Page 109 - Western Amateur 120th Championship Program 2022, Exmoor Country Club

flaming structure to rescue the sterling
silver George R. Thorne trophy, on
display for the Western Amateur.
Without this courageous act, future
Western winners, such as Chandler
Egan, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods,
would not have had the opportunity to
hold and raise this beautiful trophy in
their winning moments.

Walter W. Egan and Alan L. Reid,
H. Chandler Egan Chicago Golf Club
The Egan cousins were among the
leading golfers in America during the
first decade of the 20th century. Walter
Egan (1881–1971) placed second in the
U.S. Amateur of 1901 and defeated
Chandler to win the Western Amateur
H. Chandler Egan, Western Amateur Champion,
1904 in 1903. H. Chandler Egan (1884–1936),
whose boyhood home was six blocks
and a victory by one of its members.
east of the Exmoor club entrance on
As the Chicago Tribune reported:
Vine Avenue, won four Western
“Yesterday’s victory was one of class,
Amateurs, two U.S. Amateurs, and
and the honor went where it rightfully Louis N. James, Glen View Club,
an individual national collegiate U.S. Amateur Champion, 1902
belonged. Twice champion of the west
championship while at Harvard.
and once holder of the intercollegiate
honor (Harvard), it is expected Egan After moving in 1911 to Medford,
will aspire to and capture the national Oregon, Chandler Egan returned to
honors at Baltusrol next month.” golf, winning the Pacific Northwest
Amateur four times. He designed
True to this prediction, H. Chandler
more than a dozen golf courses in
Egan traveled to the U.S. Amateur
the Pacific Northwest and renovated
Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club
Pebble Beach Golf Links prior to
in New Jersey where he defeated A.W.
the 1929 U.S. Amateur in which he
Tillinghast (later a renowned course
competed and made the semifinals.
architect) in the first round. In the 36-
hole final match, Egan defeated Fred Players in the Warren Dickenson, Des Moines, Iowa, and
Henry Ferguson, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Herreshoff, 8 & 6, to bring Exmoor its 1904 Western Amateur
first national golf champion.
Heroic Club Manager
Saves the Thorne Trophy
As an early morning fire raged through
the Exmoor clubhouse on August 8,
1904, members dashed from their
second-floor bedrooms to escape
the inferno, and thankfully, no one
was injured.

One occupant, club Superintendent
Fay Ingalls, Cincinnati and J.S. DeMoss,
Edward C. Welch, re-entered the D.E. Sawyer, Wheaton Golf Club Tuscumbia Golf Club

2022 Western Amateur Championship A Pioneering Club in American Golf 107