Just pasting the text from my above link:
Scottish Exiles - The Foot Soldiers
by Frank Boumphrey
There is a poignancy surpassing pain that attaches to a man who does not die in the country of his birth. (Anonymous)
The Scottish exiles who flocked to America at the turn of the 19C put an indelible stamp upon the game. Although Golf in America, unlike in it's Scottish homeland, was predominantly a game for the rich and influential, it was the lowly Scottish Golf professionals, in military parlance 'the grunts', who kept the whole thing together. In any new club it was the professional who not only kept the shop and made and repaired the clubs, but he was also the chief evangelist; the repository of golf lore; the arbiter of what was and was not done; the greenkeeper/golf superintendent; all this as well as being the teacher of the game rudiments to members and being the trainer of caddies. Indeed it is not too much to say that the way we view the game today can be directly related to the collective genius of these early Scots foot soldiers.
This is illustrated most clearly in the career of Robert White. Although he won no major tournament, indeed he was an 'unspectacular' player, he could well lay claim - although his natural modesty would have prevented this - to be one of the most influential men ever in American golf.
Robert White - Early Years
Robert White had been a school teacher in his native St. Andrews and came over to the United States in 1894. He obviously found that instructing novice adult golfers was more congenial and rewarding - and probably better paying - than pedagogy, and quickly found work at the Myopia Country Club. From there he went to Cincinnati Golf Club, then Louisville, then in 1902 to Ravisloe in Chicago where he stayed until 1914.
White had been laying out golf courses since his arrival in the States. It would be probably stretching the truth to call him an architect at this early stage of his career, although later on he put his stamp on many fine courses. However he was a very knowledgeable green keeper; knew his game from top to bottom; and had a fine eye for for any 'lie of the land' as a potential golf hole. His fee for laying out a 9 hole course was $25, and it took him a morning. After walking the property he would decide on 9 tee locations and nine green locations, and he would probably also suggest the location of a few bunkers. Also included in his fee was instruction to some local farmer (put into writing should they fail to negotiate his Scottish brogue) about mowing the greens and fairways, and some suggestions on how to dig out the bunkers. He would inform the clubs founders where they could buy mowing machines for greens and fairways, and give the names and addresses of some seed merchants who could provide the Bent grass mixes suitable for greens.
The chances are that the founders would also ask him to recommend a professional. Robert was a good judge of character and quite impartial. He would happily endorse any clean and competent Scottish immigrant even if he didn't come from his home town of St. Andrews! In 1902 Robert White had helped found a society of Golf professionals in Illinois - the second association of professional golfers in the world (the British PGA was founded in 1901) - and was also appointed their president. He proved to be a fine administrator, and was much respected by his fellow professionals. Members of the PGA as they called themselves paid a $2 annual fee and they also organized various competitions and meets. While in Chicago Bob White was instrumental in two important advances in American golf - professional club making and professional greenkeeping.
During the long winter months, professional golf course business was slow, so the professionals under White's guidance organized themselves into a group to manufacture and market golf clubs, The Professional Golf Company. They adapted old clubs to 'new' world conditions and also designed new ones suitable for the different conditions to be found on American courses. They made fine clubs, but unfortunately their business skills were not up to their club making skills, and the business folded in a few years. However they had shown that what was good for the 'old' world was not necessarily good for the 'new', and they had also set the scene for professional club endorsement in America.
Most golf courses had been laid out on land that was either marginal or unsuitable for farming. Unfortunately this also meant that the land was also barely suitable for growing grass or for the production of good golf turf, and the state of many courses, including Ravisloe, was deemed unsatisfactory. Robert White determined to do something about it. During the Winter months he started attending 'farmers classes' at the University of Wisconsin, and soon made himself an expert on grass and turf management. With his new knowledge, and the manure from the close to hand Chicago stock yards, he was able to revitalize many local courses. His successes also enabled him to spread the science of green keeping through out the mid-west and his pragmatism, enthusiasm and evangelism was responsible for the introduction of many courses on golf course maintenance at University Agriculture Departments through out and beyond the region.
President of the PGA
In 1914 White left Chicago to design the Wykagyl C.C. at New Rochelle and he stayed on as the first professional. He quickly became a leading light in East Coast golf just as he had been in the mid-west. Further more, by this time it is estimated that he had a close relationship with about a third of the pros in the United States, either by blood, marriage or through job sponsorship. Thus when the United States PGA came to be founded in 1916, Bob White was a natural choice as its first president, a post he retained until 1920. The PGA was lucky to have such a president who skillfully overcame the differences that arose between the opinionated members. When one reads about the early meetings of the PGA committees the phrase 'Herding Cats' immediately springs to mind! One is also impressed at the number of times quotations of Robert Burns were used to diffuse tricky situations! Who else but a Scotsman would placate an opponent by (incorrectly! - ed.) citing Burns, comparing them to 'An honest whore, the noblest work of God'!
Player
As a player White was a competent competitor, but hardly shone, and this may be one of the reasons he handled his fellow professionals so well. No one was jealous of his golfing abilities! In the US Opens in which he entered he never finished in the top half of the field. For example in 1900 he was 66 shots behind the winner Harry Vardon, averaging 94 strokes a round. (In today's terms this probably would be what a reasonable 8-10 handicapper would shoot. Ed.) However this lack of golfing prowess never seems to have upset him, and he doubtless enjoyed the social aspects and the chance to check on how his numerous prot'eg'es were coming along.
Later Years
Robert White later laid out and designed several courses and became a respected architect - we can use that phrase for his later courses - even if never quite obtaining the reputation of a Tillinghast, a Stanley Thompson, a Donald Ross or an Alister Mackenzie. But then self-advertisement was never his strong suit. Well over 30 clubs still attribute him as their architect, and the two that the author has played certainly compare well with many more famous layouts. In his later years he moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and was part owner of several golf enterprises in the area. He managed his finances with the same good sense as he had managed the early PGA, and so like most of these early Scots he went to his grave a relatively wealthy, respected and loved man! Robert White may have been one of the more well known and successful 'labourers in the vineyard', but in essence he was not much different in style or character to the hundreds of imigrants who impressed their stamp on the American golf game!