What happened to H.Chandler Egan?

[T_MacWood]

H.Chandler Egan won the 1904 and 1905 US Amatuer, was runner up in 1909, won the 1902, 1904, 1905, 1907 Western Am and then in 1910 or 1911 completely disappeared from the scene...buying an apple orchard in the middle of nowhere Oregon. I read somewhere that the closest golf course was 300 miles.

What happened to him? He was in his mid-20s and presumably just getting to what would've been his prime; he was a graduate of Harvard and he came from a prominent Chicago family with plenty of money. Does anyone know why he fell off the face of the earth?

[JohnV]

He did design a number of golf courses in Oregon including Eastmoreland, Eugene, Rogue Valley Country Club in Medford, Coos Country Club in Coos Bay and Oswego Lake.  He was also involved in the re-design of a little course on the Monterey Peninsula you might have heard of named Pebble Beach in 1929 as well as desgining Pacific Grove.

By the way, if you are in Bandon and can get away from there, go up and play the original 9 at Coos.  It is quite fun and funky.  They added 9 more holes a few years ago, but I've never seen them.

Here is a page from PNGA that gives some of his history:

http://www.thepnga.org/AwardsAndHonors/halloffame_people/hall1985_3.asp

He died in 1936 after contracting pneumonia while supervising the construction of a course in Everett Washington

[T_MacWood]

John
Indian Canyon in Washington and North Fulton in Georgia are a couple more. I would think Egan is better known on GolfClubAtlas as an architect (Pebble Beach, his partnership with MacKenzie, et al) than he is as a golfer.

Between 1911 and his big come back at the 1929 Amatuer at Pebble Beach (he made the semi-finals) he did not play in any national events (26 to 44 years old)...although he did dominate the Pacific NW Am.

The PNWGA site speculates a failed marriage may have been the reason, but he moved to Oregon the year he got married or the year after (I think he got married in 1910), and I believe he and his wife did not file for a secret devorce until 1915.

Why did he drop out of the national limelight to become an apple farmer?

[Lynn_Shackelford]

It could have been the long trains rides to the east.
However there was a good story in a recent Golf Digest issue.  I think it may have been a from the book about Claude Harmon.  As a young player Claude hooked up with Egan in a practice round before an Amateur.  It seems Claude had no idea who he was and lost considerable money in the match.  Egan didn't take the money, just told Claude in the future not to mix his ego with his ignorance.

[JohnV]

I think that Lynn may be on to something there with the travel issue.  Given he did continue to play well on the regional level, it might be that he didn't want to go back east and as soon as the USGA showed up on the west coast, he was there (also his work there helped.)

The Western Amateur was played in Portland in 1931.  I wonder if he played in that.

He was on the 1934 Walker Cup team that went to St. Andrews.  An interesting choice given his lack of playing over the previous years.

[T_MacWood]

No doubt travel would have been a challenge, but after 1929 he was back competing nationally. I do not believe he qualified for the match play in 1930 (Merion) or 1931 (Beverly) but he tried. He lost to the eventual runner-up Johnny Goodman in 1932 at Baltimore and upset Goodman (the favorite) in 1933 at Kenwood. I'm not sure about 1934 or 1935.

He was also member the USGA committee (I think in charge of eligibility) in the 20s, so I presume he traveled back east at least once a year. He was also Walker Cup captain in 1926 or 1928.

Travel difficulties might explain why he did not compete during those years (although it didn't appear to stop him after 1929), but still doesn't explain why he would move cross country and become an apple farmer....with so much apparently going for him in Chicago.

[Bob_Huntley]

Travel difficulties might explain why he did not compete during those years (although it didn't appear to stop him after 1929), but still doesn't explain why he would move cross country and become an apple farmer....with so much apparently going for him in Chicago.

Tom,

It was probably the only industry that thrived during the depression.... think of all the brokerage industry apple sellers after the crash.


Bob

[JohnV]

There was also a period of time when architects were considered professionals.  Perhaps his designing courses prohibited him from playing.

[Phil_the_Author]

But Tom, he did compete in those years. You went to the NWGA site. On it it lists him as the PNGA Men’s Amateur Champion 1915, 1920, 1923, 1925 & 1932 and a finalist in 1914 & 1921.

This was not just a local tournament, but one of national significance. In 1925, Golf Illustrated listed it as a "Major" amateur event.

He also won the California State Championship in 1926 & was a finalist in 1928

He played in the Western Open in 1927 & may have done so in others (need to look it up). The New York Times even has a short article about his losing a match back in 1915 and did a nice article titled "The Apple Farmer from Oregon" in th early 30's where his history was discussed (Need to find that as well.)

I too think that travel may have been an issue for him during those years, so he mostly competed locally. Yet it appears, at least in the examples of the Western Open and Pacific Northwest Open championships that these did have a national significance. Since they are "Opens" his status as a professional because of being an architect would have no bearing as well.

By the way, he was granted his divorce inSeptember of 1916.

[T_MacWood]

John
There was a controversy in 1917 on amateurism that effected Travis, but that was cleared in about a year. I'm not certain what year Egan began designing golf courses, but I think his most active period was the 20s.

If there was an issue with his amateur standing you would I have thought it would've prevented him from competing in regional tournaments as well, but it didn't.

Phil
It was made public in September 1916, but accoding to an article in the NY Times (in September of 1916) they had secretly gotten the devorce the previous July. His wife got custody of their child.

[Phil_the_Author]

Tom, the controversy regarding amateurism from 1916 on effected more than Travis. Tillinghast and others were declared professionals because they worked as architects and also those who wrote about golf as well.

This issue went back and forth for several years with numerous changes and adjustments. It very easily could have effected his amateur status for a time, though there probably isn't any way of finding out definitively now.

[Phil_the_Author]

Tom, thanks for the correction. I only knew of the announcement in 1916 & had never heard that it was done secretly. Do you know the reasons for doing it secretly and what may have happened to force(?) them to announce it publicly?

[Bill_McBride]

Last week I was fortunate enough to play a round at Eugene Country Club, and it is a terrific club and course.  You could have a field day with a really good chain saw.

I had always wondered why Robert Trent Jones Sr came in and reversed the course, putting the new greens where the tees where and basically turning the routing around.  I played with a young member who explained why to me, and backed it up by showing me two lovely hand-drawn routings that are hanging in the clubhouse.

In the current routing, there are five holes with water directly in front of the green, tough holes all.  In the original routing, these ponds, all in the same configuration, were in front of the tees!  When Jones arrived on site and walked the routing, he told the committee, "you've got a great course here but it's backward!"  So he rerouted it to put the greens directly behind the ponds.  This also changed a short par 4 hole that went straight up a steep hill into the second shot of a par 5 (#6) that winds up with a challenging pitch over a pond.  #6 is bracketed by two sturdy par 3s that are all carry at 177 and 200 yards.

So the routing change was a great suggestion and makes for a very good golf course.   Thanks to Ari Techner for a great day.

[T_MacWood]

Phil
I'm not sure I'd agree with you that the Pacific NW Am was a major national amatuer event...did it regularly attract the top amateurs?

The Western, Metropolitan, North & South and even the Southern Am were considered much more important events. Those championships were covered each year in the Annual golf guide of the 1920s, not so with the PNW Amateur. It was an important regional event.

[Phil_the_Author]

Tom,

We're splitting hairs again. I said that "In 1925, Golf Illustrated listed it as a "Major" amateur event." The Annual Golf Guide, a great publication by the way, was not the arbiter for deciding the status of how important a golf tournament was.

It evidently had to have some significance for Golf Illustrated to refer to it as a "Major" and that was really my point. You asked, "Does anyone know why he fell off the face of the earth?"

I contend that he hadn't and there are probably a number of events that he entered in this time frame that we are unaware of. For him to be able to compete at the levels that he did from late 20's to the till his untimely death from pneumonia at least suggests that he had kept his hand in the game. His performances, including a number of wins, in the tournaments cited proves, at least to me, that he hadn't fallen "off the face of the earth."

[T_MacWood]

Come on Phil you can do better than that. If it was a major event don't you think Golf Illustrated would have covered it or devoted an article each year to the event (a la the Western Am, the North & South, etc)?

Going from being the top Amateur in the US to becoming an apple farmer in Medford Oregon is a little strange...at age 26 no less. That is about far off the face of the earth (in amateur golfing sense) as one can get. Do you think he suffered from some kind of mental illness?

The Pacific Northwest wasn't exactly a golfing hot bed in 1911 and from what I understand there wasn't a golf course withing 300 miles of Medford...which may explain why he became an Oregon tennis champion in the early 1910s and why he eventually began designing and building golf courses.

[Garland Bayley]

Some people in Oregon think that staying in the city and NOT moving to a farm in Oregon is indicative of severe mental illness.

[Josh Smith]

    I am pretty certain he also designed Tualatin CC which is near Oswego Lake in the Tigard Tualatin area.  Can anyone confirm it for sure.
    A really great course which I like immensely.  Play it if you have a chance.  A little different since John Fought made some changes.  Still a wonderful course.

[peter_p]

Yes, he did Tualatin, working with the local George Junor. It was one of his first works, in 1912. He also did Eastmoreland.

[Garland Bayley]

Hi Peter,

Didn't he also do the NLE that was where I-84 is now that I believe you wrote on the obscure thread that you played.

[Sean_Tully]

I have been interested in Egan for much the same reason. He was such a good golfer playing and competeing at a high level  and then he moves to Oregon and little is heard of him.

It took me too long to post this so most of what I had to say has been covered. The part about his amateur status being affected by his design work was mentioned in an article in 1916.

He was considered to be on of the longer hitters and would fit nicely with the current strategy of "flogging." I have read a number of mentions of his play out of the rough that they were still talking about 10-15 years after the fact.

He also stated that he prefered playing golf in the Northwest as the turf conditions were better than NorCal.

He played most of his golf along the pacific coast and I recall that he held the course record of 67 at Waverley in 1913 so I think he still had some game. He may have been a precursor to  Jones and Nelson.

If you look at his photos he was a one of the sharper looking golfers out there, he would have been perfect for a Polo commercial!

Tully

[T_MacWood]

Tualitin sounds like a hidden gem. Based on his getting started designing as early as 1912 I wonder if Egan may have been more active designing in the Pacfific NW than what C&W lists.

[Garland Bayley]

George Junor, who he worked with on Tualatin, is more famous for Astoria.

[T_MacWood]

No doubt travel would have been a challenge, but after 1929 he was back competing nationally. I do not believe he qualified for the match play in 1930 (Merion) or 1931 (Beverly) but he tried. He lost to the eventual runner-up Johnny Goodman in 1932 at Baltimore and upset Goodman (the favorite) in 1933 at Kenwood. I'm not sure about 1934 or 1935.

By the way Egan did compete in the 1934 (TCC-Brookline) and 1935 (TCC-Cleveland) US Amateurs. He made it to the 3rd round in both.

[Kip Putterbaugh]

Junor was also Portland Golf Club.