The Ardsley Cup
Rediscovering College Golf's First Championship Trophy
THE ARDSLEY CUP: REDISCOVERING COLLEGE GOLF’S FIRST CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHY
The above trophy, known as the Ardsley Cup and generously donated by the host Ardsley Casino club, was presented to the team champion starting with the very first intercollegiate golf championship in 1897. It was considered a traveling trophy - kept by the winning team for the year then returned for the next championship - but, as was the custom at the time, there were conditions made so that the first team to win the trophy 3 times would retain it permanently. With the 1901 championship marking their third team victory, Harvard took ownership of the beautiful cup and brought it home to be placed in an already crowded trophy room. Out of mind for the next 120 years, it was eventually forgotten and thought to potentially be lost to time. Recently, however, it was found in a rather unassuming location on Harvard’s campus and in a surprising condition.
This is the story of both the origins and rediscovery of college golf’s first championship trophy.
TROPHY ORIGINS
Ardsley Casino club served as host for the first championship at the behest of golf chairman, Rev Dr. Roderick Terry Sr, father of one of Yale’s top players. In order to ensure stability to the tournament in its early years, the club made an agreement with the Intercollegiate Golf Association (IGA) to host the event for the first three playings, and made a big show of going all out to provide nice amenities including a trophy for the team champion, small individual trophies for each of the players that won that title, and a trophy for the individual champion.
The large loving cup presented to the Yale team champions in 1897 was perhaps a little too nice, valued at $250 (somewhere north of $8k in 2024 dollars). Not long after the first tournament, the condition for keeping the trophy was changed from a single victory that first year, to needing three team wins (not necessarily consecutive), which was a fairly standard practice for competitive trophies/awards at the time.
MINIATURE TROPHIES FOR TEAM PLAYERS
A unique prize each year the tournament was hosted by Ardsley were the 3-inch replica trophies presented to each of the six players on the winning team.
THE CHAMPIONSHIPS
The first two championships were won by Yale in rather convincing fashion. The random team draw resulted in the same pairings and ultimately the same results as Yale topped Harvard both times in the rain.
Intercollegiate Championship #3: Oct 26-29, 1898
Host: Ardsley [Casino] CC (Ardsley-On-Hudson, NY)
The IGA made an interesting decision in early 1898 to change the championship from the Spring to the Fall. In order to avoid players going 18 months without playing for a championship, they instead decided to hold a second championship in 1898 just 5 short months after the first.
The last championship at Ardsley set the stage for a potential Yale sweep. The first-round pairings were different but the Finals matchup was the same. This year’s Final was easily the most exciting in the 2.5-year history, coming down to the final hole and two final putts; the winning putt for Yale coming up approximately 4 inches short. There was a disagreement on the format for a playoff to break the tie, however Harvard not only won format agreed upon but also would have won using the one Yale wanted to use. Thus, the Ardsley Cup made its first trip to Massachusetts.
Intercollegiate Championship #4: Oct 24-28, 1899
Host: Garden City Links (Garden City, NY)
The first intercollegiate golf championship played anywhere other than Ardsley introduced not only a new view but also an altered scoring format which was largely hated. Princeton scored a surprise semifinal win over Yale which set up the first team Finals that wasn’t Yale vs Harvard. Even with the Finals being extended to 36 holes of matches for the first time, Harvard still managed an impressive win for their second consecutive title.
When the IGA next got together following the 1899 championship, they made the decision to move the championship back to the Spring. People understood this change, however they did not understand the further decision to skip a championship in 1900.
Intercollegiate Championship #5: May 07-11, 1901
Host: Atlantic City CC (Northfield, NJ)
With Yale winning the first two events (1897, Spring 1898) and Harvard the second two (Fall 1898, 1899), the 1901 championship set up to be an epic showdown for a third title, earning the winner rights to permanently keep the trophy. As hoped, the team championship came down to a Harvard/Yale elevated 36-hole title fight. Although an even match on paper, Harvard won the crucial swing matches and earned the right to keep the Ardsley Cup.
Winning the trophy seems to have sparked the Harvard players towards individual success as well, earning Harvard both its first medalist honors (Archie Brown and W Wadsworth) and individual championship (Halstead Lindsley). Not only was this the first time that a team swept all three of the awards, this actually marks the first time that a team captured both the team and individual championship in the same tournament. It’s fair to say that Harvard firmly entered “dynasty” territory.
GLORY TOO SOON FORGOTTEN
Despite the growing interest in golf as a respected (minor) intercollegiate sport, it was still ranked in importance behind the likes of football, baseball, and track. The treatment of the Ardsley Cup served as further evidence of this fact. Though it likely resided in Harvard’s famed gymnasium trophy room for at least a short time, it was evidently not deemed worth the move to the new Trophy Room constructed in the Union in 1905. In late 1908, just 7 years after acquiring the trophy, the Ardsley Cup was mentioned specifically in a complaint made by a concerned student who alleged that the Trophy Room Committee had been negligent in their duty to properly display the numerous trophies, game-used balls (footballs dated in the 1880s and baseballs going back to the Civil War), and banners. In the complaint, part of which can be read below, the Ardsley Cup’s condition is described as “tarnished and neglected”, residing in a “cob-webbed closet.” An expanded version of the article goes even further:
This is the tall “Ardsley Golf Cup” for the intercollegiate team championship, which stands blackened beyond recognition in the same closet of the Old Trophy-Room, where the Yale 1890 football lies forgotten. In commemoration of that same victory of 1890 there is another cup in the cabinet in the Union, the great silver “Cumnock Cup” lined with gold...
The accusation of negligence was taken seriously and received an immediate response from the Chairman of the Trophy Room Committee.
If anything, the above outlines the core issue: Harvard was suffering from an embarrassment of riches accumulated over some 50 years of athletic competitions. It was undoubtedly a good problem to have, but is a shame that the only golf trophy in the lot did not make the cut as one of the more prized possessions worth preserving and displaying. With this being the most recent mention of the Ardsley Cup in the various Harvard archives available online, there wasn’t much hope of it still existing over 110 years later when this author first started inquiring after it.
REDISCOVERY
Researching the earliest history of college golf is a fun but immensely challenging endeavor. Even in the most detailed newspaper accounts and national publications, references to the Ardsley Cup were few and far between. There are a few dozen unique newspaper articles between the time it was first donated and subsequently won outright (1897-1901), but next to nothing since then, including the above Harvard references which are the only other mentions found (so far). In fact, this post, along with those linked above, may be the first to cover this trophy with any significance in well over 100 years, which is frankly a heady realization. It’s sadly not surprising that a sport whose history is largely (intentionally?) ignored prior to the NCAA takeover in 1939 would completely forget about a trophy won before the invention of the airplane.
In September, 2023, I received an unexpected email from a subscriber who had read an early post on the men’s championship series in which I had mentioned Harvard’s winning of the Ardsley Cup as well as my uncertainty of the university still possessing the trophy. What follows is the journey Andy Isztwan - father of the recently graduated captain of the Harvard golf team, Brian Isztwan (2023), and Chairman of the Heritage Committee at Huntingdon Valley CC - took that ultimately resulted another email a little over a month later that began, “The Ardsley Cup still exists, and it’s beautiful!”
“As the first U.S. intercollegiate golf team championship trophy, and having seen the ancient yet beautiful photos of it in David’s ‘5 Count 4’ post, I felt that the Ardsley Cup was uniquely important to the history of American golf. And yet I had never heard of it. I thought that it would be thrilling to see the Cup if it still exists, and that I might be able to help find it. I first asked Brian whether he had heard about the Cup or knew its whereabouts, but he hadn’t. So I reached out to David asking whether any of his readers had contacted him since publishing that original post. Sadly, David hadn’t heard a thing, but he encouraged me to see what I could find.
So with Brian’s help, I contacted some of the key people associated with the Harvard golf team, starting the Director of Harvard Golf Fred Schernecker and Harvard Men’s Golf Coach Kevin Rhoads. The Ardsley Cup was news to them as well, but Fred, in turn, put me in touch with Bob Glatz, the Executive Director of the Harvard Varsity Club.
I explained to Bob what I was looking for and sent him the links to David’s posts. He graciously offered to look into it. Within just a couple of days, Bob emailed to let me know that the mystery had been solved: ‘The Ardsley Cup has been located – it is in the lounge on the 3rd floor of the Murr Center.’ The Murr Center is the hub of Harvard athletics, and Brian told me that while that lounge isn’t generally used by the public, he had been there dozens of times and recalled that there were many trophies on display.
Brian asked one of his friends still on the team, Diego Saavedra-Davila, to head over and take some photos of the Cup. I was astonished when I got them. While the significance of the Cup hasn’t been as well-understood in recent years as it had been in the past, Harvard obviously took great care of the Ardsley Cup. It has been perfectly preserved and shines like the day it was first awarded. And it truly is beautiful. All credit to the university for preserving this incredible and priceless piece of golf history!”
THE TROPHY TODAY
This Harvard article highlighting the rediscovery of the Ardsley Cup includes a number of incredible new photos showcasing the pristine condition of this 125+ year old trophy. As far as we know, this is the first time that the trophy has been properly photographed in over a century. Also, this seems to be the first time that the back of the trophy has appeared in any pictures, which is significant for the fact that the etched dates confirm the championship timeline that was incorrectly printed in the NCAA record books going back to 1939 and not corrected until 2023!
LEGACY
The nagging question remains of determining the proper significance of the Ardsley Cup. Where is its place in golf history? We’re talking about a trophy that predates nearly every major United States amateur trophy including the US Men’s Amateur (original Havemeyer Trophy lost in a fire in 1925) and the WGA’s Western Amateur George R Thorne Trophy (started in 1899). In fact, it may be second only to the beautiful Robert Cox Trophy (US Women’s Amateur, 1896) in terms of being the oldest surviving trophy. That said, it also hasn’t been in competition since before the first state golf championship.
Though it will likely never get the same reverence as these other top amateur tournament trophies, the Ardsley Cup is undoubtedly one of the most significant pieces of hardware in the history of college golf and its rediscovery - especially in such lovingly pristine condition - is a momentous occasion that should be celebrated.
In the interest of discussing legacy, here are the 21 players who held this trophy as members of their championship team (roughly ordered based on year won):
John Reid Jr [Yale] - 1898 (Fall) individual intercollegiate champion, son of St. Andrews Club (New York) founder and club President, John Reid, who is often referred to as the Father of American Golf
Roderick Terry Jr [Yale] - first Yale team captain, 1898 (Spring) intercollegiate medalist, first IGA President, son of Rev Dr. Roderick Terry who helped organize the first collegiate golf championships and bring them to Ardsley as a part of his official position as the club’s Golf Committee Chairman
Craig Colgate [Yale]
SA Smith [Yale]
WB Stone [Yale]
Walter B Smith [Yale] - 1898 US Amateur runner-up
RH Crowell [Yale]
T Markoe Robertson [Yale] - Yale team captain, son of prominent New York architect Robert Robertson who not only designed skyscrapers but also the first New Haven Golf Club clubhouse
W Rossiter Betts [Yale] - 1897 US Amateur runner-up
JH Choate Jr [Harvard] - first Harvard golf team captain, 1898 US Amateur medalist, son of the US Ambassador to the UK
George C Clark Jr [Harvard]
Gardiner G Hubbard [Harvard] - nephew of Gardnier Greene Hubbard (his namesake) who was the founder and first president of the Bell Telephone Company, cousin of Mabel Hubbard wife of Alexander Graham Bell, later learned about and helped design/build early “aeroplane” while staying with Dr Bell and the Aerial Experiment Association
JG Averill [Harvard] - architect in whose memory (1904) the Memorial Art Gallery was created
James F Curtis [Harvard] - 1898 (Spring) individual intercollegiate champion, the first ever match play individual title, brother of Harriot and Margarete Curtis of Curtis Cup fame, cousin of Laurence Curtis the second USGA President
W Bayard Cutting Jr [Harvard] - diplomat who died young (1910) but left a lasting legacy
CR Hendrickson [Harvard]
W Wadsworth [Harvard]
Henry Hollins Jr [Harvard] - brother of Marion Hollins (famed US Women’s Am champ, course designer, and US captain in the first Curtis Cup)
Archibald M Brown [Harvard] - 1901 intercollegiate medalist, son of Lucy Brown the first US Women’s Amateur champion, famed NYC architect who also served for a time as president of Shinnecock Hills, married daughter of Shinnecock founder Samuel Parrish
C Tiffany Richardson [Harvard]
Halstead Lindsley [Harvard] - 1901 individual intercollegiate champion
This is a great research-based story that crosses all sports. Thanks.