



The World War I pilot who is still shaping America’s best golf courses
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.When Gil Hanse set out to renovate Aronimink Golf Club outside Philadelphia he made it his mission to restore it to its original, legendary designs from the 1920s. The decades had altered the course’s identity with everything from new trees to renovated bunkers. But Hanse was determined to understand what Aronimink really looked like a century ago.As Hanse sifted through archives, he soon made a surprising discovery: rare aerial photographs of Aronimink’s early days that diverged from old drawings of the grounds.
Famed architect Donald Ross had called this course his masterpiece—now Hanse could see exactly what he meant.And the only thing more surprising than the existence of those photos was the handiwork of the man who took them: Colonel J. Victor Dallin.Dallin was a World War I pilot who fell in love with photography and became a pioneer in the art of taking pictures from the skies. He made it his profession at a time when flying meant filtering automobile gasoline through a chamois skin and landing in cotton fields.
He snapped over 10,000 photos, including cityscapes of Philadelphia and New York, along with President Calvin Coolidge’s 1928 visit to Havana.Dallin also happened to be a golf fanatic. And today, his work still shapes some of America’s oldest and most iconic courses.When Dallin was airborne, he couldn’t resist looking out for any signs of golf, the game he’d play into his 80s. He shot Pine Valley and Pinehurst.
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