For three straight years the two-day Shawnee Open went 90 holes!

“DID YOU KNOW”

For three straight years the two-day Shawnee Open went 90 holes!

In the early 1900’s, the grand resort hotels played an important role in American golf. In 1910 Charles Campbell Worthington began building a 90-room hotel in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. He engaged one of Philadelphia’s leading amateur golfers, A.W. Tillinghast, to lay out a golf course on the property. Called Shawnee Country Club, it was Tillinghast’s first of many.

Between 1912 and 1937 Worthington hosted and sponsored 20 Shawnee Opens which, were won by the United States’ greatest golf professionals. Worthington always scheduled his Shawnee Opens close to the time other major tournaments were being played in the northeast.

For three straight years, 90 holes of golf were played in two days to determine a Shawnee Open winner.

n mid-July 1923, the eleventh Shawnee Open was played right after the US Open ended on Long Island. The US Open finished on a Saturday, and Shawnee began on the following Monday. Except for the US Open, the Shawnee Open was now regarded as the most important tournament in the eastern United States. Like all Shawnee Opens, this one was scheduled for two days and 72 holes. Par was (38-36) 74. On the first day Atlantic City CC professional Clarence Hackney held the lead at 141, with Gene Sarazen four strokes back in second place. On day two Harry Hampton, who had just played 72 holes at the US Open and now 72 holes at the Shawnee Open in six days, came to the last hole with a two-stroke lead, only to make a bogey four while New York’s George McLean was making a two. With the two professionals being tied at eight under par 288, the tournament committee decreed that there would be an 18-hole playoff that same day to determine a winner. As he had not qualified for the US Open, McLean was more rested. In the shadow of the Buckwood Mountains they completed their third eighteen of the day with McLean besting Hampton 74 to 76 as darkness closed in. Hackney and Sarazen ended up in third and fourth place. Hampton, who was working in Detroit, would be Hackney’s teaching professional at Atlantic City four years later. First prize was $700, which was $200 more than first place money had been at the US Open earlier that year.

The 1924 Shawnee Open kicked off three days after the Metropolitan Open ended in New York. Again, it was scheduled for 72 holes in two days. The players got a break as the high temperature in the Poconos for the two days was in the low 70’s. In a tightly contested tournament, Joe Kirkwood, who was living in Glenside, Pennsylvania and a member at Cedarbrook Country Club, led the first day, at 143. The second day Detroit’s Leo Diegel and Chicago’s Willie Macfarlane ended up in a tie for first at nine under par 287. As in 1923, the tournament officials sent them back out for an 18-hole playoff. Macfarlane said it wasn’t fair as Diegel was the best twilight golfer in the world. That seemed to be the case. With the sun sinking fast, Diegel put together a 69, which equaled the low round of the tournament, against a 76 for Macfarlane. Kirkwood finished third, one stroke out of the playoff. First prize was $500. In the late 1920s Diegel won the PGA Championship two years in a row, and later was the professional at Philmont Country Club.

The 1925 Shawnee Open was played in mid-July, ending three days before the Metropolitan Open in New York. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that with the exception of the US and British Opens, the starting field of more than 100 entries was the strongest in the history of golf. New York’s Johnny Farrell, winner of the two-day 72-hole Philadelphia Open the previous week, led by one stroke at the end of the first day, at 141. At the end of day two Willie Macfarlane, with a tournament record 283, appeared to be a sure winner. Beginning his final round at 2 p.m., New York’s Willie Kline played his first nine in 39 strokes to trail Macfarlane by five strokes. But then Kline made an eagle three on the tenth hole, which was followed by birdies and pars. He finished his day with a 20-foot curling putt for a birdie two on the 221-yard eighteenth hole. Kline finished with a seven under par 29 on the back nine, and 68 for the round. He had caught Macfarlane, picking up five strokes on the last nine holes. A two under par 34 on the last nine only earned Macfarlane a tie. For a third straight year the Shawnee Open had ended in a tie, and for a third straight year an 18-hole playoff was held that same day. Marathon golf was the norm for golfers of that time. In June that year the US Open, 72 holes in two days, had ended in a tie between Macfarlane and Bobby Jones. Macfarlane had won out over Jones in a 36-hole playoff the next day, but only after 108 holes in three days. One year earlier at Shawnee Macfarlane had lost to Diegel in a marathon playoff and now he was in another one. This time he was the winner with a 71 versus a 75 for Kline. 

In early 1925 the USGA had made steel golf shafts legal for tournament play, and now Macfarlane had won both the US Open and Shawnee playing with steel.  

With blisters on his hands Macfarlane telegraphed his withdrawal from the Metropolitan Open, beginning in two days, and headed home to Chicago. With steel golf shafts being new, the club makers were still learning how to put leather grips on steel shafts. Later cork under-listings were applied to the shafts as shock absorbers.      

William “Willie” “Bill” Kline’s name was often spelled Klein, even in the USGA record books and sometimes both ways in the same newspaper article. Macfarlane was often spelled MacFarlane, with a capital F.

.