The cou r s e b r e ak s

HISTORY

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Former British Open champion Ted Ray played

Glen Echo in 1913 as part of a barnstorming

tour of the United States with Harry Vardon.

Glen Echo Country Club, the first and only course to serve as a venue for an

Olympic golf competition and the oldest private 18-hole club west of the

Mississippi, marks its centennial on Friday.

By Dan O’Neill

Of The Post-Dispatch

Nobody knows for certainhow old that sassafras treeis that sits alone behindthe first green, or theexact age of the two mul-

berry trees that keep each othercompany where the old clubhousewas situated.

We know only that these ancientsentries have watched over thesegrounds from the very beginning.They were there a century ago and ifonly they could speak, the storiesthey could tell about Glen EchoCountry Club in Normandy. Storiesabout Col. George S. McGrew andAlbert Lambert and golf architectsJim and Robert Foulis.S t o r i e sa b o u t1904 andthe onlygolf eventever includedin theO l y m p i cGames. Storiesabout the GlenEcho stop on theold Wabash andUnion Pacific rail-road line. Storiesthat would paint avivid picture of St.Louis during its trolleycar era expansion fromriver town to sociallyvibrant metropolis.Stories that would clarifymyths and substantiate leg-ends.

The trees were there when St.Louis Mayor Rolla Wellsstepped to the lectern at 3 p.m.on May 25, 1901 to congratulate theclub’s founding fathers and officiallyunwrap their magnificent project.They were there when McGrew, aprominent figure in St. Louis socialcircles, dribbled a ball off the firsttee to christen the new 18-hole golfcourse with the first duffed shot.And they are there today, stillwatching more stories unfold.

This weekend, Glen Echo CountryClub, which proudly proclaims itself“the oldest golf course west of theMississippi” with a plaque by thefirst tee, will celebrate its 100thbirthday.

The centennial anniversary activitieswill include a black- tie dinner atthe club on Friday night, a golf

tournament featuring old hickoryshafted clubs, gutta balls and 1900sdress on Saturday and an old-fash-ioned barbecue on Sunday. Inbetween, there will moments ofinspection and reflection about aclub with roots and memories as richas any in the Midwest.

Oldest or boldest?

The debate has taken place in men’slounges and golf clubpro shops

for years. NormandieGolf Club, located barely morethan a stone’s throw from GlenEcho, has long asserted itself as“the oldest golf club at its pres-ent site west of the Mississippi.”Del Monte Links in PebbleBeach, Calif., also alleges to bethe “oldest” on the left side ofthe Mighty Miss.

St. Louis author and golf histori-an Jim Healey has thoroughlyresearched the topic and cleared upsome of the inconsistencies. In hisbooks, “Golfing Before the Arch, AHistory of St. Louis Golf” and “GlenEcho Country Club — A Century ofFamilies,” Healey documents GlenEcho as the oldest private 18-holecourse west of the Mississippi, with“private” and “18 holes” being oper-ative distinctions.

According to Healey, the oldest golfcourse of any kind west of theMississippi is probably GearhartLinks in Oregon, which was found-ed in 1891. But Gearhart Links wasonly nine holes until 1903. In termsof continuous, Glen Echo also mustdefer. Although it has been locatedon the same property off Lucas &Hunt Road, between NaturalBridge and St. Charles Rockroads, the clubbriefly

changed names. Experiencing finan-cial problems in 1915, Glen Echoreorganized under the name ofRidgedale Country Club until rein-stalling the Glen Echo name in1924.

When Glen Echo opened, therealready were nine golf courses inexistence in the area. All of them

were nine-hole courses, except forTriple A in Forest Park. Many of thecourses and clubs were located in thesame northern area, including St.Louis Country Club, The Field Club(later to become Bellerive CountryClub, now the campus of theUniversity of Missouri at St. Louis),

Kinloch Club andFlorissant ValleyCountry Club.Over the years,each moved toanother loca-tion or ceasedoperation.

Triple A opened its second nineholes in the spring of 1901 — weeksbefore Glen Echo’s first official mul-ligan. But the original Triple Acourse was sacrificed months later tomake room for the World’s Fair.

Researching old newspaper articles,Healey discovered that Glen Echohad all 18 holes open for play in July

TOP: The original GLen Echo clubhouse apeared on postcardsafter the Olympic matches were held there in 1904. ABOVE: The current clubhouse, which was built in 1927

1901. Normandie Park Club firstopened a temporary course withnine holes available for playin October of the sameyear.

“I think there’s nodoubt thatNormandie wasorganized at leastnine to 10 monthsafter Glen Echowas,” said Healey, aformer basketballstar at CBC HighSchool. “There is nodoubt about that. Ithink the debategoes back to an arti-cle by Post-Dispatch golf writerBill Beck. He basi-cally stipulated thata course was organized atNormandie in 1892. But there isabsolutely no record of that everhappening. Glen Echo was definite-ly organized before Normandie andopened for play first.”

Mound City Club

Glen Echo was founded by some ofthe most prominent people in St.Louis, with McGrew leading theway. McGrew had become enamoredwith golf in a visit to Scotland, dur-ing which he played with Old TomMorris at St. Andrews. Morris, a leg-endary greenskeeper and pro, was afour-time British Open champion.Upon McGrew’s return, he was ded-icated to building a “championshipcaliber” course in St. Louis.

The original 167 acres of land forthe project was secured fromWilliam Hunt, head of the Lucas-Hunt family that owned more than1,500 acres in the northwest area. Amost attractive consideration inchoosing the property was its acces-sibility by rail. The combinationtrolley and carriage ride from down-town was considered long and labo-rious at the time, so the railroadsagreed to designate a special stop forGlen Echo, making the course moreaccessible and helping move the dealalong. (That line is now part ofMetroLink.)

The founders originally referred totheir new club as the Mound City

Club, with Mound City being apopular moniker for St. Louis at

the time. But within weeksof the formation, a name

was sought to moreaccurately reflectthe distinctivenessof the property,and Glen Echowas adopted.

Descended fromSt. Andrews

When it came timeto choose an archi-tect, McGrewremembered his St.Andrews experience

and sought out Scotsman JamesFoulis. The 1896 U.S. Open cham-pion, Foulis was a product of St.Andrews, having worked in OldTom Morris’ famous golf shop.Foulis came over from Scotland in1895 to become head professional atChicago Golf Club, the first golfclub built in the United States. Hewould later become the head pro atSt. Louis Country Club.

Foulis agreed to design Glen Echoand called on the assistance of hisbrother, Robert Foulis, also a Morrisprotege. The Foulis brothers wouldgo on to assemble quite a resume inSt. Louis. Robert Foulis stayed on toserve as the head pro at Glen Echountil 1907, at which time he left towork on Bellerive Country Club.

Robert Foulis consult-ed on many othercourses in town,including Algonquin,Forest Park,Woodlawn, MidlandValley, The BogeyClub, Log Cabin Cluband Riverview. Jamesand Robert workedtogether on Bellerivein 1910 and SunsetCountry Club in 1917.

While Glen Echo andSt. Andrews are worldsapart, location-wiseand topographically,they are, in a sense,second cousins. The

positioning of greens and tees atGlen Echo, the personality of thelayout, makes an unmistakable linkbetween the birthplace of golf andthe birthplace of 18-hole golf in St.Louis.

“St. Andrews was where the Foulisesfirst learned about golf and golfcourse design; it’s what their experi-ence was based on,” Healey said.“They had to create certain shot val-ues and characteristics based onwhat they knew.”

One and Only

Glen Echo has been the host of manysignificant national events over theyears. Harry Vardon and Ted Raycame to play a match at Glen Echoafter the 1913 U.S. Open, in whichAmerica’s Francis Ouimet upsetfive-time British Open championVardon in a playoff. After theBritish duo defeated two of St.Louis’ finest players, Stuart Stickneyand Chris Kenney, Vardon was saidto proclaim Glen Echo “the bestlinks in America.”

The Trans-MississippiChampionship, considered one ofgolf’s major events from 1900 to1950, was held at Glen Echo in1905 and 1913. The club also wasthe site of a memorable Women’sTrans-Miss in 1940, when BettyJameson defeated the legendaryPatty Berg, 3 and 2, in the finalmatch. The Western Amateur washeld at Glen Echo in 1922, and in1954 the Ladies PGA held the St.

Louis Open there, with Betsy Rawlsrunning away with the $750 topprize. The LPGA came to Glen Echoin 1964 and 1970, with legendssuch as Mickey Wright, BetsyRawls, Louise Suggs and KathyWhitworth coming to town.

But the event that makes Glen Echoinimitable is the 1904 OlympicGolf Matches - the first and onlyOlympic golf competition. McGrewhad dreamed of holding a worldchampion tournament at Glen Echofrom its inception, and that becamethe Olympics when Chicago agreedto give up the Games to allow themto coincide with the 1904 World’sFair in St. Louis.

In preparation for the Olympics,Glen Echo constructed a nine-holelighted “putting course,” one of thefirst in the country and a forerunnerof the practice green now commonat most golf clubs.

More than 100 competitors wereexpected for the Olympic matches,but players from Scotland andEngland refused to attend because ofpolitical considerations. Thus theevent drew a field of 77 players,including 16 members from GlenEcho. The final match featured 46-year-old Canadian George Lyonagainst 20-year-old Chicagoan H.Chandler Egan, who had won theU.S. Amateur earlier in the summer.

A key moment in the 36-hole matchcame when Egan, a heavy favorite,plunked his drive into the lake onthe 15th hole and fell 2-down withonly four holes to play. Lyon eventu-

The 1982 Junior League Challenge event at Glen Echo featured Tom Kite (left), Pat Bradley, Nancy Lopez and Sam Snead (right)

Col. George S.McGrew was

Instrumental inhelping create Glen

Echo in 1901

ally won, 3 and 2, to capture theonly golf gold medal awarded inOlympic competition. A plaquenow commemorates Egan’s waterydemise at Glen Echo - except that itis inaccurately located at the ninthhole.

“I think one of the past presidents ofthe club thought nine was a prettierhole, so he had them put the plaquethere,” Healey said with a laugh.“But Egan put his shot in the lake at15. Never let details get in the wayof a good story, or a good hole.”

Lambert’s field

Perhaps no one, other than Col.McGrew, has been as influential inGlen Echo’s history as AlbertLambert, for whom the St. Louis air-port is named. An aviation pioneer,industrialist and sportsman,Lambert was 22 when he married

Myrtle McGrew in 1898, in whatwas the social event of the year. Hethen became instrumental in help-ing his father-in-law establish theclub.

In 1927, Lambert joined with sever-al friends and business associates tofund an effort by little-known mailpilot Charles Lindbergh to fly soloacross the Atlantic. The results werea turning point in aviation history.

But years before, in 1915, Lambertsinglehandedly changed the courseof Glen Echo history when he bailedthe club out of severe financial prob-lems. An outstanding player and1907 Missouri Amateur champion,Lambert headed a group thatassumed the club’s debts, and hebecame president of the board oftrustees. He held that position forseveral years until, confident theclub was stable again, he quietlyfaded into the background.

Still standing

When other clubs around it, such asSunset and Bellerive, moved to newlocations in the late 1950s and early1960s, Glen Echo’s directors seri-ously considered following suit.

But, while the neighborhood out-side its gates has changed dramati-cally over the years, the private clubhas remained. A beautification proj-ect was started in 1997 to improvethe landscaping and embellish GlenEcho’s appearance. Greens wererebuilt in the early 1990s and in1998 fairways were resodded withzoysia grass, which has improved thecondition and playability of thegrand old course.

Other improvements have beenmade to the clubhouse and the sur-rounding facilities, which includetennis courts, a swimming pool anda new practice range. A century afterits inception, the club is near capac-

ity with more than 320 membersand a healthy balance of young andold.

“I think the club has made some sig-nificant strides over the past fewyears,” said head pro Nash Haxel,who came aboard in 1995. “There isso much history here, so much I did-n’t know. What we’re trying to do ishonor that history and keep makingit better.”

One hundred years and counting,those old trees are still standing,still standing proud.

Published in Everyday Magazine onThursday, May 24, 2001.

The building in the center is Glen Echo’s old clubhouse. The new clubhouse is under construction behind the old one in this1928 photo.