Are we sure that "Far and Sure" was Travis?

[Mike_Cirba]

I ask because a 1912 American Golfer article discussing golf in Philadelphia ends with the paragraph,

"At any event, the golfing renaissance
in Philadelphia has actually
begun and before many years
we shall have courses which are a
credit to us and not a mark of good
natured chaffing of others who
know what constitutes a good
course."

I didn't know that Travis ever considered himself a Philadelphian?

[TEPaul]

According to Bob Labbance's biography of Travis, when Travis started American Golfer he lined up a bunch of regional correspondences and gave most all of them pen names. According to the book "Far And Sure" covered Eastern Pennsylvania. The book, "The Old Man", also mentioned "Hazard" covered Philadelphia.

So I guess it's hard to say who some of them were. Perhaps "Far and Sure" could've been Travis himself but since "Far and Sure" was known to cover Eastern Pennsylvania I doubt it was Travis. It may've been Tillinghast who just used another pen name for the "Eastern Pennsylvania" contributions which was one of the regular "sections" in American Golfer.

[Phil_the_Author]

Tom,

When Tilly wrote for The American Golfer it was always under the name of "Hazard." He never did so under any other name.

[TEPaul]

"Tom,
When Tilly wrote for The American Golfer it was always under the name of "Hazard." He never did so under any other name."

Phil:

Hmmm, that's  interesting.

Then you must have some idea who "Far and Sure" was, otherwise how can you be sure that Tillinghast didn't use that pen name too?

[Phil_the_Author]

I forgot who he was, though somewhere in my file I have it. I believe it was Travis, but again, I have to look it up. What I am refering to is an article from the American Golfer that mentions Travis as "Far and Sure" and Tilly as "Hazard" specifically.

I was going to mention that in my original post but because I couldn't quickly find the actual reference I decided to wait until I did.

By the way, many of "Hazard's" articles contained poems by "Duffer." Tilly identified the author of these as his Father, B.C. Tillinghast, who also aided in the gathering of much of the information found in these articles as Tilly was many times out of town doing design work.

If you speak with Rand Jerris, he would know for certain as well. We once spoke about the pseudonyms and pretty much knew all of them were for the American Golfer.