NASSAU'S
NATIONALS National Level Achievements of Nassau Members:
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.
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
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 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
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 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 |