HISTORY OF THE BINGHAMTON COUNTRY CLUB (1889)

By: Louis R. Panigrosso, Esq., Club Historian, Raconteur & International Man of Leisure

The USGA recognizes the Binghamton Country Club as one of the first 25 golf clubs organized in the US. Greater Binghamton may appear to be a surprising witness to the birth of organized golf in America; however, the history of interstate commerce rendered the area a perfect catalyst for domestic golf’s inception. Greater Binghamton has always been a major transportation hub for goods and services. From canals, to railroads, to highways, the area has at times prospered due to the accessibility of major port cities such as Boston, Philadelphia and New York City. Captains of industry have been importing and exporting resources to and from the area even before the Revolutionary War. Golf was an early import to Greater Binghamton; Greater Binghamton’s subsequent influence on golf’s prosperity in America is undeniable.

In 1889, Binghamtonian Fred Denton Weed was home for summer break prior to his senior year at Harvard. Prior to college, he was educated at the Boston area’s finest preparatory schools and while in Boston Weed undoubtedly discovered golf. That summer, Weed and some friends founded the golf course they would first name the Broome County Country Club (BCCC). Weed was President; his fellow founding BCCC officers all had ties to the aforementioned port cities where golf first took hold in America. Those early Greater Binghamton industrialists and business professionals placed a cornerstone of American golf right here in New York State’s Southern Tier.

BCCC’s first course was located near Floral Avenue in Binghamton. Shortly thereafter the course would move to a location close to what is now the En-Joie Golf Club. It is the third location of BCCC that would gain national attention. In the winter of 1897, BCCC would establish a nine hole course in between what is now Route 17C in Endwell and the Susquehanna River. In 1899, Josiah Newman published the Official Golf Guide with the intended purpose of codifying the history of golf in the US. Newman confirms BCCC’s 1889 founding and writes favorably about its then location, stating, “the turf is excellent and the natural surroundings, with the broad Susquehanna River as a landmark and a useful creek, affords some fine water hazards”. Newman also compares BCCC’s then course to Baltusrol’s; the first known recording of many commonalities the two clubs would soon come to realize.

In 1904 BCCC decided to incorporate and changed the name of the club to the Binghamton Country Club (BCC). Golf was still being played at the club’s third location. With only nine holes, this location would soon become obsolete. Further, and to put it more bluntly, this location did not fit the prestige of BCC’s impressive membership. For example, the 1905 BCC membership roster lists three (3) prominent businessmen whose global influence is still prevalent today.

An enthusiastic golfer, A. Ward Ford’s long and prosperous life afforded him the opportunity to play golf at all four (4) BCC locations. Ford was a founder of Bundy Manufacturing which was one of the companies that would merge to become IBM. Without Ford’s vision, it is unlikely IBM would eventually become a dominating global conglomerate. Ford headed the search committee that hired its founding President Thomas J. Watson. Ford remained a director of IBM from its inception until his death in 1948. At the time of his death, his IBM stock holdings would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars today. A life-long Greater Binghamton resident, Ford travelled extensively for golf and in addition to BCC, enjoyed membership at the famed Pinehurst golf club. Ford’s global business influence remains; further, his passion for golf helped shape the BCC we know today.

Binghamtonian Willis Sharpe Kilmer’s family marketed a patent medicine named Swamp Root Elixir throughout the country. In the early 1900’s annual receipts for the product were estimated to be north of $2 million. Kilmer’s wealth allowed him to entertain many passions, including print media and horse racing. He founded an influential newspaper that is still published today; the paper’s political influence contributed to Swamp Root surviving multiple government inquiries related to “quackery”. He owned the 1918 Kentucky Derby winning horse, Exterminator, who also won 1922 American Horse of the Year honors. Exterminator was laid to rest in Binghamton, not far from Sun Briar Court, the state of the art stable where it trained. Sun Briar Court is long gone, but BCC, Kilmer’s beloved golf club still remains.

Endicott Johnson shoes have not been manufactured in Greater Binghamton for a long time. However, the company’s influence on the area and on American business has persisted. The company’s co-founder, George F. Johnson, has many municipal structures named in his honor and many of the gifts he has bestowed to the community remain, including multiple vintage carousels. Johnson championed a business philosophy scholars would later name “welfare capitalism”. Johnson provided health care and home financing for his employees and Johnson was the first employer to make the 40 hour work week standard practice. Johnson was already a very wealthy man when BCC incorporated in 1904; he would soon be even wealthier when every US Serviceman during World War I was issued his shoes (E-J shoes would also be standard issue for World War II). Johnson was an avid sportsman and thought the game of golf was a valuable endeavor for all classes. He understood his factory workers would never be able to afford to join him at BCC. His biographers quote his as saying, “I know our golf is a great aid to health and happiness. It’s a mistake to think of it as a rich man’s game”. Johnson founded the first corporate sponsored golf course in the US and made it accessible and affordable for all of his workers. The En-Joie Golf Club still exists and is the current site of the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open on the PGA Tour Champions.

These three (3) men of incredible means offer a small but impressive sample size of the membership at BCC in the early 1900’s. This prosperity virtually demanded a state of the art, 18- hole course. BCC’s third location was simply unsatisfactory. BCC’s Board of Governors initially sought the expansion of their third location from 9 to 18 holes. To accomplish their goal, they would seek out the hottest golf course designer of the time.

In 1918, Baltusrol hired A.W. Tillinghast (“Tillie”) to create another 18 hole golf course to exist alongside its current course. As previously written, according to golf scholars, Baltusrol’s then course was comparable to BCC’s third location. Tillie’s course designs were achieving national acclaim, including Shawnee CC (1911), North Hempstead CC (1916) and Somerset Hills CC (1917). However, it was his plans for Baltusrol that began his elevation to golf immortality. Tillie persuaded Baltusrol to plow over their “Old Course” and create an entirely new course. Baltusrol agreed and when the national press simply published the design, Tillie become the country’s most sought after golf architect before construction even began. The 1920 BCC Board of Governors knew Tillie was their guy.

BCC wanted Tillie to expand its then 9 hole course to 18 holes. When Tillie saw BCC’s third location, he found the land unacceptable for expansion and required BCC to secure a more suitable tract. Thus begins the special relationship between Tillie and BCC, a relationship that is not present in most of the courses that boast of being a “Tillinghast”. BCC gave Tillie authority to find the location for its new course and he immediately began scouring Greater Binghamton for land that would support his vision. His correspondences with the BCC Board of Governors regarding potential sites survive. Thus, BCC can assert our current home is a 100% “Tillinghast” from inception to completion.

With the location secured for BCC’s fourth and current location, a farm in what is now known as Endwell, NY, Tillie and BCC entered into contract for course design and construction. The contract between BCC and Tillie survives in the BCC archives. This is another important factor in codifying BCC’s status as a “Tillinghast”; the document proves that Tillie was present throughout the construction process. The contract asserts Tillie’s remuneration will be “$500 on the execution of [the] agreement; $1,000 when complete plans are delivered and $1,000 when the course is complete and playable”. Obviously he wanted to be paid, thus Tillie would have a vested interest in ensuring construction was complete and acceptable to BCC. Soon after BCC’s construction, Tillie’s employment contracts would no longer include a “playable clause” and his presence during actual construction would be excused. Further proof of Tillie’s presence during BCC’s construction is the fact that he was simultaneously designing and building 3 other courses within an hour’s drive of Greater Binghamton.

Tillie’s design for BCC did not garner national news. However, BCC member Kilmer’s paper did publish a hole by hole description of Tillie’s plans in 1922. Lazy journalism over the subsequent 100 years has created minor controversy as to what, if anything has changed regarding BCC’s layout. Tillie was famous for changing design “on the fly”. For example, he would halt construction and move entire green complexes if he felt such a change would improve both play and esthetics. We know he did this during BCC’s construction because younger members served as Tillie’s assistants and spoke of this process. However, when the course opened in 1923, the local press did not survey the newly constructed course; they simply reprinted the description of Tillie’s initial design from 1922. Kilmer’s paper as late as the 1980’s was using the 1922 description to document what they considered to be changes made to the course sometime after Tillie left BCC. They remain wrong. We are still playing the course Tillinghast designed in 1921/1922 and opened in 1923.

BCC remains fortunate to have secured Tillie’s genius during what is inarguably his “Golden Age”. BCC’s construction coincided with some of Tillie’s most enduring courses, including Baltusrol (1922), Philadelphia Cricket Club (1922), Winged Foot (1923) and San Francisco Golf Club (1920/1924). Golf historians have long documented that Tillie’s later years were marred by alcoholism and the trappings of excess and bad investments. His work product suffered. Further, it remains difficult to assess what is truly a “Tillinghast” from Tillie’s later years. When Tillie fell on hard times, his friends at the PGA of American took pity on his plight and named him “consulting golf course architect”. This position offered Tillie the opportunity to earn a steady salary by travelling to member courses and offering his assessment. Some courses nefariously took Tillie’s minor suggestions as an opportunity to designate their course as a Tillinghast design. Later, Tillie’s private records on what he actually did with reference to design, redesign and suggestions were lost to fire. There is no ambiguity as to BCC’s status; as per the USGA, BCC was, is and remains a Tillinghast.

In 1974, Frank Hannigan was the Assistant Director of the USGA. He and his staff noticed that of the 10 events they were to sanction that year, an unprecedented 4 of them would be played at Tillighast courses, including that year’s US Open (Winged Foot). Tillie was enjoying his most prolific year more than 30 years after his death. At the time, he was largely forgotten. Hannigan sought to resurrect the Tillinghast name and give him the acclaim he deserved. His article in The Golf Journal entitled “Golf’s Forgotten Genius – A.W. Tillinghast” definitively put Tillie back on golf’s A-List.

For BCC’s purposes, Hannigan’s prose also placed BCC in acclaimed territory. Hannigan researched all of the courses with Tillinghast roots and placed them in three groups. The first group is courses that hosted prominent national tournaments; the second is courses that are definitely Tillinghast courses, but have not achieved national prominence; and third is courses that claimed to be Tillinghasts, but such pedigree could not be confirmed. Binghampton (sic) Country Club was placed prominently in Group 2. Hannigan writes that courses in Group 2 are courses “of a quality as high as those in the first but which have not been available as championship sites”. Other courses of note in Group 2 include Quaker Ridge and Philadelphia Cricket Club. BCC is recognized by golf’s elite to be not just a Tillinghast, but a prominent Tillinghast.

BCC’s current location, on the land discovered by A.W. Tillinghast, with construction overseen by Tillie himself, formally opened for play on August 25, 1923.

A golf course cannot exist for 100 years without realizing change. The First Tee has been moved to make way for a practice facility. Finances and our extreme winter climate have rendered further alterations to BCC’s esthetics. The post World War I boom that contributed to BCC’s Tillinghast eventually gave way to the Great Depression. Like most courses during that era, BCC’s survival depended on cutting costs; like most courses BCC did away with many of the bunkers for which Tillie was famous. Bunkers are expensive to maintain. When finances improved, the bunkers were not replaced, instead trees were planted. Trees become even more popular on courses throughout the 1950s and 1960s and BCC was victimized by that trend. An abundance of new trees obstructed the views of the surrounding valley and mountain ranges that inspired Tillie to first fall in love with BCC’s current location.

After consultations with numerous golf course architects in recent years, BCC has removed many trees and restored the beautiful views of the surrounding area. New bunkers have also been added and old bunkers have been restored. BCC membership should be motivated to continue this commitment to bunker restoration.

BCC membership must also take a proactive approach in addressing the changes Mother Nature has made to BCC’s green complexes. After 100 years of mowing, greens have shrunk and the shapes have been altered. Harsh winters have also caused some greens to require restoration with varying levels of success and some unmitigated failures. Greens 2, 4, 6, 10 and 11 have all been redone and some of those greens look out of place on a Tillinghast. The technology is now available to restore these greens to how Tillie designed them. At the time of this writing, the BCC Greens Committee is actively engaging noted and qualified golf course architects to begin the process of restoring these greens to their original shape and form.

The changes in BCC’s esthetics are minor. More importantly, they are fixable. BCC’s status as a hidden gem has remained unchanged for 100 years and the games most celebrated players continue to enjoy its hospitality. BCC’s first golf pro, Jack Brett hosted Hall of Famers Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen for exhibition matches in 1926 and 1932 respectively. PGA professionals continue to make BCC a destination for warm up rounds en route to the BC Open (1971 to 2006) and the Dicks Sporting Goods Open (since 2007). However, it is the exhibition round held at BCC in 1961 that remains legendary.

In 1961, future Hall of Famers “The King” Arnold Palmer won the British Open and Gene “The Machine” Littler won the US Open. On August 2, 1961 they squared off against each other at BCC in front of 1,500 paying spectators. The Major champions made sure everyone in attendance got their money’s worth (the entrance fee was $3). Arnie outdrove The Machine by 50 yards on every hole, but ultimately The Machine’s flat stick carried the day as he bested Arnie and his Army by one stroke (69 to 70). The BCC greens so frustrated The King that on 16 he asked the crowd “where the hell is that river?!” Mr. Littler was unable to stick around after the match as he needed to drive through the night to make his next tournament in Baltimore. Mr. Palmer stayed for dinner and entertained BCC membership with tales about life on the PGA tour. He then piloted his private plane to his next engagement. It is interesting to think what it would cost to hire this year’s Major winners for an exhibition round…

When reporting on the Palmer-Littler match, the local press noted that Al Morley was in attendance and may have been wondering if his then BCC course record of 64 would be challenged. Mr. Morley was a local golf professional and later became a BCC member. His record was safe that day, but would later be bested by area professional Mel Baum who shot a 63 in a BCC Pro-Member Tournament 20 years later. There has been a 62 shot at BCC by PGA Tour Pro Mike Souchak in 1952. Souchak was playing an exhibition round at BCC after that year’s US Open with fellow professionals Bruce Devlin and Doug Sanders. Souchak’s round is not recognized as the competitive record as 2 putts were conceded. However, both of those putts were less than 6 inches in length.

BCC’s inception in 1889 and A.W. Tillinghast’s creation of BCC’s current home in 1923 are historically significant chapters in the story of American golf. BCC’s status as a Tillinghast may not be nationally recognized, but it continues to entertain and challenge those lucky enough to enjoy its history, charm and character. BCC’s history is documented and not manufactured and while its past should be recognized, its future should be celebrated.