15/06/2026
It's US Open week, which means the feats of Francis Ouimet (pic 1) will inevitably be remembered. Ouimet's victory at the 1913 US Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts is regarded as the "Big Bang" moment for American golf, with the 20-year-old amateur and local boy beating the famed British professionals Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in an 18-hole playoff.
It was as reigning US Open champion that Ouimet travelled to Great Britain in the spring of 1914. He was joined on the transatlantic sea voyage by Jerome Travers (pictured 2), who won his third US Amateur title at Garden City Golf Club the previous August, beating Ouimet in the quarterfinals. Both now had their sights set on the Amateur Championship at Royal St George's, with Ouimet staying on to compete in his one and only Open Championship.
The pair warmed up by playing in a number of prestigious medal meetings at leading English clubs, including the Easter Gold Challenge Medal at Royal North Devon. Ouimet came unstuck after five holes when he developed a nosebleed and decided to retire. Travers fared much better, however, returning a course record 74 to finish as medallist.
Travers' remarkable score remained unbeaten until 1924, although later in 1914, Harold Hilton, the great amateur from Royal Liverpool, also recorded a 74.
Hilton (pic 3) spent his childhood in West Buckland in Devon, and was the defending Amateur Champion (having earned the title for the fourth and final time eight months earlier). He was also the winner of two of the previous four Club Silver Medal and Kashmir Cup competitions at Westward Ho! The name H. Hilton can be seen on a number of the major boards at RND. He also won the Open Championship twice, and the US Amateur in 1911.
Ouimet and Travers were unsuccessful in their 1914 mission to capture one of Great Britain's most coveted golf trophies. Not long after their return to the United States, Ouimet gained revenge by beating Travers in the final of the US Amateur Championship.
