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History

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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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