.
This is where attribution without documentation gets sticky.
Midland Hills historian John Hamburger has studied all of his
club's board minutes that involve Raynor and Barton, and he is
well acquainted with Barton's tendency to boast about his work.
" I'm absolutely convinced that if Barton had anything to
do with Minnesota Valley, he would have said so, " Hamburger
says. " There's nothing ever mentioned in his [later] writing.
He mentions the University course [the precursor to Midland
Hills, which Raynor at one time was incorrectly credited with
designing-it was actually Tom Vardon], but he never mentions
Minnesota Valley. I don't think he had anything to do with it. "
Yet there's no denying the Raynor touches at Minnesota
Valley. Hamburger is as interested in solving
the Raynor mystery there as anyone. He
has contacted the Minneapolis Auto Club in
hopes they might have some construction
information that includes Raynor's name,
but the AAA has said they don't have any
such records.
Perhaps what's needed is a stroke of luck,
as when Midland Hills superintendent Mike
Manthey discovered Raynor's original irrigation
blueprint in a false ceiling at Midland
Hills last year.
" The only thing I have is a really similar
drawing on blue paper of our fi rst irrigation
system, " Brower says. " It's similar to what
they [Midland Hills] have, but it doesn't
have any of Raynor's design on it. It's strictly
irrigation. That was in the offi ce when I took
the job 19 years ago. "
While the discovery of the Raynor blueprints attracted wide
attention to Midland Hills, Hamburger can't say that any new
members joined because of the Raynor connection.
" People join the club because it's close, because their friends
are there, etc., " Hamburger says. " Whether it's Ross, Raynor, all
of these architects, it's not like the art world, where everybody
wants to own a Rembrandt or a Matisse. I don't know that we're
there yet-except for the geeks. "
Quality Over Celebrity
With no new courses being built in Minnesota, current architectural
work has been limited to redesigns-e.g., Richard
Mandell's renovation work at Keller and Braemar,
Jeffrey
Brauer's redesign of Superior National, Kevin Norby's renovations
at Theodore Wirth and Meadowbrook, and Arnold
Palmer and Annika Sorenstam's conversion
of Tartan Park into the Royal Club. Which,
in a way, brings us full circle back to the
days when the likes of Ross and Tillinghast
were redoing the work of earlier-and in
some cases, nearly forgotten-architects in
Minnesota.
As White Bear historian Mark Mammel
points out, the name on the blueprints ultimately
shouldn't matter, anyway. What matters
is the quality of the golf course.
" I think [WBYC] would be held in as high
MIDLAND HILLS COUNTRY CLUB
esteem even if it weren't associated with
Ross, " Mammel says. " [Golf course architect
Tom] Doak is pretty careful. He said
he didn't know if it was a Ross course, but
who cares? In his fi rst Confi dential Guide,
he ranked White Bear as the best course in
Minnesota, and it has continued to go up. "
MG
mngolf.org
Summer 2019 MINNESOTAGOLFER
27
PHOTO BY W.P. RYAN
http://www.mngolf.org
Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2019

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