Robert MacAndrew

There was an increase in the popularity of golf in the U.S. about this time which fueled demand for golf course construction. MacAndrew's career timing could not have been better. He developed a reputation as golf course designer and golf instructor, and quit work in golf club manufacturing to became a golf pro at various country clubs. He competed in the U.S. Open Championship in 1904. Each of his four sons became a professional golfers at various country clubs in the United States.

Early life MacAndrew was born in St Andrews, Fifeshire, Scotland, in 1869. He had an eighth grade education. His wife was Mary Lamond Murray (1872–1930) who died at age 58. MacAndrew had eight children: Agnes, Mary, James, Charlotte, Robert, John, Charles and Ruth. He became a U.S. citizen in 1918.

Immigration to the U.S. MacAndrew arrived in New York in 1899 to go to Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, to supervise the manufacture of golf clubs for the Spalding Company. During this time, Spalding became embroiled in a dispute with its former supplier, Overman Wheel Company, and business suffered. When his family arrived in 1900, they all moved to Dayton, Ohio, the home of Crawford, McGregor & Canby.

Career MacAndrew began to develop a reputation, said 1930 Tennessean sportswriter Tony Scheffer, "as a teacher of note turning out some wonderful golfers under his diligent tutelage". MacAndrew secured a contract to design a golf course in Nashville for a new country club called the "Nashville Golf and Country Club" in 1901. Nashvillians were becoming interested in golf, but there were only crude golf courses available then, some with holes of only 50 yards. (later the site of Tennessee State Fairgrounds). MacAndrew told the club president he would have to purchase an alternate site, in Milton, Massachusetts, and, as second project, to design a new golf course in New York. and competed in the U.S. Open in 1926 and 1927. Jock and Charles, both under 19, shot 70 and 71 respectively in the qualifying round of the Massachusetts Junior Championship in 1924. Jock died at age 24, of internal hemorrhage from ulcerative colitis; Nearly 500 guests attended "Charlie MacAndrew Day" ceremonies on August 4, 1951 and established the annual "Charles MacAndrew Memorial Golf Tournament" in his honor, first played in 1953. In 2018, the MacAndrew Memorial 65th tournament was held.

MacAndrew's grandson Donald Jock MacAndrew (Jock's son), became a thoroughbred horse jockey. He rode "Saggy", the horse that famously defeated the previously unbeaten Citation (ridden by Eddie Arcaro) in the Chesapeake Trial Stakes at Havre de Grace Racetrack on April 12, 1948. The Baltimore Sun called it "The horse racing upset that stands for the ages".

Death

Robert G. MacAndrew died at age 81 on April 4, 1951, in Holbrook, Massachusetts, at the home of his granddaughter. He is buried at Mount Wollaston Cemetery in Quincy, Massachusetts.