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Blame it on Carl Kauffmann.
Go ahead. Point the finger at the Schenley Sphinx, as he was called in his day.
Lay the separation between public-course golf and country-club golf squarely on his shoulders.
After all, if he hadn't won three consecutive U.S. Amateur Public Links championships, beginning in 1927, maybe more public-course players would have been welcome to compete in events geared solely for private-club players.
But it wasn't just that. When Kaufmann, who lived in Carrick and played at Schenley Park Golf Course, won the 1925 West Penn Amateur, the WPGA executive committee decided to ban public-course players from its events. The decision, seemingly harmless at the time, further exacerbated the chasm that has always existed between public and private golf. However, it did underscore one of the grand moments in golf history in Western Pennsylvania, a feat every bit as a significant as a young Latrobe amateur named Arnold Palmer winning four consecutive West Penn Amateur titles from 1949-52.
Kaufmann's legacy pulsates to this day at Schenley Park, the oldest public course in Western Pennsylvania.
"He was known as the Schenley Sphinx because he never changed facial expression," said Bruce Stephen, executive director at Schenley Park. "That was why we made the sphinx our logo."
Know how many other players in history have ever won three consecutive USGA championships?
Two.
The other one is Tiger Woods.
The wrong course
Before he won the 1953 U.S. Open at Oakmont, Ben Hogan had to qualify for the national championship at the Pittsburgh Field Club, a course that was originally founded in 1882 and has been listed by the USGA as one of the first 100 clubs established in the United States.
Back then, 300 golfers, including the defending champion, came to Pittsburgh for the final two qualifying rounds, alternating between Oakmont and the Field Club. Hogan shot 77 at Oakmont, 73 at the Field Club to gain one of the qualifying spots.
But, after winning his fourth U.S. Open title, shooting 5-under 283 and beating Sam Snead by six shots at Oakmont, Hogan seemed more impressed with the Field Club.
"They played the Open at the wrong golf course," Hogan said.
A competitive history
The history of golf in Western Pennsylvania appears to date to 1887, when a nine-hole golf course was built in the tiny borough of Foxburg, near Clarion, approximately 55 miles from Pittsburgh. The course -- Foxburg Country Club, a private facility -- was built by millionaire Joseph Mickle Fox, who discovered the game of golf during a trip to Scotland three years earlier.
From there, history evolved, legends developed and thrilled, tradition became etched in places where sand bunkers carried monickers such as Church Pews and Bigmouth and moments such as Jack Nicklaus' rousing victory in Arnold Palmer's back yard and Johnny Miller's final-round 63 have become emblazoned in golf lore.
The history began at Foxburg, a nine-hole club that still exists, making it the oldest continuous course in use in the United States. It is also home to the American Golf Hall of Fame. But that is merely the beginning, the first step on what has become a glorious journey through Western Pennsylvania, producing heroes as big as Palmer, the handsome, square-shoulder kid from Latrobe who singularly popularized the game in the 1960s, and upstarts such as Sam Parks, the South Hills Country Club pro who shocked the golf world by winning the 1935 U.S. Open at Oakmont.
"Palmer's the reason I started playing golf," said former four-time city champion Jack Moore, a renowned amateur in the 1970s.
There have been amateur sensations such as Sewickley's Carol Semple Thompson, one of only 11 female players to win the U.S. Amateur and British Amateur titles and the all-time winningest player in the history of the Curtis Cup matches; Sean Knapp of Oakmont, who won a record six consecutive West Penn Amateur championships, beginning in 1998, a feat not even Palmer could match; Frank Fuhrer III of Fox Chapel, a former member of the Walker Cup who played briefly on the PGA Tour; and S. Davidson Herron, an Oakmont amateur who won the 1919 U.S. Amateur championship at his home club, the first national championship staged at Oakmont.
There have been professionals such as Bobby Cruickshank, the wee Scot, who was head professional at Chartiers Country Club from 1948-67 after a career in which he lost a playoff to Bobby Jones in the 1923 U.S. Open and was the leading money winner on the PGA Tour in 1937; Lew Worsham, who won the 1947 U.S. Open while he was the head professional at Oakmont; Jim Simons of Butler, a three-time winner on the PGA Tour who nearly won the 1971 U.S. Open as an amateur; and Greensburg native Rocco Mediate, one of only 36 active players on the PGA Tour to win five or more tournaments in his career.
Western Pennsylvania can even claim Gene Sarazen, one of only five head professionals to work at Highland Country Club since it opened in 1920. Sarazen was the pro at Highland when he beat Bobby Jones and won the U.S. Open at Skokie Country Club in Glencoe, Ill., in 1922. But he never returned to the club after winning the championship.
"You had so many great players here who were club professionals back then -- Lionel and Jay Hebert were at Oakmont, Ken Luther was at South Hills, Johnny Bulla was at Westmoreland before Ed Furgol," said Jeff Rivard, executive director of the West Penn Golf Association, which was formed in 1898. "That might be one of the best times in Western Pennsylvania history. There has always been a lot of talent around here and I think they pushed each other. For seasonal competition, for half the state, we've always been very competitive."
Tradition starter
While Palmer established an era -- if not a legacy -- in Western Pennsylvania, it was Oakmont Country Club that established tradition. Built in 1908 by Pittsburgh industrialist Henry C. Fownes, Oakmont quickly garnered a reputation as one of the toughest courses in the world and brought slice after slice of some of golf's grandest history to the region.
When the 2007 U.S. Open is staged there in June, Oakmont will have been the host of more U.S. Open championships than any other course in the country (8). It also has staged the U.S. Amateur (5), the PGA Championship (3) and the U.S. Women's Open (1), 17 major tournaments in all.
Along the way, the course has produced champions befitting the club's grand stature, players such as Bobby Jones and Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead and Tommy Armour, Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus. It has been the site for perhaps the greatest round ever played -- Miller's final-round 63 to win the 1973 U.S. Open -- and one of the most memorable, if not sweet sorrowful, showdowns: Nicklaus beating the hometown favorite Palmer to win the 1962 U.S. Open.
"The springboard of it all was Henry Fownes and his son, Bill," said Oakmont member and golf patriarch Frank B. Fuhrer, 81. "He built Oakmont and put it together. His son played on the Walker Cup. That's how Oakmont got started hosting national Opens. That's what got golf going in Western Pennsylvania."
But Western Pennsylvania is not just about Oakmont.
The Field Club has enjoyed a long history, opening in 1912 and playing host to the 1937 PGA Championship. So has Fox Chapel Golf Club, a Seth Raynor-design that opened in 1923 and has staged many national tournaments, most recently the 2002 Curtis Cup matches. Sunnehanna Country Club in Johnstown still stages one of the oldest and most prestigious amateur tournaments in the country -- the Sunnehanna Amateur -- boasting such past participants as Tiger Woods, Fred Couples, Davis Love III, David Duval, Ben Crenshaw and Curtis Strange.
Even courses such as Edgewood Country Club, which opened in 1898, has historic charm: It was designed by Donald Ross, the great Scottish course architect known for his maddening crowned greens. Ross also redesigned Allegheny Country Club in Sewickley in 1923, nearly 21 years after it opened.
And don't forget the impassioned love and commitment exhibited by Fuhrer, who brought PGA Tour players to Western Pennsylvania for 15 years to play in his Family House Invitational, at the time the most lucrative two-day exhibition on the PGA Tour. Or 84 Lumber founder Joe Hardy, who did something no one was ever able to do -- bring a regular PGA Tour stop to Western Pennsylvania, even if it was for only four years. In between, Bob Murphy brought professional golf to his public course, Quicksilver, staging Hogan Tour (now Nationwide Tour) and Senior PGA Tour events from 1990-97.
"Harton Semple was a big reason, too," said Fuhrer, referring to the former president of the United States Golf Association who lived in Sewickley. "He and his daughter [Carol] did a lot for golf in Western Pennsylvania."
A history of characters
The history of public golf in Western Pennsylvania does not tantalize with famous players and historic circumstances, not like the private sector. Nonetheless, the fabric that has spawned one of the biggest and most populated golf regions in the country is laced with intriguing origins and erudite characters.
At the forefront, perhaps, is Kauffmann, a German immigrant who etched his name in the USGA record book with his dominating performance as a public-course amateur.
After losing in the final of the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship in 1926, Kauffman went on to win the next three APL championships. In its history, only two other players have won three consecutive USGA events -- Willie Anderson, who won the U.S. Open in 1903-05; and Tiger Woods, who won three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles, beginning in 1994.
Kaufmann, though, isn't the only public-course amateur to create a stir.
Moore, a Green Tree native who qualified for five U.S. Public Links championships, won the Tri-State Open championship in 1971 at Montour Heights Country Club, one of only two amateurs to win the title in the 47-year history of the event (Ralph Litrenta of New Castle in 1994 was the other). Moore was a frequent playing partner of the late professional Chuck Scally Sr. and also played in two U.S. Senior Open championships, despite not starting to play golf until 1960.
"The difference between public-course golf and private-course golf is you're running into greens that are 7, 8, 9 [on the Stimpmeter] at public courses and are much faster on private courses," Moore said. "And they were bunkered more. When you miss the green at a public course, you could get up and down from anywhere."
Public courses did not sprout in Western Pennsylvania -- or across the country, for that matter -- as early as private facilities. Nonetheless, courses such as Butler's, which opened in 1928; Ohioview (1929) and Murrysville (1930) came into existence after Schenley Park.
"Golf wasn't too big then," said Pete Geiger, 86, son-in-law of Scottish-born James Noble, the man who founded and built Murrysville Golf Club. "Most of the people who played golf then were country-club players. Public courses were few and far between."
Now, Western Pennsylvania is one of the most populated public-course regions in the country, boasting more than 120 daily-fee facilities.
"You had that huge influx between the 1970s and 1990s as the popularity of the sport started to grow," said Susan Tanto, former president of the Keystone Golf Association.
So did Western Pennsylvania's history.
Post-Gazette photoFrom left, Howard Panton, Allen Panton, Harry Harvey and Marcellin Adams gather at the Foxburg country club in 1955 for the unveiling of the plaque which proclaimed it the oldest golf course in continuous use in the United States
Click photo for larger image.
Arnold Palmer won four consecutive West Penn Amateur titles from 1949-1952.Click photo for larger image.
Post-Gazette photoSchenley Park is the oldest existing public golf course in Western Pennsylvania.
Click photo for larger image.
Johnny Miller takes a par on No. 18 to win the U.S. Open and also set a new course record for Oakmont Country Club with a final score of 63. The Pittsburgh Field Club has been listed by the USGA as one of the first 100 clubs established in the United States.Click photo for larger image.
Galleries follow Ben Hogan
First Published: April 8, 2007, 4:00 a.m.
