The Championship Chase That Left an Everlasting Legacy
To commemorate the 125th New Jersey Amateur Championship, NJ Golf has produced special editorial content highlighting the history, people and significance of this milestone championship.
KENILWORTH, N.J. - For 125 years, the New Jersey Amateur Championship has crowned champions. Seventy-two different golfers have etched their names into the tournament’s history, but one of the most recognizable names associated with the championship belongs to a man who never won it.
His name is Edwin M. Wild.
Each July, the large silver trophy presented to the New Jersey Amateur champion travels from club to club across the Garden State. On July 6, the Edwin M. Wild Trophy returns to Baltusrol Golf Club, where another champion will be crowned and another name added to its storied history.
More than a century ago, Wild embodied the competitive spirit that defined amateur golf in New Jersey. In 1913, after winning the second division of the Essex County Golf Tournament, he drove directly to Baltusrol to compete in a qualifying round for the club championship, completing 54 competitive holes in a single day.
That dedication became a hallmark of his career.
Edwin Milton Wild, referred to as “one of the grand old men of the state’s golf history,” was an insurance broker born in Jersey City who later resided in Cranford, New Jersey. At the peak of his playing career, he rose to become the 12th-ranked amateur golfer in America. He also served on the publicity board of Cranford Golf Club, now known as Echo Lake Country Club, and was invited to participate in the club’s special program celebrating the opening of its new 18-hole golf course.
Wild was an accomplished amateur golfer, winning eight consecutive Baltusrol club championships and seven club championships at Echo Lake. He recorded a hole-in-one in 1925 using a 15-year-old mashie-jigger and captured Rumson Country Club’s first invitational tournament. Ironically, the one title that always eluded him was the New Jersey Amateur Championship.
However, Wild compiled one of the greatest records in the history of the championship without ever winning it. The Cranford resident qualified for the State Amateur 12 times before the age of 42, reaching the semifinals nine times and advancing to the final match on five occasions.
Despite all those appearances, the trophy that now bears Wild’s name was never hoisted by Wild himself. His five runner-up finishes remain tied for the most in championship history. Four of those defeats came at the hands of fellow Baltusrol members in the final match.
“On the threshold of finally winning the championship for the third time in five years, Edwin M. Wild of Baltusrol was forced to see the New Jersey State amateur golf title go to his opponent in the final round today at Shackamaxon, August Kammer,” wrote The Herald Statesman in 1924.
Wild’s golf legacy did not end with his playing accomplishments. The championship’s history began in 1900 when the first Amateur Championship was contested at Essex County Country Club.
During the 1930s, F. Paul Anderson won three consecutive titles, permanently retiring the championship trophy. Wild subsequently donated the trophy that has been awarded ever since, ensuring his name would forever be linked to the championship.
Beyond the trophy itself, Wild’s family continued his golfing legacy. His wife, Edith, and daughter, Gail, were both avid golfers. Gail, born in 1917, won the Women’s Metropolitan Championship at age 16 in 1933 and later captured the NJSGA Closed Championship in 1937. She teamed with her mother in multiple mother-daughter championships, earning low-net honors in both 1935 and 1938. Following her competitive playing career, Gail served multiple terms as president of the Connecticut Women’s Tri-County Golf Association.
While his daughter built an impressive golfing résumé of her own, Wild’s story nearly ended much earlier. In 1920, he made national headlines following a serious accident in Red Bank, New Jersey.
“Edwin M. Wild of Cranford, N. J., champion of the Baltusrol Golf Club, runner-up for the New Jersey State championship, and ranking twelfth among American amateurs, may lose his left arm, it is feared, by an accident on the ice here yesterday, when he was struck by the revolving propeller of Pierre A. Proal's new air-sled,” reported The Asbury Park Press in 1920.
The accident was covered by newspapers throughout the United States, including The Tribune in California, The Pittsburgh Press, and the El Paso Times. Doctors at Monmouth Memorial Hospital initially feared the injury could result in the loss of his arm and waited several days before determining whether surgery would be necessary, concerned about the possibility of blood poisoning.
Instead, Wild made a remarkable recovery and returned to the game he loved. He continued competing until his health no longer allowed it. In 1932, doctors ordered him to stop playing because of heart problems. Later that same year, at the age of 42, he passed away.
Nearly a century later, another champion will lift the Edwin M. Wild Trophy at Baltusrol. When the final putt drops and a new champion is crowned, another name will be added to New Jersey golf history.
Unlike the man whose name is engraved on the trophy, that player will forever be able to call himself a New Jersey Amateur champion. Yet more than 90 years after his death, Wild remains woven into the championship’s history because he spent a lifetime pursuing excellence in the game.
That pursuit makes Wild one of the tournament’s greatest champions who never was and one of the few individuals to leave a larger mark on the championship itself than many who actually won it. Every July, golfers are reminded that some legacies are measured not solely by victories, but by the lasting imprint left on the game. This year, the pursuit, the heartbreak, and the celebration will once again unfold at Baltusrol, much as they did all those years ago.
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