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Tin Whistles Club

The Tin Whistles was founded in Pinehurst, NC in 1904. It was formed by a group of male golfers, with various accounts of its origin. One had it that a tin whistle was blown in the village street to call the players to the links. Another had it that the group caused a "springhouse" to be built over a natural spring adjacent to the 10th hole (or maybe 12th hole) of the No. 1 course at the Pinehurst Country Club, and arranged for an attendant to stand by during the winter golfing season. At the sound of a tin whistle, the attendant would emerge with scotch and a carafe of freshly drawn spring water.

A third account is that a group of New Yorkers were vacationing at the Holly Inn, dividing their time equally between the links and socializing. They organized a tournament, with the prizes two bottles of Scotch to be opened and shared at the finish. The Boss, by Alfred Henry Lewis, was in print at about this time, depicting Tammany Hall and a hoodlum gang known as the Tin Whistles who were summoned to their duty of breaking up polling places which were unfriendly to Tammany by the blowing of a whistle. For some reason, the founders adopted the name as their own.

The stated objectives of the organization were:

"To promote a golfing fellowship at Pinehurst and to maintain there a neutral zone for a choice and chosen few from outside organizations to which it will be pleasant to return year by year."

and

"It shall be the duty of each member to suppress the incipient conceit of any fellow member who thinks he is in line for the United North and South Amateur Championship."

In recent years, the Constitution has been amended to "[i]t is formed for social purposes and to promote an interest in the game of golf at Pinehurst, North Carolina." The Tin Whistles continues to exist as a golf and civic organization in Pinehurst. A sister organization for women, the Silver Foils, was founded in 1909.

External Links

Tin Whistles Website.

References

Moriarity, Audrey Pinehurst: Golf, History and the Good Life (2005) ISBN10: 1-58726-179-0