By: Dave Cordero, Director of Communications
Born in 1874, A.W. Tillinghast is the sixth golf course architect to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Other members include Donald Ross (1977), Robert Trent Jones (1987), Alister MacKenzie (2005), Charles Blair Macdonald (2007) and Pete Dye (2008). Similar to these prominent architects, Tillinghast’s brilliance and creativity are found in some of the greatest golf courses in the United States.
Trying to pin down a favorite Tillinghast course would be like asking a baseball historian to name the greatest ball player. In the 2015-16 Golf Digest “Top 100 Golf Courses in America” list, there are eight Tillinghast courses represented.
The Philadelphia native especially left his mark in the Northeast. In the New York metropolitan area alone, the man they called “Tilly” left his mark on a few modern day games including Baltusrol Golf Club, Bethpage Black, Quaker Ridge, Scarsdale, Sleepy Hollow Country Club, Somerset and Winged Foot.
Tillinghast-designed courses have also served as host sites for multiple major championships, including the 1935 Ryder Cup at Ridgewood Country Club.
A.W. Tillinghast was not only an accomplished golf course designer, but he was also a prolific writer. Over a 40-year span, he published more than 400 articles and contributed regularly to magazines including The American Golfer, Golf Illustrated, The Professional Golfer of America, Golf, and Golfer’s Magazine.
He started his journalistic career as a newspaper editor in Philadelphia covering golf and cricket. Many of his pieces were syndicated in various newspapers throughout the United States.
In 1915, “Tilly” published what became a successful book of golfing humor titled, Cobble Valley Golf Yarns and Other Sketches. He followed with a sequel in 1925 with The Mutt… And Other Golf Yarns.
Additionally, he produced three volumes of collected articles. Over 100 of his essays on golf course architecture were compiled in The Course Beautiful.
In Reminiscences of The Links, Tillinghast provides first-hand accounts of American golf’s early history and its connection to St Andrews, Scotland. In the third volume of essays, Gleanings from the Wayside, he recounts his experiences as he traveled around the continent designing and redesigning golf courses.
For more information on Tillinghast’s highlights and the 2015 Induction process, click here.
The 2015 Induction Ceremony will be broadcast live on Golf Channel and Sky Sports at 1 p.m. EDT (6 p.m. GDT). The World Golf Hall of Fame & Museum will host a special event during the ceremony, broadcasting the event throughout the museum along with lunch and tours of the new members’ exhibits.
