Celebrating 100 Years of Golf
Northampton Country Club at 100
September 15, 1998
By Jim Parsons
The oldest organized golf club in America is the Oakland Links, founded in 1884 in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. In 1898 the Warner Meadow Golf Club, later to become the Northampton Country Club, was founded on the land that is now look Park in Florence.
Golf came to Northampton as the result of a unique melding of diverse groups which shared an enthusiasm for the game. A number of students and members of the faculty at SmithCollege joined with community leaders to investigate the possibility of establishing a golf course. This all came at a time when town-gown relations were strained over the location of the new Forbes Library which was just across the street from Smith College.
In the following pages, local writer and historian, Jim Parsons tells the story of golf in Northampton and the Northampton Country Club, which marks it 100th anniversary this year.
The Story Begins
The year was 1898. The nation was just emerging from the depression of 1896 and 1897 and the brief Spanish American War had rallied the American spirit. That fall Smith College enrolled 1104 students from thirty states and four foreign countries, a far cry from the first class of 14 students only 23 years before.
The success of the college had to impress the most confirmed skeptic. Not only was there the physical growth of the campus and a booming enrollment but long held notions about the dangers of advanced study to young women had proven so wrong.
This concern was addressed in the original prospectus of the college which referred to exercises designed “not merely to secure health but also a graceful carriage, and well-formed bodies”. “How to preserve, develop and perfect womanly characteristics were no less earnestly considered than those related to intellectual culture.”
When the new gym was built on the campus in 1891, Senda Berenson, the first woman elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame, was appointed Director of the Department of Physical Culture. The first basketball teams in 1895 and 1896 were but one example of the revolutionary growth of interest in sports of all kinds.
One sport required space that wasn’t available in downtown Northampton. Golf was a game that was growing in popularity but was still disparaged in some quarters as an “old man’s game”. Golf-conscious Smith students and faculty found that there was an equally enthusiastic group of local business and professional men and their wives. Together they set out to find a course.
There were certain requirements. The land must be within the city limits and accessible by trolleys. To be adaptable for use as a golf course, relatively level farmland would be preferred. Naturally, money would have to be raised..to lease the land, hire a greenkeeper, and build a small clubhouse. The college girls would raise $350 and city residents would have to raise $300. Memberships would be $8 annually for men and $4 for women.
They found the perfect spot in Florence where they could conveniently step off the trolley and be ready to play. This was the Warner farm where there were still tobacco barns on flat acreage along the same Mill River that flowed though the Smith College Campus where it formed Paradise Pond. Most importantly, the owners of the land John and Arthur Warner were will to lease it all for $250 a year. And so the Warner Meadow Golf Club was born on the land that is now Look Park.
Warner Meadow
On December 20, 1900, the Hampshire Gazette and Northampton Courier ran the following story in what must have been an effort to let people know what was going on up there is Florence at the old Warner farm.
“The Warner Meadow Golf Club is one of the newest institutions of the city, founded in 1898. It has a $1,000 clubhouse, and leases 100 acres of land of John L. and Arthur F. Warner, on their farm, a mile west of Florence on the Williamsburg electric car line.
“There are 250 members of the club, one-half of whom belong to Smith College, and no more than half may belong to the college at one time, probably so that the control of the property may remain in the hands of residents of the city. It costs male members $8 a year to belong, and ladies $4 yearly, and it costs the average male $5 a year for golf balls, and some $25 a year besides for what they spend for clubs, carfare and the like.
“The club itself spends about $1800 a year on the grounds, taxes, water, rent, etc., and the members spend as much more for supplies, car fare, hiring boys, etc. One dealer in sporting goods in this city sold $900 worth this last year. The rent of the grounds costs $150 a year, and the club hired two men all the season to care for them, removing rocks, leveling rough places, building bridges over waterways and hollows, seeding the land around the holes into which the ball has to be knocked, and caring for the clubhouse, which has a giant fireplace, needing a great deal of feeding.
“The game of golf is to knock a tiny, hard ball around a course having 18 stopping places, in the least number of knocks. In the Warner Meadow club links there are but nine stopping places, so they go around twice in playing match games. The club has set the minimum number of knocks essential to establish a creditable record on this course of nine holes as 37 knocks. Most of the club members get a ball around in 50 to 55 knocks, while the best players like R. L. Williston, make it in 39, and A. H. Findlay once made it in 36 knocks.”
The golf club was a smashing success. In August of 1904, the enlarged and remodeled clubhouse was opened with an informal reception attended by many members and guests. After refreshments there was dancing to the music of Atkins and Field. The Gazette reported that the golf club “has had a longer life and more prosperity than any other similar institution existing in Northampton …It has about 200 acres of land in fine condition for a golf course besides having tennis, roque, and croquet grounds.
“The clubhouse, which was entirely rebuilt last year, is fitted up with all the modern conveniences, for cooking, dancing and other pleasures of a similar institution.”
You can still visit that clubhouse which has written about in such glowing terms almost a century ago. Today it is the administration building of Look Park and it still retains much of the look it had when it overlooked the area of the totem pole and the Pines Theater. It was moved from the crest of the hill when Look Park came into being in the late 1920’s.
For a detailed description of the golf course itself, we are grateful to the Springfield Republican which published a feature article in 1903 about the Warner Meadow Golf Club: “The tee for the first hole is near the clubhouse on a low bluff and the golfer makes his first drive down to the broad meadow. A good tee shot leaves a mashie or midiron approach on to a rolling green and a four should be recorded. The second is a mashie or midiron pitch, trees and long grass penalizing wild play. The third hole starts off with a drive up on hilly ground, from which an iron approach has to make to a large green that is one of the best on the course. The fourth hole is a fine one. Two small brooks have to be crossed on the drive unless one wants to play short and have a long approach to make. Once over the second brook and up the bank there are left a short approach and one or two putts before the ball is holed. The fifth hole, which is a drive-and-mashie hole along the edge of Mill River, is a pleasant one on a hot day. A cop bunker to catch the drive is the only hazard on the course.
“The sixth hole is a trap for ambitious golfers. It has to be played around or over the corner of a hay-field and the more of this corner the golfer is able to take on his drive the shorter the shot that is left to reach the green in two. A conservative way to play the hole is to drive toward the 150 yards flag, which means carrying over the fence at about 135 yards from the tee. Then a brassy can be played up over the hill and with a good shot the ball will run down to or near the green. Bogey for the hole is five but a skillful (sic) golfer will frequently save a stroke. After holing out the golfer walks through a grove next to the tee, perhaps loitering a bit to enjoy the coolness. Whole No. 7 is played back toward the club-house. The chief care on this hole is to avoid driving into the trees but one who can get a straight ball has no trouble. The green is a good one near the roque court and at the bottom of the hill on which the house stands.
“The eighth tee is in the rear of the club-house. Right in front of the tee is a drop down on to a meadow, across which the driver goes toward a gap in the trees. At this gap there is a drop to a lower meadow. The ambition of the long driver is to put the ball through the gap, but it is not often accomplished. A safe method is to play short and be sure of direction, for a long drive that is not straight at the gap is hopelessly stymied by the trees. The tee-shot well placed, a brassy or a long iron may put the ball on the green, but bogey allows five for the hole. The home hole is a teaser. It is only 200 yards from the tee but the green is on top of a clay bank 10 or 15 feet high and if the green is carried on the drive the ball must go through a gap in the trees only 30 or 40 feet wide. The player risks a good deal in trying to drive the green. It is much safer to play short and get a par four. R. T. Lee, the club champion, is able to drive the green with considerable regularity, and drove the green both times July 4, 2003, scoring a 2 and a 3. (The term “bogey” in this article actually refers to “par”.)
Our elder statesman of golf, Homer Bachand, who will celebrate his 96th birthday in this anniversary year of 1998, remembers the Warner Meadow course well. He began his caddying there and recalls caddying for Arthur Warner himself, the co-owner of the land.
As a little fellow, the popular Homer was dubbed “Tom Thumb” by William Feiker, who was the mayor of Northampton for many years. Homer’s caddying career began when, as a nine-year old in 1911, he accompanied his thirteen –year old brother Bob to the course. They were short of caddies when someone noticed the diminutive Homer and drafted him to carry a member’s clubs. Homer recalls vividly the layout of the old course which was still being played along with the new nine, even to the location of the tobacco barns that had to be concerned with on the sixth hole with its challenging dog-leg.
Fred Cary, a prominent businessman a fine golfer, was affiliated with the club from its earliest days and played a prominent role in the development of golf in Northampton.
The course moves
With an enlarged and well-appointed clubhouse, a full and enthusiastic membership, an easily accessible, fine course in a setting of exceptional beauty, and annual dues and fee “the very lowest of any similar club in the state”, why did they decide to move from Warner Meadow?
In 1908 principal control of the land rested in the hands of Arthur S. Warner of New York and disagreements with him were ongoing. The lease on the grounds was to expire in 1910 and members wanted the terms extended. For nearly a year the club had been trying to renegotiate the lease but “Mr. Warner, the club claims, evaded any attempt to reach a definite agreement, saying that it would be time enough when the present lease expires.”
When a report was published that the club would require new grounds, Warner capitulated, offering to renew the lease for two to three years after the expiration date in 1910. However, he wanted a 20% increase in rent that would raise the annual cost from $250 to $300! That did it. It was bad enough that they couldn’t play golf on Sunday but a 20% increase in rent was the final straw.
The Gazette reported “The club has improved the land it is using in various ways. One portion on it which was very hummocky has been leveled. From another portion the surface stones have been taken out, and there has been fertilizer used for the “greens” and various work. The club has spent, it says, several thousand dollars in bettering the land it leased. In view of all of this, and the other grievances, too numerous to detail here, the sentiment was entirely against submitting to Mr. Warner’s proposal for a very limited renewal of the lease, at an increased rental.”
Northampton Country Club Is Born
On the evening of April 23, 1908, 36 members of the Warner Meadow Golf Club met in the common council rooms at the city hall. They were there to listen to the “special report and findings of the special committee on grounds and to take up the matter of club incorporation.” All of the members present were representative of solid business and social interest in the city, such men as Alexander McCallum, E. H. Bannister, W.A. Clark, R.L. Williston, George W, Cable and others.”
“A number of the women members went to the hall, but did not remain for the meeting. The question of purchasing new grounds, to take the place of those now rented from Arthur S, Warner, had been pretty well talked over before the meeting, and many of those present were well determined to favor the action that was taken.”
As a result of the two-hour meeting the Northampton Country Club, Incorporated, was formed with a capital stock of $5000, to be issued in shares of $10 each. Forty-five acres of land directly across the Mill River from the existing golf course. This land would be rented to the Northampton Country Club as a social organization and a new clubhouse would be erected on the land.
The Gazette reported that “the new grounds are in Leeds, on the south side of Mill River below Cook’s dam, on the flood plain of the river, almost opposite the present grounds, and most of the property is owned by the Nonotuck company. They are about two minutes ride beyond the present course.
“The land which it is proposed to purchase is said to be far better condition for golfing than lands which clubs usually acquire. At least 30 acres of it will need comparatively little work to get into condition to play. There is several hundred dollars’ worth of timber on the land which will not be cut.”
At the time of the move as newly incorporated Northampton Country Club, there were 165 members and the club was in a solid financial condition. The president was R.L. Williston, vice-president A.Z. Kingsbury, secretary-treasurer W. A. Clark, and directors W.M. King, C.A. Clark, Dr. A.G. Minshall, and E. H. Bannister. They, along with Alexander McCallum and Prof. F. A. Waterman, constituted the building committee.
The ‘New’ Clubhouse
In November of 1908, the Building Committee voted to erect a new clubhouse estimated to cost $5,500, exclusive of the land. Its location occupied the same site as the present building. It was described as a building 85 feet long and 50 feet wide with only the second floor of its two and a half stories seen from the street.
On the ground were locker rooms and showers for men and women, a “consultation” room with a fireplace which soon became the nineteenth hole for relaxation, bragging, complaining and lying about one’s game. There was also a pro shop and porch overlooking the tennis courts and the course.
The second floor had a main room 40 feet by 30feet, two card rooms, a kitchen and two rooms to serve as living quarters for pro or steward and his family. The description in 1908 continued: “On the third floor over the kitchen and dining room, will be quarters for the caddy, where he will sleep. The space over the assembly room will be open for such use as may be demanded in the future.” The “caddy” referred to must have been the caddy master or assistant pro.
The upstairs room was occupied by many individuals over the years. In 1932, when Al Porter was the club pro and Benny Toski his assistant, two little boys moved into that room when their mother died in childbirth. Those boys were seven year old Tommy Toski and his five year old brother Bobby.
The outside of the building was sheathed in “novelty” siding, which was referred to as “in imitation of clapboards”, and the roof was of stained shingles. Around 1940, Ralph Parson’s winter project was to shingle the entire exterior of the clubhouse. He enlisted his two oldest sons, Ralph Jr. and Allan, recently arrived from Newfoundland, to assist him. It was a particularly cold winter and the two teenagers must have been thinking how much warmer it would have been back in Bay Roberts, Newfoundland!
The clubhouse was built for summer use only so the building was empty from fall to spring. There was no insulation and the bare frame was exposed in some areas. Its most attractive feature was the “piazza”, or porch, which was fourteen feet wide and extended around three sides. Unlike the porch on the first floor, it was screened making it a delightful spot to spend a warm evening listening to the waterfall at Cook’s dam with a tall, cool drink in your hand.
The clubhouse went through a series of metamorpheses as it was adapted to meet the needs of succeeding years. The kitchen was moved to the Cook’s dam side of the building and a spacious, air-conditioned lounge with massive windows built to overlook the course. Some of those windows are now in the present nineteenth hole.
The snack shop and nineteenth hole were rebuilt in an equally attractive style. Much of the work was done by club members under the direction of the late Jack Hayes. Jack was a master carpenter as well as a formidable opponent on the golf course with a swing and overall technique that only kindness would describe as unorthodox. There was nothing orthodox about his carpentry finishing skills however and the clubhouse was a testimony to his craftsmanship.
Other Sports
In addition to building the spacious new clubhouse, provisions were also made for tennis and other recreational pursuits. There were two tennis courts which were later expanded to four. The popularity of tennis reached its zenith with the appearance of William “Big Bill” Tilden in an exhibition match against A.H. Chapin, an outstanding amateur from Springfield, before more than a thousand spectators. The tennis courts began a short distance from the front of the clubhouse to allow viewing of matches from the comfort of the club porches. They extended in a line toward the present maintenance barn parallel to the seventh fairway. As interest in the sport waned, the courts were removed and a practice green, picnic area and a formal garden with a sunken fountain constructed. Now only the fountain remains, filled in as a sandbox for the children at the swimming pool.
The Early Course
Members have often wondered why the ninth hole is so much larger than all the others. In the early years, the first hole was the current seventh, followed in playing order as they are today. The present first was the fourth with the sixth being the ninth and final hole. However, there was no separate green for the last hole. Our ninth hole did double duty serving as both the ninth and third green with a separate pin for each hole.
On today’s second hole, the tee was on this side of the river making it much shorter than today. The most dramatic difference prior to the relocation of the fifth hole and the shortening of the sixth to accommodate the building of the Fairway Village Condominiums was the presence of the hill on the fourth hole. Today you can get a sense of how formidable an obstacle it was standing to the left or right of the opening and thinking of hitting your ball to a blind green over something that high.
To help in lining up your shot, a flag indicating the general direction of the green was suspended on a cable stretched the opening on the top of the hill. When you completed the hole, and most eventually did, you signaled the group behind you that it was clear by striking the gong hanging from a pole just beyond the green.
Farewell, Old Jim
The old fifth hole had its tee close by the fourth green and was extended in 1927 on land acquired under unusual circumstances. When Ralph Parsons took over the job of greenskeeper in 1924, there was no tractor. Instead, there was a horse named Jim who provided the power for fairway mowing and pulling the sickle bar rough mower. Before old Jim could be hitched up, he had to have his shoes put on. These were not the familiar horseshoes, but massive leather devices strapped up to his legs to keep him from digging up the fairways.
The need for a tractor was apparent, especially to Ralph. Fortunately, the members agreed and Robert T. Lee took it upon himself to solicit contributions to purchase a machine. When he approached Thomas McConnell, the sum of $220 had already been raised. In their discussion they agreed to (1.) flip a coin with the loser assuming the full cost of the tractor and (2.) to return the money already collected. Mr. Lee lost and he paid the full cost of $610 for the club’s first tractor.
The question now was what to do with Old Jim. Part of the land for the course had been bought from John A. Ahearn so another exchange was arranged: the club received that would permit the lengthening of the fifth hole and Mr. Ahearn had himself a horse named Jim.
A Different Course
The golf course of the 1920’s and 1930’s was very different from what we see today. All of the tees had a section where you would tee up most of the time and some were all clay and no grass at all. In earlier years when there were no wooden tees to prop up your ball, each tee had a bucket of water and a box of sand. A handful of moistened sand and you could shape your ant-hill-like tee any way you preferred.
The fairways were far narrower than today and the rough that has been reintroduced in recent years only gives a hint of how much hay, and it was hay, growing beside each fairway. The roughs were cut with a sickle bar hay mower that required someone on its seat to raise and lower the blade. Hand raking the cutting to piles and carting it away left the roughs still a few inches long.
As the summers progressed, the fairways would burn out as there was no other moisture available than what mother nature provided. This was a mixed blessing for the members. On one hand, you couldn’t get the ball to sit up but, if you managed to hit it at all, it went a mile on the sun baked surface.
Only the greens and fringes had water to keep them green. There was a system of pipes above ground all around the course which supplied all the greens. With the water taken from the city’s water system, pressure was always a problem and only two greens could be watered at a time. The pipes had to be taken apart and drained each fall and reconnected in the spring. In 1961, Tony Blyda, always a generous contributor to the club asked Ralph Parsons what he needed most on the course. The answer came without hesitation so Tony bought the force pump that served the course until the installation of the irrigation system in 1965.
Remains of A Bridge
When you start across the bridge on the second, a look upstream reveals a monolith of concrete set on a massive rock. This was the center pier of a bridge built over the river almost 70 years ago. The idea of it was to provide a picturesque walk to the second tee while keeping it high enough to avoid the annual freshets that often washed away the smaller bridge. You approached the bridge at ground level and had to descend the stairs on the tee side. A short stroll through the trees and you were at the tee.
The building of the bridge was quite a feat. The center pier that remains had to have form built for it and a walkway constructed for the wheelbarrow loads of concrete that the workers mixed and schlepped into place. There was no ready-mix concrete available in that era so the labor involved in its preparation was literally staggering. The completed bridge was solid and flood proof. However, it wasn’t element proof and gradually the wood decayed in the main supports. It was rebuilt in the late 40’s but Mother Nature once again proved her dominance and it rotted away. What remains is a tribute to those amateur bridge builders of so long ago as the concrete pier, after seven decades, stands straight and tall.
Caddying
Today’s typical golfer has never experienced the delight of having a caddy for a round. For many years a caddy was considered an indispensable element of the game. Carrying a bag of clubs was only the first of the many services an experienced caddy provided. The caddy was the ally who could legally advise you on the right club to use, the distances from any spot, the invisible breaks on the green. The caddy tracked your ball and marked where the errant spheres entered the rough, hazards or hell itself. They would keep your clubs clean, tend the pin, and might even offer a corrective tip on your swing on a bad day. If you felt like talking, they provide conservation.
And while all this was going on, they were often becoming better golfers than the members for whom they were toting the bags.
In the 20’s and 30’s the caddy shack was located on the other side of the road leading to the maintenance shed beyond the current swimming pool. It had a roof for protection against the harsher elements and a picnic style table with benches. A telephone-like device connected the shack with the pro shop. It was later moved to a spot closer to the present practice green behind a picket fence where a “holler” from the assistant pro would produce the same result as the phone.
The procedure began when the caddy arrived and “signed up” with the caddy master. As the members arrived, they would ask for a caddy, sometimes asking for their steady, and even, at one point, having the choice of an A, B, or C class caddy, each a different charge per round. The caddy master would call the shack, ask for specific caddies, or simply go down his list on the basis of who signed in first.
Ray Balise of Leeds was Pro Al Bontempo’s assistant from 1939 through 1941. Ray and his brothers Bill and Larry were outstanding golfers on the high school’s teams, in Four Ball competition, and in championship competition at the country club. Ray describes his daily routine at the club “which included getting there at 6 a.m. to sign up the caddies, clean clubs, clean up the locker room, the 19th hold and the pro “shop”. He still recalls “selling cigarettes for 15 cents a pack and the ball machine where you would put a quarter in and get a ball if you won.” Ray would be pleased to know that a close relative of that ball machine is still extracting quarters from members with many suspecting that the same balls are still in it!
In the thirties, the pay scale was 25 cents for nine holes and 50 cents for 18 holes. That was generous compared to the 25 cents Les Heon and his brothers were paid prior to 1920. The member didn’t pay his caddy directly. He paid the caddy master whose record book listed the member, the caddy, number of holes, the amount for the round, and whether the member had said to give his caddy a “drink”. That tip would increase the caddy’s take by a nickel for nine holes and a dime for 18. Woe to the member who failed to grant that “drink” to a caddy. He would be assigned to the cheapskate list and the news of his arrival would have the caddies scattering in all directions.
Course Characters
There will always be unusual characters on golf courses and we’ve already had our shares.
In the 30’s and 40’s there was a member named Jack Kintzel. He had a huge leather bag, usually played alone and preferred 27 holes at each outing. He also used a tee on every single shot except on the green! Among the caddies it was recognized that you earned your wing when you could make it through 27 holes without “croaking” on Mr. Kintzel. I still remember “croaking” after 18 holes and being rescued by my dad who caddied the final nine.
Arthur Donovan was a tall man of the same era who used a long cigarette holder and looked very much like the “penguin” in the Batman comics. He was the consummate waggler when he addressed the ball. Waggling is no longer in style as it once was. Arthur Donovan took it to the extreme and his caddies made it a game of counting the number of times he repeated his perfect waggle. It made for a long day. A fastidious man, Mr. Donovan favored a heavy dosing of powder after his restorative shower. As the shop assistant swept the locker room he always knew where Art Donovan had stood simply by the generous deposit of bath powder.
A member in the 70’3 played almost every day and often had a round in before the dew was driven off. He was an excellent golfer without a classic swing. Suddenly he developed a problem where he could not draw his club back to start his swing. He would stand there straining on the tee while his club seemed welded to the ground. Finally, he would get the swing started and, despite this temporary freezing would hit the ball as well as he ever did. This wasn’t always true of his fellow players who had suffered through his torment of the tee.
When the present clubhouse was built in 1970, temporary facilities were set up in the old Cahill house which was purchased to permit the expansion of the parking lot. The house was occupied for years by old bachelor Dick Cahill and his sister Annie, a sweet, gentle “unclaimed treasure. Dick, who took part in the Alaskan Gold Rush, had spent his life as a professional man of leisure. He was an ever-present fixture around the course, but the first tee was his favorite roost. As he advanced in years, his hearing and sight deteriorated and, as caddies, we hoped that we could get off the first tee while he was taking a break. If he were there, he would invariably ask who that was on the tee and when we managed to say it loud enough for him to hear, we knew his next three lines would be delivered at full volume. “He’s no good, his father was no good, and nobody in his family was any damned good” A great way to start a round.
There was a player in the 1940’s who finally won the championship. He was an excellent player and popular with other members as well as with the caddies. He had a distinctive walk that his caddies tried to duplicate as they walked behind him. He had one problem, however, and that was his temper. When he made a bad shot, everyone in the area would duck. He would throw his clubs and, while everyone marveled at his distance, no one knew where it would end up. Suddenly he stopped throwing, not because he had learned to manage his frustrations any better but because a caddy was clobbered by one of his tosses. That caddy’s sacrifice made life on the golf course a little safer from then on.
Middle Meadows
On May 30, 1931, the first public links opened in Northampton. It was the Middle Meadow Golf Club that had located along Hockanum road in the meadows. The Connecticut River bordered the course on one side and the Mill River on the other. Mount Tom and Mount Holyoke were in view everywhere on the course and the beautiful site was enhanced further by regal elm trees. The rich meadowland guaranteed lush fairways and greens.
Jack Toski, who had been pro at the Worthington Country club and assistant at Northampton, was appointed golf pro. He was assisted by Felix Lezyinski of Haydenville and Joe Laurion of Leeds was the greenskeeper.
With all of its promise, there were two problems that were insuperable. The first was the depression and the second was the periodic and destructive flooding. The course was gone in a few years and there are no physical clues that it ever existed at all.
Prominent Visitors
Mention was made previously of the visit to Northampton of “Big Bill” Tilden, the tennis great of the 20’s, when the game’s popularity required four courts at the country club.
It was golf, however, that attracted a steady parade of luminaries through the years.
It would be impossible to list all the prominent individuals who played during these 100 years but a sampling would give a hint of the popularity of the course. There was William Powell and George Brent, who were members of the Northampton Players at the Academy of Music before they moved on to Hollywood.
Warner Oland, the screen’s first Charlie Chan, married a woman from Leeds and he was a regular visitor. Though he had his own tennis court at his summer place, he was a member who competed in tennis and golf, winning the Governor’s Cup in golf in 1917.
Gene and “Babe”
In July of 1935, a gallery of 400 watched Benny Toski and Mac Sonnet play Gene Saracen and “Babe” Derision to a tie in an exhibition match. Saracen, resplendent in “plus fours”, shot an even par 70, while the Babe shot an 84. The Babe only figured in three holes which she tied, and the Gazette reporter, while impressed with the length of her drives, wrote that she had “much to learn about her short game, her putting and approaching.”
Toski shot a fine 72 and Sonnet’s 77 included just enough winning holes to secure a tie for the locals.
Other visitors have been as diverse as TV’s Bob New hart, golf pros like Patty Berg, Ted Kroll, Doug Ford, Ed Dougherty, and David and Julie Nixon Eisenhower, who left her mark on the head of course worker Jeff Parsons with an errant shot.
First Families of Golf
Whenever golf is the subject of conversation in Western Massachusetts, the name Toski is bound to arise. It is a name that became internationally known for the playing and teaching achievements of Bob Toski, the youngest of the four Toski brothers, all of whom were superb golfers and highly regarded golf professionals.
The Toski family grew up in Haydenville where their immigrant father worked in the brass factory. It was the prospect of caddying jobs at NCC that had Jack and Benny walking the two mile trek to Leeds on the shortcut railroad line of the legendary “Burgee Bullet”. Caddying also gave them the opportunity to develop their golfing skills and in 1928 at age 16, Benny became assistant pro to Al Porter at Northampton. At 21, he succeeded his mentor, when he took over as head pro.
In 1929, at age 17, Jack became the youngest pro ever in the area when he was appointed pro at Worthington Country Club. In 1931 he became pro at the new Middle Meadow Golf Club in Northampton. Jack also served many years as pro at the Northampton Country Club and Beaverbrook interrupted by almost four years service in World War II. Many winters were spent instructing in Florida and, even after his retirement from pro shops, he continued to offer that special brand of golf instructions known as the Toski method at area driving ranges.
In 1932 the family was struck by tragedy when their mother died in childbirth. Bobby was just five and Tommy seven when Northampton Pro Al Porter and his wife Minnie took in the youngsters and made room for them in the large attic of the clubhouse.
Benny made the youngsters miniature clubs and it wasn’t long before the pint-sized putters had the members awed by their prowess on the practice putting green.
After four years at Hamp, Benny moved on to Wahconah in Dalton. He was also pro at Forest Park Country Club in Adams and Cedar Hills Country Club is Livingston, New Jersey. He moved to Florida in 1978 where he continued teaching at Rolling Hills and other courses.
Tommy was away from golf for nine full years from 1948 to 1957 before he returned as Jack’s assistant in 1957. He spent eleven years at Wahconah before becoming pro at the newly constructed Hickory Ridge club in Amherst is 1969. He still returns to the area each summer after wintering in Florida and continues guiding golfers toward the Toski principle of “effortless power, not powerless effort.”
It was Bobby, the youngest of the quartet, who carried the Toski name onto the national scene. He played on the tour from 1948 to 1956, posting seven P.G.A. victories highlighted by the Tam O’Shanter World Championship in 1954. His earnings that year were $65,819.81, which made him the leading money winner on tour.
As outstanding as his performances were on the regular and senior tours, it has been in the area of instruction that Bob has made his greatest mark. He started the Golf Digest’s Schools in 1971 and his articles and video performances continue to help people all over the world improve their game. His skills as premier teacher in the world have attracted such luminaries as Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite, Gil Morgan and numerous others on the pro tours.
Bob’s golfing career may have reached dazzling heights but he has never forgotten the course in Leeds where it all began for him and his brothers. He returns every year to take part in Toski Day at Northampton.
In looking over the 100 years of golf in Northampton, it becomes apparent that golf on the local scene is dominated by two specific groups. The first group is made up of the offspring of local residents whose business and professional success provided means and the time for family members to concentrate on the game.
The other group was composed of caddies whose game developed to the point where they acquired a stature which eventually allowed them to break through the wall of exclusivity that was part of golf everywhere. It was the route taken by the Toskis and it was also the route taken by a family whose property abutted the course itself.
This was the Rolland family of four boys and five girls who lived on Spring Street where their back yard overlooked the sixth green. From their youngest days the golf course was a focus of their lives and, from the time they could carry a bag of clubs they were caddying…and playing. A good part of their playing time took place when the members had gone home and there was no one to keep them off the course. They also made good use of the fifth fairway which had the advantage of being concealed from the clubhouse for more clandestine playing.
A look at the record speaks for itself. Among the Rolland women there are forty club championships. Edna Rolland was Ladies Champion seven times starting with here first at age fifteen and, at one point, she and her husband Les Heon were joint champions for four years.
Verna Rolland Bontempo was also champion once and she and her husband, Pro Al Bontempo, ran the clubhouse from 1937 to 1944. Sister Leah also walked off with the honors twice but it was the youngest sister Martha Rolland Hayes whose name became synonymous with women’s golf in Northampton.
Martha won her first championship as a high school senior in 1943. That was the first of thirty golfing crowns she has won over the years! Fifty-five years after her first trophy, Martha still has the same effortless swing, a style with all the characteristics advocated by the Toski method. It is that same smooth, Rolland swing that enables Verna, now in her mid-80’s, to continue scoring in the 40’s.
It wasn’t just the Rolland girls who could play the game. Art, Harvey, Ernie, and “Bucky” Rolland were fine golfers as well. They all worked at Hamp as caddies and were assistant pros at different times. Arthur was the men’s club champion seven times.
He was renowned for his shot making and his hours of practice on the practice range proved that practice indeed makes perfect.
Proximity to the golf course certainly played a role in the golfing accomplishments of the Rolland family. Just as the Toskis boys had been able to walk to the course from their home in Haydenville, there were many others in Leeds and Florence for whom the fairways were a short jaunt.
Nearby the course in the section called “Irish Town”, just below Cook’s dam, were the Berniches: Walter, Joe and Francis (Honey). Walt and Joe were both champions and “Honey” was credited with a nine-hole score of 32 in 1946.
The house next to the Berniche’s was the Ragozas. Ted and Walt were exceptional golfers and Walt, a NCC greenskeeper for many years, is remembered for his smooth swing and long drives. Around the corner lived Eleanor Doppman, a superb athlete noted for her long driving and her several championships.
Across the street from the Rollands were Morgan and Alan Parsons, with memorable careers as schoolboys stars. Morgan retains one of the most consistent games and has his share of club championships.
In the “main part” of Leeds there have been many outstanding golfers over the years. Leslie and Lester Heon made their marks from the 1920’s on. Lester went on to be a club pro and Les was one of the NCC’s best for four decades after winning his first championship in 1923. Their sister Dora, women’s titleist in 1939, married Bill Barrett who had won the Men’s Championship in 1938.
Ray, Bill and Larry Balise came from Warner’s Row in Leeds to caddy and stayed to play some of the best golf ever shop at Hamp. There were also the Lavallees, Laurions and the Bachands, including our patriarch, Homer Bachand who turned 96 in this centennial year.
In more recent years, Eddie Heon, son of Les and Edna Rolland Heon, carried on the family tradition of superior golf and Don O’Brien Jr., a son-in-law, earned widespread notice as a junior and schoolboy player and was champion five times, from 1979-82, and again in 1993.
Many Great Golfers
In the course of 100 years there have been many other outstanding golfers beyond those already referred to. When asked whom he would rate as the best golfers over the years, 96 year old Homer Bachand listed Mac Warren, James T. Abbott and Karl Ullman Jr. The best of all, according to Homer, was Karl Ullman Jr., the club champ nine times between 1928 and 1952. Karl was just 17 when he beat Fred Cary for his first title.
In one of his championship finals, Karl shot a 67 to win the laurels. He was also the victim, in another year, of an incredible finish by young, long hitting Larry Balise. Karl had been cruising with a three-up lead when Larry caught fire and the lead was reduced to one-up as they went to the seventeenth tee. Larry knocked his drive into the cup for a hole-in-one making the match even. The eighteenth was halved when Ullman blasted from the left trap and calmly knocked in a twenty-footer to send the match into sudden death. On the 19th, Balise topped his comeback with a birdie that Ullman failed to match.
In this centennial year, the records confirm that Francis “Butch” Duhart must be rated as best among the current best. Butch holds the record on the present course, a seven under 63 in 1989 which is, by coincidence, the same record score set on the pre-condo layout by Bob Toski and Bob Campell. In 1996 Butch also set the existing record for nine holes with a dazzling 29. In addition Butch has been champion five times, in 1986, ’90, ’93, ’95, and is defending champion with his win in 1997.
We have another member whose achievement surpasses most of professional tour players. Francis “Pee Wee” Demerski has shot an incredible sixteen holes-in-one. Two of these were at Mohawk Meadows, two at Beaver Brook and the rest at Pine Grove.
Dick Kelley had a superb golf swing. Unfortunately, when he tried to apply it to a golf ball, it disappeared. However, he must have had it working the day he finished 2, 1, 3, on the last three holes, a record four under par that may never be matched.
Some other exceptional golfers in the last 25 years include Bobby Farrick, Ed Skroski, Mike Galusza, Billy Kmetz, Gary Burt, George Gadomski, Bob Dubiel, and Dennis Sullivan.
The Ralph Parsons Labor Day Invitational Tournament has brought many of the region’s finest golfers to NCC over the years. For many years the team of George Gadomski and Jon Hunt were always contenders and often involved in the final match of the three-day weekend. However, one of their most unique achievements happened in a one-day member guest. On the back side, Jon Hunt started with a bogey six. He then proceeded to shoot eight consecutive threes on the remaining holes. His extraordinary feat was reported in Golf World…but was credited to his golf partner George Gadomski!
A Final Word
The current clubhouse, which opened in 1971, and the golf course were sold to Stephen Monsein and Gerald Jackson of Amherst in 1982. In 1984 Richard Carparso bought the property and built the Fairway Village Condominiums. Bob Berniche leased the course from Carparso in 1990, purchasing the property and facilities in 1994.
As we celebrate the one-hundredth birthday of the Northampton Country Club, it is sobering for this writer to realize that two thirds of that century, I was born in the house across the street from “the club” and, for all of the family, the club and all it represented was the focal point of our lives.
We were always aware of the fortunes of the club, its highs and its lows, from our earliest years. Our father, Ralph Parsons, died in 1965 after forty years of commitment to those acres just across the street from home. If he were to return for a visit today, what would his reaction to all the changes of these past 33 years?
The clubhouse, the condos, the new fifth fairway, the modified sixth hole with its enlarge green, the expanded second and seventh tees, the return of the challenging roughs, the variety and quality of equipment available for maintaining the course and, most of all, the superb physical condition of his beloved acres…would have him overwhelmed, admiring and delighted by all that has happened in this last third of the club’s 100 years.
He would find the amount of golf played on his little course unbelievable. The cost of equipment to play would have him shaking his head especially when he realized that a single club can cost as much as he paid for his house. He would marvel at the success and activity of the pro shop and the variety of equipment, clothing, services and accessories available to the membership and general public.
He would be surprised to learn that the club was privately owned by its members but proud that the ownership is in the hands of the Berniches, whose roots extend back three generations to the family homestead little more than a hundred yards from the club entrance.
When the present clubhouse was completed back in 1971, I ended the brief history included in the dedication booklet with the following lines: “What of the years to come for the Northampton Country Club? John Sherman, in a speech to the Senate in 1890, said: “The best prophet of the future is the past.” Our past sparkles; can our future be less than bright?”
Happy 100th Birthday to the Northampton Country Club!