By Doug Marshall
This article first appeared in the Mar/Apr 2006 Issue of the SoHG Newsletter.
CHARLES B. MACDONALD : HIS CANADIAN CONNECTION
Charles Blair Macdonald is one of the founders of the U.S.G.A. and its first official champion in 1895. A controversial figure he went on to become a noted author and architect, creating outstanding golf courses. The best of these are the National Golf Links of America in Southhampton New York, Mid- Ocean in Bermuda, the Yale University course, and the Old White Course at the Greenbrier. What is not well known is that he was born in Canada in the Niagara Peninsula near Niagara on the Lake. His family had a second home there and he wrote fondly of the area in his book SCOTLANDS GIFT - GOLF .
"I had a country home in Lundys Lane, Niagara Falls - close to the battleground. It was there that my mother was born. I was born there also... The homestead plot, some 40 acres, I bought in 1893 and planted it entirely in grapes and peaches. Until a few years ago I maintained it but after a time sentiment died out and I parted with it. "
Macdonald was also an organizer of the first US-Canada tournament held in Niagara on the Lake the first week of Sept. 1895. It was called the International Championship Tournament. This event was held on the circa 1875 golf course at the mouth of the Niagara River. This course is the oldest known golf club in North America still on its original site. He and Charles Hunter of Toronto organized the event and Chicago friends came to participate in this historic event. Both men and women played in separate events.
The mens event at match play was won by Macdonald over a Mr. A. W. Smith of Toronto Golf Club, one up. Macdonald never a modest man relates that he scored 87 in one round - a course record and that he had won the long drive contest with a drive of "179 yds, one foot and six inches." Macdonald's family had a long history around Niagara. His mother's forbear was Sir Wm.Johnson who died in 1773 owning the whole Mohawk Valley in what became upstate New York. He had divided about 120,000 acres among his eleven children by Mollie Brant.
His son Sir William Johnson chose to be a United Empire Loyalist and influenced the Five Nations against the American colonists. After the War of Independence the provisional government confiscated the Mohawk Valley property and the children of Sir Wm. Johnson migrated. Macdonald's maternal great grand mother married a John Lefferty, a surgeon in the British army. Lefferty bought a property and home on Lundys Lane in 1814. Then in 1883, Macdonald purchased this property as a summer home.
After the 1895 matches, Macdonald instituted an international match of ten players a side, played in Toronto in 1898. The Americans won handily 27-7,with Macdonald winning a match from a young George S.Lyon (who later won numerous Canadian championships and the 1904 Olympic Gold Medal in St.Louis).
The tournament continued annually till the outbreak of WWI in 1914, never to be continued until our memorial event in 2003. This year will be our fourth reprise of the new event. Come join us for a great time in Niagara!
Doug Marshall 2006