Caverns
While some of today’s younger golfers may not be aware of them, many of their parents and grandparents do remember seeing the “Infamous 18 Holes” painted by golfer/artist Loyal H. (Bud) Chapman when they were introduced in the late 1970s.
After being featured on the cover of Golf Digest Magazine, art prints posters of the unique imaginary course were made available for sale here and in Japan.
These posters were produced by the four-color separation printing process used at the time and came close to duplicating the originals, but now the new Gicleé printing process is able to produce true replicas of the original paintings, allowing TPK Golf to re-issue them as art quality prints.
“The difference in color, brightness and shading, and how that affects depth perception is amazing,” reported TPK Golf CEO Vlad Gribovsky, the official dealer.
After seeing a few of the prints in December at the Tucson Media event, I would agree.
The Gicleé prints will be 22×28 inches, about 40 per cent of the size of the original paintings, and will be on archival paper.
Larger art quality prints of the “Infamous 18 Holes” are also available to art collectors. Go to tpkgolf.com for additional information and to get glimpses of the unusual holes.
Chapman, 92, is a native of Minnesota who now lives in Florida. He began painting at an early age and got his start in golf as a caddie at age 12. He was a commercial artist after his discharge from the service as a pilot in World War II. He was a perennial champion at his own club, won several state tournaments and participated in many USGA national events. Today, he regularly betters his age.
As famed golf course architect Pete Dye once noted, “Bud’s innovative thinking certainly influenced many designers to make contours a little steeper and the bunkers a little deeper and generally to think outside the box with news designs, and, in that way Bud made a great contribution to the game.”
