Man remembers 9-hole course in downtown Troy

Several months ago my son, John, was playing golf in an intra-club competition in California when he met Robert Babcock, a man in his 80s who had lived in the Miami Valley as a youngster.

Babcock, whose father worked for the Army Corps of Engineers in Vandalia and at Wright Field during World War II, told John that he played golf often with his parents on a 9-hole course in Troy, but he couldn’t remember the name of the course.

When John relayed the conversation to me, I told him there is no 9-hole course in Troy.

It’s true that there is no 9-hole course in Troy, but I have discovered that there WAS one in the 1930s and 1940s. Seven of the course’s nine holes occupied the land along the Miami River between N. Market and Adams streets where Troy’s Memorial Stadium sits today. The other two holes (Nos. 7 and 8) were west of Adams Street in or near Community Park.

“This would have been probably the years 194344 when I was 10-12 years old,” Babcock recalled in an email to John. “We all just played, no lessons or anything. To get to the course you went right through the main street of town and crossed the Miami River and it was immediately on your left.”

Babcock thought there were two holes right along the river, but a drawing produced by the Troy historical department indicates that only one (No. 9) was right along the river (inside the levee) where it might have been flooded occasionally.

“The other hole that was memorable to me was a par 3 that my mother loved,” Babcock said. “She called it the ‘Sweetheart Hole’ because the green was shaped exactly as a heart.”

With the help of Sue Knight, clerk of council in Troy, I learned that the city of Troy built the course, which was called Miami Shores, in 1931 and it opened in 1932. Eddie Hetzel, the golf professional at Troy Country Club, assisted in the design.

The 9-hole course was closed in 1949, just 17 years after its opening. I’m told that the Hobart Corporation arranged a deal with the city of Troy under which it paid for the construction of Troy Memorial Stadium and an 18-hole golf course up the river (the present Miami Shores) in exchange for the land on which Hobart Arena was constructed.

The only landmark remaining from the golf course is the entrance section of the Senior Citizen Center on Market Street. It served as the golf course office.

The renowned architect, Donald Ross, was hired to design the new Miami Shores course. At that time Ross was ill and generally staying close to his office in Pinehurst, N.C., but his company produced the plans.

Ross died on April 26, 1948, and Miami Shores opened in 1949.