A Chronicle of the Philadelphia Section PGA and its Members by Peter C. Trenham The Leaders and The Legends 1922 to 1929 The Leaders The Legends Bob Barnett Jack Campbell Harry Hampton Dave Cuthbert Joe Coble Charlie Hoffner Lou Goldbeck Pat Doyle Cyril Hughes Stanley Hern Jim Edmundson, Sr. Bill Leach Jack Hobens Joseph Seka The Leaders Robert Thompson “Bob” Barnett Bob Barnett was the first president of the Philadelphia Section PGA. Barnett was born in Philadelphia in 1893 and began his career as an assistant at the Bala Golf Club in 1914. After serving his apprenticeship at Bala he be- came the head professional at the Tredyffrin Country Club in Paoli. In early November of 1921 Barnett hosted the Main Line Open at Tredyffrin, which drew a field that was considered by later golf historians to be of PGA Tour quality. Jim Barnes returned to Phila- delphia for the tournament and took the top prize of $200. When the profes- sionals met one month later on Friday December 2, Barnett was the unani- mous choice to be their president, even though he was just 28 years old. 90 years later he was still the youngest to be elected president. Barnett was known for his whistle. He whistled when he played and he whistled when he wanted the call the meetings to order. All he had to do was whistle and he had the full attention of all the professionals present. That next spring he hosted the Section’s first championship at Tredyffrin and it was also the first Section Championship held by any PGA Section. He was reelected for a sec- ond term in January of 1923 but soon after that he resigned from Tredyffrin to become the professional at the Chevy Chase Club near Washington D.C. The Section members wanted Barnett to continue as the president but he de- clined saying he could not give the office the attention that it required. Even though he was no longer a Section member he was invited to play in the 1923 Section Championship at the Stenton Country Club, which he won. He was- n’t able to defend his title at Linwood Country Club in 1924 due to his fa- ther’s death on the evening of the tournament but he returned in 1925 for Bob Barnett the Section Championship, which was being played at his former club, Tre- First Section President dyffrin, and won it for a second time. Twenty-three years later, at the age of 2 time Section Champion 50, Barnett finished second in the Middle Atlantic Section Championship. While Barnett was the professional at Chevy Chase he also spent nearly twenty years as the head pro at the Indian Creek Country Club in Miami. At Indian Creek he trained two young professionals who would go on to be leaders in the PGA’s national affairs, Max Elbin and Bill Strausbaugh. Elbin was president of the PGA from 1966 to 1968 and the national award for work in Club Relations was named after Strausbaugh in 1979. One of Barnett’s proté- gés and assistants at Chevy Chase and Indian Creek was Lew Worsham who would go on to win the 1947 U.S. Open. He also had an assistant at Indian Creek named Buck White, who went on to a very successful career on the PGA Tour. Barnett also served as the president of the Middle Atlantic Section, won their Section Championship and served a term as a Vice President (later renamed District Director) of the PGA of America. David Scott “Dave” Cuthbert Dave Cuthbert was born in St. Andrews, Scotland in 1885. He got his start in golf as a caddy at St. Andrews Golf Club and as a young man he worked in Old Tom Morris’ golf shop. He often caddied for Freddie Tait who was one of the greatest amateurs in Great Britain. In 1912 Cuthbert learned from a friend who had worked in America that Huntingdon Valley Country Club was looking for a golf professional, so he set sail at once. He ar- rived in Philadelphia during a March blizzard with his golf clubs and a suitcase. He then proceeded to seek out the Hun- tingdon Valley green chairman. Without an appointment he announced that he was David Cuthbert of St. Andrews and he had come all the way from Scotland for the position of golf professional. He was hired and stayed seven years. He relo- cated to Canada for four years and returned when Ashbourne Country Club opened in 1923. Cuthbert was Ashbourne’s first golf pro and he remained there for fifteen years. That year Cuthbert finished second in the 1923 Pennsylvania Open by one stroke. He served as the Section’s vice president for three years and he was elected as the fourth president of the Section in 1928. He represented the Philadelphia Section as a delegate to the national PGA meeting for three years and he hosted the Section Championship at Ashbourne in 1926. In 1929 he Dave Cuthbert qualified for the PGA Championship. Cuthbert was a member Section President 1928 of the committee that organized the first PGA Seniors’ Cham- 2nd 1923 Pennsylvania Open pionship, which was held at the Augusta National Golf Club. His brother Duncan served as the head professional at the Riverton Country Club for several years before moving to the Middle Atlantic PGA Section. Lewis H. “Lew” Goldbeck Lew Goldbeck was born in Pennsylvania in 1897. He began his career as an assistant golf professional at the Huntingdon Valley Country Club under head pro Dave Cuthbert. He then worked as an assistant to Charlie Hoffner at the Philmont Country Club from 1919 through 1925 before moving to the Bala Golf Club as the head professional where he stayed for sixteen years. Goldbeck who was one of the longest drivers among the local pros qualified for the PGA Championship three times and the U.S. Open three times. He tied for 43 rd in the 1926 U.S. Open. He had a brother, Bill, who had a very good playing career. Bill who was the professional at the Buck Hill Golf Club and the Wolf Hollow Country Club in the 1920s and Buck Hill again in the 1960s spent most of his years as a pro in the Metropolitan Section. In 1928 Lou Goldbeck was elected first vice president of the Section and the next year he became the fifth presi- dent of the Philadelphia PGA. Also he was the second vice president in 1931. In Lew Goldbeck 1929 and 1930 he hosted the Section Championship. Goldbeck represented the Section President 1929 Philadelphia Section as a delegate to the national PGA meeting in 1929. Stanley L. Hern Stanley Hern was born in the United States in 1891. As one of the pros responsible for the forming of the Philadelphia Section, in late 1921 he and Bob Barnett put on the Main Line Open that attracted a strong entry from outside the Philadelphia area. Hern was a pro golf salesman for the St. Mungo Manufacturing Company, which was located in Philadelphia. The St. Mungo Company manufactured the Colonel golf ball, which Johnny McDermott used in the playoff when he won the U.S. Open in 1911. Hern was elected Section secretary in 1922 but later that year Jack Jolly, the owner of the St. Mungo Company, moved him to Atlanta to manage their new office. John Owen “Jack” Hobens Jack Hobens was born John Owen Hoben at Dunbar, Scotland in 1880. When he was eight years old his family moved to North Berwick where he learned to play golf as a caddy at the West Links Golf Club. Hobens turned Stanley Hern pro at the age of 15 and worked as one of the licensed golf professionals at A Section Founder West Links. Four independent golf clubs totaling more than 1,200 members used the West Links golf course and there were ten professionals working at that 18-hole course. He was a golf professional for more than 50 years. When he married he changed his name to Hobens. Hobens immigrated to the United States in 1899. In 1909 he hosted the U.S. Open at the Englewood Golf Club and in 1910 he was the president of the Eastern Professional Golfers’ Associa- tion, which was a forerunner to the PGA of America. When the PGA of Amer- ica was founded in 1916 he was a member of its first Executive Committee. He was also one of three golf professionals who wrote the PGA’s first consti- tution and by-laws. He was the professional at Huntingdon Valley Country Club in the early 1920s when the Philadelphia Section was formed. At that time he was a member of the PGA of America redistricting committee that created the Philadelphia Section and its boundaries. In 1907 he became the first player to make a hole-in-one in a U.S. Open when he aced the 10 th hole at the Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Chestnut Hill course. In 1908 he won the Met- ropolitan Open and he was second in the 1906 Western Open. Both were con- sidered major tournaments at the time. During World War I he toured the country with Bobby Jones staging benefit golf matches for the Red Cross. In those days it was a common practice for the golf professional to visit a wealthy member’s summer home and teach golf to the family for a month or more. Hobens traveled to the home of Dwight Morrow in Maine on several occasions.