Henry Chandler Egan was an American amateur golfer and golf
course architect of the early 20th century.
Egan was born in Chicago, Illinois, which at the end of the
19th century was the epicenter of golf in the United States — the first 18-hole
golf course in the country, the Chicago Golf Club, in Wheaton, was built there
in 1895. Egan played his first game of golf in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin at the
age of 12. He attended secondary school at the Rugby School in Kenilworth, and
was a star football player on its team. The school did not have a golf team, so
Chandler developed his golf game at his father's club, Exmoor Country Club. He
was accepted to Harvard University, where he soon became the captain of the
college golf team. The team won three team NCAA Division I Men's Golf
Championships from 1902 to 1904, and Egan won the individual title in 1902.
Egan won his first non-collegiate tournament in the 1902
Western Amateur, which was played at the Chicago Golf Club. Not only was the
tournament played in his home metropolitan area, but the runner-up was his
cousin Walter Egan. A year later, the Egan cousins switched places with Walter
winning and Chandler coming in second, and Chandler Egan would win the
tournament again in 1904, 1905, and 1907.
In 1904, Egan achieved the pinnacle of U.S. amateur golf
success by winning the U.S. Amateur, played at Baltusrol Golf Club in New
Jersey. He successfully defended his title a year later at his home turf of the
Chicago Golf Club.
Egan appeared to be peaking at the right time to also win an
individual gold medal at the 1904 Summer Olympics, which featured golf for the
last time in 1904. While Egan's U.S. team won team gold, Egan had to settle for
individual silver, as he was defeated by Canadian George Lyon, who at 46, was more
than twice Egan's age. Egan later admitted he had been outclassed by the wily
Lyon, whose massive drives forced Egan out of his usual game.
Following his runner-up finish in the 1909 U.S. Amateur,
Egan abruptly disappeared from competition. He reappeared in the news in May
1911 with his purchase of 115 acres of apple and pear orchard in Medford,
Oregon. He reemerged on the competitive golf circuit in 1914, with a runner-up
finish in the Pacific Northwest Amateur championship to Jack Neville. A year
later, Egan and Neville would meet again, and this time, Egan was the winner.
He would win the Pacific Northwest Amateur four more times, in 1920, 1923,
1925, and 1932. Egan traveled south to win the California State Amateur in
1926. He played on two U.S. championship Walker Cup teams in 1930 and 1934.
In the 1910s, Egan moved into golf course design, designing
such notable Oregon courses as the Eugene Country Club, Eastmoreland Golf
Course, Oswego Lake Country Club, Riverside Golf & Country Club, Tualatin
Country Club, and Waverley Country Club. In 1929, Egan partnered with legendary
golf architect Alister MacKenzie to renovate Pebble Beach Golf Links for the
1929 U.S. Amateur, in which Egan played and reached the semifinals. In 1929
Egan also aided MacKenzie and Hunter during the design and construction of The
Union League Golf and Country Club, now known as Green Hills Country Club in
Millbrae, California. After Seth Raynor submitted plans to re-design Sequoyah
Country Club in Oakland, California just prior his death in 1926, it was Egan
who ultimately did a 1930 re-design there. He designed the Indian Canyon
municipal course in Spokane, Washington in 1930, which opened in 1935.
In 1936, Egan had completed plans for West Seattle Golf
Course in Seattle, and was working on the half-finished Legion Memorial Golf
Course in nearby Everett in late March. He came down with lobar pneumonia, was
hospitalized for nearly a week, and died. His funeral was held in Seattle and
he was buried in Medford.
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