William Clark Fownes Jr. (October 2, 1877 – July 4, 1950)
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. His father, Henry Fownes, founded and designed
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 ...
.
Fownes won the 1910
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 ...
at
The Country Club
The Country Club, located in Brookline, Massachusetts, is the oldest golf-oriented country club in the United States. (The Philadelphia Cricket Club, founded in 1854, was the first country club for any sport.) It holds an important place in ...
in
Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, in the United States, and part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area. Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Boston, Brighton, A ...
. He defeated
Chick Evans
Charles E. "Chick" Evans Jr. (July 18, 1890 – November 6, 1979) was an American amateur golfer of the 1910s and 1920s. Evans, who won the 1910 Western Open, became the first amateur to win both the U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur in one year, a ...
(winner in 1916 and 1920) in the semi-finals, 1 up, after being down two with four holes to play. He then defeated
Warren Wood in the final, 4 and 3.
Fownes was the playing-captain of the first U.S.
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 ...
team in 1922. He guide the team to victory and played again on the team in 1924.
[ He also won the Pennsylvania Amateur four times.]
Fownes served as president on the United States Golf Association
The United States Golf Association (USGA) is the United States national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the rules ...
from 1926 to 1927.[
Fownes, along with ]A.W. Tillinghast
Albert Warren "Tilly" Tillinghast (May 7, 1876 – May 19, 1942) was an American golf course architect. Tillinghast was one of the most prolific architects in the history of golf; he worked on more than 265 different courses. He was inducted into ...
, George C. Thomas, Jr.
George Clifford Thomas Jr. (October 3, 1873 – February 23, 1932) was an American golf course architect, botanist, and writer. He designed the original course at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club, outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and more than t ...
, Hugh Wilson, George Crump, and William Flynn together made up the "Philadelphia School" of golf course architecture. Together, the group designed over 300 courses, 27 of which are on in the top 100 golf courses in the world.Philadelphia School
/ref>
Amateur wins
*1910 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 ...
, Pennsylvania Amateur
The Pennsylvania Amateur Golf Championship is an annual golf tournament in the American state of Pennsylvania.
Jay Sigel
Robert Jay Sigel (born November 13, 1943) is an American professional golfer. He enjoyed one of the more illustrious caree ...
[
*1912 Pennsylvania Amateur][
*1913 Pennsylvania Amateur][
*1916 Pennsylvania Amateur][
]
U.S. national team appearances
*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 ...
: 1922
Events
January
* January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes.
* January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...
(winners, playing captain), 1924 (winners)
References
American male golfers
Amateur golfers
Golf administrators
Golfers from Pittsburgh
1877 births
1950 deaths
{{US-golf-bio-stub