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Saturday, 08/17/2013 9:31:50 AM

Saturday, August 17, 2013 9:31:50 AM

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Back Where Golf Found a U.S. Foothold

By PETER MAY


Francis Ouimet, 20, stunned the British professionals Harry Vardon and Ted Ray to win the 1913 U.S. Open at the Country Club.

BROOKLINE, Mass. — There had been so many chances before, including a near miss at his home course outside Philadelphia five years earlier. So by the time 38-year-old Jay Sigel pummeled David Tolley, 8 and 7, in the final round of the 1982 United States Amateur, his relief was palpable.

He was, finally, the Amateur champion, the title the capstone to a career that would span more than three decades. Making it even better to Sigel, a serious student of golf, was the place where he won: the Country Club, a course steeped in history.

It was at the Country Club, in 1913, when an amateur caddie named Francis Ouimet stunned the golfing world by winning the United States Open in a playoff against the top professionals of the time, the Englishmen Harry Vardon and Ted Ray. It was at the Country Club in 1999 where the United States Ryder Cup team staged a memorable Sunday comeback, stirred by a speech from its captain, Ben Crenshaw.

Lawson Little won the first of his two consecutive Amateurs there in 1934. Curtis Strange won the first of his two straight Opens there in 1988. Julius Boros survived a three-way playoff to triumph at the 1963 Open, a tournament in which the winning score was nine-over par and for which the defending champion, Jack Nicklaus, missed the cut.

It is named simply the Country Club. There is no hint to its location. One of the five founding clubs of the United States Golf Association, its logo is a squirrel munching on an acorn.

Winning the first of his two Amateurs on the course — the other came the next year at North Shore Country Club outside Chicago — was that much sweeter for Sigel. He competed in 26 Amateurs in his career. From 1973 to 1993, he qualified every year for match play, winning twice, finishing third once and posting seven other top-10 finishes, according to the U.S.G.A.


“It’s very powerful stuff, to win it on that course,” Sigel said. “There are so many memories there. It’s a special place and it means a lot to me.”

The U.S.G.A. has returned to this venerable club outside Boston for this week’s 113th United States Amateur. It is the 16th time the U.S.G.A. has held one of its signature events at the club; only Merion, which hosted its fifth United States Open in June, has been the setting for more. This is the sixth men’s Amateur contested at the Country Club, but the first since Sigel won 31 years ago.

It is rare that a course overshadows the actual event, but the Country Club could be an exception. Mike Trostel, the senior curator and historian for the U.S.G.A., said the course’s fame dates to that September day in 1913 when Ouimet won the 18-hole playoff over the two British champions.

“It changed the whole complexion of American golf,” Trostel said. “Golf at that time was viewed as an exclusively British game. His win put golf on the front page of every American newspaper.”

An esteemed English golf writer, Henry Beech, wrote at the time that Americans “play a rather plainer game than we do.”

He continued, “The country may and probably will produce an occasional golfing phenomenon, and it may win our Championship again, but it will never be really superior to us at golf.”

A decade after Ouimet’s win, Trostel said that the number of American golfers had risen to nearly three million, from 350,000. Bobby Jones, Gene Sarazen and Walter Hagen benefited from this surge. Hagen tied for fourth at the 1913 Open, earning $78.

“It is such an important course in the history of American golf,” Trostel said. “The fact that the U.S.G.A. keeps coming back to hold its marquee events says a lot about it. The two have a great history together.”

Vardon received $300 for his efforts at the 1913 Open; Ray, who finished third, pocketed $150. The Open had been moved from its customary June date to September that year to accommodate the two men, who were on barnstorming tour of the United States. Vardon was a five-time British Open champion — he added a sixth title in 1914 — and Ray was the defending British Open champion.

Ouimet never turned pro. He won Amateurs in 1914 and 1931, the longest stretch between victories in the event’s history. He always considered those wins more important than his Open triumph because the Amateur was then a more glamorous and competitive event, Trostel said.

“You can use the analogy of the N.I.T. and the N.C.A.A.,” he said, referring to the two basketball tournaments. “At one time, the N.I.T. was the more important tournament, but you would never guess that today. The same was true back then for the U.S. Amateur. Not anymore.”


Sigel may beg to differ. An accident in college denied him the opportunity to turn pro coming out of Wake Forest, but he went on to become the country’s foremost amateur. In addition to his two United States Amateurs, he won the 1979 British Amateur and three United States Mid-Amateur championships, and he was a member of nine straight Walker Cup teams, serving as the captain on two of them.

So it was fitting, he said, when one day he received a package in the mail from Massachusetts. The Country Club was replacing its original welcoming sign, which had hung on wooden hooks at the club’s entrance off Clyde Street. The club members decided to send the original to Sigel, hooks and all.

He now showcases it proudly in his basement, a lasting memento of a time — and a place — he will never forget.


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