Walter Travis

Golfing career Travis was born in Maldon, Australia. He arrived in New York City in 1886 as a 23-year-old representative of the Australian-based McLean Brothers and Rigg exporters of hardware and construction products. Travis married Anne Bent of Middleton, Connecticut, on January 9, 1890, and later that year he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Shortly after their wedding, Travis and his wife moved into their new home in Flushing, New York, where they would live until their move to Garden City, on Long Island, in 1900.

In 1896, while traveling in England, Travis learned that his Niantic Club friends of Flushing, New York, were intent on creating a new golf club. He was scornful of the idea but, wishing to keep up with his friends, he purchased a set of golf clubs to take with him on his return to the United States. As he said, "I first knelt at the shrine of the Goddess of Golf" in October 1896 on the Oakland links, just three months before his 35th birthday. Within a month of hitting his first golf shot, Travis earned his first trophy by winning the Oakland Golf Club handicap competition. Travis became, in his words, "an infatuated devotee" of the game. He dedicated himself to the study of instructional books written by Horace Hutchinson, Willie Park Jr., and others. He practiced relentlessly. Within a year, Travis won the Oakland Golf Club championship with a score of 82. Travis at the beginning of the downswing (c. 1919). Note the flexing of the hickory shafts used during the period.

In 1898, Travis entered his first U.S. Amateur and lost to Findlay S. Douglas in the semifinal match. By this time, he had caught the attention and respect of fellow competitors and, because of his late start in the game, Travis was respectfully referred to as "The Old Man" The news of Travis's British victory sparked a surge of interest in the game of golf throughout the United States.

In 1904, champion British golfer Harold Hilton described Travis: "In style, the American champion is essentially what may be termed a made golfer, for his is a style which by the wildest stretch of imagination could not be called ornate. Still, it boasts useful attributes; it is business-like and determined, and is one in which no energy is wasted. Like all golfers who really scored a success at the game, he keeps the right elbow well in to the right side, holding the hands very low, like Messrs. Hutchings, Fry and G. F. Smith—three of the best examples of golfers who have risen to eminence while lacking the advantage of playing the game in their youth. The swing of the club is not long—in fact, it might be termed a three-quarter swing—but it is sufficient to get a free action with the wrist, and although Mr. Travis does not obtain an abnormal carry, he nevertheless gets a long roll on the ball, and against the wind in particular he is beyond the average as a driver, especially as he appears to have mastered the art of the scientific hooking."

Among his other major victories as an amateur golfer were the following: Three North and South Amateurs at Pinehurst, and four Metropolitan Golf Association Championships. When Travis won his fourth MGA Championship, in 1915, at the age of 53, he beat 28-year-old Jerome Travers in the final match. Just the year before, Travers had eliminated Travis in the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur. With declining health diminishing his skills, Travis announced his retirement from competitive golf in 1916.

In the January 28, 1922 issue of The American Golfer, the following response was given to a query about "How many tournaments Mr. Travis has won, counting in every variety?":

"Our opinion is that Mr. Travis has won more low gross, low net and open tourneys than any other living golfer. He was practically unbeatable for a stretch of six years from 1898 to 1904 during which time he played in double or triple the number of events entered by either John Ball or Chick Evans. A guess at the number of his trophies would place it over five hundred and perhaps nearer to a thousand. In 1901, Travis was national champion and in 1915 he was again the Metropolitan champion. His southern victories were numerous."

In a 1927 Golf Illustrated article, titled "The Figures Prove It", author John Kofoed offered the following match-play records of noted amateur players in major events:

(Source):

"% Won" figures added to the Kofoed data.

Tournament wins This list does not include Travis's countless victories in noted club invitationals or championships, such as his 9 wins in the Garden City Golf Club's Spring Invitational that is now known as the Travis Memorial, nor his countless victories at Lakewood CC's Spring and Fall tourneys that attracted a large field of golfers from the metropolitan area. 1900 U.S. Amateur, Metropolitan Amateur 1901 U.S. Amateur 1904 Open Championship, 1904 Amateur Championship

Contributions to golf In 1904, Travis became the first man to hold the British and American Amateur Championship at the same time. Travis was a prolific writer who wrote extensively on a variety of golf topics, and was published in the leading sports magazines of the time. His first book, Practical Golf, published in 1901, received rave reviews from The New York Times (6/14/1901) for its depth, thoroughness, and clarity as a reference book. Practical Golf dealt with a variety of topics, including golfing techniques, golf equipment, construction of golf courses, the design and placement of hazards, rules of golf, and conduct of golf competitions. His chapter on "Handicapping" was first published in the July 1901 issue of Golf, and described as "the authoritative treatise on handicapping" of its era. A second book, The Art of Putting, was released in 1904.

In 1908, Travis founded and published The American Golfer magazine. The American Golfer was widely regarded as the most influential golf magazine of its time. Travis, and other authors, used it as an effective voice for their views. Travis stayed at the helm of "The American Golfer" as editor until he turned it over to Grantland Rice in the spring of 1920, and severed his connection with the magazine by the end of 1920.

Travis was not hesitant about trying new equipment in his efforts to improve his game. He was the first to win a major event using the Haskell rubber-cored golf ball—the 1901 U.S. Amateur. As reported in the Travis biography, The Old Man,

Many other innovative steps were taken by Travis throughout his career. His use of the Schenectady center-shafted putter in his British Amateur victory attracted considerable comment and controversy. Some six years later, the Royal and Ancient would issue a ban on all mallet-headed putters, including the Schenectady. Travis conducted careful experiments with varying lengths of driver shafts, often using a driver with a shaft as long as 50 inches in his search for greater distance off the tee. At his home course, Garden City Golf Club, Travis installed smaller sized cups on the practice green to help hone the accuracy of his putting. His effectiveness as an instructor was demonstrated in the following example:

In 1916, while observing a 14-year-old Bobby Jones, Travis is reported to have commented that Jones' putting methods were "faulty". There are accounts that suggest that young Jones held Travis in high esteem and eagerly agreed to meet Travis the following morning at 8 am for a putting lesson. Unfortunately, Jones and his party awoke late and were over an hour behind schedule. When they arrived, Travis had left. The lesson did not occur until years later, when Travis suggested a change in Jones's grip, altered his stance and recommended a longer and more sweeping stroke. A key point was to try to "drive an imaginary tack into the back of the ball". There are some who have expressed the opinion that the Travis putting lesson helped Jones to become one of the great putters of all time.

The Schenectady Putter The Schenectady Putter and Walter Travis will be linked together forever in the history of golf. The Schenectady Putter was invented by Arthur F. Knight, a General Electric engineer, who created a model reflecting his ideas in the summer of 1902 at his home course, Mohawk Golf Club in Schenectady, NY. It is noteworthy that Devereux Emmet, the designer of Mohawk Golf Club, was the first golfer of note to be shown Mr. Knight's new aluminum putter while he was visiting Mohawk. Emmet asked to take the putter with him back to his home course, Garden City Golf Club, where he proposed to "play with it, show it at Garden City and at Myopia and will then send it back to you". It is reported that "A day or two later Mr. Knight received a telegram from Mr. W. J. Travis ordering a putter like Mr. Emmet's, and one was hurriedly made and forwarded". Later, a second putter was sent to Travis which was declared "the best putter I have ever used." Travis used this putter to finish second in the U.S. Open Championship held at Garden City Golf Club. "Within a week thereafter, Mr. Knight received over one hundred letters from prominent golfers asking for a putter like Mr. Travis's". Knight was not prepared for such a response and was particularly concerned about what to call it. It is reported that he was "anxious to call it the 'Travis' putter'." He arranged a meeting with Mr. Emmet and Mr. Travis. Emmet had consistently referred to it as the "Schenectady Putter" and Travis agreed that Schenectady would be "a more suitable and lasting name for the putter than his own, in which view Mr. Knight rather reluctantly concurred." After his initial success with the Schenectady Putter in 1902, Travis used the putter to win the 1903 U.S. Amateur and then, of course, the 1904 British Amateur. The putter became an instant commercial success.

Schenectady putters, marked "Patent Applied For", were produced prior to its patent on March 24, 1903. The Schenectady Putter was among the "centered-shafted, mallet-headed implements" that were banned by Royal and Ancient Golf Club Committee on the Rules of golf in 1910, in response to a request from a golf club in New Zealand. The R&A's ban included the Schenectady Putter. There is no evidence that Travis's use of the Schenectady to win the 1904 British Amateur contributed to this controversial ruling, though the myth persists. The ruling became controversial because, for the first time, an R&A ruling was not wholly adopted by the United States Golf Association. The USGA agreed with the banning of mallet-headed clubs but ruled that the Schenectady Putter, and other center-shafted putters did not fall within this category. The R&A ban on center-shafted putters was finally removed in 1951.

Some have characterized Travis as a "penal designer". However, a careful study of his writings leads to the conclusion that he was a firm believer in "thinking" and "strategic" golf; with the golfer given opportunities to avoid difficulty with well-considered and executed shots. However, much of Travis's early acclaim and notoriety as a golf course designer may be traced to his extensive remodeling of the Garden City Golf Club's Devereux Emmet course, that was unveiled when Garden City Golf Club hosted the 1908 U.S. Amateur Championship. In all, nearly 50 golf courses bear his mark, either as an original design, or as a remodeling project. Other Travis-designed courses that still exist include: Camden Country Club, Cape Arundel Golf Club, Country Club of Scranton, Country Club of Troy, Cherry Hill Club, Garden City Country Club, East Potomac Golf Links, Granliden on Sunapee (9 holes), Jekyll Island Golf Club (Great Dunes), Lochmoor Club (assisted John Sweeney), Lookout Point Country Club, North Jersey Country Club, Onondaga Golf and Country Club, Orchard Park Country Club, Pennhills Club, Round Hill Club, Spring Brook Country Club (NJ), Stafford Country Club, The Golf Club at Equinox, Westchester Country Club (West, South and Short courses), White Beeches Golf & Country Club, and Yahnundasis Golf Club. Through Travis's consultations with the original designers, several noted courses reflect his influence, including Pine Valley Golf Club, National Golf Links of America, and Pinehurst No. 2.

Travis could lay claim to being the first "U.S. Open Doctor" with his remodeling of the Country Club of Buffalo and Columbia Country Club courses just prior to their hosting the U.S. Open in 1912 and 1921, respectively. Travis remained active as a designer to the end, making a last visit to inspect the construction of his course at the Country Club of Troy a month before his death on July 31, 1927. He was interred at Dellwood Cemetery in Manchester Village, Vermont. His induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1979 was in recognition of his legacy as the first three-time champion in the U.S. Amateur Championship and the first non-Brit to win the British Amateur Championship. His willingness to experiment led to landmark changes in the landscape of golf equipment, especially his use of the Haskell golf ball to win the 1901 U.S. Amateur Championship. His most enduring legacy may be the many premier golf courses he designed or remodelled throughout his career. Four Travis-designed or redesigned courses are regularly included in Golfweeks rankings of America's top 100 "Classic" courses: Country Club of Scranton, Ekwanok Country Club (assisted John Duncan Dunn), Westchester Country Club's West course, Hollywood Golf Club (redesigned Mackie's work), and Garden City Golf Club (remodeled Emmet's work).

In 2019, Travis was inducted into the New York State Golf Association's Hall of Fame.

In 1999, Golf World magazine ranked Travis second in its Top Ten List of Underrated Golf Course Architects.