Scottish Merchants and Aiken`s Ladies: Golf`s Evolution in South

Scottish Merchants and
Aiken’s Ladies:
Golf’s Evolution in South Carolina
By Dr. Faye Jensen
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. Additionally, 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 centuries. However, the “First in Golf ” boast has more dimensions 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 Calhoun 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 responsible for locating the hole. Since the green was used for
a variety of activities, the finder’s duties also included warning 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 Charleston 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 records 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 important 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-
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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.
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 northern 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 throughout the state.
In the 1880s, a number of South Carolina’s towns attracted tourists who sought health benefits, recreation, and relief
from harsh northern winters. Grand hotels sprung up to accommodate 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 Wageners 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. Camden 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 Island. 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 eighteenhole 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
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18 Carologue
course featured sand greens, and the club hired a Mr. Newman, 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. McCarthy 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 design 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, deSaussure 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 upland 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, certainly invites the architect with irresistible force to create
something unique.
accommodated winter guests who did not have their own
residences in Aiken. In the late 1890s or early 1900s, the hotel 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 Highland 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 courses 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 activity. 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.
Raynor was fifty-one when he died in 1926. The first Yeamans 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
Opposite: Detail of the plan for the course at Yeamans Hall as designed by Seth Raynor. One of Raynor’s last designs, the Yeamans
Hall golf course was completed in 1929 and continues to be considered one of the top fifty courses in the country.
From the collections of the South Carolina Historical Society.
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