SOME CLUB HISTORY....The following article was published in The Prescott Journal Oct.2, 1999 for the 60th anniversary of the PGC By Sports Editor Ron Smith Humble Beginnings ...The Prescott Golf Club has come a long way in its 60 years and a lot of the credit goes to the members, who are never afraid to pitch in when volunteer effort is needed. The Prescott Golf Club began as a three-hole course where the fairways were mowed by horse-drawn scythes and the greens were cut with push-type mowers. The rough was waist high and the the yearly dues were $7.50 for women and $10 for men for the 25 members. From such humble beginnings in 1939 , the Prescott Golf Club celebrated its 60th anniversary last weekend, 600 members strong, a million dollar operation on a challenging and well-kept 18 hole layout. Its a sucess story of perseverance, hard work and foresight , taking a rock-strewn pasture and a sport that was low profile in the 1930s and developing a first-class facility for a popular and fast growing recreational activity. In the early 1930s , golfers in the Prescott area had formed a loose-knit organization where the sport was played on the Bradley farm on the Campbell Road , near the Blue Church Road . Records and memories are sketchy but it was believed the course consisted of only 5 holes. In 1939, the PGC was formed and 76 acres of land east of Boundary street was purchased from the Canadian National Railway for the princely sum of $1500. When the club looked to expand its 9 hole course in 1988 they bought another 75 acres from the province on what used to be Charlie Leeders farm. It paid $72,000 for the land that was to become the second nine holes. It was an expenditure that was well worth the price, an investment for the future. Venerable JD MacKay just seems to have been around forever. From the familys home right beside the course on Boundary Street, just a few yards away from the present-day 18th fairway, MacKay virtually grew up on and with the golf course, developing what has become a life-long affection for the course and the sport. Its given me a lot of very good memories, noted MacKay, I dont know what I would have done. With the course being so close, you might say I grew up on the golf course. Its given me a great outlook on life. A member of the Brockville and District Hall of Fame, MacKay figures hes been a member of the club for about 59 years and of those years, club champion an amazing 29 times. Sitting with his feet up on the porch of his home on fall afternoon , MacKay was only too glad to use his excellent powers of recall to chat about the clubs rich and storied history. It all started during the war years with 3 holes. They couldnt afford to do anything else with it. Said MacKay of the course that was nothing but pasture and pine trees. Old photos in the clubhouse show a rock-strewn field. When members walk the plush fairways now, the rocks that were picked and pulled out of the ground are now buried under earth in the rough between the holes, disguised as innocent-looking mounds. The first clubhouse was located at the present day 18th tee, a small concrete building that housed the pro-shop, the miniature locker rooms and a kitchen that sold hot dogs and cold drinks. IT is now used to store fertilizer. The present day No.5 fairway was a field used to grow potatoes to help supply Canadas war effort. The clubs first tractor, housed in an old red barn on the property, was a 1928 Chevrolet car front end and a pickup truck back end. Its comical when you think of what they have to work with today, MacKay said with a grin. The closely cropped and manicured lawns of today are 50 times better than the furry greens of yesteryear. MacKays father Duncan, and Charlie Tobin used to try to take care of the course in their spare time. MacKay, as a seven-year old helped where he could. He laughed, remembering caddying in his younger days, paid 25 cents for 18 holes but having 5 cents deducted for every wayward ball hit into the jungle-like rough that he was unable to find. “I quickly learned how to find balls”, he added. He also learned how to play the gentlemen’s game. He started playing lefthanded, using just 4 clubs, a one wood, two, five and seven irons along with a putter, clubs that were given to him. He still has that old left-handed putter. With left-handed clubs almost impossible to find , MacKay switched to playing right-handed at the age of 14, a move that resulted in his rise to become one of the best -ever golfers in the area. In the summers, MacKay and the Tobin Boys would start playing in the mornings, sometimes trying to see how many holes they could play before dark. It wasn’t unusual to play 54 holes, 6 rounds on the nine-hole layout. That’s the kind of youthful energy and diligence to practice that helped propel MacKay to a +1 handicap then. He now sports a -7 handicap , a level the majority of golfers will never approach in their lifetime. He can still recall the original nine-hole layout, which criss-crosses the present day layout, only a few holes remaining the same. In the present No. 18 fairway, the old No.9, there used to be a big pine tree that caught many a well-struck shot. Golfers complained, but no one wanted to be the one to cut down the offending tree. One summer morning, one of the club’s directors, frustrated with the tree catching his shots, brought out a chainsaw and cut it down. There were howls of anger at the time but it was too late to do anything. It was in 1989 the club expanded to 18 holes, behind the driving force of Gary Dewar, without whom it couldn’t have happened, MacKay said. The expansion, helped by a government grant, included the new nine holes and watered fairways. In 1993, the $750,000 new club house was built. Golf Club Manager Cal Polite points to the course as a real success story from its modest start. He praised the strong membership with a sense of commitment to the course. “There has been thousands of hours of volunteer work done over the 18 years I’ve been manager.” said Polite, “That’s great to see.” The club’s biggest disaster was the ice storm of 1998, that felled branches and limbs. The members showed their true colours then. “Fifty or sixty volunteers came out in the spring and cleaned up the whole course in one day. They came out in four-wheelers, tractors and trucks. They picked up tons and tons of branches over more than 100 acres,” said Polite. “ That to me is one big memory.” Polite and MacKay believe the strong sense of community has helped the Prescott Golf Club become one of the best around, a tradition over 60 years that will continue for the next generation of golfers.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 19:35:32 +0000
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