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John Connolly

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When CBM invited H.J. Whigham and other Scots to Chicago for the World Fair of 1893 to exhibit golf to a hitherto apathetic American crowd, where did the golf actually take place? Did they go to Lake Forest? Chicago Golf Club? Or did they play at the fair itself?
"And yet - and yet, this New Road will some day be the Old Road, too."

                                                      Neil Munroe (1863-1930)

Jim_Kennedy

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In his foreword to Scotland's Gift, Herbert Warren Wind said the Lake Forest course.
"I never beat a well man in my life" - Harry Vardon

John Connolly

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Thank you, Jim. I have Scotland's Gift yet there is no forward by Mr. Wind in my copy. In Scotland's Gift, when CB writes of the introduction of golf to the West, and by extension, the States, he tips his hat to a cohort of English enthusiasts.


Macdonald writes:


"The first impetus given to golf in the West was when Sir Henry Wood was appointed England's Commissioner General to the World's Fair. With him came a retinue of young college men who had all played golf at their universities, and who were clamoring for some outdoor sport. They talked golf incessantly wherever they went. Eventually they created and audience."


Indeed, it is hard to deduce with certainty where they played to stimulate this "audience." Given his rudimentary course on the Farwell estate in Lake Forest, this may have been one site of play. Also, as the Exposition ran from May through October of 1893, and the Belmont site of the Chicago Golf Club was operational during that interval, it is conceivable CB hosted these golfing exhibitions there as well.
"And yet - and yet, this New Road will some day be the Old Road, too."

                                                      Neil Munroe (1863-1930)