From 1900 to his retirement from competitive golf in 1916, Walter Travis (1862-1927) was hailed as the most successful amateur golfer in the United States, despite not taking up the game until he was nearly 35.  Thus, he became affectionately known as "The Old Man."  He was the United States Amateur Champion in 1900, 1901, and 1903.  In 1904, in his crowning achievement as a golfer, Travis became the first American (and first non-Brit) to win the British Amateur Championship.  It would be 22 years before another American would duplicate this feat.

Travis is credited with being the first to take a scientific approach to practice, as he devised various drills to improve his skills, and meticulously studied the effects of various types of swings and strokes.  He was the first to win a major championship (the 1901 U.S. Amateur) while using the Haskell rubber-cored ball, a feat that doomed the gutta-percha golf ball.  In his British Amateur victory, he chose to use the new Schenectady center shafted putter, a type of club that eventually was banned by the Royal and Ancient.  (Taken from the Walter Travis Society website)

Travis was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1979.