James Alexander Barclay (October 29, 1923 – December 3, 2011) was a

Scottish Canadian Scottish Canadians are people of Scottish descent or heritage living in Canada. As the third-largest ethnic group in Canada and amongst the first Europeans to settle in the country, Scottish people have made a large impact on Canadian culture sin ...

oil industry The petroleum industry, also known as the oil industry or the oil patch, includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transportation (often by oil tankers and pipelines), and marketing of petroleum products. The larges ...

engineer (Applied Chemistry) and executive,

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 ...

er, and golf

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

. He was elected to the

Canadian Golf Hall of Fame The Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum and hall of fame covering the history of the game of golf in Canada, and celebrating the careers and accomplishments of the most significant contributors to the game in that country. Operated by ...

in 2008. Barclay was born in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. He began golf as a youth, with cut-down hickory-shafted clubs. He graduated from

Glasgow University , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

in Applied Chemistry, and spent his career working in the oil industry, eventually reaching the vice-president level. Barclay moved to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in 1968, retired in 1983, and became the

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

of the golf

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

of the

Royal Canadian Golf Association The Royal Canadian Golf Association (RCGA), branded as Golf Canada, is the governing body of golf in Canada. Beginnings Golf Canada was founded on June 6, 1895, as the ''Canadian Golf Association'' at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club. The Royal prefi ...

. He became interested in Canadian golf history, and wrote several magazine articles on that subject. In 1992, Barclay wrote ''Golf in Canada: A History'', a 626-page volume which is the most comprehensive work on the subject published to date. He was a member of St. George's Golf and Country Club in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

. In 1997, he wrote ''Canada's Professional Golfers: The Scottish Invasion 1883–1933''. In 2000, he wrote ''The Toronto Terror'', a biographical work on the life and golf achievements of

Stanley Thompson Stanley Thompson (September 18, 1893 – January 4, 1953) was a Canadian golf course architect, and a high-standard amateur golfer. He was a co-founder of the American Society of Golf Course Architects. Early life, family, education, and mil ...

, Canada's premier golf course architect. The importance of Barclay's achievements were recognized by many organizations. In 2006 Barclay was inducted into the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame. In 2008 he was inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. In 2010 he received the Dick Grimm Award from the Golf Journalists Association of Canada. In 2011 he was inducted into the St. George's Golf and Country Club Hall of Fame. On December 3, 2011, Barclay died of natural causes at the age of 88.

Major works

* * – biography of Canadian golf course architect

. *

External links

Profile at Canadian Golf Hall of FameObituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barclay, James A. Scottish male golfers Canadian male golfers 20th-century Canadian historians Canadian male non-fiction writers Golf writers Alumni of the University of Glasgow Golfers from Glasgow Golfers from Toronto Writers from Glasgow Writers from Toronto British emigrants to Canada 1923 births 2011 deaths