Walter J. Travis (January 10, 1862 – July 31, 1927) was the most successful amateur golfer in the U.S. during the early 1900s, a noted golf journalist and publisher, an innovator in all aspects of golf, a teacher, and a respected golf course architect.
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 hardward and construction products. Travis married Anne Bent of Middleton, CT, 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 and moved into their new home in Flushing, NY, where they would live until their move to Garden City, on Long Island, in 1900. (Labbance, 2000)
Sometime during the years of 1895 to 1896, while traveling in England, Travis learned that his Niantic Club friends of Flushing, NY 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, and others. He practiced relentlessly. Within a year, Travis won the Oakland Golf Club championship with a score of 82. (Travis, Golf Illustrated, 1906)
In 1898, Travis entered his first United States Amateur Championship and lost to Findlay S. Douglas in the semi-final 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" or "The Grand Old Man". Driven by his intense and compulsive dedication to the game, Travis was soon the country's top amateur golfer, winning the U.S. Amateur Championship in 1900, 1901, and 1903. In 1904, he became the first non-Brit to win the British Amateur Championship, a feat that would not be duplicated for another 22 years even with "wholesale assaults and single attempts to duplicate" his feat great amateur golfers such as Jerome Travers, Francis Ouimet, and Bobby Jones.(The Southern Golfer, 1925) The news of Travis's British victory sparked a surge of interest in the game of golf throughout the United States. (Leahy, 1970)
Among his other major victories as an amateur golfer were the following: Three North and South Amateur Championships 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 semi-finals of U.S. Amateur Championship. With declining health diminishing his skills, Travis announced his retirement from competitive golf in 1916. (Labbance, 2000)
Overall, "Travis competed in 17 consecutive U.S. Amateur Championships from 1898-1914, compiling a 45-14 record, earning medalist honors three consecutive years (1900-02), and losing to the eventual champion on five occasions. He competed in six U.S. Opens between 1902-12 and was low amateur five times and tied for third low amateur the other." Travis was the runnerup in the 1902 U.S. Open Championship.(Leahy, 1970)
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." (The American Golfer, Jan. 1922)
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 (Kofoed, !927):
Won Lost %won* Bobby Jones 42 9 82 Francis Ouimet 43 12 78 Walter Travis 45 11 80 Chick Evans 37 13 74 Jerome Travers 33 6 85 William Fownes 33 22 60 Jess Sweetser 28 11 72 Robert Gardner 35 15 70* "%won" figures added to the Kofoed data by this author.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."
- 1900 U.S. Amateur, Metropolitan Amateur
- 1901 U.S. Amateur
- 1902 Metropolitan Amateur
- 1903 U.S. Amateur
- 1904 The Amateur Championship, North and South Amateur
- 1906 Florida Open
- 1909 Metropolitan Amateur
- 1910 North and South Amateur
- 1912 North and South Amateur
- 1913 Cuban Amateur
- 1914 Cuban Amateur
- 1915 Metropolitan Amateur, Southern Florida Amateur
- 1916 Southern Florida Amateur
Major championships
Amateur wins (4)
Results timeline
Travis did not play in the Masters Tournament (not founded until 1934) or the PGA Championship (professionals only).
DNP = Did not play
WD = Withdrew
"T" indicates a tie for a place
R32, R16, QF, SF = Round in which player lost in match play
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10Source for U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur: USGA Championship Database
Contributions to golf
Walter 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.(Knuth, 1993) 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", (Labbance, 2000) Travis had "dabbled with predecessors of the Haskell ball, but kept his involvement under wraps until shortly before the tournament" and he "had developed a feel for this type of ball with practice and was not afraid to debut it at the championship" . As Labbance reports, "Travis's bold move had not only prompted a change in golf balls but a change in golf as well" . It sounded the death knell for the gutty ball, created the need for inserts in the face of wooden clubs to prevent splitting, and soon led to calls for the lengthening of golf courses due to the longer shots made possible by the Haskell.(Labbance, 2000)
Travis was innovative in his approach to golf course design. In a Practical Golf chapter on hazards, Travis was critical of the ubiquitous and, to him, unappealing cross-bunkers that stretched all the way across the fairway at predictable intervals. Rather, he argued for more strategically and visually-appealing bunkers placed along the edges of fairways, stating, "Hazards arranged somewhat upon the lines indicated, rather than slavishly following the system adopted on the great majority of our courses, would, I think, make the game vastly more interesting, and more provocative of better golf all around." (Travis, 1900)
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 6 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
Wholesale Golf Clubs,Discount Golf Clubs,Wholesale Golf Equipment Shop ...
Wholesale Golf Clubs,Discount Golf Clubs,Wholesale Golf Equipment-brand name golf clubs,golf shoes,balls and accessories by Taylor Made,Callaway,PING,Nike Golf,Titleist at great ...
Welcome to [Wholesale Golf clubs] - [Best components in Golf]
Integra golf clubs integra golf shafts integra golf heads wholesale components quadratic I drive shafts vs88 square titanium custom clubs mcs moi spring face high cor shafts golf ...
Message Board_Wholesale Golf Clubs,Discount Golf Clubs,Wholesale Golf ...
I can not continue registration, because there is not my country Slovakia in the reistration offer. Admin Reply You may choose another country for the registration,it still works.
Wholesale golf clubs China
wholesale golf clubs China,china wholesale golf clubs,supply golf glubs,golf manufacturer,cheap golf clubs,golf clubs
Sunogolf:Wholesale Golf clubs,golf accessories,golf apparel
Sunogolf:Wholesale Golf clubs,golf accessories,golf apparel : - Drivers Fairway Woods Iron Sets Hybrids Putters Wedges Golf Bags Golf Caps Golf Gloves Full Sets 2009 PGA ...
Wholesale Golf Clubs | Hybrid Golf Clubs | Left Handed Golf Clubs
Wholesale Golf Clubs offers a great selection of various brands, makes, and models Hybrid Golf Clubs, Left Handed Golf Clubs, and more. Buy golf clubs for less right here at ...
Houston Wholesale Golf Clubs Reviews - Find Wholesale Golf Clubs in ...
Read and write reviews on Houston Wholesale Golf Clubs. Get phone numbers, ratings, maps, directions and more for Wholesale Golf Clubs in HoustonTx 77001.
WHOLESALE GOLF- Offering wholesale golf clubs at wholesale prices.
At Wholesale Golf you will find the best wholesale golf clubs. There is a huge selection with wholesale prices! Don't miss out on this incredible offer!
Saint Louis Wholesale Golf Clubs Reviews - Find Wholesale Golf Clubs ...
Read and write reviews on Saint Louis Wholesale Golf Clubs. Get phone numbers, ratings, maps, directions and more for Wholesale Golf Clubs in Saint LouisMo 63101.
WHOLESALE GOLF CLUBS - Video
WHOLESALE GOLF CLUBS For wholesalegolf clubs go to http://thegolfclubspro.com. Watch Video about Wholesale,Golf,Clubs by Metacafe.com