Seven Campbell brothers came out of Royal Troon GC as golf professionals!

“Did You Know”
Seven Campbell brothers came out of Royal Troon GC as golf professionals!

Seven Campbell brothers grew up next to the Royal Troon Golf Club in Scotland where their father Alex, Sr. worked on the golf course as a green keeper. Including Troon, there were five golf courses within a few miles of their home. They played, caddied, and played golf at Troon and nearby Prestwick Golf Club. In the summer months golf could be played in the evenings until nearly eleven o’clock.

Born in 1876, Alex “Nipper” “Alec” Campbell, Jr. was the oldest of the brothers. He was called Nipper because he was five-feet-four-inches tall. He turned pro at age 14, serving a five-year apprenticeship at Royal Troon under the professional, Willie Fernie, who had won the 1893 British Open. He said that he learned everything he needed to know about golf from Fernie. But he spent the next year working for Forgan of St. Andrews making golf clubs. In the spring of 1899 he left Scotland for the USA, arriving in Boston in March. Shortly after his arrival he was engaged as the professional at The Country Club near Boston. Nipper played in 23 US Opens with finishes of 3rd, 5th, 6th and 8th. He was at The Country Club until 1915 when he was lured away by the Baltimore CC. Later he was in Cincinnati and Dayton. He was one of last ones to make the change to using a wooden tee, instead of a wet pinch of sand. When he finally gave in to using steel shafted clubs, he said, “Now I am a sissy like the rest of you”.

In 1900 Nipper’s next youngest brother, John D. “Jock” “Jack” arrived from Scotland for employment as his assistant. In 1903 Jack left Boston for the professional position at Huntingdon Valley Country Club near Philadelphia, staying just long enough to win the 1903 and 1904 Philadelphia Opens. In the summer of 1905, he was back in Boston with Nipper, but by September he was in Philadelphia entered in the Philadelphia Open as the professional at the Langhorne Country Club. The next year he began a five-year run as the professional at the Overbrook Golf Club.

In 1912 Jack settled in as the professional at the Old York Road Country Club for 35 years. When the Philadelphia PGA was founded in December 1921, Jack was elected vice-president and tournament chairman. Jack said it was time to step up their golf through competitions and not be like the Phillies and Athletics. Jack won the Philadelphia Open three times. Twenty-three years after winning his first Philadelphia Open in 1903, he won the 1926 Philadelphia PGA Championship. He played in 11 US Opens, finishing 6th in 1903.

Andy and Matt arrived in 1905. Andy and Matt were with Nipper at The Country Club that year and then Andy landed in the Philadelphia area as an assistant at The Springhaven Club for three years. He moved into the head professional position in 1909 and held it until his death in 1945. Andy played in five US Opens, with a tie for 7th in 1909. Andy became known as the “Father of Springhaven Golf”.

Matt worked for Nipper at The Country Club until 1914. From there he had various golf positions in Massachusetts and Philadelphia.

Bobby was the only brother not to travel to the states. He finished second in a Scottish Open, and then as a member of the Black Watch division of the Scottish Army, he lost his life in World War I.

Jimmy, the sixth Campbell brother, found employment as a golf professional in North Carolina and later in Philadelphia.  

The seventh brother, Dave, who was the last to arrive, came over from Scotland’s Gleneagles GC. He headed to Philadelphia to see his brothers, Jack and Andy. Within a couple of weeks, they had landed him the assistant professional position at the Hollywood Country Club in Deal, New Jersey, working for Jack Forrester. That summer he won the 1923 New Jersey Open by two strokes over another transplanted Scot, Bobby Cruickshank. When asked about his brother Nipper, Dave said he had never met him. He said Nipper had left Scotland before he was born. At the end of the summer, he headed home to Scotland. Later he held a golf professional position in Detroit, but when war broke out in Europe, he left the states to join the British Army.

The Campbell brothers had a great influence on early American golf. They played in 42 US Opens. Nipper mentored a young Francis Ouimet, who had caddied at The Country Club and then won the US Open at their course in 1913. They taught the golfers, laid out golf courses, and made golf clubs. At Old York Road Jack taught golf to Helen Stetson, who went on to win the 1926 US Women’s Amateur, and he mentored a young William Hyndman III, who became one of Philadelphia’s greatest amateurs. 

One golf writer called the Campbell brothers “The covered wagon boys of golf”.