Tom Bendelow - MVCC Golf Course Designer

In August of 1915, Mount Vernon Country Club was born. The deed to the land was purchased and plans for a golf course came to fruition. This was an exciting time in golf history and Mount Vernon Country Club is extremely fortunate to have been part of it. One of the most fascinating details about the Clubs beginning is the man who created the course, Tom Bendelow.

Although his name may not be as familiar as Donald Ross or Jack Nicklaus, he was the most prolific designer in North America, having designed over 800 courses. One of his most famous designs was the Medinah Country Club in Medinah, Illinois where the PGA Championship was held in 2006.

Bendelow was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, on September 2, 1868 to John and Mary Edwards Bendelow. As a young boy, he was an avid golfer and was acquainted with many Scottish golfers who would later have an influence on American golf courses.

He came to America in 1892 and became a reporter for the New York Herald. It was his job at the Herald that lead him to his first opportunity in golf course design. He answered an ad that never made it to print for the Pratt family, owners of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. They wanted someone to teach them the game of golf and Bendelow became their instructor. He designed six holes at their large estate in Glen Cove, New York, which eventually became the Nassau Country Club.

Early in his career, he did some work for the Van Cortland Park in the Bronx which really boosted him into national distinction. Bendelow redesigned the existing holes, added a second nine, supervised the construction and maintenance of the course, directed play, organized tournaments and players associations, and offered instruction. Van Cortland Park was the country’s first 18 hole municipal golf course. In addition, Bendelow held America’s first golf school in the Berkeley Gymnasium of the Carnegie Building in New York City.

In 1900, Bendelow moved from New York City to Chicago to assume the position as Director of Golf Course Development for A.G. Spalding Bros. Company. For the next 16 years, he traveled across the U.S. designing courses that were inexpensive to build, easy to maintain, and which would provide the maximum in playable rounds of golf. In 1920, Bendelow joined the American Park Builders Company as Chief Golf Course Designer.

His work that began with Spalding and continued with American Park Builders would earn him the nickname "Johnny Appleseed" of golf. Bendelow had a reputation for quickly dropping off layout designs and then splitting town before the course construction was completed. He designed an estimated 700 courses with American Park Builders before he passed away in 1936.

Despite his reputation, Bendelow has a significant place in golf history. He was designing in a time when earth moving was largely impossible so many of his designs incorporated what the land gave him. He was said to be a "naturalist golf course builder". His courses felt like a walk in a park.

Renowned course architect Ron Garl said, in an article written for the PGA Championship Journal, that playing Medinah some years ago altered his approach to designing courses. "I actually took a whole different look at how we clear huge trees. Trees are a key feature at Medinah. From then on, we checked some of the things Bendelow did, and we built courses where we used trees instead of bunkers, the way Bendelow did."

Bendelow describe his own designs as "sporty", meaning all types of golfers would enjoy the course. Bendelow's grandson, Stuart Bendelow, wrote in the biography about his grandfather, "When Bendelow worked for Spalding, they were not seeking to design and build championship courses to test the honed skills of the best players, but rather courses that new players could enjoy, courses that would improve player proficiency, courses that would promote participation, and courses that could be maintained at a reasonable expense."

Bendelow would have considered himself an artist. "The work of merely utilizing the land by driving a stake in for a tee and another for a green, and start rolling and cutting were a thing of the past. What we have now in contrast to what existed in bygone days is similar to the painting of a picture, through the skillful blending of artificial features with the natural landscape; so as to produce a pleasing and satisfying picture to the eye, as well as fair test of skill." Tom Bendelow.

Although many changes have been made to the course since 1915, you can still see some of Benedlow's work in our course even today. Our Golf Professional, Josh Coad, commented on the designers influence, "Our second hole at MVCC exemplifies the natural qualities you will find in Bendelow’s work. The placement of the original teeing ground and green complex allow for the natural valley floor to host as the fairway and lend the hole its shape. The pine trees are a unique feature that also add an extra challenge of which Bendelow would have taken full advantage."

Besides our very own Mount Vernon Country Club, some of his most noteworthy accomplishments include Skokie Country Club, Eastlake Country Club in Illinois, Garret Park in Indiana, Tripoli in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Lakewood Golf Course in Colorado.

Some local courses that he designed include Columbus Country Club in Columbus, Congress Lake Country Club in Canton, Hyde Park Country Club in Cincinnati, Manistee Golf and Country Club in Michigan, Moundbuilders Country Club in Newark, and Traverse City Golf and Country Club in Traverse City, Michigan.

Bendelow was inducted into the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame in 2006. He was a pioneer of golf course design and to the game itself. We are privileged to have Tom Bendelow as part of our great club's history.