Horace Rawlins was 21 years old when he won the first U.S. Open in 1895, held October 4th on the Rocky Farm Course at Newport (R.I.) Golf Club. Newport’s founder was Theodore Havermeyer, President of the USGA, and he supposedly paid the expenses of the players to make sure the best would show up. The starting field consisted of only 11 players, who toured the 2,706-yard 9-hole course four times in harsh conditions, with strong winds and temperatures in the 50s. Rawlins shot 45-46 (91), 41-41 (82) for a two shot victory over Willie Dunn, winning $150 and a gold medal for his efforts.
Horace Rawlins had learned to play golf as a caddie on the Isle of Wright off the southern coast of England. Through the Green, the journal of the British Golf Collectors Society, had an article that featured a small bit on him in 2016 on golfers from the Isle of Wight.
According to Sal Johnson in the U.S. Open Almanac, when “Rawlins played in the U.S. Open it was only his third start in a golf tournament.” The following year he was runner up, and played in a total of 14 championships until 1912, but never came close to winning again. He held various club jobs and was the first pro at Wykagyl in New York, redesigned by both Donald Ross and A.W. Tillinghast. After the 1912 U.S. Open, little was heard from him and a publication in 1913 noted that he had “given up golf, and opened a milliner’s shop at Haslemere, Surrey, England.”
Joe Horgan began caddying in 1893 for John Reid, who many regard as the “father of American golf” – he established the St. Andrews Golf Club in Yonkers, New York in 1888. Horgan began his big-time work at the inaugural U.S. Open in 1895, when he caddied for the winner Horace Rawlins, the start of a long career that had him carry the bag for the winners of six U.S. Opens, two U.S. Amateurs, four U.S. Women’s Amateurs, plus numerous other titles. In those days the bags were small, but large enough to hold seven clubs.
“When I won the championship with Rawlins that time in Newport, he counted me out 15 iron men [dollar coins] and added three of his clubs which I cashed in for two bucks a piece.” Horgan was not particular about the rank and sex of those he worked for, but said he was “more at home with the pros and I leaned more to professional golf. Moreover it pays better.” Horgan would also caddie for Harry Vardon in the 1920 U.S, Open, when at the age of 50 Vardon almost won it for the second time, and would see Ben Hogan win at Merion in 1950.
