Scottish Exiles - The Oakhurst Gang - Golf in Secret Places

by Frank Boumphrey

Not all Scottish exiles to the new world were worthy tradesmen or artisans. There were also the middle and upper classes, the businessman and the so called remittance men - usually younger sons from a well of family with an allowance from home who were sent abroad to make their fortune or, as was often the case, squander their remittance! These too carried their national game with them. In the early 1880's men such as these caused the first golf course in the United States to be created - Oakhurst, near White Sulphur Springs in West Virginia.

Was Oakhurst the first?

There is some evidence that golf was played in both the Savannah region of Georgia and the Charleston region of South Carolina in the mid 1700's and early 1800's. Local lore and the imprimatur of no less a figure than Hubert Warren Wind has it that these were merely social clubs, but this seems unlikely as they appeared to have purchased a large number of balls and clubs from Scotland. A David Dees of Charleston, South Carolina sent an order to his brother in Leith for 96 golf clubs and 432 balls. David Stirk tells us that the Bill of Lading for this order still exists. David Dees was a provincial Grand Master Mason and it would appear that golf was played by the Masonic lodge in Charleston, a not unreasonable assumption as both the Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers in Scotland and the Blackheath Club in England had Masonic origins. The Bill of Lading for this order survives, as do several other Bills of Lading, and in 1799 we have a shop advertising that they have a new order of 'veritable Caledonian balls' for sale. However golf did not continue in this region, probably dying out with the war of 1812. There was golf north of the border in Canada - the Royal Montreal Golf Club was founded in 1873, and the Niagra-on-the-Lake nine hole course, which exists to this day, was laid out in 1875. However there appears to have been no golf in the United States in the middle part of the 18th Century, and if golf was played in Georgia and The Carolinas we have no knowledge as to what the courses looked like.

In 1887 when Horace Hutchinson visited the United States he found no golf, and writing in his memoirs in 1914 he commented:

"It is a condition of things hardly to be realized now, but at that time there was not to my knowledge, such a thing as a golf club or a golf ball in the United States. Canada had its established clubs and courses at Quebec and Montreal. Probably somewhere, in secret places, some few Scots were pursuing their national pastime on very "natural" courses; in the States, too, it is impossible to think that it must not have been so. But probably their sanity was shrewdly doubted and they did not court the public eye. As for "natural" courses, the whole boundless prairies, at certain seasons, invite the knocking of the golf ball about on them."

Horace was very astute one of those secret places were Oakhurst there were a few Scots and a Yankee were pursuing their national pastime. And they were thought a little mad by their neighbors! As one observer said "When I was a child I played marbles, but I never thought to see grown men do it!". But we are getting ahead of our selves...

On Hutchinson's second visit a year later he attempted to evangelize, but with little success.

"On this my second visit to America it had been suggested, I think by Mr. "Bob" Purdey, with whom I stayed near Meadowbrook, on Long Island, that I should bring some clubs over and show the people what sort of a game golf was. But I went first to Mexico and subsequently to California, leaving the clubs in New York the while, and when I came back sundry members of the Meadowbrook Club turned out on a certain Sunday to see me give an exhibition show. We cut some holes in the soil, probably with carving knives, and I proceeded to instruct them, by precept and example, as to what golf meant. I cannot think that my exposition was very effective. They did not seem to think that it meant very much. They tried shots for themselves, and the result of those trials was not such as to give them a very exalted opinion of golf. The most favorable criticism that I can recall was that "it might be a good game for Sundays." I do not think it was extravagant praise.

"I believe that was the first time golf was ever played in the States, though there may, of course, have been those secret Scots, as I have said. However, the Meadowbrook people were so far impressed as to ask me to send them out some clubs, when I got back, which I did, from the shop of Peter Paxton then at Eastbourne. But what became of those clubs I never heard. Neither they nor my excellent example inspired America with golfing zeal. That great country had to wait before awaking to a true sense of the merits of the great game. But time has its revenges and the awakening has come. Also, at the moment of writing, it has the effect of making England conscious that she must "wake up": for that twentyyear- old Mr. Ouimet has just taken the American Championship, in a manner that has made history, out of what seemed the securely holding hands of either Ray or Vardon. "

Even the urbane and well connected Horace Gordon Hutchinson could not spark an interest. It would appear that the time was not quite ripe for the general expansion of golf, that would occour a few years later

The Genesis of Oakhurst

By 1880 four of the five men responsible for establishing Oakhurst links were living in the Greenbrier area of West Virginia. Three were Scots, and the other was from a long an old Yankee family. It was Russell Montague who was from the old Yankee family; George Grant may have fled Scotland to avoid scandal, or he may have come for his health, the story varies; and the MacLeod brothers appear to have been remittance men. What is clear is that they were all living in the Greenbrier area in 1880, and that they frequently socialized together. Montague had visited England as a young lawyer and we know that he had played golf during his visit. The Scotsmen were from Morayshire and we can only assume that they had played golf in this area before coming to America, but be do not know for sure.

Russell Montague

Russell Montague was from an old and prominent New England family, and he entered Harvard as a member of the class of 1872. He was not a stellar student, but he graduated with an Bachelor of Arts degree, and started teaching. Finding this either disagreeable, or just too poorly paying, he took to the law, and in 1874 entered the Massachusetts bar. He also had the good sense to fall in love with and marry a well to do lady the same summer! They decided to travel to England, ostensibly for him to study at the Inns of Court. We do not know how assiduously he pursued these studies, but we do know that he discovered golf! While in England he also apparently visited a physician who declared him to be of delicate constitution and advised a country life. Family legend had it that on the voyage back to the States in 1875 he fingered the map at random, and it landed on the Greenbrier area. More likely this area was chosen because White Sulphur Springs was a know spa and a nearby resort hotel meant that they would not be completely cut off from fashionable society.

In any case Russell purchased Oakhurst farm and became a 'gentleman farmer'. As one relative observed he " ...stands on the porch of Oakhurst with a megaphone in one hand and his wife's checkbook in the other." Ah for the blessing of a wise marriage!

George Grant

George Grant was the younger son of a landed Scottish Family. He followed the Upper class tradition of boarding school followed by Cambridge, and then he became an officer in the British Army. When his father died the bulk of the estate, in keeping with the British tradition of primogeniture, went to his elder brother. He however inherited a smaller estate. There he may have remained, apart from two facts. Firstly, while in the British Army he had contracted an illness which doctors told him would shorten his life should he not seek rural seclusion, and secondly he got involved in a scandal with a lady, his sisters governess. Most likely it was the later that caused him to come to the States. In keeping with the mores of the day his family doubtless packed him off, to be out of reach of the law and out of view of disapproving neighbors and their wagging tongues!

Whatever the reasons, 1879 found him in the Greenbrier area and the owner of considerable acreage, and had built himself a fine house 'Greycliffe'. A vigorous man he did well from forestry, and was well established in the area by the early 1880's, and already a friend of the Montagues.

Alexander and Roderick MacLeod

in 1880 these two Scottish brothers, them selves younger son's found them selves in the Greenbrier area. They also were from the Morayshire area, and as they traveled in the same circles as the Grant family, it is likely they arrived in West Virginia at the recommendation of George Grant. They were twenty and twenty-two when they arrived, Montague was twenty-eight; and George Grant was forty-four. It appears that their mother, a wealthy woman, provided them with a remittance. The hope of course being that thus provided for they would make their fortune in the new world.

Golf Comes to Oakhurst

Some time in the early 1880's Grant was visited by his cousin Lionel Torin, a tea planter from Ceylon. Although his father was English, Torin had been born in Inverness at Aldourie Castle, and was an avid golfer. He was the same age as Russell Montague, and when he arrived in Greenbrier county he entered the Montague/Grant/MacLeod social set. Most importantly, he brought his golf clubs with him!

Grant apparently knew of his golfing mania, and commented to the others, that without a golf course time would hang heavily on his hands. Thus the group set out to construct a links for their visitor. The most suitable land for such a project was 35 or so Acres that belonged to Russell Montague. The actual year of laying out of the course is unclear, C. B. MacDonald in his book says that golf was being played at Oakhurst in 1881; Florence Flynn in a 1913 article for Golf magazine says that it was laid out by Torin and Grant in 1882, whereas Montague's son sets the date of the courses founding as 1884. Whatever the date it is clear that Oakhurst was the earliest course in the States which is still in existence.

A problem soon arose as to how to acquire clubs, and the Oakhurst gang turned to a local carpenter and handy man Fraser Coron to make clubs for them. Thus in Greenbrier county was not only the first golf course, but also the first club maker. Apparently Coron was still making clubs in 1938! Other clubs were imported from Scotland through the help of a friend of Montague's, George Donaldson, another Scotsman who regularly travelled to the old country. He would also have supplied balls, although we can conjecture that the gang may have hand-rolled golf balls from Gutta percha in the old fashioned way. Indeed balls found during a later excavation look suspiciously hand made!

Golf was played at Oakhurst for about ten years, and in the Scottish tradition was played in all months and in all weather. A medal was created, and even a special Christmas tournament was instituted. George Donaldson became a sixth member of the group, but it is not known whether others joined in the fun, or whether the 'Oakhurst Gang' remained limited to the original five plus one. By 1900 apparently the links had become derelict. The players had just drifted away, Torin stayed for some time, but in 1889 was back in Ceylon and was playing at the Colombo Golf Club that had been founded in 1879. The MacLeod brothers stayed in the Oakhurst area for about 20 years, but then their mother, probably realizing that they were not going to make their fortune in the States, cut off their allowance, and they were forced to return to Scotland. Alexander did take a job, and a wife, in Britain becoming a successful land agent. Roderick apparently spent the rest of his years at the family home at Forres in Scotland. We do not know whether they continued to play golf

Grant went to England in 1901, presumably by this time the scandal that had forced his flight was forgotten. He continued playing golf in England.

This is asmall example of how the Scots carried their game with them, and we can see here that not all Scottish exiles were the stereo typical dour man with a thick brogue. However what all Scotsmen do appear to have imbedded in their genes is a love of golf, even though at times it takes peculiar events to unearth them!

Oakhurst was restored to it's former glory by Lewis Keller and Sam Snead in 1994 and today can be played by one and all, but that is another story ...

(Most of the information for this story is taken from "Oakhurst" by Paula DiPerna and Vikki Keller ISBN 0-8027-1371-8)

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