[2] The first sixteen Opens had all been won by British golfers who had learned the game in England or Scotland, and visited the United States to play in tournaments, or in most cases, lived in the U.S. and worked as club professionals.

Also in 1913, McDermott won the Open tournament at Shawnee-on-Delaware, Pennsylvania, finishing ahead of top Englishmen Harry Vardon and Ted Ray.

Then, following his 1913 win at Shawnee over Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, he boasted excessively, was criticized by his fellow players and the crowd for this, and had to apologize; it seems there were no lasting hard feelings.

In 1914, McDermott visited the United Kingdom again to compete in the British Open, but because of travel difficulties, he arrived too late to play.

On his way home his ship, the SS Kaiser Wilhelm II, collided with another vessel, the British-flagged grain carrier Incemore, in foggy, misty conditions in the English Channel.

Ouimet won a three-man playoff against Vardon and Ray (widely regarded as the best golfers in the world at the time), and this led to a dramatic rise in Americans' interest in golf.

The three showed they could compete on even terms with the best players in the world, and American dominance of golf would be established by the early 1920s, assisted by stars like Gene Sarazen and Bobby Jones.

[7] McDermott is portrayed by actor Michael Weaver in the 2005 golf film The Greatest Game Ever Played, which tells the story of Ouimet's 1913 U.S. Open triumph.

McDermott appears prominently in one memorable scene where, dashingly dressed and celebrating with a few drinks, he issues a loud, boastful challenge to a group of golfers in the clubhouse, before the start of the tournament; he also features in the golf sequences, contending for a while before falling back.

The portrayal is apparently true to character, and based primarily on the infamous scene at the Shawnee tournament shortly before the Open began.