Tuesday
Nov032009
Walter J. Travis
Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 02:13AM
Long before Tiger Woods appeared on The Mike Douglas Show as a two-year-old golf prodigy, the game of golf had a prodigy of a different sort in The Old Man.
Born in Australia in 1862, Travis left Oz before the game of golf arrived. At the age of twenty-four he moved to New York City and it was only upon visiting the UK on business in 1895 that he became aware of the game that would consume him for the next thirty years.
Upon returning to New York in 1896, Travis played his first round of golf at Oakland Golf Club on Long Island. Less than two years later he appeared on the national golf radar when he reached the semifinals of the US Amateur. Remarkably, only three years and nine months after taking his first swing, Travis won the 1900 Amateur and began one of the most impressive, if concise, runs in the history of championship golf. From 1900-1904 Travis won three US Amateurs, finished second in the 1902 US Open (the best showing by an amateur and a distinction that has been topped only by Francis Ouimet's win in 1913) and won in his first appearance in the British Amateur. Though he did not win another championship, Travis remained highly competitive until 1914 when at the age of fifty-two he stepped off of the national stage.
Although Travis's competitive career brought him deserved fame and notoriety, his contributions outside of the competitive realm are what places him in the pantheon of golfing greats. With respect to C.B. Macdonald and Old Tom Morris, Travis was truly golf's first renaissance man.
Even before his first national championship victory, Travis was engaged to provide architectural services. In late 1899 he laid out Ekwanok Golf Club in Manchester, Vermont, the first of some sixty-four courses that at one time or another received the Travis treatment. As the 20th century dawned and the greatest names in American golf architecture began to change the golfing landscape, Travis befriended such contemporaries as Devereux Emmet, C B Macdonald, Robert Hunter and Donald Ross. In addition to his original designs, Travis also consulted on such projects as Pinehurst #2 and Pine Valley. From the beginning, Travis's design work was heavily influenced by his experiences in the UK. With their push-up greens and penal bunkering, early American designs lead to drab shotmaking. Travis admired the "feel" game that the Scots played and in his design work he favored strategic elements, such as alternate lines of play, diagonal hazards and severe, undulating greens, that promoted imaginative play.
In addition to his playing and architectural contributions to the game of golf, Travis also made a singular contribution to the nascent field of golf literature. The American Golfer magazine debuted in November 1908. Over the next decade, under Travis's direction, The American Golfer set the standard for every sports periodical that has followed it. As much as any other entity from that era, the magazine was instrumental in promoting the growth of the American game. Its pages were filled with articles on instruction, architecture, competition and debate upon the very direction of the game itself. Even today its numbers make for compelling reading, and thanks to the work of the LA84 Foundation the majority of its issues have been digitized and made available on the Foundation's archival site.
These days the name Walter J. Travis is not particularly well known, but there is no doubt that he stands tall among the most influential figures in the game. His accomplishments place him, at least, on a par with the likes of Jones, Hogan and Palmer. Few have embraced and loved the game as dearly as The Old Man. Toward the end of his life, as respiratory illness slowly suffocated him, Travis contemplated a life without golf. "I'd rather have six months of golf," he said, "than fifty years without it."
Born in Australia in 1862, Travis left Oz before the game of golf arrived. At the age of twenty-four he moved to New York City and it was only upon visiting the UK on business in 1895 that he became aware of the game that would consume him for the next thirty years.
Upon returning to New York in 1896, Travis played his first round of golf at Oakland Golf Club on Long Island. Less than two years later he appeared on the national golf radar when he reached the semifinals of the US Amateur. Remarkably, only three years and nine months after taking his first swing, Travis won the 1900 Amateur and began one of the most impressive, if concise, runs in the history of championship golf. From 1900-1904 Travis won three US Amateurs, finished second in the 1902 US Open (the best showing by an amateur and a distinction that has been topped only by Francis Ouimet's win in 1913) and won in his first appearance in the British Amateur. Though he did not win another championship, Travis remained highly competitive until 1914 when at the age of fifty-two he stepped off of the national stage.
Although Travis's competitive career brought him deserved fame and notoriety, his contributions outside of the competitive realm are what places him in the pantheon of golfing greats. With respect to C.B. Macdonald and Old Tom Morris, Travis was truly golf's first renaissance man.
Even before his first national championship victory, Travis was engaged to provide architectural services. In late 1899 he laid out Ekwanok Golf Club in Manchester, Vermont, the first of some sixty-four courses that at one time or another received the Travis treatment. As the 20th century dawned and the greatest names in American golf architecture began to change the golfing landscape, Travis befriended such contemporaries as Devereux Emmet, C B Macdonald, Robert Hunter and Donald Ross. In addition to his original designs, Travis also consulted on such projects as Pinehurst #2 and Pine Valley. From the beginning, Travis's design work was heavily influenced by his experiences in the UK. With their push-up greens and penal bunkering, early American designs lead to drab shotmaking. Travis admired the "feel" game that the Scots played and in his design work he favored strategic elements, such as alternate lines of play, diagonal hazards and severe, undulating greens, that promoted imaginative play.
In addition to his playing and architectural contributions to the game of golf, Travis also made a singular contribution to the nascent field of golf literature. The American Golfer magazine debuted in November 1908. Over the next decade, under Travis's direction, The American Golfer set the standard for every sports periodical that has followed it. As much as any other entity from that era, the magazine was instrumental in promoting the growth of the American game. Its pages were filled with articles on instruction, architecture, competition and debate upon the very direction of the game itself. Even today its numbers make for compelling reading, and thanks to the work of the LA84 Foundation the majority of its issues have been digitized and made available on the Foundation's archival site.
These days the name Walter J. Travis is not particularly well known, but there is no doubt that he stands tall among the most influential figures in the game. His accomplishments place him, at least, on a par with the likes of Jones, Hogan and Palmer. Few have embraced and loved the game as dearly as The Old Man. Toward the end of his life, as respiratory illness slowly suffocated him, Travis contemplated a life without golf. "I'd rather have six months of golf," he said, "than fifty years without it."
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