Velie Memorial Cup

Inaugural Tournament

The inaugural Velie Cup was played in 1929. Four competitions were held over the summer months with one played at each of the participating golf courses. Each contest consisted of two 18-hole rounds played on a single day. The four clubs separately fielded a roster of eight men. Two-ball foursomes (alternate shot) were played during the morning and singles competitions were held that afternoon. All matches were stroke play. The Velie Cup was awarded to the team that amassed the most points over the four competitions conducted under what was known as the intercollegiate system. The winner of the first Velie Cup event was Davenport Country Club.

Participating Clubs

The maiden tournament featured teams from four private country clubs – Rock Island Arsenal Golf Club, Davenport Country Club, Short Hills Country Club and Black Hawk Hills Country Club. The teams remained unchanged until 1943 when Oakwood Country Club replaced Black Hawk Hills. In the mid-1960s, Mill Creek Country Club (now known as Pinnacle Country Club) was added to the tournament. Crow Valley Golf Club began participating in 1970. The Arsenal Golf Club – home to the Velie Cup; its name prominently engraved on face – was taken over by the U.S. Army Garrison Office in 2010 and became a public facility. No longer a private course, the Arsenal Golf Club became ineligible to participate in the tournament.

The Quad-Cities Most Coveted Trophy

The Velie Cup quickly turned into the most sought-after prize by golfers of the Quad-Cities. During the 1940s and 1950s, the tournament attracted as many as 3,000 spectators with large galleries following the lead groups. Newspapers from as far away as Chicago reported on the tournament; local publications extensively covered each match. The clubs fielded top scratch and low handicap golfers for the competition. Heated arguments would often accompany team selection. It wasn’t unknown for a player to quit a club if not selected for the team. A source of pride, many former players’ obituaries included mention of their Velie Cup participation. Because of its success, the Velie Cup was used as a model for other interclub competitions around the country.

Tournament Format

Over the years, the structure of the Velie Cup has changed dramatically. For the first 36 years, the tournament format remained relatively stable. The most significant change during this period occurred in 1948 when the two-ball foursome was dropped in favor of all single matches. However, beginning in 1965, the format started to change often – seven times over the next 16 years. Medal play, Nassau, best ball, alternate ball, best-nine and variations of those formats were tried. The event was reduced to 54 holes over three days in 1966. By the 52nd annual in 1980, the tournament had been jammed into one weekend a year with 18 holes of best-ball twosomes on Saturday and 18 holes of straight medal play on Sunday.

Individual Honors

While primarily a team competition, for much of the tournament’s history, individual efforts were also recognized. For many years, the top individual scorer (either by most points or least strokes) was the recipient of a sterling silver cup. However, this tradition ended sometime in the early 1970s as the tournament format moved away from stroke play; the exact year is unclear. In addition, Velie Cup golfers under the age of 21 competed for the Dick Smith Memorial Trophy which was awarded to the player with the low medal score for the series. As with the individual silver cup, this too is no longer awarded.

Decline

By the 1980s, the Velie Cup was in decline. Interest in the event had been slowly fading for years. Team committees were pressed to find 12 players for many of the clubs. Oakwood and Short Hills had dominated the Velie Cup since 1950 and that, in part, led organizers to constantly change the format in an effort to bring parity to the clubs and to keep interest in the tournament from further eroding. However, these efforts had unintended consequences as the traditional aspects of the event were diminished and long-time participants stopped playing. This left younger players with little or no connection to old rivalries and enthusiasms to take over the club rosters. In more recent years, the ever-increasing number of cheaper and less time-consuming sporting alternatives have led to the loss of interest in golf in general which has impacted nearly all competitive golf events with the Velie Cup not an exception.

Tradition Endures

While the Velie Cup is no longer the large gallery-drawing event that it once was, the tournament still continues today. Once a summer-long event, the Velie Cup winner is settled over one weekend. As of 2014, the Velie Cup format consists of 12 members per team playing two-man best ball with the best five scores counted each day for each club. Davenport Country Club (Iowa), Short Hills Country Club (Illinois), Oakwood Country Club (Illinois), Pinnacle Country Club (Illinois) and Crow Valley Country Club (Iowa) compete for the Velie Cup.

In an era where declining interest in competitive golf has caused many grand tournaments of the past to disappear, it is remarkable achievement that the Velie Cup is still being played after more than 85 years.