John McDermott with US Open Trophy

Rory McIlroy's twitter photo of US Open Trophy

Rory McIlroy with US Open Trophy

The Two Young Micks - McIlroy & McDermott

THE TWO MICKS – Golf Links John McDermott and Rory McIlroy













By William Kelly -THE TWO MICKS – Golf Links John McDermott and Rory McIlroy








When Rory McIlroy, the young Irishman blew a six stroke lead to lose the 2011 Masters, it was perceived as a lark, but when he came back and won the US Open by record margins, he was anointed the next great golf hero.

They said he could be the greatest to ever play the game.

While McIlroy himself dismissed such talk, and argued that he still has to go out, play the game and win, the 22 year old has certainly made his mark and shined the light into the future of golf.

As he walked down the 18th fairway at Congressional, the TV flashed a list of six young golfers who won the US Open in their 20s since World War II.

The AP golf beat writer went on to note that McIlroy is the youngest to have won the US Open since Bobby Jones in 1923, when he too was 22 years old.

Meanwhile, forgotten and unhearld, John McDermott was the first American to win the US Open and he remains the youngest to have ever won, as he did it at the age of 19. And he did it nearly one hundred years to the day that McIlroy won, in June, 1911.

And like McIlroy, they said that McDermott had the potential of being the best player ever. But he would never play competitively by the time he was 22, as old as McIlroy is today.

JOHN MCDERMOTT – AMERICA’S FIRST AND FORGOTTEN GOLF HERO

British and Scottish professionals won the first sixteen US Open national golf championships from the time it first began in 1895 until 1911, when a young, spunky teenager from Philadelphia finally became the first native born American champion, and at 19 years old, still the youngest to have ever won the US Open.

McDermott first came to the public’s attention at the US Open at the Philadelphia Cricket Club the year before, when he tied Scott brothers Macdonald and Alex Smith and lost in a three way playoff. When Alex Smith tried to console the 18 year old saying, “Tough luck kid,” McDermott brashly replied, “I’ll get you next year you big lout.” And he did too.

The son of an Irish immigrant mailman, McDermott dropped out of high school to work fulltime as a caddy and golf professional at the Aronimink Golf Club, which was a few blocks from his home in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The former Aronimink caddy took his first job as the Merchantville (NJ) Golf Club pro before being hired as the professional at the prestigious Atlantic City Country Club. At “the Northfield Links,” as they called it, McDermott rented a room in a small cottage across the street (that is still there), and took the trolley to Atlantic City every morning to attend mass, after which he practiced and gave lessons. They say McDermott would spread out newspaper pages over an area as a target, and then narrow it down until he could hit a small area at will.

He was confident of victory in the 1911 Open at the Chicago Golf Club, beating two other Irish-Americans, and he won again in 1912 in Buffalo, New York, defending his title with back-to-back victories, the sign of a true champion.

McDermott also went to Europe to play, becoming the first American to break into the top ranks at the British Open. McDermott was treated with more dignity than Walter Travis, who went before him, and had his Schenectady (center shafted) putter banned by the British. Travis refused to defend his title and there was a developing animosity between the American and British golfers, which was intensified by McDermott at Shawnee in 1913.

McDermott really made his mark at the tournament at Shawnee a few weeks before the 1913 US Open when he played against Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, two of the greatest golfers to ever play the game. They routinely won the US Open whenever they came over, but didn’t play in the two Opens won by McDermott, so there was the nagging question as to whether McDermott could actually beat the best. That question was answered at Shawnee, when McDermott won the tournament outright, and defeated Vardon and Ray by eight strokes.

It wasn’t just the way McDermott won, or by how much, but afterwards, in the locker room full of reporters, when McDermott made a speech in which he promised that the US Open trophy would not be taken back across the pond. McDermott was quoted extensively in the British press, and that speech took golf off the sports pages and put it on the front pages of every major newspaper in America and the British Empire.

Although McDermott was criticized, claimed he was misquoted and apologized, the media frenzy following McDermott’s nationalistic speech created much anticipation for the 1913 US Open at the Country Club at Brookline, Massachusetts. When McDermott fell behind, it was left to Francis Ouimet, an equally young 20 year old caddy and dedicated amateur, to keep McDermott’s promise. The tournament ended in a three way tie between Ouimet and the two greatest golfers ever, and McDermott advised Ouimet to, “Pay no attention to Vardon and Ray and play your own game,” which Ouimet did in what was later called “The Greatest Game.” A photo of Ouimet getting ready to put in his final shop, with Vardon, Ray, McDermott and a huge crowd looking on, hung on the wall next to the Atlantic City CC locker room door for decades.

McDermott later went back to Europe, where he missed a train and his tee shot, and didn’t play in the tournament. Returning home by steamship, McDermott was in the barber’s chair when his ship rammed by another ship and sunk, and he survived in a lifeboat. When he finally got home, he learned that his stocks had tanked and he was broke. One morning he was found unconscious in the Atlantic City Country Club pro shop, apparently suffering a nervous breakdown, and spent the rest of his life living either with his sister in Philadelphia or local institutions. He did play on occasion however, as he did with Tim DeBaufre at Valley Forge and others, until his clubs were stolen from his sister’s car.

One club survived however. While playing with a stranger, he borrowed a club from his playing companion, and liked it, and he was allowed to keep it. In return, he gave up an old wooden mashie, saying to his incredulous playing partner, “that club helped me win two US Open championships.”

Besides his sisters, Gertrude and Alice, Atlantic City Country Club owner Leo Fraser also made sure McDermott was taken care of in his later years. Fraser invited him to visit the club and named the McDermott Room after him. In return McDermott’s sisters gave Fraser one of his US Open championship medals, valued at $40,000, which the Fraser family donated to the USGA, and is now on display at the USGA museum in Far Hills, NJ.

When the 1971 US Open was held in Philadelphia at the Merion Country Club, McDermott’s sister left him alone in the clubhouse where a young assistant pro, Bill Pappa, thought he was in the way and ordered him out of the pro shop. While Pappa, who now teaches golf at Greate Bay in Somers Point, was notified that the old man he had just kicked out of the pro shop was a two-time winner of the US Open. Arnold Palmer recognized him however, put his arm around McDermott and asked him how he was.

As it was later reported, “In 1971, Arnold Palmer, while playing the U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club, noticed a shambling old man being ejected from the lobby. Palmer recognized him as John McDermott who, in 1911, had been the first American to win the U.S. Open. Tossing out such a man wouldn’t do, decided Palmer, who shooed away club employees and escorted McDermott back inside. “They talked golfer to golfer, champion to champion,” wrote golf historian John Coyne, “and Palmer then arranged for McDermott to stay at the tournament as his special guest.”

Two months later McDermott died in his sleep at his sister’s home in Philadelphia.

John McDermott was the first American born US Open Champion in 1911 and at 19, remains the youngest to have ever won the U.S. Open.
(billkelly3@gmail.com)

Rory McIlroy at 2011 US Open

Rory Mcllroy












As Rory Mcllroy breaks all kinds of US Open records after three rounds, there is one record that he won't be able to break - the youngest to ever win the US Open. Since McIIroy is 22 years old, he will be second after John McDermott won the 1911 US Open at the age of 19.

Those who say, before he even won a major tournament, that the young Irishman could be the greatest ever, only have to look at what happened to McDermott, who they said the same thing about a hundred years ago, but who was done playing by the time he was 22.

Although there were three or four articles about in major mainstream publications, the TV and radio announcers couldn't help but trip over themselves making comparisons to a young Tiger Woods (Celtic Tiger) and Bobby Jones, but couldn't seem to be able to mention John McDermott, who still holds the record as the youngest to have ever won the open.

McDermott did it when he was 19 years old, and he did it almost a hundred years to the day of McIlroy's extraordinary accomplishment.

But when McIlroy was walking down the 18th fairway at the end of the final round, the TV flashed a list of the half-dozen twenty something golfers who won the US Open since the end of World War II, and National Public Radio announced that McIlroy was the youngest to have won the US Open since Bobby Jones did it in 1923 when he was 22.

Then the AP writer Doug Ferguson had to really stretch things when he wrote, "McIlroy became the second youngest player to win a major since the Masters began in 1934."

But why stop at World War II? Why stop at Bobby Jones? Why not take it back to the youngest to have ever won the US Open, John McDermott?

That is the same trophy isn't it? The one in the hands of McIlroy and sitting next to McDermott?

John McDermott's Mashie

McDermott’s Mashie –

A long lost hickory shaft golf club, once used by John McDermott to win two US Opens, has recently surfaced, raising the eyebrows of memorabilia collectors and golf historians alike.

The mid-iron mashie, custom made in 1909 or 1910 by Anderson of Anstruther, Fife, Scotland, has McDermott’s name as well as the Anderson “cleekmark” – an arrow brand, embedded in the iron head.

The club was at one time consigned to Ed Waldron, who owned the Quality Golf Collectables store on Rt. #9 in Clermont, Cape May County. He was acting as an agent for the club’s owner, Jerome “Jerry” Moskowitz, who was interested in selling it.

This unique and peculiar club escaped theft and apparent destruction, the fate of the rest of McDermott’s clubs. The rest haven’t been seen or heard from since April, 1949, when they were stolen from his sister’s automobile, which temporarily ceased McDermott’s periodic play when he wasn’t being treated at the Norristown, Pa. hospital for a nervous breakdown.

The club’s owner is now retired to Florida, had placed the club on the market but did not sell it right away, although there were a couple of interested parties. It’s value, actually dependent on what someone thinks it is worth and is willing to pay for it, has been estimated at between $5,000 and $10,000, more than the average club from that period because of its one-time famous owner as well as its unique history.

According to Moskowitz, “I fist met John McDermott at Beverly Hills Golf Club in June 1946.” Beverly Hills, in Upper Darby, a suburb of Philadelphia, is near the Norristown hospital where McDermott was treated. Moskowitz said that when he was there the club was operated by Ted Bickel, Sr. and Bill Boyle was the pro.

“There was a slight man of about 55 years of age,” recalls Moskowitz, “who would sit on the porch with an old ‘stove-pipe’ leather bag with about 9 or 10 wood shafted sticks.”

According to Moskowitz, “If we were a two or threesome, the pro would ask us to take the old man along. His name was John McDermott. We were asked not to upset the gentleman in any way as he was furloughed each summer from the Norristown State Mental Hospital to his sisters in Upper Darby.”

“In his quite way,” Moskowitz continued, “he would relate how he won the U.S. Open in 1911 and 1912. Of course, knowing he had mental problems, we assumed this was a person who had delusions of grandeur.” McDermott was very sick, having suffered a nervous breakdown in 1914. But he didn’t have delusions of grandeur, and was indeed the first “native born” American to win the National championship, and to prove it wasn’t a quirk, he did it back-to-back in 1911 and 1912.

After a series of setback that included surviving a shipwreck and stock market loses, as well as loses on the golf course, on Halloween night 1914 McDermott collapsed in the pro shop of the Atlantic City Country Club, where he was the golf professional.

McDermott continued to play over a makeshift six hole course they laid out over the Norristown hospital grounds, and he was often invited to play at Atlantic City, Valley Forge and other nearby courses where his sisters Alice and Gertrude would take him when he was well enough. Besides playing with Moskowitz, McDermott also played with Tim DeBaufree at Valley Forge, Harry Cooper at Atlantic City, and William “Zimmer” Platt and Walter Hagen at Norristown.

Moskawitz remembers, “I played many rounds with John McDermott that summer. The elder, frail man had a beautiful swing and struck the ball very well with his ancient golf clubs. I carried an old, wood-shafted putter which I used in chipping from the fringe. John admired this Scottish club and often borrowed it to putt in from the fringes. After playing once or twice a week for a few months, I put the club in his bag and told him it was my gift to him. He got excited and insisted I have one of his own clubs in return.”

Moskowitz said McDermott then put the mid-iron in his bag saying, “this is the club I used to win two U.S. Opens. I want you to have it.”

According to the Arrow brand of Anderson of Austruther, the arrow pointed to the toe of the iron, indicates the club was made between 1908 and 1910. It was restored by Robert Junz (co-founder of the GCS, 1995) and authenticated by professionals. Although the club is for sale and individual collectors have expressed interest in it, the club should not be privately owned, but should be placed on public display as a museum piece.

William Kelly
Billkelly3@gmail.com

John McDermott - America's Forgotten Hero 1911

John McDermott with 1911 US Open Trophy

This article appears in the June 2011 Issue of the Atlantic City Boardwalk Journal














British and Scottish professionals won the first sixteen US Open national golf championships from the time it first began in 1895 until 1911, when a young, spunky teenager from Philadelphia finally became the first native born American champion, and at 19 years old, still the youngest to have ever won the US Open.

McDermott first came to the public’s attention at the US Open at the Philadelphia Cricket Club the year before, when he tied Macdonald and Alex Smith and lost in a three way playoff.

The former Aronimink Golf Club caddy took his first job as the Merchantville (NJ) Golf Club pro and was then hired as the professional at the prestigious Atlantic City Country Club.

At Atlantic City McDermott rented a room in a small cottage across the street (that is still there), and took the trolley to Atlantic City every morning to attend mass, after which he practiced and gave lessons. They say McDermott would spread out newspaper pages over an area as a target, and then narrow it down until he could hit a small area at will.

He was confident of victory in the 1911 Open at the Chicago Golf Club, and he won again in 1912 in Buffalo, New York, defending his title with back-to-back victories, the sign of a true champion.

McDermott also went to Europe to play, becoming the first American to break into the top ranks at the British Open. McDermott was treated with more dignity than Walter Travis, who went before him, and had his Schenectady (center shafted) putter banned by the British. Travis refused to defend his title and there was a developing animosity between the American and British golfers, which was intensified by McDermott at Shawnee in 1913.

McDermott really made his mark at the tournament at Shawnee a few weeks before the 1913 US Open when he played against Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, two of the greatest golfers to ever play the game. They routinely won the US Open whenever they came over, but didn’t play in the two Opens won by McDermott, so there was the nagging question as to whether McDermott could actually beat the best. That question was answered at Shawnee, when McDermott won the tournament outright, and defeated Vardon and Ray by eight strokes.

It wasn’t just the way McDermott won, or by how much, but afterwards, in the locker room full of reporters, when McDermott made a speech in which he promised that the US Open trophy would not be taken back across the pond. McDermott was quoted extensively in the British press, and that speech took golf off the sports pages and put it on the front pages of every major newspaper in America and the British Empire.

Although McDermott was criticized, claimed he was misquoted and apologized, the media frenzy following McDermott’s nationalistic speech created much anticipation for the 1913 US Open at the Country Club at Brookline, Massachusetts. When McDermott fell behind, it was left to Francis Ouimet, an equally young 20 year old caddy and dedicated amateur, to keep McDermott’s promise. The tournament ended in a three way tie between Ouimet and the two greatest golfers ever, and McDermott advised Ouimet to, “Pay no attention to Vardon and Ray and play your own game,” which Ouimet did in what was later called “The Greatest Game.” A photo of Ouimet getting ready to put in his final shot, with Vardon, Ray, McDermott and a huge crowd looking on, hung on the wall next to the Atlantic City CC locker room door for decades.

McDermott later went back to Europe, where he missed a train and his tee shot, and didn’t play in the tournament. Returning home by steamship, McDermott was in the barber’s chair when his ship was rammed by another ship and sunk, and he survived in a lifeboat. When he finally got home, he learned that his stocks had tanked and he was broke. One morning he was found unconscious in the Atlantic City Country Club pro shop, apparently suffering a nervous breakdown, and spent the rest of his life living either with his sister in Philadelphia or local institutions. He did play on occasion however, as he did with Tim DeBaufre at Valley Forge and others, until his clubs were stolen from his sister’s car.

One club survived however. While playing with a stranger, he borrowed a club from his playing companion, and liked it, and he was allowed to keep it. In return, he gave up an old wooden mashie, saying to his incredulous playing partner, “that club helped me win two US Open championships.”

Besides his sisters, Gertrude and Alice, Atlantic City Country Club owner Leo Fraser also made sure McDermott was taken care of in hislater years. Fraser invited him to visit the club and named the McDermott Room after him. In return McDermott’s sisters gave Fraser one of his US Open championship medals, valued at $40,000, which the Fraser family donated to the USGA, and is now on display at the USGA museum in Far Hills, NJ.

When the 1971 US Open was held in Philadelphia at the Merion Country Club, McDermott’s sister left him alone in the clubhouse where a young assistant pro, Bill Pappa, thought he was in the way and ordered him out of the pro shop. While Pappa, who now teaches golf at Greate Bay in Somers Point, was notified that the old man he had just kicked out of the pro shop was a two-time winner of the US Open. Arnold Palmer recognized him however, put his arm around McDermott and asked him how he was.

As it was later reported, “In 1971, Arnold Palmer, while playing the U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club, noticed a shambling old man being ejected from the lobby. Palmer recognized him as John McDermott who, in 1911, had been the first American to win the U.S. Open. Tossing out such a man wouldn’t do, decided Palmer, who shooed away club employees and escorted McDermott back inside. “They talked golfer to golfer, champion to champion,” wrote golf historian John Coyne, “and Palmer then arranged for McDermott to stay at the tournament as his special guest.”

Two months later McDermott died in his sleep at his sister’s home in Philadelphia.

John McDermott was the first American born US Open Champion in 1911 and at 19, remains the youngest to have ever won the U.S. Open.

[You can contact Bill Kelly at billkelly3@gmail.com]