The "Lost" Holes of Gibson Island Club

Most MacRaynor aficionados are familiar with Raynor’s great seaside creation at Fishers Island. Fewer know anything about Macdonald and Raynor’s work on an equally posh community along the Chesapeake: the Gibson Island Club. The similarities between the two are striking.

Once again, Raynor would team with Frederick Law Olmsted to create a 36-hole, planned unit community integrating golf and scores of housing lots. As on Fishers Island, the terrain was hilly, dotted with coves and points, and the developers had the uncommon good sense to share the best land between the golf course and the houses. (If only such a compromise had been struck at Shoreacres!)

The first 18 holes opened for play in 1924 and featured the most striking land on the island. The so-called “Peninsula Holes” were particularly acclaimed.

The second 18 was planned, but as with several other Raynor projects where a second course was planned, the Great Depression intervened. The second 18 holes were never built. At some point thereafter, the first 18 was reduced to 9 and rerouted – the Peninsula Holes were lost forever with houses built in their place. The loss of these holes is a particular tragedy. It's not a stretch to believe that this string of holes was every bit as beautiful as anything at Fishers Island or Cypress Point, where Raynor would famously route a suspiciously similar par 3 on another narrow spit of land sticking into the sea.

Some, but not much, has been written about this extraordinary course which existed for but a moment. Far more research needs to be done to understand the true magnitude of the achievement. MacRaynor Golf hopes to visit and write a follow-up piece about what remains; rumor has it much can still be seen of the original 18.

Today, however, we turn our attention to the second 18, about which practically nothing has been written. One could be forgiven for focusing on the first 18. After all, it was actually built and it forms the skeleton of today’s 9-hole routing. It also got the better piece of ground and the lion’s share of the waterfront land allocated to golf instead of houses. That, however, is why the second 18 is so intriguing and why it is worth examining what might have been had those holes made it from the drawing board to the dirt (or, in this case, sand).

Raynor’s civil engineering background allowed him to excel at the skill of routing golf courses. Relatively unremarkable or, on the other end of the spectrum, very challenging ground, actually brought out the best in his work. For example, at Shoreacres with the blufftop, lake-view land allocated to houses, Raynor built a masterpiece on a ravine-strewn bit of land that many others would’ve found barely suitable for a course. Or take Yale. There, Raynor encountered as challenging a site had ever then been attempted. The result was the most expensive, but also one of the best, inland courses in America. It doesn’t require much architectural genius to design a hole the masses will love on a bluff overlooking the ocean; away from the water, strategic design is the best way to hold a player's interest.

Our guidebook for this exploration is the Olmsted plan. Luckily, there is much that can be distilled from the very detailed routing plan and several exciting template holes leap from the page, including a one-tier Biarritz (a term we hate, see here), a Bottle hole, a Punchbowl par 3, Eden and Short templates both backing on the water, and a tremendously bold Channel hole. So few good examples remain of the Channel and Bottle holes in particular that the addition of these planned holes to the portfolio can shine significant light on the range of implementation. This knowledge, in turn, can be of great assistance to clubs who have remnants of such holes and are considering restoring them.

For the first time, we'll be bringing those "lost" (well, never built...) Raynor holes to life by pulling from the pages of the Olmsted Plan. Of course, there's only so much one can distill from a topographic routing. Certain template holes jump off the page, while others are impossible to ascertain from just a routing; Raynor's intentions on such holes may never be known.

For purposes of our article here on MacRaynor Golf, we won't make any leaps of faith. We limit our discussion to the obvious template holes. Still, what's there is enough to make any MacRaynor fan think "if only!"

#2 - Bottle

Par 4 (342 yards): One of the most incredible stretches in golf would've begun here at #2 with a stellar rendition of the bottle template. Doglegging slightly to the right and playing to an elevated green, the key to this hole was, as so often was the case with MacRaynor designs, the tee shot. The landing zone on the tee shot was bracketed by long bunkers stretching at least 50 yards each with two centerline bunkers directly between. At the end of the right side of the fairway, a bunker pinched the right line, creating the bottleneck which gave the hole it's name. Because the fairway fell slightly to the right, the centerline bunkers were arranged in an echelon and had to be carried or delicately played around. The advantage to the left line was the ability to chase the ball out to a fairway that got progressively wide instead of having to thread the needle through the neck. green must be seen to believed and they stand out in the photograph below, even in black and white and even from a distance.

#3 - Punchbowl (Par 3)

Par 3 (187 yards): What a rousing hole this would have been! Playing uphill to the top of a significant hill, this might have been one of Raynor's most creative par 3's. We imagine this hole to have had a look very similar to the eighth a Blue Mound - the only other punchbowl we can think of build on top, as opposed to into or behind a hill. Raynor built a few punchbowl par 3's (Watchung Valley, Gardiner's Bay, and Westhampton spring to mind), but this one would have definitely have presented a rollicking shot.

#4 - Channel

Par 4 (405 yards): With all due respect to the version built at Lido, this would have been the finest Channel hole ever built. Its trump card over the original at Lido? A teebox some 50' above the double fairways. The strategy was simple and unlike the Bottle hole at #2, the player would have had an excellent look at the landing areas. The right fairway had a shorter carry, but resulted in a second shot that had to carry a bunker short and right of the green. The longer carry was rewarded with a clean look and no bunkers to carry.

#7 - Eden

Par 3 (157 yards): All the elements of the original are present here. The routing is classic MacRaynor - the Eden plays straight out to the Chesapeake to as the duo loved to recreate the long views to the Eden Estuary present at the Old Course . The Hill and Strath bunkers are faithfully recreated with the Shelley bunker which is shifted slightly to remove the option of simply putting up to short of the green - an option Macdonald famously found repugnant.

Along with the Eden at Fishers Island, this could have been the best emulation of the Eden in Raynor's portfolio.

#8 - Road Hole

Par 4 (355 yards): A shortish version of the Road template, the three bunkers on the right off the tee create the diagonal tee shot so well-known in the original by representing the railroad shed. As with the original, the farther right off the tee, the better the angle to the green.

We actually have a fairly good idea what this hole might have looked like from verisons at Rock Spring, though there the long road bunker which was right of the green has been removed. (clicking the links will take you to flyovers of both, Dedham Polo is at

#11 - Biarritz

Par 3 (218 yards): A "one-tier" version of the Biarritz, this version is a definite contrast to the Biarritz on the first 18 that was actually built. If built as shown on the plan, this version would have been the only bunkerless version of the template known to exist - an interesting tweak. The bunkering on the rest of the layout is shown in a tremendous degree of detail through several iterations of the plan, leaving us to believe the omission of bunkers to be a unique and interesting choice.