A Wilie Dunn course for Rodman Griscom after learning golf in Scotland pre-1895

[MCirba]

Melvyn Morrow shared this April 18, 1896 story reprinted (from the New York Tribune) in the Dundee Advertiser about the progress of golf in Philadelphia.   I'm uncertain the date of the original article which I suspect was from 1895 as you'll see later.

I had never known prior that Rodman Griscom had his own golf course, much less one designed by Willie Dunn.   It seems a bit odd considering that another Willie from Musselburgh, Willie Campbell,  designed the first course for the Merion Cricket Club at roughly the same timeframe.   



That Griscom was well connected to golf abroad is not a surprise as his father was a Shipping Magnate and his sister Frances an early women's golf champion.   I had previously understood most of their connection to golf abroad was to the Sayers family at North Berwick so it was a bit surprising to hear of the Musselburgh connection with Dunn.    From the northberwick.org.uk site;

When Ben Sayers Jnr returned to North Berwick he took over the house and shop in Quality Street when George emigrated to the USA and was appointed golf pro at Merion Golf Club in Pennsylvania.

George Sayers contact in America was Rodman E Griscom of Berton, Griscom & Co. Stockbrokers, 40 Wall Street, New York. Rodman Griscom was a founder member of Merion Golf Club in Philadelphia and his sister Francis C. Griscom was US Woman's Amateur Champion in 1900. Francis came to Scotland in 1902 and was tutored all summer at North Berwick by Ben Sayers Snr. In August that year Ben partnered Miss Griscom in a match against Arnaud Massy and British Open Ladies Champion Rhona Adair. The match was halved in front of a large gallery. Rodman and Francis visited North Berwick again in 1906 and 1911 and were both under the supervision of Ben Sayers Snr.

As it turns out, the Griscom/North Berwick/Sayers connection preceded even those early days.   From a Philadelphia Times story dated September 9th, 1900;

[MCirba]

I'm hopeful to find more shortly in this regard.   What I do know at this point is that Rodman Griscom was a 5 handicap at Philadelphia Country Club by 1896 and played in the US Amateur that year at Shinnecock.  The 1900 article mentions that he and his sister learned to play at the course he had built by Seymour Dunn (on his father Clement Griscom's property) but his first exposure to golf had to have been prior to then, almost by definition.

I'm trying to get more information related to his first golf trip to Scotland/North Berwick that was in 1894, not 1899, which is mentioned in Jeff Silverman's recent book about the Championships at Merion.    Any help in this regard is most appreciated, thanks.

In the meantime, here's a bit more from the northberwick.co.uk website;

Merion and the North Berwick connection
Robert Marr Thomson from North Berwick was eighteen years old when he emigrated to the USA in 1897 and was appointed pro at the nine-hole course at Merion Cricket Club. John 'Jack' Millar was hired as club maker in 1903 and remained at Merion until 1911. Robert Thomson was followed as head professional by his brother James R Thomson in 1905. In 1910 Tom Bonnar from Inveresk was appointed professional. During this period Rodman Griscom, captain of Merion and his sister visited North Berwick and was tutored by Ben Sayers throughout the summer of 1902. They visited North Berwick again in 1906 and 1911 when Rodman Griscom invited George Sayers to take up the position of head pro at Merion Cricket Club. Sayers arrived in 1913 and was followed by a long line of club makers sent out from Ben Sayers & Son in North Berwick who passed through Merion on their way to fill positions at other clubs.

*Addendum* - Just learned that the Griscoms rented a cottage on the North Berwick links.   There also seems to have been a link with Old Tom Morris at St. Andrews as Miss Griscom was reported to have toured those links with the grand old man.

[MCirba]

What I'm trying to get to is when Rodman Griscom first played golf and when he first visited the British Isles.   I'm going to reach out to Jeff Silverman to see what more he has but from his book, "Merion - The Championship Story";

...in December of 1894, the Philadelphia papers reported on Elsie's (Cassatt) participation in the city's first tournament for women.  Rodman Griscom played that day too, in the men's division of the event, and comported himself equitably - so he, too, had to have been playing somewhere (Might he have tried the game at the Philadelphia Country Club?  Or at Devon?) (my comment...at the former as seen above)...

The point is that they had to be playing somewhere.

Half a century after Rodman's younger sister Frances tied for fifth out of 29 entrants in the second US Women's Amateur...in 1896, she told the USGA's Golf Journal that her brother had introduced her to the game two years earlier - in 1894, after a trip to Scotland.  She also revealed that the family played regularly on a three hole course set up at Dolobran, their country estate at Haverford, though exactly when the holes were established and who put them in remains a mystery.  

Not any longer, I'd say.

[MCirba]

In the interest of stimulating discussion I thought I'd mention the high likelihood that Griscom was a Russian Mole who had numerous contacts with Lee Harvey Oswald before and after The JFK Assassination.

Don't get me started on Willie Dunn. 

[MCirba]

Ok, so perhaps unlike Rafael Cruz the Griscom clan were neither agent provocateurs nor involved with political assassinations.   They were, however, rather tightly connected to golf abroad very early on.   From the September 1st, 1900 Troy (NY) Daily Times, particularly note the final paragraph;




It seems that throughout the 1890s and through at least the first decade of the 1900s the Griscom Family were regular visitors to the famous golf shrines of Scotland.   This detailed article from the New York Herald published October 11th, 1903 gives some indication of how tightly connected the Griscom family was to many of the top people in golf abroad.   Indeed, when Merion opened their new course in 1912 Benny Sayers son George came over to become the new professional.  *Note - Apologies in advance for some of the very offensive language included in one phrase of the article, language that thankfully is very politically incorrect in today's parlance.



 

[MCirba]

Wherever abroad or in the US Rodman Griscom learned to play golf, by 1900 he was not only playing each year in the US Amateur but as head of the Merion Cricket Club Green Committee, he and his cohorts had designed and added nine holes to the original  Merion course created by Willie Campbell in 1896 and had modified a number of others.   

As such, when the Golf Association of Philadelphia pressed the city for the creation of a municipal links, the city asked them to name "experts" who could scour the Fairmount Park system looking for potential locations for a golf course.   GAP named Griscom, as well as George Fowle and Samuel Heebner.   Fowle had greatly modified and enhanced the course at the Philadelphia Country Club in previous years, and Heebner had designed and added nine at the Philadelphia Cricket Club.   As such, all of these men were well versed in golf course architecture and maintenance, such as it was at the time.

The three men located a site near the Belmont Mansion, and after site visits, using a topographical map provided by Jesse Vogdes, Chief Engineer of the Park, they laid out a nine hole course of slightly less than 3,000 yards, which they called "a very good one". 

Following please find the City Council Minutes associated with this effort, which never saw funding from the city and died on the vine at that early date in 1900.

[MCirba]

Peripherally related to this topic is this wonderful 1897 article describing early golf in the Philadelphia area that attempts to describe the particulars of the nascent game to the readers of a Wilmington (DE) newspaper, where the state's first ever golf competition was going to be staged.

[MCirba]

It does indeed appear that Rodman Griscom learned the game through his travels in Scotland and England sometime prior to 1895.   This article from the Salt Lake Deseret Evening News in 1903 describes how the Griscom brothers became avid golfers abroad and then introduced their sister Frances to the game, as well as having a golf course laid out on their family property (by Seymour Dunn, as seen above).

[MCirba]

Rodman Griscom's brother Lloyd was also the United States Ambassador to Japan in the early 1900s.  (EDIT) Some reports that I'm trying to verify indicated that Rodman took over the role in 1906.  The Griscom family had seats of prominence at the Coronation of the new King of England in the late 1890s.   

The family had what was essentially the first trans-Atlantic shipping company in the US, creating ocean liners such as the Lusitania, among others.   Interesting guy.

[Jim Sherma]

Wow, good stuff. The early days of American golf is fascinating stuff. Thanks for putting this together.

[Niall C]

Mike


Enjoying it so far but just hope your golf history is more accurate than your history of the British (note; not English) monarchy.


Niall


ps. I would have put a smiley emoticon but didn't want to bugger up the formatting

[MCirba]

Niall,

I had come across an article pre-Coronation stating that the Griscom's would be provided seats of prominence and recalled it (incorrectly) being from the late 1890s.   Instead, it appears to have been the Coronation of Edward VII which I see was postponed due to the illness of Edward and that the foreign dignitaries who were in town didn't come back for the rescheduled ceremony.   And, yes, I must admit that my detailed  knowledge of British history is quite lacking.

The rest, as they say, is history. 

Jim Sherma,

Good to hear from you and glad you're enjoying the thread.

[Niall C]

Mike


His coronation was also postponed by the ongoing well being of Queen Victoria who managed to stay on until 22nd January 1901. Now if you had paid attention to the Scott-Taylor diaries...........


Niall

[MCirba]

Niall,

Yes, I should have clarified that I was speaking of the original planned Coronation of Edward in the early 1900s, not late 1890s.  That pesky Victoria!  😀

[MCirba]

Darn...I was busy all day and thought this thread might have another 5 or 6 hundred posts by now. 

Did I mention that Rodman Griscom was the great grandfather of both Tiger Woods and Michelle Wie? 

[BCrosby]

Mike -


Stunned by the Griscom revelations.   


Slightly off topic, I note from a newspaper article you posted above that in 1897 Hugh Wilson, then just out of college, was considered a prominent Philly golfer.


Wilson was not on the Philly team that played against John Low's Oxford Cambridge Golfing Society team in the summer of 1903. It was a high profile event at the time. I can think of any number of reasons why Wilson might not have played, but wondered if you have run across anything that mentioned his absence.


Bob

[MCirba]

Hi Bob,

Yes, the jig is most definitely up for that Grifter Griscom with these startling revelations!

As to the rest, you're timing is slightly off.   In 1897 when young Hugh Wilson was winning the Club Championship at old Belmont (predecessor to Aronimink), he was but a high school lad of 16.   

He attended Princeton from 1898 through 1902 and was there as the new Willie Dunn course was being designed and built and then modified by Princeton Pro James Swan, who also designed the first Lawrenceville School course, 4 holes of which still exist today.

As you may remember, as Captain of the Princeton Golf team, Hugh Wilson was also on the Princeton Green Committee.

With his attendance at Princeton, Wilson's handicap was no longer kept by the Golf Association of Philadelphia, but instead was part of the NY Metropolitan Golf Association, and for a number of years after graduation his handicap showed up under their auspices, not Philadelphia's.

He was back in Philadelphia not too long after and around 1905 or 06, if memory serves, he played for Philly in the Lesley Cup matches, the NY team that year having a couple of guys named Macdonald and Emmet on it.   Small world back then. 

[BCrosby]

Thanks Mike.


The first years of the 20th century were a time of real ferment. For example, Low was defending his ideas about strategic golf architecture in Britain at the same time he was leading the 1903 OCGS tour in the US. The OCGS team played against US teams that included CBM, Travis, Emmet, Langford, Egan, Leeds and Tilly. So it's a pretty safe bet that gca issues came up that summer and ideas were exchanged.


I was curious about the extent to which Wilson took part in that ferment in the early aughts. I did not know he played for Philly in the Lesley Cup. I'd guess that their matches were an occasion for similarly interesting conversations about gca.


Bob   

[MCirba]

Bob,

I'll dig up what I have on Wilson playing in the 1906 Lesley Cup matches.   As you might imagine, there were some architectural powerhouses with also Crump, Simon Carr and Tillinghast (and Griscom) representing the Philadelphia team, Travis, Macdonald, Emmet for New York, and guys like Arthur Lockwood on the Boston team.

In the meantime, I ran across a 1903 publication which credits the Merion "Green Committee" (led at the time by Rodman Griscom) for the additional work  on their original course (the first nine holes were designed by Willie Campbell) which involved nine new holes and changes to four of the original holes.   Also see a related article which explains why the men involved were selected by GAP in 1900 to form the committee of "experts" looking to create a municipal course for the city of Philadelphia, as referenced above.

[MCirba]

Bob,

I'm not sure what year this was (had it in my pictures file but poorly named) but it was before the InterCity matches were called the Lesley Cup that began in 1905.  This was also before Boston became part of the matches, so it was likely around 1903 or 1904.   Quite the teams, eh?

[MCirba]

In 1906 Hugh Wilson played again when Merion hosted the Lesley Cup.   This from the October 17, 1906 NY Evening Post.



Here's a bit more from the October 23rd NY Evening Telegram of that year.



The home team did not fare well that year, losing to Boston 7 to 3.   Boston lost to NY the next day with CBM losing and Travis narrowly winning in their singles matches.

[BCrosby]

Good stuff Mike. It was a small world. With all the turmoil going on with gca at the time, I would love to have been a fly on the wall in the bar after their matches.


A Venn diagram of the best American amateurs of the era would show a large overlap with the best American golf architects of the era.


There was a similar overlap in Britain at about the same time. Colt, Fowler, Alison, Low, Paton, Croome and Hutchison (do we count Darwin?) were all very good players who knew each other from University or through OCGS matches against British clubs. An equally small world.


Bob