NEWPORT_DESIGN_1_149_ NEWPORT FINAL_2_TEXT 12/27/13 8:46 AM Page 90
N E W P O R T
C O U N T R Y
C L U B
Twenty years later, the two Scotsmen returned to Pau and promoted
A Coincidence of Origin
their belief that a golf course, if built along the river with the moun-
where a young woman named Florence Boit learned to play the game. The daughter of Mary Louisa Cushing and Edward Darley Boit, who courted in Newport, Florence took her golf clubs on a trip to Boston in 1892 and showed her uncle, Arthur Hunnewell, and his friends how to play. Florence, already immortalized in John Singer Sargent’s painting The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit (she is in profile), returned to France while her uncle convinced his fellow members at The Country Club in Brookline to spend $50 and lay out a six-hole course.
tains as a backdrop, would be spectacular. Word of Pau’s beauty re-
PAU WAS ALSO
sulted in a steady stream of arrivals from Britain until a British colony was established there. Tennis, croquet, horseback riding, hunting, and mountaineering were among the sporting pursuits, then the Pau Golf Club was established in 1856. During the winter of 1884, a Scotsman named Joseph Lloyd, formerly a caddie at Royal Liverpool Golf Club (Hoylake) and an outstanding player, was hired as Pau’s golf professional. It was during his tenure that Theodore Havemeyer arrived, embraced the game, and wanted to take golf back to America. But, when Theodore returned home in 1885, he did not receive the welcome that he had expected from brother Harry. Letters written by Harry at this time show that he resented Theodore’s absence, as well as Theodore’s involvement in a Philadelphia sugar refinery. With their father, Frederick, serving as mediator, Theodore eventually sold his Philadelphia interests, and Harry agreed not to break up Havemeyer & Elder, which left the two brothers as equal owners. Frederick, in an 1885 letter to Theodore, who was still in Europe, bluntly stated: Get it down as fact that Harry is a King of the sugar market. Also that he can of himself conduct the whole business of sugar refining, calling of course to his aid a fully competent staff. You have worked faithfully during your period — overworked, I think. And now, when you return, you should have made up
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