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The History of Petaluma Golf & Country Club Centennial Celebration with image from 1930 of people playing golf under oak tree

 

The club was founded in 1922 thanks to the dedicated work of the founders and the generosity of the McNear family who gifted 80 acres for the golf course and clubhouse on May’s Hill. The clubhouse, designed by Brainerd Jones, a noted local architect was completed in 1924. In 1943, a plan to improve play led to the sale of 33 acres and the construction of three new holes in 1944. Numerous improvements have been made to the club since including expansion of the clubhouse, a swimming pool and a second parking lot.


Getting Started

Rumors of plans for a golf club in Petaluma were first reported in the Argus-Courier on February 9, 1922. An unnamed prominent local businessman, who we can reasonably assume was George P. McNear, had been enthusiastically promoting plans to organize a country club and establish a course near the city. With San Rafael, Santa Rosa, Ukiah and Sonoma already having golf clubs, the article lamented “a city without this acquisition is not on the map any longer, so popular has golf become.”On March 21, a preliminary meeting of several locals was held at the Chamber of Commerce for the purpose of forming a golf and country club. The organizers determined to secure the services of a golf architect to survey potential sites to determine what the cost might be.William Locke, a golf architect who was then laying out the municipal golf course in Oakland and had constructed courses at San Francisco, Modesto, Eureka, Santa Rosa and other cities, arrived in town Wednesday, March 29. Mr. Locke spent the day with George P. McNear, H. C. Scrutton and L. V. Korbel inspecting several potential sites with easy access to the city.

Organizers met Friday, April 21, at the Argus-Courier office. Committees were appointed to deal with the permanent organization and finance of the club, membership, and bylaws. The most favorable site for the course was determined to be an 80 acre parcel south of town on May’s hill owned by Mr. McNear. May’s hill derived its name from Captain Hugh May who steamed on the Petaluma River between Petaluma and the San Francisco Bay in the early days and who had built a cabin and spent his holidays there.

The organizers met again on Tuesday, May 9, at the Chamber of Commerce’s office and reported membership of over 100 and that the list would soon be closed. Another meeting for all members was scheduled for 8:00 pm on Wednesday, May 17, to establish the permanent organization of the club and elect a board of directors. A committee was also appointed to immediately contract for improvements to the road leading to the plateau on May’s hill where the golf course and club house would be located.

Petaluma Golf & Country Club was formally organized on Wednesday evening, May 17, 1922 when more than 60 golf enthusiasts gathered at the Chamber of Commerce and named G. P. McNear as president, Dr. Thomas McClay as vice-president and Dolph Hill as treasurer. Dr. McClay explained the financial plan, which called for an expenditure of over $40,000 to include improvement of the road to the top of May’s hill, building a club house and grounds, a water system, the golf course, and furniture for the club house. McClay also announced that Mr. McNear had made a very liberal donation of his May’s hill property consisting of 80 acres with a worth of $9,000. With Mr. McNear’s donation and the $100 membership fees the club had property sufficient to secure about $20,000 in bonds to finance construction of the course.

The club was founded in 1922 thanks to the dedicated work of the founders and the generosity of the McNear family who gifted 80 acres for the golf course and clubhouse on May’s Hill. The clubhouse, designed by Brainerd Jones, a noted local architect was completed in 1924. In 1943, a plan to improve play led to the sale of 33 acres and the construction of three new holes in 1944. Numerous improvements have been made to the club since including expansion of the clubhouse, a swimming pool and a second parking lot.


This is the second of a series of articles about the club’s history. Information about the club’s early years is from digitized copies of the Petaluma Argus Courier available at the Petaluma Library using Newspapers.com. The Press Democrat and the Oakland Tribune were also used. The club’s own records before 1943 have apparently been lost to history. However, the club’s minutes and other historical pieces from 1943 on remain.

Work Begins

Work on the golf course began Saturday, May 20 1922, under the supervision of golf architect William Locke, who had participated in the site selection in March. Red flags were used to indicate the location of each tee and green flags for each green. Work on the gravel road to the site was already in progress under the supervision of the contractor, S. E. Adams. By June 10, improvements to the road were nearly complete and sheep were put on the course to take care of the mowing.

The first golf in Petaluma was played on June 18, 1922 when the club president George. P. McNear tried out the new course in its rough state with temporary greens. Through the summer work continued on the course building the permanent greens and tee boxes. Ten thousand feet of water pipe and a pressure system were installed to connect to the city main on McNear Avenue. H.C. Scrutton, who was also a member of the Meadow Club in Fairfax, organized the work laying out the course under Mr. Locke’s supervision. In addition, work was nearing completion on the new shop and a store house by local contractor, Frank Emenegger.

The first golf instructor and grounds custodian, Thomas Leuchars, arrived with his family in mid-August and settled in a small cottage not too far from the course. He went to work to finalize work on five greens and the remaining aspects of the course and to get ready to instruct beginning members in the game of golf.

The Petaluma Golf and Country Club held its formal opening on Sunday, September 24, 1922, after being rescheduled from Sunday, September 17, 1922, due to a conflict with the Elks Club’s Oyster Bust, as many members belonged to both clubs. Nearly 350 people attended the opening and at 1 o’clock were served an elaborate luncheon al fresco.

After the luncheon, everyone gathered at the first tee (present day third). The father of the club and its greatest benefactor and enthusiast, George P. McNear, hit the first drive. Tom Leuchars, the club’s professional hit the second and H.P. Scrutton the third. Mrs. A. L. Phillips was the first female member to drive and Mrs. H.P. Scrutton the second. After the ceremony, many of the crowd played a round while others observed.

Many present had never been to a golf course nor seen a game of golf, prompting many questions. Nor had many in the crowd been up May’s hill and they were astonished by the work already completed and unable to believe they were in Petaluma. The panoramic views the site afforded and its beauty were lauded.

Later in the afternoon, plans were presented regarding the financing of the club house and other improvements. Mr. McNear announced an additional gift of approximately 20 acres bringing the total to 100 acres, laughingly saying that he had kept this splendid piece of property for 40 years just for use as a golf and country club.


The Golf Course
When the course opened on September 24, 1922, it had temporary tees and greens and fairways that closely resembled the pasture it had been for seven Clydesdale draft horses owned by the McNear Company that had previously resided there. In spite of the rough conditions, in October 1922, many prominent citizens were reported to be seen playing the course in the late afternoons with a large number of players on weekends. The rough conditions did not stop newly converted golf enthusiasts from extending lavish praise for the course and its views of the Petaluma River Valley and surrounding hills. English actor Norman Cope, who was appearing at the Hill Theater, found the course while strolling and stated he has never seen a more beautiful course or finer grounds. Mr. Cope’s description of the view was “colossal.”

The course was originally laid out as a par 36. The first hole, now played as the 3rd, has additional bunkers and tees, but is largely unchanged. Hole No. 2, now the 4th, originally played as a par 4 and was later changed to a par 3 when the tee was relocated closer to the green.  The 530 yard par 5 No. 3 played from a tee located near the houses to the north-west of the current 3rd green. The hole played over the top of the current 5th tee to a green at the top of the hill in the middle of the current 5th fairway. The No. 4 tee was just below the foundation of the Terry and Rose Collin’s home played as a 360 yard par 4 running parallel to the current 5th fairway to a green across the canyon and up the hill. From the current 6th green and looking west across the valley toward Ray and Milly Nizibian’s house, two sycamore trees mark the location of the No. 5 tee. At that time, a pair of sycamore trees were used to indicate tee locations. At 155 yards, the No. 5 par three played from the sycamore trees and across the valley to the green cut out of the hill below the Nizibian’s house. The 370-yard No. 6’s tee was in the grove of oak trees to the left side the cut-out No. 5 green and played back over the steep hillside toward the current 5th green to a green in the middle of the current fifth fairway in the flat below the 150-yard mark. The current 6th hole was No. 7 and the current 7th hole was No. 8 and the current 9th was No. 9.

At the October 25, 1943 board meeting, a committee headed by H.C. Scrutton was appointed to make survey the membership regarding changing the line of the course. Scrutton, who had supervised the layout and construction of the course in 1922 and was its first club champion in 1925, provided a preliminary proposal, the Course Improvement Plan, to the board at the November 8th meeting. The Course Improvement Plan called for abandonment of original hole No.’s 4, 5 and 6 with their aggravating steep hills and deep gullies and construction of three new holes (now holes 1, 2 and 8, then No. 5, No. 4 and No. 8 respectively. The tee for number No. 3 (now 5) was forward and a new green was built to increase its length.

To finance the project, sale of the property on which the holes were located was discussed at the following meeting. At the February, 14, 1944 meeting President James Crase announced the McNear family was agreeable to the plan.  On March 23, 1944 board meeting a motion was passed to approve the Course Improvement Plan and authorized the special committee to proceed at once, with the caveat that the cost not exceed $2,000.

Work began immediately on the three new holes (now 1, 2, and 8) without affecting play. In May, a call went out for volunteers to help water the new greens and tees. In July, 33.22 acres were sold to Rasmus and Tillie Rasmussen, owners of the adjoining Kastania Ranch, for $65 an acre, raising $2,160. On Sunday, October 8, 30 members postponed their play in the club championship and pitched in to get the new holes in shape. Using a turf cutter pulled by a tractor, they removed one foot wide by five feet long strips of sod from the original No. 3’s green and approaches and placed them at the new No. 3 (now 5th) and rolled them with a heavy roller. A barbecue dinner for 70 golfers and their wives wrapped up the day. Volunteers helped again on Saturday, October 21st getting irrigation lines in place.

Having seeded the tees and greens earlier in the year, the new holes were now ready for club championship play to resume on October 22. Defending champion Eric Nisson shot a 76, but was eliminated in the semi-finals 3 and 2 by Walter Rossi who shot a 72. The 36-hole championship on October 29, began in the morning with rain and the first 18 holes found Rossi down by 1 to Frank Studdert. Skies cleared for the afternoon round, but not to the advantage of Rossi who ended up losing 8 and 6 as Studdert played the first 12 holes of the second round in two under for his second championship.

The course has had many minor changes over the ensuing years: additional bunkers, second tees, elimination of winter creeks that ran across it with drainage and substantial upgrades to the sprinkler system.

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