A New World for Golf

North America was literally the new world to conquer for the game of golf. It was first introduced there in 1873 when a club was established at Montreal, a club now known as Royal Montreal. The club was formed by an emigrant Scotsman, Alexander Dennistoun and within ten years, there were further courses at Quebec, Toronto, Ottawa and Niagara. Though golf is generally acknowledged to have taken root in the United States only 100 years ago, the game of colf was mentioned in the court records of the justices at Fort Orange in New York State back in 1650.

The records for the port of Leith showed a consignment of 96 clubs and 432 balls being sent to Charleston, South Carolina in 1743. Other documents later gave evidence showing that a golf club was formed there later in 1786. At around that time, there was also a golf club at Savannah, in the same state. The source of that evidence is an invitation to the club's members to attend a ball. Those early clubs of the south-east perished during the American Civil War.

Soon by the late 1800s, hundreds of Scotsmen and some Englishmen now began to arrive in America, some as teaching golf profesionals and others as greeenkeepers, architects and ballmakers. It was a great opportunity for the emigrants and it was the reason why the United States was overwhelmed by golf in a short space of time.

John Reid's cow pasture - one of the earliest golf courses

Golf course construction probably provides the best barometer to golf's tremendous growth. In 1890, John Reid's cow pasture was one the few courses around. By 1896, the number of golf courses had hit 80. Four year later, there were 982. The explosion meant that by the turn of the century, there were more American golf courses than British ones.

The American Amateur Championships

The First Amateur Championships in 1894. Charles Blair Macdonald is in the middle, third from left.

In 1894, America's first national amateur championship was first played in the Newport Golf Club on Rhode Island. It was played over 36 holes. The championship went well initially until a certain Charles Blair Macdonald collapsed in the second round with a score of 100, losing by a stroke to a Mr Lawrence. Macdonald protested that he had been unjustly penalized by a controversal ruling. The organizers agreed to hold a matchplay event a month later. This time round, Macdonald lost in the final to a Mr Stoddard after narrowly failing to overcome the effects of a bottle champagne he had drank during lunch. Macdonald's criticisms of the calibre of the victor once again was upheld and the championship did not count. Mr Macdonald was to later contribute greatly to the game but sportsmanship and good manners were certainly not among them.

A pioneer of American Golf, Henry Tallmadge was the first president of the United States Golf Association (USGA)

The 1895 US Amateur Championship was much more successful and was ran under the auspices of the United States Golf Association (USGA) and its first president Theodore Havemeyer. It was to be regarded as the first "official" US Amateur Championship. Like the controversal one before it, it was played at the Newport Golf Club on Rhode Island. The organizer Theodore Havemeyer invited representatives from the nation's five most prominent clubs - St Andrew's, Shinnecock Hills, Chicago, Newport and The Country Club at Brookline, Masachusetts. Mr Charles Blair Macdonald was once again in the competition. The championship was eventually won by Macdonald and regarded a success. Macdonald had pasted Charlie Sands, a member of Newport Golf Club by 12 and 11 in the final.

On the day after the Amateur, the fist US Open was played on the same course and won by Horace Rawlins, an Englishman. From 1895 onwards, golfing caught hold in American and blossomed in the Roaring Twenties (1920s) as it had in the Gay Nineties (1890s) for the same reason: an economic boom. The game survived the Great Depression and the Second World War, only to be revitalized in the 1960s by Arnold Palmer, President Eisenhower and television.

The Father of Golf in America - John Reid

John Reid - The Father of American golf

It was John Reid, a Scotsman, who seemed destined to be regarded the man who introduced the game to the United States. On November 14, 1888, Reid and a few friends formally drew up a constitution for a golf club. They called it St Andrew's, a name somewhat similiar to St Andrews, if not for the apostrophe.

John Reid was born in Dunfermline in 1840 and had learned the game in Musselburgh. He was living in Yonkers, New York, when he requested a friend Robert Lockhart, to purchase a few clubs and balls for him while on a visit to Scotland. Lockhart did just that and on February 22, 1888, Reid and a few friends used the recently arrived equipment to negotiate a rudimentary three holes he had in a field close to his house. On November 14, 1888, Reid drew up a constitution for a golf club and so the first American golf club was born.

Reid's reputation as the Father of American golf is frankly underserved. He did nothing more than form the first American golf club and had done nothing to foster the infant game. He had resisted relocating the club from the makeshift course next to his home to a more suitable site until the local authorities opened a road right throught his course. It was in 1897, after a few reluctant relocations that the club finally for a full 18 hole course.