NASSAU'S NATIONALS

National Level Achievements of Nassau Members:

Findlay S. Douglas

Findlay Small Douglas, NCC member 1901 – 1942,  was born in Scotland and attended the University of St. Andrews, playing on their golf team.  When he graduated in 1896, he decided to follow his oldest brother, Robert, to America.  Upon his arrival in New York at 22 years old, March 20,1897, the young Douglas was looking for a place to play.  One of the few places where golf equipment was sold at that time was the A. G. Spalding & Bros. store at Nassau Street in New York City.   It was there that he met the manager, Charles S. Cox who invited him to play in the public course at Van Cortlandt Park.  They were joined by H.L. Fitzpatrick of the New York Sun and Chappie Mayhew of the New York Herald (both of whom were two of the first golf writers.)  It was April 1897, and this was his first game played in the U.S.  In the fall of that year he qualified for the U.S. Amateur Championship but lost in the semi-finals.  In 1898 Findlay Douglas took the title.  Douglas won the Metropolitan Amateur in both 1901 and 1903.   At the age of 57, in 1932 he won the U.S. Seniors Golf Association Open Tournament.

Douglas devoted ten years of service to the Metropolitan Golf Association, including serving as President from 1922 to 1924.  He also gave five of years of service to the United States Golf Association, including serving as President from 1929 through 1930.  In later years he served as President of the United States Seniors' Golf Association from 1937 to 1941.  In 1959 Findlay Douglas was awarded the U.S.G.A Bob Jones Award, the highest honor given by the association.

 

 

Findlay S. Douglas                                        Findlay Douglas at Baltusrol in 1915

 

 

Robert B. Kiersky

Robert B. Kiersky, won the U.S.G.A. Senior Amateur in 1965, the U.S. Seniors' Golf Association in both 1967 and 1973.  Among other regional and sectional wins, Kiersky was a member of the U.S. team that competed in the first World Senior Amateur Team Championship in 1967 and led the American team to victory.

 

1966-67 World Amateur Golf Team Championships

United States Team

J. Knowles   G. Beechler   D. Goldman   R.B. Kiersky      R. Palmer

 

Robert Kiersky joined the Coca-Cola Company in 1946 after active duty as a Lt. Commander in the Navy.  He was appointed as a Director of Permatex Company, Inc., in Huntington Station in 1958.  He served as Director of Military Sales.

 

Alex Smith

While serving as Golf Pro at Nassau Country Club Alex won the 1906 U.S Open, and again in 1910.  In all he won 8 professional tournaments.  Two of his wins were at the Western Open, treated at that time like a Major attracting all the top players.  He also designed a Scottish links course in Michigan and is an inductee of the PGA Hall of Fame.

By 1906, Smith finished 2nd three times in the U.S. Open.  At Chicago's Onwentsia, Alex made his first win at the U.S. Open.  This 1906 victory came with his brother Willie finishing as runner-up, and brother-in-law Jim Maiden finishing tied for third.  Alex repeated a U.S. Open win in 1910, this time with his brother Macdonald in the field.  

Alex requested that his 15 championship medals be bequeathed to his childhood club, Carnoustie.  The Smith Society of Golf Clubs was formed in 2015, the Society in North America is centered at Diablo Country Club.

In 2020, the trophy that was held by PGA Champions and Medalists;  the Alex Smith Memorial Trophy was privately acquired from the PGA archives. Today, this historic trophy is paired with the bequeathed collection of PGA Hall of Fame members Alex Smith and Macdonald Smith.

The Smith Society of Golf Clubs is dedicated to the mission of Alex Smith and his family, "To stir young ambitions in golf to similar lofty achievements," and inspire future generations of golfers.David Mackesey is Club Historian, Carnoustie Golf Club, Historian, Diablo (California) Country Club and Co-Chair, The Smith Society

Alex Smith

Jim Tingley

Jim Tingley won the NCC Club Championship five times and Senior Championship 15 times.  He won the Walter J. Travis Memorial in 1963 and qualified for both the U.S. Amateur in 1961 and the first USGA Senior Open in 1980.  Tingley was also a finalist in the North and South /Senior at Pinehurst in 1976 and 1978.  He qualified for the USGA Amateur 8 times, and won the Met Senior Championship in 1974 and the LIGA Senior Championship in 1984.  He also had two second-place finishes.  Tingley won the Long Island Senior Golf Association Championship in 1976 and 1979 and was medalist in the 1969 LIGA Amateur played at Nassau.  During his golfing career he had a competition for the most hole-in-ones with Jack Nicklaus.  Nicklaus sent him a congratulatory letter when Tingley was one up on him.    

Jim Tingley

 

 

Jerry Travers

Jerome D. Travers (May 1887 – March 1951) learned to play golf on the lawns of his father's estate in Oyster Bay.  When he was 13, he played at the Oyster Bay course until 1902 when his father, Vincent P. Travers joined Nassau and he became a junior member.  During the summer of 1902, the 15-year-old Travers caught the eye of then golf pro, Alex Smith. Jerry was with a few boys driving golf balls near the clubhouse towards the Glen Cove station.  After watching Travers swing, Alex approached the boy and told him to come and see him in the morning.  Smith began to work with the youth and the next year Travers played in his first U.S. Amateur, coincidentally held at Nassau.  He lost in the second round, but it was a great beginning.

In 1904, 17-year-old Travers played and won the Intercollegiate Championship played at Nassau in May.  Later that year he won the Nassau Open Tournament defeating Walter J. Travis. (Travis at that time had won his third  U.S. Amatuer and took the British Amateur win.)  This was but one of many competitions between the two. In 1905 Travers beat Travis in the second round of the Met Amateur, and Travis beat Travers twice at Westbrook and once at Shinnecock. Travers came back to beat Travis in the final of the Nassau Open Tournament.  Between 1906 and 1914 they competed again.  Travers won four times at the U.S. Amateur , and Travis came back to defeat Travers in the Met Amateur in 1915.

Travers lent a hand to Alex Smith in preparing for the 1906 U.S. Open at Onwentsia.  Willie Anderson was the pro there and Smith was concerned about beating him at his home course.  Anderson had won the previous three Opens.  Travers played four rounds with Willie Anderson and came out on top.  Alex Smith went on to win the Open that year.  This was a good year for Travers, he won the Met Amateur, and repeated his performance in 1907 when the Amateur was hosted at Nassau, and again three times in a row in 1911, 1912 and 1913.

 

Jerry Travers

 

Ruth Underhill

Ruth Underhill was the granddaughter of Charles Anderson Dana (newspaper publisher, author, Civil War figure, Presidential Cabinet Secretary, and editor of the New York Sun).  Although he was not a member of Nassau Country Club, his daughter Zoe's husband, Walter M. Underhill, was a member.  Paul Dana, Zoe's brother and Ruth's uncle and her cousin, Paul Dana's son, Anderson Dana, also called Nassau their home.

Ruth was a graduate of Bryn Mawr College.  Aside from being one of America's pioneer women golfers, she wrote short stories for leading magazines – a talent that must have been passed down from the Dana side of the family.  She began playing out of the Queens County Golf Club in 1897 and played in the U.S. Am at the Essex County Club in Massachusetts that same year.  She was described by golf historian, H.B. As a "young player coming to the front," however, she failed to qualify when losing to Beatrix Hoyt who took her second win at the title.  In 1898 Hoyt won for the third time. In 1899 the Philadelphia Country Club hosted the U.S. Amateur, and Underhill was in the field, this time taking the win.  This was her one and only win of the Women's U.S. Am.

The Women's Metropolitan Golf Association began in 1899, with Nassau Country Club being one of the founding members.  Underhill became the WMGA's first secretary.  The association held its first championship at Morris County in June of the following year, 1900.  Underhill was not in the finals; in the end, Maud K. Wetmore beat out Beatrix Hoyt.  Underhill continued to play in the Amateur for a number of years, but without further victories.

Underhill married Harold Tredway White, a partner in White, Weld and Co,New York investment bankers and stockbrokers. She then gave up writing as well as tournament golf. Her husband's hobbies were hunting, fishing and collecting rare books, but unfortunately did not include golf.

Ruth Underhill