Golf and Scotland have gone together for centuries. James II had to ban it in 1457 because it was distracting from military training. The ban was finally lifted in 1502 by James IV who is also the first recorded purchaser of a set of golf clubs. The shape of the game was standardised in 19t h century Scotland into an 18 hole game, each hole being the standard four and a quarter inch diameter as set by Musselburgh (that claims to be the oldest golf course in the world).
The rules of the game were laid down by the Royal and Ancient of St Andrews. In that same 19t h century, golf course design emerged as an art form, the foremost designers being Scots. The daddy of them all was undoubtedly Old Tom Morris who introduced a new challenge in his courses – the dog leg. Old Tom was the son of a weaver in St Andrews: he rose from caddy to champion golfer. He organised the first Open in 1860 and was the first to tee off. He came second that year but won over the next 2 years.
Golf was mainly for adult men in the 19t h century, there seemed to be few opportunities for youth golf, but Aberdeen was an exception – there was a long established youth medal system in operation from the 1820s that produced a string of very promising golfers. One of the leading juniors in the 1880s was Tom Bendelow.
Tom Bendelow was born on 2 September 1868, one of the nine children of John and Mary Edwards Bendelow who ran a very famous pie shop at 42 Causewayend in Aberdeen. Bendelow’s pies were famous; they were reputed to be the best in the north-east. They sold particularly well as a pay day treat or a weekend special or for family celebrations. There were even poems written about Bendelow’s pies. People came from all over the city to taste the gastronomic delights of that shop. It went on for generations. Jane Bendelow married into the Jessamine family and the shop continued under the name of Jessamine’s Bakery until the 1960s. The Bendelows and Jessamines were Brethren and were strict in their religious observance. Sunday was centred on the St Paul Street Gospel Hall. The Jessamines lived in Elmbank Terrace and on Sunday evenings a crowd would gather outside their home to hear the family as they sang their hymns around the pedal organ. The Jessamines also produced a popular dentist who practiced in Belmont Road.
Tom learned the game of golf, playing with his father at the Town Links, a course that straddled the Kings Links and Queen’s Links and incorporated part of the Broad Hill. His club was Royal Aberdeen and they played on the Links until they had a course of their own at Balgownie, just north of the Don, in 1887.By now, Tom was 19 years old.
Tom had been playing regularly from the age of nine and was highly proficient. He was never a champion but he was always in contention. He competed in most of the main courses in Scotland and England. He kept playing even in his apprenticeship years. From the age of 14, he served a seven year apprenticeship as a typesetter with Aberdeen Free Press. Fitting in golf could not have been easy because his religion forbade him playing on a Sunday. He also fitted in athletics, he was a sprinter who covered the emerging Games circuit and even competed at Powderhall. There was money to be made from running. There were also perks attached to golf, it gave him a taste of the world beyond Aberdeen.
From around 1890, he courted Mary Ann Nicol, the daughter of a prosperous local farmer. The Balgownie course had acted as a matchmaker. They seemed to have done most of their courting around the Brig o’ Balgownie. They married at Belhelvie in February 1892. Father-in-law was not happy that his daughter was married to the son of a mere shopkeeper. To escape the constant interference, Tom emigrated to the States in September 1892 leaving behind his pregnant wife. He moved to that great melting-pot of a city, New York, and took up a post in the New York Herald. His daughter was born in December 1892 and both wife and baby joined Tom in New York in 1893.
His first big break came when he was typesetting a letter to the Herald seeking golf coaching. Family tradition suggests that that letter was never printed. Tom answered it and met the rich Pratt family. They were the co-founders with John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil of New Jersey. He sold the game to them so enthusiastically that they got him do lay out six holes for them in their Long Island estate (it became the nucleus of the future prestigious Nassau Country Club). That successful foray into design got him a commission to develop the 9 hole municipal Bronx course into a classic 18-holer. It was the first full municipal course in America and became the envy of rival towns and cities. They all wanted one.
The Pratts introduced him to A. G. Spalding, the sporting goods manufacturer. Spalding saw the business potential in golf. If the courses could be created then there would be a huge market for golf clubs, golf balls and all the other paraphernalia associated with the sport. Spalding hired Tom to promote the game in New York and New Jersey. Tom acted as salesman, teacher and designer. He gave lessons on the use of the clubs, he ran the first indoor golf school in the Carnegie Hall complex, he was the first to train caddies, and he was eventually to be the first to lecture on golf course design. He did promotional tours. His most famous one was coast-to-coast across the States with Harry Vardon. Harry, from Jersey in the Channel Islands was an early superstar of golf. He used to advise,
“Don’t play too much golf: two rounds a day are plenty”.
His 1900 tour involved 80 exhibition and challenge matches: Vardon won over 70 of them against the best in each locality. He managed to fit in time to win the US Open as part of that tour, and Tom was his caddy. Vardon had already won three British Opens and would go on to win a further three. That 1900 tour gave a huge impetus to the game in the States.
He moved into the townships and popularised the game. His energy and enthusiasm were infectious. If a township wanted a course, then he designed a starter course for them. He believed in affordable golf, he believed in families playing together. The municipalities did not have a lot to invest, so he had to keep costs low. He never argued over price. They got what they could afford. His courses followed the natural contours of the land, they maximised the use of the natural hazards, and he was not one for creating artificial hazards. His courses had to be “sporty” i.e. challenging enough for the seasoned player but not so difficult that the learner would be forced to give up. The greens were small, to cut costs. He preferred virgin ground that had not been farmed and fertilised: fertile soil creates fast growing grass and luxuriant rough and makes maintenance expensive.
His courses were natural as opposed to artificial. The only earth-moving equipment available to him in the early days was a navvy with a shovel. If you follow the natural contours of the land, as we did in links golf in Scotland, then you create a course that is interesting and challenging. A round of golf ought to be both a test and a pleasure. As he said himself, a course should be
“a satisfying picture to the eye, as well as a fair test of skill”.
The great Bobby Jones, who learned the game at the Bendelow course at East Lake, Atlanta, marvelled at the fact that Bendelow made you use every iron and wood in the bag. Why have a tool kit with tools that are never used? Bobby Jones had battled health issues as a child and was prescribed golf to give him strength. He won his first tournament at 6. He remained an amateur throughout his life: in 1930 he took the then “Grand Slam” by winning both the Open and Amateur titles in Britain and the USA.
In 1901 Spalding promoted Tom to Director of Golf Course Design, based in Chicago. He relished the challenge. Tom obviously worked quickly. At his peak, he could plan out a course in a week. We know that in 1922 when he designed the Urbana Golf and County Club, he arrived at noon on Tuesday, went over the area, drew up plans, staked out the tees and greens and completed the job by noon on Friday, ready to drive home for the weekend. It was enough to get golf started in the area. His early courses had to be cheap to build ad cheap to maintain... He had to maximise play, minimise costs and maintain interest. His municipal courses were essentially a walk in the park. Most of his courses were later redeveloped as fashions changed and money became available but this does not diminish his missionary work for the game.
He stayed 16 years in the Spalding post; it was a prolific period in the development of the game. In 1917 he moved to the rival firm of Thomas Wilson Sports. He earned more money and they gave him his own line of clubs. In 1920 he was head-hunted by the American Park Building Company of Chicago. As the Depression loomed and money became even tighter, he was taking any available commission to keep the company going: he designed many parks and even the occasional cemetery.
Yet golf course design was his real legacy. He is credited with designing over 700 courses; he also contributed to the design of around 300 others... He certainly created the initial golf landscape in the New World from the States to Canada. Each course was unique and well crafted. He always told his students at the University of Illinois that designers must think both technically and creatively. He followed in a Scottish tradition that is maintained today by Colin Montgomery and Sam Torrance.
Tom remained faithful to his Brethren upbringing. He never played on a Sunday, he never drank alcohol, and he never told the kind of dirty jokes so popular in the club houses. He returned every weekend to his beloved Illinois where he often preached to the local Brethren community. He was a committed and talented preacher. His only known sin was his love for a good cigar. Most photos of him show him relaxing with a good smoke. He died at home in River Forest in Illinois on 24 March 1936, he was 67.
He has sometimes been nicknamed the “Johnny Appleseed of Golf”. Johnny Appleseed was the pioneering nurseryman who spread the love of apples across the States. He was a simple soul and very strict in his religious beliefs. So there is a similarity between the two as fervent missionaries of family values and moral rectitude: both had a hands on approach to the task ahead. Tom would not, however, have been a follower of Johnny Appleseed, because Johnny was planting cider apples destined to produce the Demon Drink, the Devil’s Brew.
Fittingly, Tom’s grandsons followed in his footsteps. He used to take them fishing at South Haven where he had a holiday home. Jack was a professional golfer and golf teacher at Montague in Michigan. Stuart graduated in Geography and Earth Sciences and became a senior planner. Stuart has written a biography of his grand-dad and has done much to resurrect his memory.
The 2012 Ryder Cup will be played at Medinah 3 at Illinois. Tom designed all three courses. Medinah 3 has been much changed over the years, the last revamp was in 2000, but Tom saw the potential and laid out the basic course. It is a great testament to his ability...
Ironically, an Aberdonian, Tom Bendelow, did much to take the game of golf to America. Now an American, Donald Trump is re-exporting back to us. It would be fitting if in the process we could remember the achievements of Tom, the son of the pie man, who became the most prolific golf course designer the world has ever known. He certainly deserves a mention in the north-east’s Hall of Fame.
Golf was mainly for adult men in the 19t h century, there seemed to be few opportunities for youth golf, but Aberdeen was an exception – there was a long established youth medal system in operation from the 1820s that produced a string of very promising golfers. One of the leading juniors in the 1880s was Tom Bendelow.
Tom Bendelow was born on 2 September 1868, one of the nine children of John and Mary Edwards Bendelow who ran a very famous pie shop at 42 Causewayend in Aberdeen. Bendelow’s pies were famous; they were reputed to be the best in the north-east. They sold particularly well as a pay day treat or a weekend special or for family celebrations. There were even poems written about Bendelow’s pies. People came from all over the city to taste the gastronomic delights of that shop. It went on for generations. Jane Bendelow married into the Jessamine family and the shop continued under the name of Jessamine’s Bakery until the 1960s. The Bendelows and Jessamines were Brethren and were strict in their religious observance. Sunday was centred on the St Paul Street Gospel Hall. The Jessamines lived in Elmbank Terrace and on Sunday evenings a crowd would gather outside their home to hear the family as they sang their hymns around the pedal organ. The Jessamines also produced a popular dentist who practiced in Belmont Road.
Tom learned the game of golf, playing with his father at the Town Links, a course that straddled the Kings Links and Queen’s Links and incorporated part of the Broad Hill. His club was Royal Aberdeen and they played on the Links until they had a course of their own at Balgownie, just north of the Don, in 1887.By now, Tom was 19 years old.
Tom had been playing regularly from the age of nine and was highly proficient. He was never a champion but he was always in contention. He competed in most of the main courses in Scotland and England. He kept playing even in his apprenticeship years. From the age of 14, he served a seven year apprenticeship as a typesetter with Aberdeen Free Press. Fitting in golf could not have been easy because his religion forbade him playing on a Sunday. He also fitted in athletics, he was a sprinter who covered the emerging Games circuit and even competed at Powderhall. There was money to be made from running. There were also perks attached to golf, it gave him a taste of the world beyond Aberdeen.
From around 1890, he courted Mary Ann Nicol, the daughter of a prosperous local farmer. The Balgownie course had acted as a matchmaker. They seemed to have done most of their courting around the Brig o’ Balgownie. They married at Belhelvie in February 1892. Father-in-law was not happy that his daughter was married to the son of a mere shopkeeper. To escape the constant interference, Tom emigrated to the States in September 1892 leaving behind his pregnant wife. He moved to that great melting-pot of a city, New York, and took up a post in the New York Herald. His daughter was born in December 1892 and both wife and baby joined Tom in New York in 1893.
His first big break came when he was typesetting a letter to the Herald seeking golf coaching. Family tradition suggests that that letter was never printed. Tom answered it and met the rich Pratt family. They were the co-founders with John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil of New Jersey. He sold the game to them so enthusiastically that they got him do lay out six holes for them in their Long Island estate (it became the nucleus of the future prestigious Nassau Country Club). That successful foray into design got him a commission to develop the 9 hole municipal Bronx course into a classic 18-holer. It was the first full municipal course in America and became the envy of rival towns and cities. They all wanted one.
The Pratts introduced him to A. G. Spalding, the sporting goods manufacturer. Spalding saw the business potential in golf. If the courses could be created then there would be a huge market for golf clubs, golf balls and all the other paraphernalia associated with the sport. Spalding hired Tom to promote the game in New York and New Jersey. Tom acted as salesman, teacher and designer. He gave lessons on the use of the clubs, he ran the first indoor golf school in the Carnegie Hall complex, he was the first to train caddies, and he was eventually to be the first to lecture on golf course design. He did promotional tours. His most famous one was coast-to-coast across the States with Harry Vardon. Harry, from Jersey in the Channel Islands was an early superstar of golf. He used to advise,
“Don’t play too much golf: two rounds a day are plenty”.
His 1900 tour involved 80 exhibition and challenge matches: Vardon won over 70 of them against the best in each locality. He managed to fit in time to win the US Open as part of that tour, and Tom was his caddy. Vardon had already won three British Opens and would go on to win a further three. That 1900 tour gave a huge impetus to the game in the States.
He moved into the townships and popularised the game. His energy and enthusiasm were infectious. If a township wanted a course, then he designed a starter course for them. He believed in affordable golf, he believed in families playing together. The municipalities did not have a lot to invest, so he had to keep costs low. He never argued over price. They got what they could afford. His courses followed the natural contours of the land, they maximised the use of the natural hazards, and he was not one for creating artificial hazards. His courses had to be “sporty” i.e. challenging enough for the seasoned player but not so difficult that the learner would be forced to give up. The greens were small, to cut costs. He preferred virgin ground that had not been farmed and fertilised: fertile soil creates fast growing grass and luxuriant rough and makes maintenance expensive.
His courses were natural as opposed to artificial. The only earth-moving equipment available to him in the early days was a navvy with a shovel. If you follow the natural contours of the land, as we did in links golf in Scotland, then you create a course that is interesting and challenging. A round of golf ought to be both a test and a pleasure. As he said himself, a course should be
“a satisfying picture to the eye, as well as a fair test of skill”.
The great Bobby Jones, who learned the game at the Bendelow course at East Lake, Atlanta, marvelled at the fact that Bendelow made you use every iron and wood in the bag. Why have a tool kit with tools that are never used? Bobby Jones had battled health issues as a child and was prescribed golf to give him strength. He won his first tournament at 6. He remained an amateur throughout his life: in 1930 he took the then “Grand Slam” by winning both the Open and Amateur titles in Britain and the USA.
In 1901 Spalding promoted Tom to Director of Golf Course Design, based in Chicago. He relished the challenge. Tom obviously worked quickly. At his peak, he could plan out a course in a week. We know that in 1922 when he designed the Urbana Golf and County Club, he arrived at noon on Tuesday, went over the area, drew up plans, staked out the tees and greens and completed the job by noon on Friday, ready to drive home for the weekend. It was enough to get golf started in the area. His early courses had to be cheap to build ad cheap to maintain... He had to maximise play, minimise costs and maintain interest. His municipal courses were essentially a walk in the park. Most of his courses were later redeveloped as fashions changed and money became available but this does not diminish his missionary work for the game.
He stayed 16 years in the Spalding post; it was a prolific period in the development of the game. In 1917 he moved to the rival firm of Thomas Wilson Sports. He earned more money and they gave him his own line of clubs. In 1920 he was head-hunted by the American Park Building Company of Chicago. As the Depression loomed and money became even tighter, he was taking any available commission to keep the company going: he designed many parks and even the occasional cemetery.
Yet golf course design was his real legacy. He is credited with designing over 700 courses; he also contributed to the design of around 300 others... He certainly created the initial golf landscape in the New World from the States to Canada. Each course was unique and well crafted. He always told his students at the University of Illinois that designers must think both technically and creatively. He followed in a Scottish tradition that is maintained today by Colin Montgomery and Sam Torrance.
Tom remained faithful to his Brethren upbringing. He never played on a Sunday, he never drank alcohol, and he never told the kind of dirty jokes so popular in the club houses. He returned every weekend to his beloved Illinois where he often preached to the local Brethren community. He was a committed and talented preacher. His only known sin was his love for a good cigar. Most photos of him show him relaxing with a good smoke. He died at home in River Forest in Illinois on 24 March 1936, he was 67.
He has sometimes been nicknamed the “Johnny Appleseed of Golf”. Johnny Appleseed was the pioneering nurseryman who spread the love of apples across the States. He was a simple soul and very strict in his religious beliefs. So there is a similarity between the two as fervent missionaries of family values and moral rectitude: both had a hands on approach to the task ahead. Tom would not, however, have been a follower of Johnny Appleseed, because Johnny was planting cider apples destined to produce the Demon Drink, the Devil’s Brew.
Fittingly, Tom’s grandsons followed in his footsteps. He used to take them fishing at South Haven where he had a holiday home. Jack was a professional golfer and golf teacher at Montague in Michigan. Stuart graduated in Geography and Earth Sciences and became a senior planner. Stuart has written a biography of his grand-dad and has done much to resurrect his memory.
The 2012 Ryder Cup will be played at Medinah 3 at Illinois. Tom designed all three courses. Medinah 3 has been much changed over the years, the last revamp was in 2000, but Tom saw the potential and laid out the basic course. It is a great testament to his ability...
Ironically, an Aberdonian, Tom Bendelow, did much to take the game of golf to America. Now an American, Donald Trump is re-exporting back to us. It would be fitting if in the process we could remember the achievements of Tom, the son of the pie man, who became the most prolific golf course designer the world has ever known. He certainly deserves a mention in the north-east’s Hall of Fame.