Antique Golf Clubs from Scotland: Clubmakers

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Clubmakers

George Braid
Chicago/NYC

George Braid, middle brother between William and Alfred, was born in Dundee in 1886 but grew up in St Andrews. He may not have been a club professional (it is unclear, to me at least, what he did before 1910 and after 1927) but he was hugely influential in US golf and particularly in the careers of emigré St Andrews professionals and clubmakers. He was labelled a professional in the US because he derived an income from golf. A passenger manifest for a voyage to New York reveals he had half a forefinger missing which might have affected his playing but is not great for a clubmaker either. It also takes some disentangling of the record when there was another also from St Andrews, also active in Chicago and who, like this George, married a girl called Mary in Dundee in 1921!

The first record I have of him going to America is in 1910 when he sailed on the Caledonia from Glasgow arriving in New York on 13 November. However, the manifest states he had previously been in Brooklyn in 1907 and that was where was headed.

However, he was soon in Chicago and working forWright & Ditsont. He remained there for five years and then accepted a position in New York in 1916 with Wanamaker's, originally founded in Philadelphia in the 1870s and soon to be the world’s largest sporting equipment retailer. The annoucement of this noted he would be ‘associated’ with the Bostonian professonal Tom McNamara. I mention this because there was a George Braid of New York entered in the Western Open, a major tournament, that year and wonder if this is our man especially given McNamara was the reigning champion and not defending his title. Although, having seen George Braid in the entries, I do not see his score among the finishers.

It was not long before he was back in Chicago as Wanamaker’s manager there and he organised the tour of exhibition matches by Abe Mitchell and George Duncan in 1921. He went back to visit St Andrews that year and was married in Dundee to Mary Caldwell on 9 March.

He was still the midwest manager for Wanamaker’s in 1927 as P L Forgan reported after a trip ro the city.

After that date, in the midwest there was at least a very good amateur called George Braid who may turned professional and there was Robert Braid’s son George, who was professional, at Kansas City so the St Andrean Braid becomes ever harder to pick out. He does get a mention in Golf Digest in 1941 as ‘veteran golf salesman’ but only to tell us he had become a grandfather.

I stated how influential he was at the stat of this piece. Wanamaker’s put a huge effort into popularising the game in the USA, first with the founder, John, developing huge stores and then with his son, Rodham, being the driving force behind the formation of the PGA. The USPGA winner is still awarded the Wanamaker trophy. George Braid played his part in that proselytising movement. But, on a more personal level, he was a helping hand. He was one of the pallbearers, all from St Andrews, at the funeral of Alec Robertson in 1914. The St Andrews Citizen wrote of him in 1921, ‘he is regarded as the friend and guide of every St Andrews professional, ready to do everything in his power to secure an engagement for any of his old St Andrews friends, so that should any of our young clubmakers and professionals contemplate going out to America this Spring, they could not do better than get in touch with George Braid who will see that they do not suffer from lack of good advice or want of opportunities’.

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