Moraine Country Club gets noticed
The Moraine Country Club is among a handful of courses in the United States being recognized as part of the 100th anniversary of the PGA Championship.
The prestigious country club built in Kettering in 1930 was the site of the PGA Championship in 1945 and was where Byron Nelson won his final major championship. It was his ninth victory in his famous streak of 11-straight wins.
The PGA is hyping its championship in August with an Ultimate Bracket of the best tournaments in the 100 years of the event. A TV show will be aired later today on CBS about the famous event. The championship at Moraine Country Club is one of 16 competing to be chosen the best of the best.
To see which championships Moraine Country Club is competing against, go to pgachampionship.com/pga100 and cbssports.com. You can vote for the Moraine championship as many times as you want.
Some of Dayton’s elite businessmen were the founding members of the Moraine Country Club: Col. Edward A. Deeds, the co-founder of the Wright Airplane Co.; Charles Kettering, co-inventor of the automobile self-starter; Ohio Gov. James Cox, founder of Cox Enterprises and parent company of the Dayton Daily News; and Frederick H. Rike, the wellknown owner of former retail store Rike’s.
The country club was built on Deeds’ 170-acre farmland in Kettering and has undergone major changes since the PGA Championship was played there.
In 2016, the club’s golf course was renovated and returned to its Scottish links style.
Longtime auctioneer dies
Well-known Dayton-area auctioneer and real estate agent Horace “J.R.” Kramer, 94, recently died.
In 2005, Kramer marked his 10,000th “call” or auction since starting in 1950 with L.G. Reitz, reporter Cathy Mong reported. He was inducted into the Ohio Auctioneers Association Hall of Fame in 1997.
If Kramer shook your hand on a deal, it was as good as any legal document, said Kramer’s son, John.
Fittingly, the longtime auctioneer’s estate was auctioned off last Thursday at the Preble County Fairgrounds.
Back-to-school shopping
Just as Christmas items come out earlier and earlier each year, back-to-school shopping gear is already on the shelves at area stores.
Seems like the kids just started summer vacation, but if you look at the calendar, it’s nearly time to go back.
The first Dayton-area school district begins school the week of Aug. 13.
It’s an important time of the year for retailers. Backto-school shopping is the second-highest revenue producing time of the year for retailers
behind Christmas.
Reporter Holly Shively reported that more than 57 percent of households will shop in store for backto-school supplies this year instead of going online. I guess parents would rather have young Ricky or Molly try on their new clothes before they spend their money.
The average family is expected to spend $685 on back-to-school supplies this year, according to the National Retail Federation.
Rich Gillette is the Dayton Daily News business editor.
He can be reached at rich. gillette@coxinc.com or on Twitter @richgillette.