Individual, Men

Charles Sands, of the St. Andrews Golf Club in Yonkers, New York, played the Compiègne course in rounds of 82-85 to win the gentlemen’s event by one shot over Walter Rutherford of Jedburgh, Scotland. Charles Sands took up golf in 1895 and only three months later went to the final of the first Amateur Championship of the USGA. There he met the redoubtable Charles Blair MacDonald, and Sands’ lack of experience showed as MacDonald won easily, 12 and 11. Sands never again played in the U. S. Amateur, and that and his Olympic triumph constitute his entire golfing laurels.

Sands was a well-known athlete, though. Primarily a tennis player, he was the United States’ champion in 1905 in court tennis, the original form of the game. He is one of only two American athletes to have competed in the Olympics in three sports – 1900 in golf, 1900 in lawn tennis, and 1908 in jeu de paume (the original name of court tennis).

Al Lambert, the winner of the handicap event, also competed in the Olympic competition, finishing eighth with rounds of 94-95. Lambert was from St. Louis and when Olympic golf returned to St. Louis in 1904, Lambert would again compete, making him the only person to play in both of the initial Olympic golf tournaments. In fact, Lambert was the man responsible for the 1904 Olympic golf event.

Lambert was a wealthy man. He founded Lambert Pharmacal Co., later Warner-Lambert, best-known as the makers of Listerine. His avocation in later years became flying and he was the primary benefactor for Charles Lindbergh’s trans-atlantic flight. For his contributions to aviation, the St. Louis airport was named Lambert International Field.

In 1900 Lambert played the Olympic golf event while on a business trip to his Paris office. On his return he mentioned the Olympic golf event to his father-in-law, Colonel George McGrew. McGrew was the founder of Glen Echo Golf Club in St. Louis and with the Olympics coming to St. Louis in 1904, Lambert and McGrew put forth plans to conduct an Olympic golf tournament at Glen Echo.