As with many of his pro appointments, his time at Misquamicut didn’t last long. Like young Tom Morris, Willie bristled at the idea of the “gentlemen” being inherently superior to the lowly professional. Unlike Tom, Willie had to suck it up, but he never lasted long in any role, and over the next few years he took roles at Baltusrol, Pittsfield, Montclair, Apawamis, Onwentsia, St Louis and finally Philadelphia Cricket Club. It’s said that he had ten jobs in ten years.
This may be overstating the issue. Willie learned very early on that American winters were best spent in the south, and he started the trend among pros of finding a winter role in warmer climes - around St Augustine being his preference. He left several northern clubs to take a winter opportunity in the sun. What cannot be overstated, however, is his precociousness. At the Chicago Golf Club in 1897, in his first ever US Open, aged seventeen, he lost by one shot, when winner Joe Lloyd had birdied the final hole! This is often misreported as an eagle, an easy mistake to make as the hole was nearly 460 yards long and was playing as a good three shotter. Lloyd played it beautifully, a huge drive followed by a smooth brassie to eight feet for a superb birdie.
Nevertheless, Anderson had exploded onto the international scene, and over the next three years he finished third, fifth and eleventh in the competition. By 1901, he was a confident twenty-one-year-old and proceeded to win his first US Open at Myopia Hunt Club in Boston, beating the great Aleck Smith in the first ever eighteen-hole play-off.
The players had tied on 331 on the Friday but the play-off had to wait as Saturday and Sunday were “Members Days”. This represented the start of Willie’s drive to get recognition for the pros. Growling, “No, we're no goin’ tae eat in the kitchen,” he made it clear he was angry at the treatment being meted out, and this led to a special marquee being erected for the players.
Late on the Monday, Anderson was trailing by five shots with five holes to play in the play-off and uttered the immortal line, “Gimme a smoke and I'll win it yet”. In an era where a five was a good score on any hole, he then proceeded to score five fours to finish. When Smith missed a par putt on the last, it was all over. Willie had his first title and the world had seen Act One of the Anderson/Smith series as the inseparable pair went on to dominate US golf for the next decade.
