The Life

and Times of

A.W. Tillinghast

A Photo Biography

Born Albert Warren

to Benjamin and Levinia Tillinghast

On May 7, 1876.

Albert grew up an only child

in Germantown,

Pennsylvania.

His father owned a

thriving rubber goods

business

in Philadelphia,

and the family prospered.

Both mother and father

spoiled young Albert.

Young Albert (front & center) rides Jumbo the Elephant at the

London Zoo on Family Holiday in the Summer of 1880.

Albert never graduated from any of the schools

in which he was enrolled.

In his late teens Albert belonged to a cadre of wealthy, flashy and heavy drinking playboys. Playing cricket became his passion.

The Philadelphia Cricket Club served as his base of operation.

Albert who liked to be called by his nickname “Tilly” met

a beautiful teenage girl

named Lillian Quigley.

Circumstances necessitated

their marriage in 1894.

To them were born daughters Marion and Elsie.

The summer of 1896 found the

Tillinghast family in

St Andrews, Scotland.

Tilly found a new passion… golf.

In St Andrews young Tillinghast met a

man who would shape his

career…Old Tom Morris.

The Tillinghast family would return to

the “Auld Grey” town over the next

few summers, and Tilly would hone

his golf game and take up

golf photography.

He took this photo of Old Tom

standing in the doorway of his shop

in the summer of 1898.

Tillinghast became a

top flight amateur.

In 1903 he played on the US Team in the first international

matches against a team from

England, the Oxford-Cambridge

Golfing Society.

In the winter of 1903, Tillinghast witnessed the “birth, of the term

“Birdie.” It was at the Atlantic City Country Club where it was the habit of a few Philadelphia golfers to spend their winter

weekends. It came to pass on the long 12th, when a screaming

long second shot found the green and Bill or Ab Smith remarked,

“That’s a bird!”

Tillinghast’s best year of

competitive golf may have

been 1904.

He won the Silver Cross, the medal

for the 72 hole Philadelphia

Open Championship.

The Philadelphia Inquirer honored

him as player of the year for

winning all his matches in

Philadelphia District competitions.

The year 1904 also brought

his “darkest moment.”

In the U.S. Amateur at

Baltusrol, he lost his match to Chandler Egan, after

Egan got a lucky bounce

off a tree.

Years later he avenged

the loss when chopped

the tree down to make

way for Baltusrol’s new

courses.

In 1907, he captained the first U.S. team to travel outside the

country to play a Canadian team at the Toronto Golf Club.

Tillinghast family’s friend

CC Worthington owned the

Buckwood Inn on Shawnee-on-Delaware.

In 1907 talk began on building a

golf course there, and Worthington

hired Albert Warren Tillinghast to design and build the new course.

The work commenced in the winter

of 1909, and Tillinghast the golf

architect was on his way to greatness.

On May 27th 1911 the Shawnee Country Club formally opened for

play. In the following year, the club’s president, one A.W.

Tillinghast, ran the first Shawnee Open, which would become the

Eastern Open.

Tillinghast refined Shawnee over a number of years. At Shawnee and his

other early courses, he built bunkers and mounds from the ground up.

He called his mounds “alpinization.” The picture shows some under

construction at Shawnee; Tilly is standing on the far right.

At the 1913 Shawnee Open, Tillinghast witnessed both Johnny

McDermott’s (pictured far right) winning play and verbal slight at Ted

Ray and Harry Vardon. The golf world publicly criticized McDermott for

his remarks and Tillinghast reported that this criticism drove McDermott

into the insane asylum.

As his competitive golf career waned, Tillinghast pursued a career in golf

architecture and writing. He covered Philadelphia for The American Golfer under the pen name “Hazard,”

and wrote articles for Country Club Life and Golf Illustrated.

In the photo Tilly interviews Howard Perrin (l) and George Crump (r).

In January of 1913, George Crump gives Tillinghast

permission to publish in his

syndicated weekly golf column

the first word of Pine Valley Golf

Club, whichCrump was building.

This photo of George Crump at

Pine Valley was taken by Tilly,

and is displayed in theclubhouse today.

By November of 1913, the first five holes of Pine Valley are opened for play.

Tillinghast, along with George Crump, Howard Perrin, and Richard Mott are

the first to play these holes. This photo donated to Pine Valley by Tilly, shows

him playing the second hole with his wife, Lillian.

At Pine Valley George Crump built several of Tillinghast’s conceptions in their entirety, the long 7th and 13th, which were ever

a source of great satisfaction to Tilly. The “great hazard” on the 7th

would become a trademark on Tillinghast designed Par-5s.

By 1916, Tillinghast had

established a practice in

golf architecture.

His course designs

were scattered across the

United States.

They included Aronomink in Philadelphia, Brackenridge

Park in San Antonio, Davista

in St. Petersburg, and

Shackamaxon and

Somerset Hills in New Jersey.

Tillinghast’s first book, Cobble Valley

Golf Yarns And Other Sketches,

is published in 1915.

This book is a collection of short stories

from a fictitious golf club called

Cobble Valley.

The characters and tales range from

humorous to tragic.

Tillinghast’s second book The Mutt is a series of more

Cobble Valley Golf Yarns.

Planning a Golf Course, Suggestions by

A.W. Tillinghast is published in 1917.

In this promotional pamphlet Tillinghast

discusses his design philosophies for

Modern Golf Architecture.

Illustrative sketches of holes and features

at various courses he designed including

St. Davids, Galen Hall, Shawnee,

Shackamaxon, and San Antonio.

Around this time he moved his design

practice to New York where there was

more design and construction work. He

was awarded commissions at Essex

County and Mountain Ridge.

Over a 30 year career as

a professional golf writer,

Tillinghast wrote hundreds

of feature articles and

opinion pieces.

He wrote on all things

golf...from the history of

the game, to recent and

historic championships for

both men and women,

to topics on golf

architecture and green

maintenance.

By 1918, Tillinghast’s design style changed markedly.

He stopped the practice of building “alpinization”

and replicas of famous holes from Britain.

Rather he worked to build original new hole types – blending course

features into the terrain to appear natural in every respect.

Tillinghast’s design philosophy revolved around the Course

Beautiful. He wrote, “produce something which will provide

a true test of the game, and then consider every

conceivable way to make it as beautiful as possible.”

He developed his own original design features, which are

commonly found on his courses.

He incorporated natural features into greens, bunkers and

hazards. He blended the slopes and had an aversion for

straight lines and right angles.

Contoured Greens

Irregular

Fairways

Great

HazardsDouble Dog

Legs

Oblique Lines

Tiny Tims

Immaculate

Approaches

Elbows

In November 1918, Louis Keller, Baltusrol’s founder, and the

Baltusrol Board hired Tillinghast to design a second course to complement the existing one which had hosted 5 national

championships. Instead Tilly recommended they plow over the

Old Course to make room for two new “Dual Courses.” In the

photo Keller is third from right.

The word on Baltusrol’s plans spreads quickly. In August 1919,

Golf Illustrated declared “they are planning at Baltusrol on a vaster scale than has ever been attempted in American golf for

the opening of the Dual Courses.”

The notoriety Tillinghast gained from

Baltusrol brought him more

design commissions.

Quaker RidgeSan Francisco

Brook Hollow

Winged Foot

Five Farms

NewportBinghamton

Lakewood

Philadelphia Cricket

Sunnehanna

Ridgewoodand many more.

The opening of the Dual Courses

at Baltusrol in 1922 brought

Tillinghast more acclaim.

Golf Illustrated declared him to

be a “Creator of Golf Courses”

and the “Dean of American

Born Golf Architects.”

The magazine runs a full page

copy of a sketch by H. Hymer

depicting Tillinghast at work

in the field.

Over the years writing

professionally about

competitive golf, Tillinghast

became convinced that his

style of Modern Golf

Architecture was responsible for

the marked improvement of the

American golfers as compared

to their British peers.

The photo is at the 1923

opening of one of Tillinghast’

sternest tests, the “Man Sized”

36-hole Winged Foot

course. Club President

C.C. Nobles is on the left.

After 10 years in the practice, Tillinghast became one of the

top-flight golf architects in the US. His courses were beginning

to garner consideration for national championships.

By 1925, he had designed well over 50 courses and been involved

with the redesign of more than twice that number.

The 1926 U.S. Amateur on Baltusrol’s Lower Course brought

Tillinghast’s designs to the national spotlight. Tilly was now spinning himself as the “Creator of Baltusrol.”

Additional

national championships

would come to

the new

Tillinghast’s

courses.

Tillinghast proudly promoted

his achievements.

Five championships in five successive years on his courses.

In 1934, one-fourth of the courses

selected for the US Open qualifying

rounds were designed by Tilly.

Tillinghast believed that Byron Nelson would not have reached his potential

greatness without the two years he spent working for Head Professional George

Jacobus honing his game on Ridgewood’s 27-hole course.

The picture shows Byron Nelson at the 1936 Metropolitan Open at Quaker Ridge.

Tilly is in the gallery, where he was often seen at major golf championships.

Tillinghast succeeds

A.C. Gregson as the editor of

Golf Illustrated in June of

1933.

He would serve as Editor for

over two years until the

Magazine failed in 1935.

Its last uncirculated issue was

September 1935.

In late 1933, the Long Island Park Commission embarked on the largest

golf project every conceived – 4 golf courses at Bethpage State Park.

Tillinghast served as consulting course architect and designed the Black,

Blue, and Red courses and redesigned the Green course.

In August of 1935, the PGA of America hired Tillinghast to tour the

country as its official consulting golf course architect. Over the next two

years Tillinghast surveyed and consulted to more than 500 courses across

the United States. He traveled by car accompanied by his wife Lillian

and reported on his work by letter to PGA President George Jacobus on

a daily basis.

With the PGA tour winding

down and architecture work scarce, Tillinghast and his wife

Lillian decided to move west.

They resettled in Beverly Hills,

California and a year or so later started an antique shop

with their friend Nedda

Harrigan.

Tillinghast kept his hand in golf in

California. He went into

partnership with Billy Bell and

wrote a monthly column for the Pacific Coast Golfer.

After suffering a heart attack in

May 1940, circumstances

necessitated

Tilly and Lillian move again.

They took residence in the

home of their daughter

Marion in Toledo.

On May 19, 1942, Albert Warren

Tillinghast passed away.

PGA President George Jacobus

penned a fitting tribute which was

published in the PGA Magazine

the following month.

Copyright The Tillinghast Association

www.tillinghast.net

The Tillinghast Association is organized as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization under

the internal revenue code of the United States. The Association is dedicated to

preserving and interpreting the life and writings of A.W. Tillinghast.

Source references for this slide show included The Course Beautiful, Reminiscences of

the Links, Gleanings from the Wayside, and A.W. Tillinghast, Creator of Golf Courses.