RIP George Bahto

Sad news from the golf world today.  George Bahto, best known as the biographer of C. B. Macdonald, has passed away at age 84.

I first became aware of George in writing my review of Sleepy Hollow for Larry Gavritch's site back in 2011.  From that piece, here's an excerpt of Bahto's rather unusual path to golf prominence:

Bahto, a one-time minor league baseball player and owner of a dry cleaning store, followed a serendipitous path to golf course architecture. He was a member of The Knoll Club, a Charles Banks design, at the time a fire destroyed its clubhouse and all club records. Bahto volunteered to research the club’s history after the fire; he discovered that Banks had studied under a man named Seth Raynor, and following that trail, of course, led back to C.B. Macdonald. So absorbed was Bahto by this work that he ultimately wrote and published The Evangelist of Golf, the definitive biography of C.B. Macdonald (unfortunately now out of print). Bahto ultimately was tempted to try his own hand at golf course design, and more recently played a meaningful advisory role in the creation of Old Macdonald at Bandon Dunes.

George Bahto standing in the Old Macdonald version of Strath Bunker. 

Bahto and Gil Hanse collaborated on the restoration of Sleepy Hollow, after an unusual process whereby the club had to decide whether they were restoring a Macdonald or a Tillinghast design.  

Team Old Mac (from left): Doak, Urbina,
Brad Klein & Bahto.

Maggot, Wally and I ventured out to play Banks' Knoll Club last summer.  The club has suffered from an inability to maintain the membership necessary to sustain it financially, and thus has opened it for play by the public.  As expected in such circumstances, maintenance has suffered, but the challenge and strategy of the design remains intact, and the bunkering was simply spectacular.

More recently, as described in my review of Bandon Dunes Resort's Old Macdonald course (also at Larry's site), Bahto was a design consultant to Tom Doak and Jim Urbina.  After all, he literally wrote the book on Macdonald.  However, before consulting on Old Mac he had the unenviable job of talking Mike Keiser out of trying to build a replica of or homage to Macdonald's iconic Lido Golf Club.

For a snapshot of Bahto's contribution, this was how Tillinghast and then Rees Jones left Sleepy Hollow's famed 16th hole:

Tillinhast's version on the left and the "Reestrocity" on the right.

Restored to Macdonald's original vision by Bahto and Gil Hanse.

Rest in Peace.

Shackelford points us to Golf Club Atlas for a discussion thread on George, and to 1999 and 2002 interviews.