Community Golf Club still a treasure after 100 years
One hundred years ago the City of Dayton received a grand gift from John H. Patterson, the president of the National Cash Register Company.
Patterson, who owned a vast amount of land in what is now the city of Kettering, gave Dayton 294 acres of Hills and Dales Park, which included a nine-hole golf course.
Not only was there are large space with facilities for polo, tennis, baseball, softball and golf, but there was a dance pavilion and a wading pool. It had been known as NCR Country Club.
The 4,476-yard, par 70 golf course had been built in 1914 for NCR employees but was opened to the public in 1917.
In June of 1918, Dayton assumed ownership of the facility, and it was named Community Country Club. The formal opening attracted 25,000 people.
The city fathers capitalized on the gift by adding 27 golf holes over the next few years, and it became one of the few municipalities in the U.S. that could offer golf on two 18-hole courses.
The city commemorated the 100-year anniversary of Community with special events the past two days.
Earl Shock, a municipal employee, was assigned to manage Community Country Club in 1919 — a year after the city took ownership. His wife, Helen Shock, was office manager at Community for 30 years until both retired in 1956.
The Shocks were the parents of Janet Shock Beardsley, one of Ohio’s finest female golfers, and Don Shock, the 1946 and 1947 city match-play champion who served many years as head golf professional at Columbus Country Club.
The golf course inherited by the city was nothing like the courses of today. The tees and greens were merely places where the grass was mowed shorter. They were flat with no grass bunkers or sand traps.
The City eventually built two 18-hole courses in the positions the Hills and Dales courses remain in 2018. They used a handful of original greens, enhancing them with sand bunkers.
Horses towed the mowers in those days, but Community’s two courses were in such good condition the city was selected by the United States Golf Association to host the 1924 National Public Links Championship. Golfers from all over the country competed in the event, and many said Community was the finest municipal course in the United States.
On Aug. 13, 1922, the 20-year-old and newly crowned U.S. Open champion, Gene Sarazen of Flushing, N.Y., played an exhibition four-ball match at Community. It was just a month after Sarazen won the Open at Skokie (Ill.) Country Club and the day before he was scheduled to play a first-round match in the PGA Championship at Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh.
A crowd estimated at 2,000 followed the foursome that included Charles Lorms of Columbus Country Club and Dayton professionals Jim Noble of Miami Valley Golf Club and John Rogers of Dayton Country Club.
Sarazen is said to have wowed the crowd with a 300-yard drive on the eighth hole. He and Rogers each shaved a stroke off the course record by posting 68s.
Sarazen left for Pittsburgh afterward and won his first-round PGA match the next day. He won six matches in four days and defeated Emmet French, 4 and 3, in the 36-hole championship match to become the first player to hold the U.S. Open and PGA Championships at the same time.
With 36 holes available, Dayton could host a field of 132 players for the USGA’s third National Publinx Championship in June of 1924. The Hills (Outside) course measured 6,224 yards with a par of 72 and the Dales (Inside) was at 4,790 yards with a par of 65.
After the 132 contestants played two qualifying rounds, there were 30 18-hole matches before 27-year-old James Coble of Philadelphia defeated Henry Decker of Kansas City, 2 and 1, in the 36-hole final.
Ten years later 18 new grass tees were constructed on the Hills course and its yardage was increased to 6,341.
Community took a hit during the Depression and World War II as playing conditions were difficult to maintain because little money was available. An additional setback came in 1946. On the night of qualifying rounds for the City Tournament, the clubhouse burned to the ground. For the next nine years a temporary metal building served as the men’s locker room.
A new clubhouse with men’s and women’s locker rooms, a restaurant and pro shop was built in 1955. Eventually the Community courses received heavy play and they showed it. The city shut down both courses from June 1, 1999, until June 3, 2000, for a $2.6 million project during which the 36 tees and greens were rebuilt and six ponds were added. Prior to that, Community had no water hazards.
A $1.2-million clubhouse renovation was under way when the courses re-opened, but it was not completed for the 2000 season. A much-needed cart storage building was constructed near the first hole in 2001.
Now the courses are in need of renovation again. The bunkers, with drains clogged, fill with water after rains. A group called Friends of Community Golf Club has been organized to raise funds for on-course improvements. Contributions can be made through the Dayton Foundation.