In 1889, Dunn left for France without informing the Green Committee of his absence as his son John Dunn had taken over his father's duties at the Club. The committee also received complaints that Tom Dunn in his capacity as club master at North Berwick was failing to attend to his duties. When the committee received Dunn's request to have his house wallpaper and painted this was the final straw and they terminated his employment. Tom Dunn replied on 8th November 1889, " I understand my services as custodian of the private green are no longer required. I accept my departure from North Berwick could have been misunderstood as an abandonment of my position as green keeper, but my doctor insisted".

In 1889, Dunn was appointed greenkeeper and club maker to the Tooting Bec G.C. in Surrey where he laid out the Furzedown course. Philip Wynn, a club maker from North Berwick later joined Dunn at Tooting Bec. Tom Dunn taught Arthur J. Balfour to play golf at North Berwick (Prime Minister 1902-05) and while Parliament was sitting Balfour golfed at Tooting Bec near London and partnered Tom Dunn again. The ground there was later developed for house building and in 1906 was the site of the famous Tooting Bec Lido.

Tom Dunn moved to Hanger Hill G.C. and then to London Scottish G.C where he extended the course to eighteen holes on Wimbledon Common. A founder member of that club was Lord Elcho, 10th Earl of Wemyss and March, also a member at North Berwick G.C. London Scottish shared the course with Royal Wimbledon G.C. where Ben Sayers Jnr was later the professional.

In 1891, Tom Dunn laid out the Sheffield & District nine-hole course, later to be called Lindrick G.C. where Johnny Forrest from North Berwick was appointed the first professional and greenkeeper. It was noted in the club minutes that during a competition the professional holed his tee shot in one at the 130yard 7th hole using a slazenger ball and a hammer headed club patented by Sir Walter Hamilton-Dalrymple and made by James Hutchison at North Berwick.

In 1894 Tom Dunn left the London Scottish G.C and laid out the Meyrick Park golf course in Bournemouth where he was appointed professional. It was at Bournemouth that Tom Dunn & Son, the 'son' being John D. Dunn expanded their business. John was responsible for the club making while Tom concentrated on designing golf courses. The clubs were stamped with a lion rampant, surrounded by the lettering 'T. Dunn & Son, Bournemouth'.

In 1894, John patented a 'one-piece' club made from a single piece of wood and introduced it to America when managing the golf division of the Bridgeport Gun Implement Co. in 1898. Tom Dunn sailed for America in 1899 and was signed up by the Oriental and Manhattan Hotel group to supervise their golf courses in Florida. He also assisted his son John D. Dunn as manager of the West Florida Golf Association. Throughout his career Tom Dunn laid out more courses in Great Britain than any other designer. During this period he lived with his wife Isabella at 'The Brooks' in East Grinstead. Tom Dunn died in 1902 aged 52 years.

SEYMOUR G. DUNN

SEYMOUR GOURLAY DUNN described as 5'11", with fair hair, blue eyes, and a thistle tattooed on his forearm. He was 15 years old when he first visited the USA in June 1897. During that vacation he laid out a nine-hole course at Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. In 1899 Seymour was appointed pro at the Societe Golf de Paris and laid out several courses in Europe including Royal Ostend G.C. (1903); a private course for King Leopold of Belgium (1906); a course in the Rothschild Estate, France (1908); a course for King Emmanuel of Italy (1908) and at Royal Zoute G.C in Belgium (1909).

In 1904 Seymour was pro at Royal County Down, Nothern Ireland and in 1906 he spent the summer at Lake Placid, New York, an area he would be associated with for the remainder of his career. The following year he emigrated to the USA permanently and joined his uncle Willie Dunn Jnr. at Van Cortlandt Park G.C. In 1907, Seymour was appointed pro at the Wykagyl G.C, Rochelle, NY and in 1909 he laid out the course at Lake Placid Resort G.C. where he moved the following year. Seymour set up a mail order company distributing golf equipment all over the States stamped with his trade mark of a 'Crown and Banner' bearing the legend 'Vi et Arte'.

Seymour made his reputation as a golf guru with many of the top pro's using his instruction methods including Jim Barnes, Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen. Dunn would demonstrate the correct swing plane by using an imaginary pane of glass. This was copied by Ben Hogan in his book 'Five Lessons' with no mention of the source. Later Hogan did acknowledged he was inspired to adopt many of Dunn's swing theories. Seymour wrote the Golf Fundamentals - Orthodoxy Of Style which Golf Digest included in a list of classic instruction books. He wrote articles for the golf magazines and designed many courses around New York including Tuscarora (1923); Rochester (1925); Suneagles now Monmouth C.C (NJ) (1926); Craig Wood Golf and Country Club (1926); Locust Hill (1927); Ticonderoga (1929); Lake Placid Links Course. He also laid out the course at Saranac Inn Golf and Country Club with his uncle Willie Dunn Jnr. which he considered to be his best work.

In 1928 he was associated with A.G. Spalding & Brothers in New York and in 1929 set up an Indoor Golf School in Madison Square Gardens with thirty instructors and eighteen pitch and putt holes. Seymour Dunn's contribution to the evolution of the game continues to be acknowledged.

JOHN D. DUNN

JOHN DUNCAN DUNN learned to play golf at North Berwick and was a proficient swimmer and could handle a yacht. He was a particularly good all round sportsman, a strong runner and played on a Scottish team against England at football. He was selected to play in the Celtic Roller Skating team, when they won the championship, and he beat Mr. Steele, a former one-mile roller-skating champion of Great Britain. John played for the Bournemouth Rovers Rugby team, and was a marksman in the London Scottish Riffle Volunteers. Among John Dunn's early pupils was Miss Amy Pascoe who was British Lady Golf Champion in 1896.

At the age of 24 years, John Dunn sailed from Southampton to America on the S.S. New York arriving at Ellis Island on 27th March 1897. He was appointed assistant pro to his uncle Willie Dunn Jnr. at Ardsley C.C. His uncle opened a retail shop in New York where John assembled the golf clubs imported from Scotland. Later he started his own business at 17 West, 42 Street, New York (1898-1904) and played in the 1898 US Open. That year John Dunn was manager of the golf department of Overman Wheel Company of Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. In 1899 he laid out the Columbia course in South Carolina and in 1900 he replaced his uncle at the Bridgeport Gun Implement Co. supervising the design and manufacture of golf clubs.

During the winter months Dunn would organise golf instruction lectures and club making demonstrations and often appeared at the end of the evening in full highland dress playing the bag-pipes, which he probably learned to play during his teenage years at North Berwick. His cousin, John Dunn Tucker is famous for extending the Number One course at Pinehurst to 18 holes in 1898, which was the start of an amazing golfing heritage in North Carolina.

In 1900, John D. Dunn married Norah Wilshire in Los Angeles, California and that year was employed by the Florida East Coast Railroad Company to develop their golfing hotels. The courses included Belleair, Tampa, Kissimmee, Winter Park, Ocala, Ormond, Miami Golf Links, Palm Beach and St Augustine. Dunn encouraged the top pros to winter in Florida and be identified with his hotel group, instructing and playing golf with the guests. He also organised tournaments among the professionals which were popular with the spectators and a lucrative venture during the quiet winter months for the pro's.

In 1902, John D. Dunn applied to be re-instated as an amateur and was appointed secretary of Ocean Park Country Club in Santa Monica, California where he was living. In 1906-08, he was working in France at the Societe d' Hardelot G.C near Boulogne as secretary and manager. Dunn returned to the USA and was associated with Pasadena G.C in 1919, and designed golf courses at Old Brockway, Lake Tahoe (1922) and Los Serranos (1925), He managed Bullock's Golf Shop, Los Angeles (1924-26), wrote magazine articles and instruction books such as Natural Golf - A Book Of Fundamentals (1931).

WILLIE DUNN JNR

WILLIAM DUNN JNR. born 1865 in the Borough of Blackheath in the suburbs of London where his father was the greenkeeper and club maker. That year the family returned to Leith Thistle G.C and were living at 7 Vanburgh Place, Leith Links, Edinburgh. In 1881, Willie Dunn Jnr. moved to North Berwick where his older brother Tom Dunn was appointed Keeper of the Green. It was here that Willie Jnr. apprenticed as a club maker with his brother Tom and Charles Gibson.

Willie Dunn Jnr. was 15 years old when he played his first match against Ben Sayers at North Berwick and won. The following year he partnered Sayers in a money match against the two Fernies at St Andrews. The first day was halved but the second day Dunn and Sayers won the match by five holes. Willie entered the Open Championship for the first time from North Berwick in 1883 and again in 1884, and 1886.

In 1886, Willie Dunn Jnr. was asked by Horace Hutchinson to take charge of the links of the Royal North Devon Golf Club at Westward Ho!. Dunn remained there for a year and laid out the present course. In 1888, he moved to Royal Epping Forrest in Chingford and laid out their 18 hole course. The following year he transferred to Biarritz in France where his brother Tom designed the course during a winter visit while still engaged at North Berwick.

Willie Jnr. remained at Biarritz for six years and in 1891 he was persuaded by Duncan Cryden and Edward S. Mead of Dodd, Mead & Co to come to America where he accepted the post of professional instructor at Shinnecock Hills during the summer. Willie laid out a twelve hole course at Shinnecock and a nine-hole ladies course. Four years later a combination of the two courses were used to host the 1896 US Open. Willie Dunn Jnr. was the first unofficial champion of America in 1894 and runner-up in the first official US Open 1895.

By 1896, after flying visits to Biarritz in the winter, Willie Dunn with his wife and son Willie Dunn Jnr settled at the links of Ardsley Country Club in New York. It was here he set up a club manufacturing business and was joined by his nephew John D. Dunn in 1897. Willie opened a retail shop in New York and began experimenting with steel shafted clubs and was the first to use a tee peg. In 1895, he established the first Indoor Golf Centre and he continued this facility when his business moved to 9 East, 42 Street New York in 1898, a few blocks away from John D. Dunn's premises. In 1900, Willie Dunn Jnr laid out a private nine-hole course for John D Rockefeller on his Tarrytown Estate, NY.

When Dunn left the Royal North Devon Golf Club he recommended Charles Gibson from North Berwick as his replacement. Bert Way was Dunn's apprentice at North Devon and when he left Shinnecock Hills, Dunn recommended W.H. 'Bert' Way as his replacement. John Forman the Musselburgh 'caddie' followed Willie Dunn at Ardsley (1898-1901).

Most historians agree that Willie Dunn's influence on the development of the sport in the USA during the early part of the twentieth century was considerable. In the 1920s, Willie Dunn Jnr. moved to San Jose in California where he retired. He died in London at the age of 52 years.

JOHN FORMAN

John Forman born 28th July 1860 in Old Bridge Street, Leith, son of Henry Forman, a merchant seaman and his wife Barbara Gillespie. John Forman was a contemporary of Ben Sayers and Andrew Kirkaldy, and caddied for Old Tom Morris, Davie Strath, and Johnny Laidlay at North Berwick and Musselburgh. Forman bought his first golf club from Willie Dunn Snr who was in charge of Leith Links. John Forman worked for Thornton & Co at 78, Princes Street, Edinburgh as a club and ball maker for over 21 years. In 1895 he lived in the High Street, North Berwick and was granted his professional ticket on the West Links on 23rd August 1895.

He emigrated to America in 1898 and was appointed assistant pro to Willie Dunn Jnr. at Ardsley Casino Country Club, Dobbs Ferry, NY where John Duncan Dunn was also a club maker. Forman was familiar with the Dunn family from his days at North Berwick and Musselburgh. John Forman remained at Ardsley for three years and laid out the nine-hole course at the Dutchess Country Club, Poughkeepsie, NY. In 1901 he moved to Westfield G.C, then to Danville Golf Club, Danville, VA before moving at the age of 64 years to Harrisburg, PA (1924-28).