Antique Golf Clubs from Scotland: Clubmakers

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Clubmakers

Willie Smith
Carnoustie/Chicago/Mexico

Born in Dundee in 1876 (the family moved to Carnoustie in the mid-1880s) he was, with Alec, George, Jimmy and Macdonald (Mac), one of five successful golf professional brothers.

He played in the Open Chamoionship in 1895, a year before his first position as a professional, a summer stint at Cambuslang. A move down south saw him working with his brother Alec at St Neots following which he was employed as a clubmaker by Bob Munro at Richmond then being appointed professional at Margate in 1897. In the winter of 1897-8 he was back in Angus, living in Edzell, getting ready to go to America in the spring which he did, sailing for New York in May 1898, two monhs after brother Alec.

He was professional to the Midlothian Country Club outside Chicago and, while there, won the 5th US Open in 1899 at the Baltimore Country Club by a margin of eleven shots. He won the first Western Open the same year, defeating Laurie Auchterlonie in a playoff. He was runner-up in the US Open in 1906 and 1908, on the first of these occasions losing out to his brother, Alec. He made a trip home to Scotland to play in the 1910 Open at St Andrews, finishing in a tie for 5th.

He became professional at the Mexico City Country Club in 1904 (which brother Alec helped re-design in 1907) and survived Zapata's forces shelling and ransacking the club in 1914-1915 but died in Mexico the following year of pneumonia.

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