The three most prominent Foulis brothers to the Chicagoland area: Robert, James and David.
From May, 2007 issue By Phil Kosin Chicagoland Golf editor Charles
Blair Macdonald, widely known as the Father of Golf in Chicago, went to
college in Scotland, where he learned to play the game. He brought back
a set of clubs, and in early 1892, on the Lake Forest estate of a
friend, C.B. Farwell, and his son, Hobart Chatfield-Taylor, laid out
seven informal golf holes on an interesting piece of lakefront property
known as “Bluff’s Edge.”
His group of friends were fascinated
by the new game and demanded a course be built on a dedicated site. So,
in late spring of 1892, Macdonald passed around a hat with his friends,
who contributed $10 each for a total of two or three hundred dollars.
Macdonald spent that money in laying out a nine-hole course, about 23
miles west of Chicago’s Union Station, on the stock farm of A. Haddon
Smith at Belmont, located one block north of the Chicago, Burlington
and Quincy Railroad line. This nine-holer was to become the first golf
course built west of the Alleghenies, and second only to Shinnecock
Hills in Long Island, New York, which opened 12 holes in 1891.
The
club became so popular that, in 1894, the members bought a piece of
property to build an improved 18-hole course. They purchased a 200-acre
parcel of the Patrick farm in Wheaton, for a then-considerable sum of
$28,000, which became “a first class 18-hole course of 6,500 yards.” The
site was chosen for its rolling hills covered with native grasses,
which reminded Macdonald of Scotland.
By this time, the golf bug
had bitten others and clubs were beginning to form around the Chicago
area. Seeing a dire need, Macdonald summoned the Foulis brothers to
Chicago from St. Andrews, Scotland, to help grow the new game.
The
Foulis’ father, James Foulis, Sr., worked as a foreman in the
clubmaking shop of the legendary Old Tom Morris – which was located
across the street from The Old Course at St. Andrews. In late 1894,
Macdonald had originally invited Robert Foulis to be the first golf
professional at his Chicago Golf Club, but he was already under
contract and passed the offer to his brother, Jim.
Thus, James Foulis
became the first golf professional at Chicago Golf in 1895, and the
first golf professional in the western part of the United States. At St. Andrews, he had
worked in the busy clubmaking shops of both Old Tom Morris and Robert
Forgan, so he was well-qualified to handle his new Chicago role.
The shop crew in front of Old Tom Morris’ golf shop and clubmaking workshop at St. Andrews, Scotland c.1896. Old Tom is without apron in the front row; James Foulis, Sr., is sitting to Old Tom’s right.
In
those early days, the golf professional taught the game, manufactured
clubs, made golf balls, tended members’ equipment, managed caddies and
often was responsible for overseeing greenkeeping crews. Often, he was
called on to make changes to the course – and some proved so adept,
they were hired to design new courses. They may have slept on the grounds in a small cottage, but they were not permitted to enter the clubhouse.
They were also the best players around.
Jim
was one of the 11 participants in the first U.S. Open in 1895 at
Newport GC. He finished the 36 holes in 176, in third place behind
Horace Rawlins and Willie Dunn.
Jim Foulis was an accomplished
player, often traveling to play exhibitions and even though he played
with a gutta-percha ball could belt drives well over 300 yards.
In 1896 at Shinnecock Hills, Jim used his gutties to shoot 74-78-152 to win the second National Open.
Brother
Robert had since relocated to the United States (serving as golf
professional at Glen Echo CC in St. Louis) and played in the 1897 U.S.
Open at Chicago Golf. He finished T-15 and brother Jim came in third.
Another brother, investment banker Simpson Foulis, was also a fine player and represented Chicago Golf Club in many tournaments.
Jim’s
national fame as a U.S. Open champion brought many offers to design
golf courses. He created many courses throughout the Midwest in a
30-year period, including in the Chicago area Hinsdale GC (1898),
Geneva GC (1901), DuPage County GC (1901), Lake Zurich GC (1895),
Newspaper GC (1900), Calumet CC (1911), Edgebrook GC (1921), Hickory
Hills GC (1923), Hillmoor GC (1924), Bonnie Brook GC (1927), Pipe
O’Peace (1927).
In fact, Jim and Robert were both prolific
architects – they co-designed Glen Echo (1901), Wheaton GC (1909), and
the original Bellerive CC (1910), and Sunset CC (1917) in St. Louis.
And
in 1898, Herbert J. Tweedie joined Robert, Jim and Macdonald son-in-law
H.J. Whigham in designing an additional nine holes at the Lake Forest
Club, which was rechristened Onwentsia.
In 1905, Jim was
succeeded by his brother David Foulis, who stayed at Chicago Golf until
1916. Jim spent time at several courses, and was the golf professional
at Olympia Fields when its first three courses were designed by Tom
Bendelow, Willie Watson and Willie Park. He also spent time as golf pro
at Ruth Lake CC.
In addition to their skills as golf
professionals, clubmakers and players, the Foulises were responsible
for many innovations to the game of golf.
They were first to apply the
bramble (reverse-dimple) pattern on the cover of Coburn Haskell’s new
rubber-cored, wound golf ball, which debuted in 1898.
Actually,
it happened by accident. One day, Jim had remolded a batch of old
gutta-percha balls, as was the practice. (In that era, the solid, rubber-like balls got
nicked and scuffed easily by metal irons. A golf professional would
drop the beat-up balls into a cauldron of boiling water, and when the
exteriors had softened from the heat, removed them using tongs to cast
golf-ball molds and then put the molds into a press to cool.)
Soon,
out on one of Chicago Golf’s fairways, Jim noticed one of his remade
gutties flew significantly farther than the others. Curious, he took
the ball back to his shop and cut it open – to discover he had
inadvertently remolded a wound Haskell.
The smooth-covered
Haskells – as manufactured – wouldn’t “grip the air” and carry and therefore were
very slow to sell. Until Jim Foulis applied a bramble pattern to them.
That
began a cottage industry for the Foulis brothers. They purchased huge
quantities of Haskell’s ball (now being mass-produced, thanks to a new
machine that wound the rubber thread around multiple balls at once).
They applied a bramble pattern to the smooth Haskell balls and
repackaged them under their own brand, “American Eagle.”
In
response to the demands of the new ball, the Foulis brothers next
developed the “mashie-niblick”, the modern 7-iron, which fell between the
traditional mashie (5-iron) and niblick (9-iron).
While at Chicago
Golf, Dave also brought the metal hole-liner concept to the USA from
Scotland, where it was reportedly in use since the mid-1870s. But in
this country, the greenkeeper merely dug a hole in the green to which
the players played. With use, however, the hole size became enlarged
and its shape changed.
NOTE: On some courses, the greenkeeper
buried a No. 3 tomato can (a cylinder 7 inches deep and 4¼ inches
across). It is this writer’s opinion that the popular use of this sized
can led to the standardization in the Rules of Golf toward golf holes
being 4¼ inches wide.
Dave improved the metal cup design by
adding a device which held the flagstick upright, even in the wind. He
began selling the “Foulis Flag” in 1902.
Dave left Chicago Golf
in 1916 to concentrate his efforts on the brothers’ rapidly-growing and
wildly-successful retail and manufacturing business, J & D Foulis
Company. The company sold everything imaginable to supply golfers and
courses, which were both gaining in numbers exponentially.
The Foulis brothers were also early members of the Illinois golf professional’s association, which preceded the PGA of America by at least 14 years.
Chicago-area golf pros were organized by Robert White, the first golf professional at Ravisloe CC on the south side. About 1902, White was elected president of the association. According to several sources, Illinois Golf Pro Association members paid $2 per year in dues and kicked in $5 toward each of the association’s organized playing events.
When the PGA of America was being organized in New York in 1916, the Foulis brothers campaigned amongst their Illinois colleagues and the Illinois Section became the first local chapter of the PGA of America. It was formed before the national PGA was officially chartered; the Foulis brothers were heavily involved in the formation of the PGA of America. They are believed to be among the 35 charter members.
Dave had a son, Jim, who followed in his club pro footsteps and won the Illinois PGA Championship several times. He also played in the first Masters in 1934 and in many U.S. Opens and PGA Championships before World War II.
There was another brother, John, who was not a competitive player but
served as Chicago Golf Club’s ballmaker and bookkeeper until his death in 1907.
The Foulis brother’s legacy was finally honored August 2, 2007 when Jim, Robert and Dave were inducted into
the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame. The honor was long overdue in a hall of fame that's existed for 20 years.
They
came to the Chicago area at a time when the game of golf in America was
in its infancy. They were exactly what Macdonald and a growing legion
of diehard golfers needed. The Foulises set an example for generations
of golf professionals to come.
Those were golf’s formative
years, and the Chicago area would not be the golf-rich locale it is and
would not enjoy its current worldwide reputation without the efforts of
the Foulis brothers.
James Foulis, Chicago Golf, 1896 U.S. Open champion
Of course, their contributions were hardly
philanthropic. They were energetic entrepreneurs who came to the right
place at the right time, converting Chicago’s ravenous hunger for the
game of golf into financial gains.
They made tidy profits
selling equipment, both as clubmakers and innovators. They also reaped
monetary rewards as golf course architects whose work was in great
demand.
But their design work was exemplary – as it should have
been, because they studied all aspects of the game at the hand of the
master, Old Tom Morris, and built upon that experience. They didn’t
have sophisticated construction equipment, and following the lead of
Morris chose their locations and routed their courses based upon the
natural contours of the land.
They favored open designs;
however, well-intentioned green committees at many of their courses
went on tree-planting campaigns that have choked off the original look
and intent of the courses.
Their peers included legendary
figures like Morris, Bendelow, Park, Donald Ross, William Langford and
William Flynn, Alister Mackenzie, Seth Raynor and A.W. Tillinghast.
The
remaining Foulis designs endure; they were designed to be enjoyable in
an era where golf was more recreational than competitive.
The
five Foulis brothers are buried at Wheaton Cemetery, which is adjacent
to Chicago Golf Club and in close proximity of their DuPage County GC
and Wheaton GC designs.
