As we step into the year 2010, I'm sure we are all anxious to see what the world of golf has in store. Looking back though, 2009 was quite a year, it was just about as wild as the rough at Carnoustie… a little too wild. I thought it would be nice to take a look back to simpler times, with no 6 hour rounds, no electric golf carts, and golf clubs made without science and computers. Here is a look back to some notable golf highlights at the turn of the century from 1900 to 1910. Enjoy!
1900
Golf is placed on the Olympic calendar for the 2nd Games at Paris.
Lancelot Servos wins a long drive contest with a 230 yard blast. Mike Austin still owns the current unbeaten world record drive of 515 yards set back in 1974.
1901
Walter Travis comes the first golfer to win with the Haskell ball, which was first created three years prior. The following year, after two more professional won using the ball, virtually all other golfers made the switch.
The Carolina Hotel opens its first course, designed by Donald Ross.. this location later became the Pinehurst Resort. (Pinehurst #2 was later completed in 1935).
1902
Grooved face irons are invented, and to this day grooves are highly debated.
Around this time the nassau bet was created by John B. Coles Tappan, the club champion of the Nassau Country Club (also known as the 2-2-2 bet).
1903
Walter Travis becomes the first three-time U.S. Amateur Champion.
Around this time the persimmon driver is popularized, competing with the other alternative: aluminum.
1904
Golf makes its second, and final Olympic appears in St. Louis.
1905
The first dimple pattern for golf balls is patented by William Taylor.
Harry Vardon’s book The Complete Golfer is published demonstrating the overlapping grip later to be coined the Vardon grip.
1906
Goodrich introduces the first rubber cored golf ball. The core was filled with compressed air, and produced more distance than the Haskell. However, the "Pneu-matic" as it was called, was prone to exploding in warm weather, often in a golfers pockets.
1907
Arnaud Massy became the first golfer from continental Europe to win the British Open.
1908
Mrs. Gordon Robertson becomes the first female golf professional.
1909
The USGA rules that caddies, caddymasters and greenkeepers over the age of sixteen are professional golfers. The ruling was later modified in 1963.
1910
The R & A bans the center-shafted putter while the USGA keeps it legal. Each organization remained stubborn, and golf had two official sets of rules for the next 42 years.
Steel shafts are patented by Arthur F. Knight.
Willie Anderson dies on October 25 at the age of 30 during this decade, he won the U.S. Open four time, and defended his victories twice, by winning the tournament consecutively from 1903-1905.
In the past 100 years golf has come a long way – whether its for best… only time will tell.