Page 108 - Western Amateur 120th Championship Program 2022, Exmoor Country Club

History of the Western Amateur at Exmoor

Clubhouse in ruins after fire
TRAGEDY, GLORY AND
THE WIZARD OF THE LINKS:
EXMOOR AND THE
WESTERN AMATEUR
H. Chandler and Walter Egan sit at the edge of the green (left).
OF 1904
As a founding member of the Western Move the event to another club? View Club. Egan fired a course record
Golf Association in 1899, Exmoor takes “Never,” declared Exmoor and WGA 70, missing a short putt for 69 on the
great pride in its long association President B.F. Cummins. Club members final hole.
with the WGA. In fact, the first golf moved into action: tents were erected to
tournament organized by the WGA accommodate officials; members with Egan Dominates
was held at Exmoor, the Exmoor club living quarters gave up their rooms In match play, 20-year-old H. Chandler
Open of 1899, held weeks prior to the to contestants; and the dining room was Egan marched through the field in a
first Western Open championship. rearranged to enable food service. series of five decisive victories, capped
with a 6 & 5 victory over Dan Sawyer
Exmoor has hosted three Western Uncertainty prevailed, as the golf of Wheaton. Rivalries were intense,
Amateurs, all with winning clubs of Exmoor star and top-ranked but there was room for courtesy. After
performances by the No. 1-ranked H. Chandler Egan were lost in the fire, Egan defeated Fay Ingalls in the semi-
amateur golfer in America, and the first and the golf world wondered: “How finals, Ingalls caddied for his Harvard
champion was an Exmoor member. would Egan compete with a borrowed teammate in the final match. One
In 1904, one week before 97 of America’s set of clubs?” publication crowned Egan “the wizard
top players would tee up at the sixth Golf had come to America a decade of the links.”
Western Amateur, tragedy struck, when before, and the game had grown Thus began Exmoor’s association with
an early morning fire destroyed the rapidly, seen as both fun and the Western Amateur Championship,
south wing of the Exmoor clubhouse. fashionable. Energized by daily press with a superbly organized tournament
reports, crowds flocked to Exmoor to
see how Egan would match up to one
of the strongest fields since the event
began in 1899. Men dressed in coats
and ties, ladies in long skirts and hats.
For Chicago’s golf enthusiasts, the
Western at Exmoor was the place to be.
As it does today, the tournament started
with stroke play. Egan led all qualifiers
with a two-round score of 144, nine
shots ahead of former national
Starters Tent, 1904 champion Louis James of the Glen Walter Egan, Fay Ingalls and H. Chandler Egan

106 A Pioneering Club in American Golf Exmoor Country Club