Golf course designer and developer

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Russ Wylie didn’t grow up playing golf. The only reason he took up the sport after college is because his co-workers at his dad’s Isaly’s store in Washington would ask if he wanted to go with them to Meadowbrook Golf Course.

After playing there a few times, Mr. Wylie joined his co-workers one rainy Saturday morning to play South Park Golf Course. When they arrived at the course at 7 a.m., he saw 75 bags already in line, waiting to play despite the bad weather.

“My dad thought, ‘ My gosh, why aren’t there more golf courses?’” said his son, Dave. “So he got busy and started looking for ground.”

With no background in architecture or course construction, Mr. Wylie started buying farmland and building golf courses, nine holes at a time. That determination led to the formation of Rolling Green Golf Course in Eighty Four, Pa., and Lindenwood Golf Course in Peters, courses that still stand today as testament to his vision and hard-work.

“He didn’t know a thing about golf — nothing,” said Dave Wylie, a PGA professional who operates both courses. “He was flying by the seat of his pants. He got a couple tractors, hired a couple farmers and they started building a golf course.”

Mr. Wylie, who loved the business side of golf and was responsible for organizing all the public course owners in the state, died Saturday in Peters.He was 88.

Mr. Wylie built Rolling Green in 1958 when he opened nine holes and two years later expanded to 18 holes. He was so determined to complete the project he persuaded the property owner to convert a chicken coop across the road into an apartment and moved in.

When he saw how golf began to boom in the 1960s, a surge that likely started in Western Pennsylvania with the popularity of Latrobe’s Arnold Palmer, Mr. Wylie purchased farmland owned by Freda Yatsko along Linden Creek Road in Canonsburg and started construction of another public course, which became known as Lindenwood.

He opened nine holes — the “Gold” nine — in 1965, and eventually bought more property and built what became known as the “Red” nine. Dave Wylie purchased more land and later built the “Blue” nine in 1994, creating a 27-hole facility that is one of the most popular daily-fee destinations in Western Pennsylvania, doing about 40,000 rounds annually.

In 2013, Mr. Wylie and his son purchased Chippewa Golf Club in Bentleyville, giving them ownership of 63 public-course holes in Washington County.

“After he started building courses, he didn’t care about playing that much,” Dave Wylie said. “That was something his buddies made him do. He had a passion for building golf courses. That was his love of the game —the business side.”

That passion led Mr. Wylie to help organize the Pennsylvania Golf Course Owners Association, serving as the group’s first president in 1973 and 1974. He also served as president of the National Public Golf Course OwnersAssociation.

“I knew him to be a shrewd businessman, a very no-nonsense, very straight-forward person,” said Susan Tanto, former president of the Keystone Golf Association who owned Meadowink Golf Course in Murrysville and still owns Totteridge Golf Club with her husband, Tom. “He was very creative and had lots of ideas. He was very much at the forefront of getting the industry recognized from a business standpoint as opposed to just having a place to play golf.”

It was later in life that Mr. Wylie returned to playing golf, often with his wife, Marilyn. He joined Lone Pine Country Club in Washington and later belonged to six clubs in Western Pennsylvania and Florida, including Valley Brook Country Club in Peters, the Club at Nevillewood in Collier and Coral Ridge in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

“He had nothing when he started,” Dave Wylie said. “He really scraped together all the money he had when he built Rolling Green. He really started on a shoestring. I get chills thinking about it.”

In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Wylie is survived by three granddaughters, three great-grandsons and several cousins.

Funeral arrangements were handled by the WarcoFalvo Funeral Home, Washington, Pa.