19th HOLE at Oaks North (Oaks North Men's Golf Clubs - Tuesday and Thursday groups): Tom Reid is the great grandson of John Reid, who introduced golf to America!

Golf as an organized game in the United States usually is dated from the founding of the St. Andrew's Golf Club at Yonkers, N.Y., in 1888. Its progenitor was John Reid, a Scot from Dunfermline who became known as "the father of American golf."

In February 1888, John Reid and several of his friends took an armful of clubs, some gutta percha balls and hearts full of enthusiasm to a pasture in Yonkers for a friendly round of “Gowf.” There, in front of a gallery of bemused cows, they knocked the balls around a three-hole course. Before long, these golfing pioneers had commandeered their own “clubhouse” – an old apple tree from whose gnarled branches they hung their coats and obligatory flasks of fine scotch whiskey. They became known as "the apple tree gang."

This was the birth of what was to become the oldest continuously existing golf club in the United States, The Saint Andrew's Golf Club.

Our fellow Oaks North golfer Tom Reid (click on the photo to enlarge) is the great grandson of John Reid! The man in the blue shirt is David Leadbetter, the legendary golf coach, whose students have included:

Tom is written about in previous postings on this blog. He won the 2007 Oaks North Men's Golf Club Championship (net score) on May 8, 2007. Two days later, while playing with Jim O'Mahoney and me, Tom made a Hole-in-One on the 160 yard 3rd hole of the South Course! It was the third ace of his golfing career! I wonder if he learned this art from Leadbetter? Needless to say, he bought the beer afterwards.

19th HOLE at Oaks North (Oaks North Men's Golf Clubs - Tuesday and Thursday groups)

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Saturday, November 17, 2007

Tom Reid is the great grandson of John Reid, who introduced golf to America!

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