Before there was a country club or a golf tournament, there was a preacher, a Saint Bernard, and a putting green on the parade ground at Fort Sam Houston.
In Episode 2 of Wise About Golf, host Ken Wise traces the roots of the game from the windswept links of Scotland to the fairways of the Lone Star State. Along the way: a 1457 royal ban on golf for distracting Scottish archers, a 1659 New Amsterdam ordinance outlawing “kolven” in the streets of Fort Orange, and a 1743 shipment of golf clubs and balls that landed in colonial Charleston. From there the story jumps to New York’s “Apple Tree Gang” and the founding of St. Andrew’s Golf Club in 1888 — and then to Texas, where an English clergyman and champion dog breeder named John Cumming Macdona wrote the first known account of golf in the state, describing a round played on the parade ground that would later become Fort Sam Houston. It’s a whirlwind history covering royalty, revolutionaries, dog breeds, cow pastures, and the birth of a sport that would come to define Texas country club life for generations.
SHOW NOTES:
The Origins of Golf:
Golf took shape on Scotland’s coastal “links” land as early as the 14th century.
King James banned golf in Scotland in 1457 because it interfered with archery practice.
An ordinance from Fort Orange (later Albany, New York) banned the Dutch game of “kolven” in 1659 — possibly the first reference to a golf-like game in what became the United States.
Golf Arrives in Colonial America:
In 1743, the ship Magdalene arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, carrying 96 golf clubs and 432 golf balls shipped from Leith, Scotland.
A document later uncovered by Dr. David Dobson of the University of St. Andrews shows clubs were shipped to Charleston merchant William Wallace as early as 1739, aboard the ship Carolina.
References to golf clubs appear in Charleston through the 1780s–1790s, along with a mention of the Savannah Golf Club in Georgia in 1795.
Golf Takes Hold in New York:
Scotsman John Reid and friend Robert Lockhart brought golf clubs back from Scotland; Lockhart reportedly test-hit balls on the frozen Hudson River.
In February 1888, Reid and friends laid out three holes near Reid’s house — the group became known as the “Apple Tree Gang.”
In November 1888, the group formally organized as St. Andrew’s Golf Club, considered the first American golf club to endure to the present day (now located in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York).
Golf’s First Documented Appearance in Texas (1887):
John Cumming Macdona, an English clergyman, lawyer, and the man credited with developing the modern Saint Bernard dog breed, wrote about playing “the Scotch game of golf” in the San Antonio Daily Express on February 20, 1887.
Macdona described playing on the parade ground at the Government Post — the site later named Fort Sam Houston.
The Macdona family had land holdings in Bexar County; the community of Macdona, Texas is named for them.
Macdona later returned to England, became a lawyer, and served in Parliament.
The USGA and the Golf Boom (1894–1896):
In 1894, five clubs — St. Andrew’s, Newport Country Club, The Country Club (Brookline, MA), Shinnecock Hills, and Chicago Golf Club — formed the United States Golf Association.
In 1895, the USGA held the first U.S. Amateur, U.S. Open, and U.S. Women’s Amateur championships.
Golf Spreads Across Texas (1896–1904):
1896: Henry Lee Edwards, Richard Potter, and Courtenay Wellesley set up an informal course near Lemon Avenue and Oak Lawn Avenue in Dallas — the activity that would eventually grow into the Dallas Country Club (chartered 1900 as the Dallas Golf and Country Club). Edwards later founded the Texas Golf Association; the Texas State Amateur trophy bears his name.
1898: Galveston chartered Texas’s first country club with about 30 members. Famed Scottish professional Mungo Park laid out the original nine holes.
1899: The Austin Golf Club was chartered, founded by future Austin mayor Lewis Hancock.
1904: A competition took place between Galveston and the Houston Country Club (which cites 1908 as its official charter date); the club that would become San Antonio Country Club also organized in 1904.
Golf Goes Public:
1913: British golfers Harry Vardon and Ted Ray toured the U.S. (the same tour featured in the film The Greatest Game Ever Played) and played exhibitions in Texas that winter.
1916: Brackenridge Park Golf Course in San Antonio opened as Texas’s first 18-hole municipal golf course, on land donated by George Brackenridge; designed in part by famed architect A.W. Tillinghast.
1922: Brackenridge Park hosted the first professional golf tournament in Texas, the Texas Open — known today as the Valero Texas Open — with a purse nearly three times that of the U.S. Open at the time.
The 19th Hole — Where to Find These Places Today:
Dallas (1896 site): Near Lemon Avenue and Oak Lawn Avenue, just south of the present-day Dallas Country Club (today the corner is home to a Verizon store and an office building).
Brackenridge Park Golf Course, San Antonio: Still open, with a notable 1920s clubhouse.
Houston: The early Houston Country Club course survives as Gus Wortham Golf Course, a municipal course on Houston’s southeast side.
Galveston Country Club: Now located on the far west side of Galveston Island (its early courses will be covered in the upcoming Galveston Country Club episode).
Austin: The original Hancock Golf Course site is still a municipal course at 811 East 41st Street.
People Featured:
John Cumming Macdona — clergyman, lawyer, Saint Bernard breeder, and author of the first known Texas golf article (1887).
John Reid & Robert Lockhart — founders of the “Apple Tree Gang” and St. Andrew’s Golf Club in New York.
Henry Lee Edwards, Richard Potter, Courtenay Wellesley — early Dallas golfers and founders of the Texas Land and Mortgage Company of London Limited.
Mungo Park — Scottish golf professional who laid out Galveston’s first course (his own episode is Cumming soon).
Lewis Hancock — founder of the Austin Golf Club and future Austin mayor.
George Brackenridge — donor of the land that became Brackenridge Park.
Harry Vardon & Ted Ray — British golf stars who toured Texas in the winter of 1913.
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