Henry Chandler Egan (August 21, 1884 – April 5, 1936) was an American amateur

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

er and

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...

architect of the early 20th century.

Early life and college

Egan was born in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, which at the end of the 19th century was the epicenter of golf in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

— the first 18-hole golf course in the country, the

Chicago Golf Club Chicago Golf Club is a private golf club in the central United States, located in Wheaton, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago. The oldest 18-hole course in North America, it was one of the five founding clubs of the United States Golf Association ...

, in Wheaton, was built there in 1895. Egan played his first game of golf in

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Lake Geneva is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located in Walworth County and situated on Geneva Lake, it is home to an estimated 8,105 people as of 2019, up from 7,651 at the 2010 census. It is located about 40 miles southwest of Milwa ...

at the age of 12. He attended secondary school at the Rugby School in Kenilworth, and was a star football player on its team. The school did not have a golf team, so Chandler developed his golf game at his father's club, Exmoor Country Club. He was accepted to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, where he soon became the captain of the college golf team. The team won three team

NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships The NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship, played in late May or early June, is the top annual competition in U.S. men's collegiate golf. The teams that win their respective Division I conference championships are given automatic spots in th ...

from 1902 to 1904, and Egan won the individual title in 1902.

Championships and Olympics

Egan won his first non-collegiate tournament in the 1902

Western Amateur The Western Amateur is a leading annual golf tournament in the United States for male amateur golfers. It is organized by the Western Golf Association. The Western Amateur features an international field of top-ranked amateur golfers. It was first ...

, which was played at the

. Not only was the tournament played in his home metropolitan area, but the runner-up was his cousin

Walter Egan Walter may refer to: People * Walter (name), both a surname and a given name * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968) * Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 19 ...

. A year later, the Egan cousins switched places with Walter winning and Chandler coming in second, and Chandler Egan would win the tournament again in 1904, 1905 (with Walter again the runner-up), and 1907. In 1904, Egan achieved the pinnacle of U.S. amateur golf success by winning the

U.S. Amateur The United States Amateur Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Amateur, is the leading annual golf tournament in the United States for amateur golfers. It is organized by the United States Golf Association and is currently held each August ov ...

, played at

Baltusrol Golf Club The Baltusrol Golf Club is a private 36-hole golf club in the eastern United States, located in Springfield, New Jersey, about west of New York City. It was founded in 1895 by Louis Keller. In 1985, Baltusrol became the first club to have ho ...

in New Jersey. He successfully defended his title a year later at his home turf of the Chicago Golf Club. Egan appeared to be peaking at the right time to also win an individual

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

at the

1904 Summer Olympics The 1904 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the III Olympiad and also known as St. Louis 1904) were an international multi-sport event held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from 29 August to 3 September 1904, as part of an extended s ...

, which featured golf for the last time in 1904. While Egan's U.S. team (which also included cousin Walter) won team gold, Egan had to settle for individual silver, as he was defeated by Canadian George Lyon, who at 46, was more than twice Egan's age. Egan later admitted he had been outclassed by the wily Lyon, whose massive drives forced Egan out of his usual game.

Move to Oregon

Following his runner-up finish in the 1909 U.S. Amateur, Egan abruptly disappeared from competition. He reappeared in the news in May 1911 with his purchase of of apple and pear orchard in

Medford, Oregon Medford is a city in and the county seat of Jackson County, Oregon, in the United States. As of the 2020 United States Census on April 1, 2020, the city had a total population of 85,824 and a metropolitan area population of 223,259, making the Me ...

. He reemerged on the competitive golf circuit in 1914, with a runner-up finish in the Pacific Northwest Amateur championship to

Jack Neville Jack Neville is an English born rugby union player who plays for Nottingham Rugby in the RFU Championship. He plays internationally for Hong Kong. Career Neville played rugby for Cardiff University while studying a bachelor's degree in Scienc ...

. A year later, Egan and Neville would meet again, and this time, Egan was the winner. He would win the Pacific Northwest Amateur four more times, in 1920, 1923, 1925, and 1932. Egan traveled south to win the

California State Amateur The California Amateur Championship or California Amateur is a golf championship held in California for the state's top amateur golfers. The tournament is run by the California Golf Association. The first event was held in 1912 at the Del Monte Golf ...

in 1926. He played on two U.S. championship

Walker Cup The Walker Cup is a golf trophy contested in odd-numbered years by leading male amateur golfers in two teams: United States, and Great Britain and Ireland. The official name is the Walker Cup Match (not "Matches" as in Ryder Cup Matches). It is ...

teams in 1930 and 1934.

Golf architecture

In the 1910s, Egan moved into

golf course design A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". ...

, designing such notable Oregon courses as the Eugene Country Club,

Eastmoreland Golf Course Eastmoreland Golf Course is a golf course in southeast Portland, Oregon. Designed by golf architect Chandler Egan, the course is the second oldest in Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States ...

Oswego Lake Country ClubRiverside Golf & Country ClubTualatin Country Club
and

Waverley Country Club The Waverley Country Club is a country club located in Clackamas County, Oregon United States. Chartered in 1896, the club was the second private golf club established west of the Mississippi River. History The club was established in April 1896 ...

. In 1929, Egan partnered with legendary golf architect

Alister MacKenzie Alister MacKenzie (30 August 1870 – 6 January 1934) was a golf course architect whose course designs span four continents. Originally trained as a surgeon, MacKenzie served as a civilian physician with the British Army during the Boer War ...

to renovate

Pebble Beach Golf Links Pebble Beach Golf Links is a public golf course on the west coast of the United States, located in Pebble Beach, California. Regarded by ''Travel and Leisure'' blog as one of the most beautiful courses in the world, it hugs the rugged coastlin ...

for the 1929 U.S. Amateur, in which Egan played and reached the semifinals. In 1929 Egan also aided MacKenzie and Hunter during the design and construction of

The Union League Golf and Country Club The Union League Golf and Country Club of San Francisco (now called Green Hills Country Club) was constructed in 1929 (opening in 1930) in Millbrae, California, United States. It was one of the most ambitious golf and country club projects of its e ...

, now known as

Green Hills Country Club Green Hills Country Club, located in Millbrae, California, is often referred to as the San Francisco Peninsula’s “hidden gem”. Green Hills is a private members-only country club located on the San Francisco peninsula approximately 20 mi ...

Millbrae, California Millbrae is a city located in northern San Mateo County, California, United States. To its northeast is San Francisco International Airport, San Bruno is on its northwest, and Burlingame on its southeast. It is bordered by San Andreas Lake to ...

. After

Seth Raynor Seth Jagger Raynor (May 7, 1874 – January 23, 1926) was an American golf course architect and engineer. He designed approximately 85 golf courses in about 13 years, his first in 1914, at age 40. His mentor was Charles Blair Macdonald, the creat ...

submitted plans to re-design

Sequoyah Country Club Sequoyah Country Club is an 18 hole, private equity, member-owned golf course and country club in Oakland, California. Founded in 1913, it hosted the Oakland Open from 1938 to 1944 – one of the premier professional golf tournaments on the Pacifi ...

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

just prior his death in 1926, it was Egan who ultimately did a 1930 re-design there. He designed the Indian Canyon municipal course in

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Canada ...

in 1930, which opened in 1935.

Death and legacy

In 1936, Egan had completed plans for West Seattle Golf Course in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, and was working on the half-finished Legion Memorial Golf Course in nearby Everett in late March. He came down with

lobar pneumonia Lobar pneumonia is a form of pneumonia characterized by inflammatory exudate within the intra-alveolar space resulting in consolidation that affects a large and continuous area of the lobe of a lung. It is one of three anatomic classifications ...

, was hospitalized for nearly a week, and died. His funeral was held in Seattle and he was buried in Medford. Egan was named to the Pacific Northwest Golf Association Hall of Fame in 1985, and the

Oregon Sports Hall of Fame The Oregon Sports Hall of Fame honors Oregon athletes, teams, coaches, and others who have made a significant contribution to sports in Oregon. The first class was inducted in 1980, with new inductees added in the fall. Operated by the Oregon Sports ...

in 1990. Egan's Olympic medals were discovered after the death of his daughter in 2012. They went on display in 2016 at the

USGA Museum The United States Golf Association Museum and Arnold Palmer Center for Golf History is home to the world's premier collection of golf artifacts and memorabilia. It is located adjacent to the United States Golf Association’s headquarters in Liber ...

Oakmont Country Club Oakmont Country Club is a country club in the eastern United States, located mostly in Plum with only a very small portion of the property located in Oakmont, suburbs of Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania. Established in 1903, its golf course i ...

during the U.S. Open and the

World Golf Hall of Fame The World Golf Hall of Fame is located at World Golf Village near St. Augustine, Florida, in the United States, and it is unusual among sports halls of fame in that a single site honors both men and women. It is supported by a consortium of 26 go ...

Golf courses designed

Egan designed the following golf courses: * Bend Golf & Country Club Bend, Oregon (original nine) * Watson Ranch Golf Club,

Coos Bay, Oregon Coos Bay ( Coos language: Atsixiis) is a city located in Coos County, Oregon, United States, where the Coos River enters Coos Bay on the Pacific Ocean. The city borders the city of North Bend, and together they are often referred to as one en ...

* Eastmoreland Golf Course,

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

* Eugene Country Club,

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...

* Hood River Golf & Country Club,

Hood River, Oregon The city of Hood River is the seat of Hood River County, Oregon, United States. It is a port on the Columbia River, and is named for the nearby Hood River. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 8,313. It is the only city in Oregon whe ...

* Indian Canyon,

* Oswego Lake Country Club,

Lake Oswego, Oregon Lake Oswego () is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon, primarily in Clackamas County, with small portions extending into neighboring Multnomah and Washington counties. Located about south of Portland and surrounding the Oswego Lake, the town was ...

* Pacific Grove Municipal Golf Course,

Pacific Grove, California Pacific Grove is a coastal city in Monterey County, California, in the United States. The population at the 2020 census was 15,090. Pacific Grove is located between Point Pinos and Monterey. Pacific Grove has numerous Victorian-era houses, so ...

(original nine) * North Fulton Golf Course,

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

* Reames Golf & Country Club,

Klamath Falls, Oregon Klamath Falls ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Klamath County, Oregon, United States. The city was originally called ''Linkville'' when George Nurse founded the town in 1867. It was named after the Link River, on whose falls the city was ...

* Riverside Golf & Country Club,

(front nine) * Seaside Golf Club,

Seaside, Oregon Seaside is a city in Clatsop County, Oregon, Clatsop County, Oregon, United States, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. The name Seaside is derived from ''Seaside House'', a historic summer resort built in the 1870s by railroad magnate Ben Holladay ...

* The Oaks at Rogue Valley Country Club,

* Plantation Country Club,

Boise, Idaho Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown are ...

* The Rogue at Rogue Valley Country Club,

Tualatin Country Club

Tualatin, Oregon Tualatin () is a city located primarily in Washington County in the U.S. state of Oregon. A small portion of the city is also located in neighboring Clackamas County. It is a southwestern suburb in the Portland Metropolitan Area that is located ...

* Legion Memorial Golf Course,

Everett, Washington Everett is the county seat and largest city of Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is north of Seattle and is one of the main cities in the metropolitan area and the Puget Sound region. Everett is the seventh-largest city in the ...

* West Seattle Golf Club,

, Washington * Egan aided

and Robert Hunter during the construction of

, which is now

in Millbrae, California in 1929. * Egan, along with Robert Hunter, was a construction assistant to Alister Mackenzie on Sharp Park Golf Course, Pacifica, California (1932) Sharp Park is one of MacKenzie's few municipal courses, and his only public seaside links. * Baywood Golf & Country Club,

Arcata, California Arcata (; Wiyot language, Wiyot: ''Goudi’ni''; Yurok language, Yurok: ''Oket'oh'') is a city adjacent to the Arcata Bay (northern) portion of Humboldt Bay (United States), Humboldt Bay in Humboldt County, California, Humboldt County, Californ ...

Tournament wins

*1902

(individual and team),

*1903

(team) *1904

(team),

*1905

*1907

*1915

Pacific Northwest Amateur The Pacific Northwest Amateur is an annual amateur golf tournament. It is one of the oldest amateur tournaments in the United States having first been played in 1899. It is organized by the Pacific Northwest Golf Association (PNGA) and the tournam ...

*1920

*1923

*1925

*1926

, Bahamas Amateur *1932

Amateur major championships

Wins (2)

Results timeline

M = Medalist
LA = Low amateur
NYF = Tournament not yet founded
NT = No tournament
DNP = Did not play
"T" indicates a tie for a place
DNQ = Did not qualify for match play portion
R64, R32, R16, QF, SF = Round in which player lost in match play
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10 Source for U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur
USGA Championship Database
Source for 1934 British Amateur
The Glasgow Herald, May 22, 1934, pg. 10.

U.S. national team appearances

: 1930 (winners),

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

(winners)

References

External links

Oregon Golf Association
– H. Chandler Egan
Golf's Grand Old Master
– H. Chandler Egan
Cybergolf.com
– favorite designers – H. Chandler Egan – by Tony Dear {{DEFAULTSORT:Egan, Chandler American male golfers Amateur golfers Harvard Crimson men's golfers Golfers at the 1904 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in golf Olympic silver medalists for the United States in golf Medalists at the 1904 Summer Olympics Golf course architects Golfers from Chicago Golfers from Oregon Deaths from pneumonia in Washington (state) Sportspeople from Chicago Sportspeople from Medford, Oregon 1884 births 1936 deaths