The Unlikely Inspiration for the Tour

Published by Legendary Publishing & Media Group

Copyright © 2022 ISBN: 978-0-578-95763-0

Written by Kevin Casey

Printed in China

First Printing, 2022, All rights reserved.

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher.

Produced by Legendary Publishing & Media Group Legendarypmg.com 561-309-0229 President and Creative Director: Larry Hasak President, Business Development: William Green Editor: Debbie Falcone Consulting Editors: David Barrett, Thomas Dunne Art Director/Prepress Specialist: Matt Ellis Senior Art Director: Susan Balle Business Manager: Melody Manolakis

CONTENTS

PREFACE: VIII

PART ONE

THE START OF SOMETHING GRAND: 1890–1925: 1

The Unlikely Inspiration for the Tour: 4 New Jersey Golf’s Early Adopters: 12 The First Garden State U.S. Opens: 26 Teeing Up the Golf Tee: 34 An Auspicious Start at Morris County Golf Club: 36 The Artists of New Jersey’s Golden Age of Golf Course Design: 42 The Birdie: First Shot in Atlantic City: 80

PART TWO

THE GREATEST GENERATION: 1925–1955: 84

A Portrait of the Player of the Century: 88 The 1930s: When the Stars Descended On the New Jersey Open: 92 The Quadrangular Team Matches: 100 Keepers of Golf’s Flame: 106 Baltusrol and the U.S. Open–1936 and 1954: 110 Shady Rest Golf and Country Club: 122 The Original Mulligan—The New Jersey Version: 126

PART THREE

THE WONDER YEARS: 1955–1990: 128

Excellence, Determination, and Grit: 132 Baltusrol and the U.S. Open–1967 and 1980: 136 There’s No Keeping Up With These Joneses: 148 Representing Something Bigger: 162 Hosted in New Jersey: 172 New Jersey, Home State of the USGA: 174

PART FOUR

THE MODERN GAME—SINCE 1990: 184

The Garden State’s Second Golden Age of Golf Course Architecture?: 188 Modern Era Contributors: 206 Baltusrol and the U.S. Open–1993: 210 The Popularity of Interclub Team Matches: 214 The New Jersey State Open’s Big Three: 218 Somerset Hills Country Club: 220 The Record Book: 228

Index: 241 Acknowledgments: 243

PART ONE THE START OF SOMETHING GRAND 1890–1925

It must have been exciting to be there at the beginning,

to sense that a fascinating new sport had hit America’s shores. In 1890, it would have been hard to imagine that this ancient sport called golf would eventually generate billions of dollars of capital and become a major source of recreation in America.

One had to be in the right places, at the right times, to get a perspective of what was happening. But the country was ripe for change. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the United States stood on the threshold of the greatest era of expansion and development in its history. Railroads were moving goods and people across the continent, while Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone was helping spread new ideas. New Jersey’s (and Essex County Country Club’s) Thomas Edison was bringing not just light to America, but electricity. Henry Ford would start to produce the first of his automobiles by 1900, and engineering was catching up with theory, allowing the Wright brothers to soon take flight.

Great wealth was being created, and there was a growing appetite to see that its benefits were equitably spread. The country was ripe for recreation, as baseball became the national pastime, college football was gaining traction, and a growing interest in track and field found a focus with the first Olympics in 1896. But these were largely spectator sports. There were few channels available for outdoor, vigorous recreation that didn’t demand youth, strength, speed, and exceptional coordination to enjoy.

At that same time, across the Hudson River from New Jersey in Yonkers, New York, a transplanted Scotsman named John Reid laid out three short holes in a nearby pasture. Using clubs and gutta-percha balls just delivered from Old Tom Morris’s pro shop in St. Andrews, Scotland, Reid and several of his buddies took turns hitting shots in the pasture. After a summer of playing this new game every weekend, Reid’s gang formed a club, named Saint Andrew’s Golf Club, paying homage to the game’s most hallowed Scottish ground. Forming the club not only strengthened the bond they had developed, but provided funds for maintenance of their beloved new sport—golf.

At that moment, Saint Andrew’s was the only continuously existing golf club in the U.S. But that wouldn’t last long. In New Jersey, for example, Essex County Country Club and Plainfield Country Club had already incorporated and were developing plans for their golf courses. Within a few years, there were a half-dozen courses in New Jersey, and by 1900, ten of the most prominent came together to form the New Jersey State Golf Association (NJSGA), the second-oldest state golf association in the U.S. The new sport had taken hold and the Garden State was in the vanguard. One of the best indicators of New Jersey leadership was that between 1896 and 1906, the state hosted four of the first twelve U.S. Amateur championships, the most important competition in the country at the time. In 1898, Lakewood, New Jersey, was the site of a prototype tournament for the events that led to the formation of the first tour for professional golfers. New Jersey clubs were the venues for three early U.S. Opens (1903, ’09, and ’15), and one Open winner, New Jersey amateur Jerry Travers, was so good that the United States Golf Association (USGA) based its handicap system—developed by a son of Plainfield Country Club—on his prowess.

New Jersey was also home to the first club created and managed by women. This same club was also quite possibly the site of American golf’s first coup d’état.

Finally, one need not look further to determine the importance of New Jersey to early golf in America than to note the attention lavished on the Garden State by the country’s best architects. New Jersey was at the epicenter of the Golden Age of golf course architecture.

ABOVE: Members play golf at Saint Andrew’s Golf Club in Yonkers, New York, circa 1899. OPPOSITE: Essex County Country Club member Thomas A. Edison photographed in his laboratory in 1911.