Harvard University

THE ARDSLEY CUP 

One of America's oldest college golf trophies still resides in Cambridge, nearly 125 years later 

The Ardsley Cup, known as the oldest trophy in college golf and an artifact of the old game, still resides in the Murr Center on Harvard's athletic campus nearly 125 years after the 1901 Harvard men's golf team won the trophy at the Atlantic City Country Club in the fifth annual Intercollegiate Golf Association (IGA) team championship. 

Named after the host club of the first three IGA Championships, The Ardsley Casino Club (renamed the Ardsley Golf Club years later), the cup was awarded to the Crimson after the program captured it's third team championship victory in 1900. Customary at the time, trophies of this kind passed between winners until a team would reach three championships. The team that first reached the three-win mark would be awarded sole possession of the trophy. 

The IGA Championships were started after The Ardsley Casino Club offered to host Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Princeton and Penn in 1896 for an intercollegiate competition, the first of its kind. In this inaugural year, only Columbia and Yale participated, however.

After the match proved to be a success, the Intercollegiate Golf Association was formed. The IGA invited the original five schools and opened the invite to any school that wanted to send a team for the first official championship. The pool of players remained small, however, as only Yale, Columbia, Harvard and Princeton played. 

In this first match in 1897, Yale prevailed, besting Princeton in the first round, and then Harvard in the finals. The following year had the same results, sending the Ardsley Cup back to New Haven.

In 1898, the IGA decided to switch the competition from the spring season to the fall, so, 1898 had two competitions. In October, the tournament was played once more, with Harvard and Yale meeting in the final round for the third year in a row. In the closest match up in the tournament’s short history, Harvard claimed the victory, blocking Yale from claiming the Ardsley Cup for good.

The fourth year of tournament play brought the first time Harvard and Yale did not play each other in the final round, after Princeton won the first round. During the Harvard-Princeton final, the Crimson were victorious for the second year in a row.

After it was decided to move the competition back into the springtime, 1900 did not see any intercollegiate play. However, by the time 1901 came around, Penn finally joined the matchup. With a preliminary match added to account for the extra team, two teams were selected at random for an extra round of golf. Harvard beat Princeton in the preliminary and Columbia in the next to meet up with Yale once again in the final.

As both teams needed to secure a third victory to claim the Ardsley Cup, this matchup would end in a dramatic fashion. Harvard, however, was able to best Yale, solidifying their claim to the historic trophy.

The trophy that was worth around $250 in the late 1890's (Over $8,000 today) was thought to be lost, but a recent history of college golf that was written by David Tenneson (linked above) led to the rediscovery of the trophy. Currently residing in the Murr Center on Harvard's Athletic Campus, the Ardsley Cup still remains displayed nearly 125 years after the championship victory.