Wilfred Reid (1884 –
1973)
BORN: Bulwell,
Nottingham, England
DIED: West Palm Beach,
Florida, at age 89.
Wilfred studied club and ball making
under Tommy Armour’s father, Willie, in
Edinburgh, Scotland. A scratch golfer at
15, Wilfred turn professional at 17 and
was a protégé of Harry Vardon who helped
him land a club professional job in
Paris, France, in the early 1900’s. Reid
was a fine competitive golfer despite
his diminutive size, and he beat his
mentor, Vardon, on several occasions.
Reid
competed in the United States during
several seasons before moving there at
the behest of the DuPont family after
the outbreak of World War I.
He became a
member of the PGA in 1917 and obtained
U.S. citizenship in 1921. Reid served as
a professional at several of America’s
top clubs, including Country Club of
Detroit, Beverly Country Club, The Broadmoor and Seminole Golf Club. He
defeated Gene Sarazen in the 1924
Augusta Open, won the 1926 Michigan PGA
and has twenty-six holes-in-one in his
long-playing career. Reid began
designing golf courses at an early age
and laid out courses in Europe and
Britain before settling in the United
States. He once estimated that he had
designed fifty-eight courses and
remodeled some forty-three others during
his design career. While based in
Michigan during the 1920’s, he partnered
with another club professional, William
Connellan. The firm of Reid and
Connellan designed some twenty courses
in that state alone. Reid retired to
Florida in the early 1950’s and
consistently bettered with age in both
social and competitive rounds. In 1985
Reid was post-humously inducted into the
Michigan Golf Hall of Fame.
Wilfred Reid designed courses in the
following states :
California, Delaware (The DuPont Course
- DuPont Country
Club), and Michigan. In
addition he designed courses in England
and France.
