This article is written like a personal reflection, personal essay, or argumentative essay that states a Wikipedia editor's personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic.(February 2011) |
Formation | 1897 |
---|---|
Purpose | Preserve, Protect, and Promote the Game of Golf |
Headquarters | 1974 Sproul Road Broomall, PA 19008 United States |
Region served | Delaware Valley |
Official language | English |
Parent organization | United States Golf Association |
Website | GAP Website |
The Golf Association of Philadelphia is the oldest regional Golf Association in the United States. Better known as the GAP, the Golf Association of Philadelphia was founded in 1897 by members of Aronimink Golf Club, Merion Cricket Club, Philadelphia Country Club and Philadelphia Cricket Club. Its 150 member clubs are spread across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. The purpose of the association is simple: to preserve, protect and promote the game of golf.
On December 22, 1894, delegates from five clubs – St. Andrews Golf Club, Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, Newport Golf Club, The Country Club (Brookline, Massachusetts), and Chicago Golf Club – met at the Calumet Club in Manhattan to form the Amateur Golf Association of the United States (subsequently to change its name, first to The American Golf Association, then to the United States Golf Association). Less than a month afterwards the Essex Country Club and the Philadelphia Country Club were elected to membership, the sixth and seventh on the roll. [1]
A little more than two years later, the Golf Association of Philadelphia was founded. It was America's first regional golf association. Once again the Devon Golf Club served as a spur. For it was on this organization's course that the first interclub team match in the Philadelphia area was played. On Oct. 15, 1896 a team representing Philadelphia Cricket Club squared off against Devon's top players. The Cricket Club won 22 to 12. The occasion was so thoroughly enjoyable (even the losers had a grand time!) that the appeal of interclub matches on a broader scale was discussed and embraced. The obvious outgrowth of such thinking was the formation of an association of local golf clubs to organize and administer these competitions.
On Feb. 5, 1897, seven men gathered at the Market Street National Bank for the express purpose of founding the Golf Association of Philadelphia. Representing the Belmont Golf Association (soon to be reorganized into the Aronimink Golf Club) were Milton C. Work and Dr. Henry Toulmin. From Merion Cricket Club came Rodman E. Griscom and Walter E. Stephenson. Philadelphia Country Club's delegates were George D. Fowle and Isaac T. Starr. Samuel Y. Heebner alone represented Philadelphia Cricket Club, Alan H. Harris being unavoidably absent.
The objective of the fledgling association was simplicity itself: to promote interest in the game of golf and to regulate all competitions between member clubs. In order to join the Association, a club had to be formally organized, have at least nine holes of golf for its exclusive use, and belong to the United States Golf Association. At the outset four clubs - the four founding clubs - were named Associate Members of the Golf Association of Philadelphia. Most clubs which would follow were accepted into the association as Allied Members. The difference was significant: Associate Member clubs had the right to be represented at the annual meeting by two delegates, each with one vote. Allied Members, on the other hand, could send only one delegate to the meeting and he has no vote. Moreover, the Association's three officers - president, vice-president, and secretary-treasurer - could be elected from the rosters of Associate Member clubs. The same was true of the other two members of the executive committee.
The annual dues were $25 for Associate Member clubs, $10 for Allied Members, the bargain rate doubtless a reflection of the latter category's powerless position in the scheme of things. With the passing of the years, this distinction between the two classes of membership would blur and finally, with a revision of the by-laws, be eliminated.
At an organizational meeting two months later, on April 5, 1897, George D. Fowle, Philadelphia Country Club, was elected the first president of the Golf Association of Philadelphia. Dr. Henry Toulmin, Belmont, was elected vice president, and Alan Harris, of the Cricket Club, secretary-treasurer. Named to join these three on the then five-man Executive Committee (it would become a seven-member body in 1901) were Samuel Heebner, of the Cricket Club, and Louis A. Biddle, of the Country Club and Merion.
Once the officers and executive committee were in place, little time was lost in launching the first interclub team matches. That year the Association's four founding clubs each fielded two teams, six players per team, for a total of 48 players in the "league." Matches were played in both spring and fall. When the final tally for the year was in, Merion's 1st team and the Cricket Club's 2nd team were the winners. The only other competition in the Golf Association's first season was what was then called the Individual Championship Tournament, today known as the Philadelphia Amateur Championship. [2]
The GAP Team Matches, originally known as the Interclub Matches, served as the basis for the founding of the Association in 1897. Teams compete in a four-team sectional round-robin format (which equates to three matches in three weeks). A total of 12 players per team compete with six players staying home and six traveling to the opponent's club. Clubs are divided and placed in Divisions AA through F based on the previous year's results. Playoff and Challenges determined the top divisions’ clubs. It is believed that the GAP Team Matches are the single-largest golfing team competition in the country.
The Golf Association of Philadelphia conducts over 60 tournaments annually from April to October. The schedule features events available for players of all ages (Junior, Amateur and Senior) and skill level (championship and handicap). It also includes the Association's four Majors: the Middle-Amateur Championship, Amateur Championship, Open Championship and Joseph H. Patterson Cup. At the season's conclusion, GAP awards “Player of the Year” honors on four levels: Amateur, Junior, Senior and Super-Senior. It also acknowledges a Junior Sportsman of the Year, Volunteer of the Year and Distinguished Service Award recipient.
Haverford Township is a home rule municipality township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Haverford is named after the town of Haverfordwest in Wales, United Kingdom. It is a commuting suburb located due west of Philadelphia and is officially known as the Township of Haverford. Despite being under a home rule charter since 1977, it continues to operate under a Board of Commissioners divided into wards, as do "First Class" townships that are still under the Pennsylvania Township Code. Haverford Township was founded in 1682 and incorporated in 1911.
The Professional Golfers' Association of America is an American organization of golf professionals that was founded in 1916. Consisting of nearly 29,000 members, the PGA of America's undertaking is to establish and elevate the standards of the profession and to grow interest and participation in the game of golf.
The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews is one of the oldest golf clubs in the world. It is a private members-only club based in St Andrews in Scotland. It was previously known colloquially as "The R&A", but in 2004, a new organisation known as The R&A was spun off, assuming the club's functions as one of the governing authorities of the game and organiser of tournaments such as The Open Championship. Despite this legal separation, one of the club's objectives remains to contribute, through its members, to the governance, championship organisation, and golf development roles now carried out by The R&A.
The Walker Cup is a golf trophy contested in odd-numbered years by leading male amateur golfers in two teams: United States, and Great Britain and Ireland featuring players from the United Kingdom and Ireland. The official name is the Walker Cup Match. It is organised by The R&A and the United States Golf Association (USGA). In 1921 the Royal Liverpool Golf Club hosted an unofficial contest which was followed by official annual contests from 1922 through 1924. From 1925 they became biennial, held on even-number years. After World War II they switched to odd-numbered years. From 2026 it will be held in even-numbered years following the switch of the Eisenhower Trophy to odd-numbered years to avoid that event clashing with the Olympic Games. They are held alternately in the U.S., and Ireland or Britain.
The United States Amateur Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Amateur, is the leading annual golf tournament in the United States for amateur golfers. It is organized by the United States Golf Association and is currently held each August over a 7-day period.
The Royal Canadian Golf Association (RCGA), branded as Golf Canada, is the governing body of golf in Canada.
John J. McDermott Jr. was the first U.S.-born golfer to win the U.S. Open, in 1911 and 1912, and he remains the youngest player to win the event, at age 19, as well as the second youngest to win any of golf's four major tournaments after Young Tom Morris. He was the first player to break par over 72 holes in a significant event, which he did at the 1912 U.S. Open. He was one of the world's top players between 1910 and 1914.
The Philadelphia Cricket Club, founded in 1854, is the oldest country club in the United States. It has two locations: Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, and Flourtown, Pennsylvania.
Aronimink Golf Club is a private country club in the eastern United States, located in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, a suburb west of Philadelphia. Its championship layout is consistently rated among the nation's top golf courses. Aronimink is currently ranked 78th in Golf Digest's "Greatest Courses," 44th in "Toughest Courses" and 55th in Golfweek's "Classic Courses." In 2010, Aronimink was ranked #4 among the toughest courses on the PGA Tour by Links magazine.
Robert Jay Sigel is an American professional golfer. He enjoyed one of the more illustrious careers in the history of U.S. amateur golf, before turning pro in 1993 at age 50, when he became a member of the Senior PGA Tour, now known as the PGA Tour Champions.
Merion Golf Club is a private golf club which is located in Haverford Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, a township bordering Philadelphia to the northwest along the historic Main Line. The club has two courses: the East Course, and the West Course. The East Course has been consistently rated in the top 10, #5 in 2015, by Golf Digest in the annual "America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses", and it has hosted five U.S. Opens, most recently in 2013.
The Country Club, located in Brookline, Massachusetts, is the oldest golf-oriented country club in the United States. It holds an important place in golf history, as it is one of the five charter clubs that founded the United States Golf Association, and has hosted numerous USGA tournaments including the 1913 U.S. Open won by then-unknown Francis Ouimet. Although the club has 1300 members, it is known for its exclusivity.
The Philadelphian cricket team was a team that represented Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in first-class cricket between 1878 and 1913. Even with the United States having played the first ever international cricket match against Canada in 1844, the sport began a slow decline in the U.S. This decline was furthered by the rise in popularity of baseball. In Philadelphia, however, the sport remained very popular and from the end of the 19th century until the outbreak of World War I, the city produced a first class team that rivaled many others in the world. The team was composed of players from the four chief cricket clubs in Philadelphia–Germantown, Merion, Belmont, and Philadelphia. Players from smaller clubs, such as Tioga and Moorestown Cricket Club, and local colleges, such as Haverford and Penn, also played for the Philadelphians. Over its 35 years, the team played in 88 first-class cricket matches. Of those, 29 were won, 45 were lost, 13 were drawn and one game was abandoned before completion.
Lomas Athletic Club is an Argentine sports club from the Lomas de Zamora district of Greater Buenos Aires. One of Argentina's oldest clubs still in existence, Lomas is one of the four institutions that founded the "River Plate Rugby Championship" in 1899, The rugby union team currently plays in Primera A, the second division of the URBA league system.
The history of United States cricket begins in the 18th century. Among early Americans, cricket was as popular a bat and ball game as baseball. Though Americans never played cricket in great numbers, the game grew for some time. Around the time of the United States Civil War, the game began competing with baseball for participants, but then slowly declined in popularity. This was followed again by a brief golden age with the Philadelphian cricket team. This lasted until roughly the start of World War I; at this time, cricket again became less popular. In the latter part of the 20th century immigrants from cricket-playing nations in South Asia and the West Indies helped spark a resurgence in the game's popularity. This led to participation and success in several International Cricket Council events. In 2007, the United States of America Cricket Association was suspended by the ICC because of problems with its administration, but was again recognized beginning in 2008.
Merion Cricket Club is a private club which is located in Haverford, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1865.
The National, originally titled for sponsorship reasons as the AT&T National and later as the Quicken Loans National, was a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour from 2007 to 2018. It was hosted by Tiger Woods and benefited the Tiger Woods Foundation. It was usually held either in late June or during the Fourth of July weekend in the Washington, D.C. area, except for 2010 and 2011 when it was held near Philadelphia.
St. Louis Country Club (SLCC) is a country club located in Ladue, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. It is recognized by the United States Golf Association (USGA) as one of the first 100 Clubs in America.
Gilbert Ernest Nicholls was an English-American professional golfer, prominent in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He had eight top-10 finishes in the U.S. Open.
The European Golf Association (EGA) is a non-profit organisation based in Epalinges, Switzerland, which was founded in 1937 in Luxembourg.