The 100th Travis Invitational – Our Green and Gothic Home

In addition to writing up the final round at Sawgrass, the next big live coverage event is just around the corner. I’ll be covering the 100th annual Travis Invitational next week from Garden City Golf Club.

The Travis is one of the country’s pre-eminent amateur golf events held at one of the country’s most venerable courses. 120 of the nation’s best amateurs, including many USGA Champions, will play a stroke play qualifier on Friday to fill out 6 flighted match play brackets, 72 players in all advancing to the match play rounds on Saturday and Sunday. I’ll be posting articles here and at Cybergolf.com. To get everyone in the mood, here is a poem I wrote to commemorate the tournament’s turn toward the 100th playing this year:

Our Green and Gothic Home

The joyous daybreak’s shimmering light
Reveals a blessed, stirring sight,
Fair Garden City, beaming bright!
Our green and gothic home.

The world may clamor all around,
But tranquil solace have we found.
Where Emmet first broke fertile ground,
Now Travis’s[ii] name is renowned,
And countless champions are crowned.
Our green and gothic home.

So out and back the players go
Through banshee winds that howl and blow,
Just like a century ago,
Our greatest amateurs convene
Where golden fescue waves serene
On either side of fairways green
‘Neath blue skies sparkling crystalline.
Our green and gothic home.

Across our windswept Hempstead Plain
The valorous will strive to reign
O’er Walter Travis’s domain,
And by their struggles hope to gain
A crystal Waterford trophy,
And putter from Schenectedy[iii]

As laurel wreaths of victory,
And write their names in history,
Our green and gothic home.

And at eighteen the story’s told
That Travis dug too deep a hole
And lost an Amateur of old[iv].
But if you need a closing par,
And hit your final shot too far
Chef Tony’s voice yells from the bar:
“Your ball went in my vichyssoise!”
Our green and gothic home.

From Auchterlonie’s Haskell Ball
To Billy Edwards, you’ll recall,
The last member to win it all,
There’s Travis with his long cigar
And Eger, Burns, and Zehringer,
Rejoice the glory of their name,
And toast the virtue of the game,
100 years of rousing cheers,
Of frothy beers and smiling peers,
Of hearts sincere and friendships dear,
Our green and gothic home.

The Grand Old Club, The Grand Old Man,
The Grand Old Amateur still stands.
So raise your voice and clap your hands!
It’s what the Golf Gods all command.
Our green and gothic home.

Tonight the troops of angels bright,
An inextinguishable light
Of halos, wings, and Holy Might,
Shall play beneath the starry night,
Our green and gothic home.

And so, “so long,” but not “farewell,”
For soon again the cheers shall swell
Through every dale, dune, and dell,
As evening’s embers’ last faint glow
Fills full our hearts and fires our souls,
We’ll reminisce the story told
From holy whispers long ago:

“Within the city’s bustle lies
A gleaming jewel in glad sunrise,
An emerald ‘neath the blissful skies,
Our green and gothic home!
Our green and gothic home!
Our green and gothic home!”

[i] Devereux Emmet was the original architect of Garden City Golf Club.

[ii] Travis, a member of Garden City, won the 1904 British Amateur – the first foreigner to do so – and later oversaw major changes to Garden City, including deepening the bunkers and adding more interior contour to the greens. Formerly the Spring Invitational, the tournament is not the Travis Invitational. Travis won this tournament nine times.

[iii] The Putter from Schenectady was what Travis used to win the 1908 Amateur. A replica is given to the winner of the Travis Invitational.

[iv] Travis lost the semi-final of the 1908 U.S. Amateur to J.D. Travers when he failed twice to escape the coffin bunker. It’s said he dug his own grave deepening that bunker during his renovations.

[v] Scotsman Laurie Auchterlonie won the 1902 U.S. Open at Garden City and was the first person to win using the Haskell Ball.

[vi] Edwards won in 1970 while an active member of the club. For those asking, “Wait a minute…what about Tim Schmitt? He’s a member and he won in 2003.” Tim Schmitt didn’t win the Travis while an active member. Schmitt won in 2003, but didn’t join Garden City Golf Club until years later.

[vii] All are former champions of the Travis Invitational. Eger won four times, including three in a row from 1999 to 2001.