Findlay was the manager of the golf department at Wright & Ditson Sporting Goods store in Boston, Massachusetts.

Findlay began playing golf while in Montrose after his mother purchased a set of clubs for him at 8 years old.

Findlay served as a cowhand at the Merichiston Ranch, just east of Fullerton, Nebraska, for two years before an injury ended his cowboying career.

[6] Henry Flagler hired Findlay to be the "Golfer-in-Chief" of the Florida East Coast Golf Club in 1898.

The Golf Club included five courses, all on the Florida East Coast Railway in Flagler resort cities: St. Augustine, Ormond, Palm Beach, Miami, and Nassau.

[8] Vardon arrived in America in February 1900 and met with Findlay at the Spalding Golf Club factory at Chicopee, Massachusetts to tour the facility.

[10] Findlay left Wright & Ditson's in 1909 to take a job with Wanamaker's Department Store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

[11] WD = withdrew The first golf course that Findlay ever designed or built was on the prairie of Merchiston Ranch in April 1887.

[12] Findlay's early courses 1897–1905) were naturalistic, building the holes and greens upon the natural features of the landscape with minimal intervention done by the architect or builder.