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This August, South Carolina will host its first PGA Championship tournament at the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island. This is the same course that hosted the Ryder Cup in 1991 and the Senior PGA Championship in 2007. Addition-ally, the Heritage Tournament at Sea Pines’s Harbor Town Golf Links has cultivated the state’s infatuation with golf for over forty years. Many South Carolinians are aware, if only from viewing the popular automobile license plate that reads “First in Golf,” that the state’s interest in the sport spans cen-turies. However, the “First in Golf ” boast has more dimen-sions than most people realize. Prior to 1925, the state laid claim to at least three “firsts” in the game of golf. The most well-known basis for the “First in Golf ” boast is that America’s first golf club originated in Charleston. It is a frequently cited fact that the South Carolina Golf Club was established in 1786. An advertisement in the Charleston City Gazette from 1788 announces the anniversary of the club and notes that members met at John William’s Coffee Shop on East Bay Street. In The Carolina Lowcountry, Birthplace of American Golf, 1786, Charles Price and George C. Rogers Jr. have noted that players enjoyed the sport on Harleston’s Green long before houses stood on the area just south of Cal-houn Street in Charleston. Dr. Henry Purcell, the first known president of the South Carolina Golf Club, was chaplain to patriot forces during the Revolution. After the war, he served the congregation of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church until he died in 1802. Two other officers of the club, Edward Penman and James Gairdner, were Scottish merchants. Rogers notes that most of the members of the club were merchants and nearly all were Scottish. His thorough investigation of the members’ estate records revealed that at least two of them bequeathed golf “sticks” and balls to their heirs. The physical aspects of the eighteenth-century version of the game were a bit different. There were no tees, no defined number of holes, and no putting surfaces. One of the players, or a servant, would be designated as the “finder” and was re-sponsible for locating the hole. Since the green was used for a variety of activities, the finder’s duties also included warn-ing non-golfers that the players were approaching. He did

this by saying “You are forewarned,” which, of course, was later shortened to “Fore!” According to Rogers, the sport’s popularity dwindled in the early decades of the nineteenth century. He attributes the lack of interest to the departure of many Scottish immigrants following the Revolution and to the fact that golf was not accepted as a pastime by the planter elite. Antebellum Carolinians preferred hunting, riding, and horse racing. Another golf-related first that South Carolina is able to lay claim to was suggested to Rogers when he wrote his book on lowcountry golf, but he conceded that he could not verify it. There is now clear evidence that, forty years before the organization of America’s first golf club, the first known transatlantic shipment of golf clubs and balls arrived in Charleston. The clubs were sent from Leith, Scotland to David Deas. Deas, a native of Leith, immigrated to Charles-ton in 1738 and founded a successful mercantile business. If you are aware of the history of golf, you know that Leith claims to be the place where the game originated. Early re-cords note that the town council banned golf (along with football) in 1457 at the request of King James II because it distracted his archers. Then, in 1744, the official “rules of golf ” were established in Leith by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. Considering that the game was so im-portant in his home city, it is not surprising that Deas sought to import it to Charleston. A descendant of David Deas, A. Gantt Folline III, has obtained a copy of the original customs ledger which verifies that 432 balls and ninety-six clubs were shipped aboard the Magdale from Leith on May 12, 1743. According to the manifest, which is housed in the National Archives of Scotland, the balls and clubs were shipped along with British-made sailcloth and several bushels of Scots salt to the Charleston merchant. The shipment clearly indicates that Charlestonians were enjoying the game of golf at least a generation before the Revolution. In order to explain the third of South Carolina’s “First in Golf ” claims, it is necessary to trace the evolution of the game into the early twentieth century. Though Rogers may be correct in describing a lull in the sport in the early nine-

Scottish Merchants and Aiken’s Ladies:

Golf’s Evolution in South CarolinaBy Dr. Faye Jensen

Summer 2012 17

teenth century, the popularity of golf surged between 1888 and 1900. This was the age of railroad and steel empires, of electricity and telephones. Wealthy Americans had the means and time to indulge in leisure activities. For north-ern industrialists, that meant taking the train to temperate climates to enjoy such pastimes as hunting, fishing, and golf. South Carolina offered a fertile paradise and golf—in its modern form—experienced a brilliant renaissance through-out the state. In the 1880s, a number of South Carolina’s towns attract-ed tourists who sought health benefits, recreation, and relief from harsh northern winters. Grand hotels sprung up to ac-commodate the visitors and to offer them various forms of entertainment. During this time, W. F. and George Wagener opened the Pine Forest Inn in Summerville, an area which promoted itself as a health resort for pulmonary patients, claiming that its pine-laden atmosphere was beneficial to those who suffered from asthma or tuberculosis. The Wagen-ers provided a number of outdoor activities for their guests, including tennis, hunting, and riding. In 1891 they built a 130-acre golf course that, according to their brochure, was designed by “a professional from the north who has played on the celebrated links of St. Andrews in Scotland.” Around this same time, the owners of Kirkwood Hotel in Camden decided to add a small golf course for their guests. Cam-den was served by three railroad lines and, conveniently, the Kirkwood Hotel was located along the train tracks. In 1922 the owners improved their course and hired Walter Travis (three-time U.S. Amateur champion) to design Kirkwood Links. The course is now Camden Country Club though the railroad tracks running between the twelfth and thirteenth

holes remind players of the long history of the course. Like Camden, Aiken was a popular winter resort for many northern families in the late 1800s. Families built winter “cottages” in the town and looked for ways to amuse themselves. Among those were the Hitchcocks of Long Is-land. In 1892, Thomas Hitchcock laid out four holes for golf and the Palmetto Golf Club was born. Three years later, the course was expanded to eighteen holes. The Palmetto Golf Club claims to be the oldest continually operated eighteen- hole golf course in the Southeast. Although many of the early modern courses in South Carolina were founded as resorts, some were established by local clubs. We know that a few of Charleston’s golfers were enjoying their sport in the late 1890s at the Chicora Golf Club Links when the city sold that property to the U. S. Navy. In 1901 these same golfers founded the Charleston Country Club and bought Belvidere Plantation on the Cooper River. Located just north of Magnolia Cemetery, Belvidere became Charleston’s first modern golf course in 1901. Designed as a nine-hole course laid out by club members, Belvidere opened in 1901 with a membership of three hundred. In 1913 the club improved the greens and expanded to eighteen holes. Shortly thereafter, Belvidere was sold to Standard Oil and the club moved to McLeod Plantation, along Wappoo Cut on James Island. Seth Raynor was chosen to design the 236 acres that would become known as the Wappoo Links. The new clubhouse was built on the site of Battery Means, a Civil War fortification that overlooked Charleston Harbor. The course opened in 1925. Another early course originated by locals opened in 1910 as the Country Club of Spartanburg. The original nine hole

A 1920s postcard view of the Kirkwood Hotel in Camden from the golf course designed by Walter Travis. From the collections of the South Carolina Historical Society.

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course featured sand greens, and the club hired a Mr. New-man, from England, as their golf professional. In the 1920s the course was redesigned by architect Donald Ross of Pinehurst, North Carolina. Born in 1872 in Scotland, Ross designed or re-designed over four-hundred courses in his lifetime. With a reputation for detail, Ross created his courses with as little earth-moving as possible. He is frequently cited as the finest golf architect of the early twentieth century. Not to be left out, Columbia’s Forest Lake Club constructed a course in 1923. The designer was Maurice McCarthy Sr. of New York. Mc-Carthy was a well-known professional who designed several other courses, including the Knickerbocker Country Club in New Jersey and the Hershey Country Club in Pennsylvania. The course at Yeamans Hall was built by northerners for northerners. In 1925, a group of well-to-do gentlemen in New York decided to establish a winter resort on the site of John Yeaman’s plantation near Goose Creek. While Seth Raynor was overseeing the creation of the course for the Charleston Country Club, he was also commissioned to de-sign the course for the Yeamans Hall Club. In his book, The Cottages and Architects of Yeamans Hall, Charlton deSaussure Jr. reflects on Raynor’s Olmstead-like philosophy that the environment should dictate design. As evidence of this, de-Saussure quotes from a letter that Raynor wrote to the club’s organizers in 1923:

I was so charmed with the beauty of the landscape, views both distant and near, the running springs, magnificent trees, especially the views combining meadow and up-land with the river circling through, that I needed to look at the whole thing from a distance….There is no doubt in my mind about your being able to build a magnificent golf course amid such surroundings; the nature of the ground, with the gently rolling contours and fine drainage, cer-tainly invites the architect with irresistible force to create something unique.

Raynor was fifty-one when he died in 1926. The first Yea-mans Hall golf course was one of his last designs. The golf course was completed in 1929 and is consistently ranked among the top fifty courses in the country by golf-course analysts and players. The last of South Carolina’s golf firsts to be addressed in this article occurred in Aiken. The Highland Park Hotel

accommodated winter guests who did not have their own residences in Aiken. In the late 1890s or early 1900s, the ho-tel installed a small, four-hole golf course. In 1903, Donald Ross, who designed Pinehurst Number 2 course, laid out eleven holes for Highland Park and J. R. Inglis later expanded the course to eightteen holes. According to a recent article in The State, in 1916 the manager of the Highland Park was A. J. Sweeney, whose wife was an avid golfer. Influenced by May “Queenie” Dunn, America’s first woman golf pro, Mrs. Sweeney began a campaign to install women’s tees on High-land Park’s course. Apparently, a large number of women used the course and it did not take long for Mrs. Sweeney and her friends to accomplish their goal. In March 1916, the Highland Park Golf Club became the first club in America to establish tees for women. After World War II, South Carolina continued its love affair with golf. By the end of the twentieth century, Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand claimed to have more golf cours-es per capita than any other place in the country. Hilton Head was not far behind. Today, Golf Digest lists the state among the nation’s top golf destinations. In fact, the sport is a two billion-dollar industry for the Palmetto State and generates more income than any other single type of recreational ac-tivity. So as we all—spectators, players, and locals—prepare for the PGA’s visit this year, let’s take a moment to remember the Scottish merchants of Charleston and the ladies of Aiken. For it was David Deas, Henry Purcell, and Mrs. Sweeney who truly were “First in Golf.” ♦

Faye Jensen, Ph.D., is executive director of the South Carolina Historical Society.

Opposite: Detail of the plan for the course at Yeamans Hall as de-signed by Seth Raynor. One of Raynor’s last designs, the Yeamans Hall golf course was completed in 1929 and continues to be consid-ered one of the top fifty courses in the country.

From the collections of the South Carolina Historical Society.