3 months ago
Long before the likes of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nickolaus and Tiger Woods, golf was a simple sport. And it was meant for the elite, the upper crust.
"You didn't have the middle class involved in golf or the working class," said Dan Starr, a Buffalo sports historian and former Canisius College Athletic Director. "You didn't have the 40 hour work week. It was the wealthy people who had money who could go out to the country club."
And in 1912, the Country Club of Buffalo hosted the U.S. Open. The club was located where Grover Cleveland Golf Course now sits, at the corner of what is now Main and Bailey. But back then;
"This was country," said Starr. "I mean horses and cows and stuff like that."
We walked the links together at Grover Cleveland. Starr says when the golfers were walking the grounds in 1912, not many people would have noticed.
"When you go back to the beginning of the century other than baseball, most sports were played by people who liked playing the sports but you didn't have the fans and that was true about every sport except baseball," he said. "Baseball was the national pastime."
But there was mention of the golf championship in the media. "A Great Field of Golfers" was the headline in the Buffalo Express in July, 1912. "Off On the Long Links Race" it read. Turn the page to see an era that advertised $17 for a men's suit and a new Studebaker would put you back $800, about $20,000 today.
The two day championship produced many photographs, showing the men out on the links all dressed to the nines. And the winner of the championship games was John McDermott, 20. His score; 294, two under Par. The Atlantic City native won the year before too and still holds the title from then as the youngest winner in U.S. Open history.
It's been 97 years since that golf championship, but could we see the U.S. Open make a return trip to Buffalo?
"Maybe it would be possible," said Starr. "I wouldn't bet on it, I'll put it that way, I'm not going to bet the house on it."
Starr says the closest Buffalo may see to another U.S. Open could be the just across the border. He says Cherry Hill Country Club in Ontario has made some big improvements to its golf course hoping to be a top contender for the British Open.
