17 cartoonist Dudley Fisher Jr, titled ‘As the Dodo Bird Views the Scene of the National Open Championship 1926’. “It is stunning in its detail and relevance,” said Green. “We know he utilised an aerial photo or an actual trip up in a plane to create the image. It does a great job of laying out the shapes and positions of the critical golf features. In overlaying the drawing on a modern aerial, we were able to confirm the work as authentic, as the spatial relationships worked out beautifully. This became our guiding document, as we did not have any drawings from the hand of Donald Ross. We paired this dodo bird drawing with photos from the air and ground. “History was a primary focus of the green complexes – shapes, sizes and surrounding elements. Fairway bunkers and other features along the line of play were inspired by history but situated to make the modern player think. We had very few historic documents for the green contours. We used a few photos from the 1931 Ryder Cup programme to aid in the development of the green slopes and concepts, but a good portion of this work was interpreted and developed from what each hole was asking the player to accomplish.” With contractor McDonald & Sons, all tees have been levelled or rebuilt using existing greens mix, while fairways were adjusted to widen Image: Scioto Country Club A 1920s drawing by Dudley Fisher Jr proved to be a valuable resource for Andrew Green’s renovation Green slopes and contours now better reflect what Ross’s original design intent Photo: Brian Laurent
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