Combined families — Golf with governor

This is the latest in an occasional series of posts about the daughters of Samuel Pruyn and their families that lived in the three houses that now are the campus of The Hyde Collection art museum in Glens Falls.

Maurice Hoopes and daughter Polly played golf against New York Gov. Nathan Miller and Miller’s daughter in an “auld Scotch” match at Glens Falls Country Club on Aug. 14, 1922.

Miller and his family vacationed that summer at Erlowest, the Lake George estate of Edward Morse Shepard.

Polly had just returned from a 10-day vacation to Gloucester, Mass. with friends Martha Loomis and Ruth Sherman.

Earlier in the summer, Polly, with a score of 48–49, led a team of Glens Falls Country Club women in winning the deciding match of the a three-match series against a team from Saratoga Country Club, played at Schenectady.

The teams had previously won one match each on their respective home courses.

“The local players put up an excellent exhibition on the neutral course, and won the deciding match hands down,” The Post-Star reported.

Polly showed promise as a young golfer who had recently graduated with high honors from Glens Falls Academy, where she was class president.

On Sept. 30, Polly fit in time for one more golf match at Glens Falls Country Club before leaving for a year of study at the National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C.

This time, Polly teamed with newspaper publisher, business man and Republican political leader Addison B. Colvin in a mixed doubles match against Glens Falls Country Club pro Ben Lord and Ethel H. Atherton.

Lord set a new course record of 72, one stroke better than his own previous record.

“He had six par holes and one birdie (one under par) the first nine holes, and three birdies and four pars in the second nine,” The Post-Star reported.

Colvin scored 89, Hoopes 101, and Atherton 103.

Earlier in the week, twenty-seven of Polly’s friends attended a farewell luncheon given in her honor at the Gift and Tea Shop at the Glens Falls Insurance Co. building.

Sources: The Post-Star June 27, July 22, 29,31, Aug. 15, Sept. 29, Oct. 3, 1922

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