| Grover Cleveland Golf Course | |
|---|---|
  | |
| Type | County Park |
| Location | 3781 Main St, Buffalo, New York 14226 |
| Coordinates | 42°57′40″N78°48′33″W / 42.96111°N 78.80917°W Coordinates: 42°57′40″N78°48′33″W / 42.96111°N 78.80917°W |
The Grover Cleveland Golf Course is a historic golf course located in Buffalo, New York that hosted the 1912 U.S. Open [1] that was founded as The Country Club of Buffalo. [2] It is one of two courses owned by Erie County. [3]
The golf course is located at 3781 Main Street. The 18-hole course is 5,621 yards (5,140 m) (from the back tees) and is a par 69. [4] It has a course rating of 65.5 and a slope rating of 102. [3]
The course was founded as The Country Club of Buffalo on February 11, 1889, and was originally located at the intersection of Elmwood Avenue and Nottingham Terrace, near the present-day Delaware Park and SUNY–Buffalo State College. After purchasing the 1823 Samuel Schenck House, which included the Old Stone House, farm and orchard at 3781 Main St, they moved from their site on Elmwood Ave. [5] The CCB built the original club house, polo field, archery field, tennis courts and lastly the 18 hole golf course. Noted architect E.B. Green designed the first clubhouse, which opened in August 1889. [5]
In 1899, the club relocated to make way for the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. The clubhouse became the Women's Center during the Pan-American Exposition. The club acquired land at the intersection of Main Street at Bailey Avenue at the City of Buffalo’s border with the Town of Amherst. The club began construction of a golf course at that time and constructed a clubhouse on the site in 1901. George Cary, who also designed the landmarked Buffalo History Museum, designed the clubhouse. The 18-hole golf course, tennis courts, and a polo field were completed in 1902. In 1910, A.L. Pfitzner, a pilot from Curtiss, made the first airplane flight in Western New York from the club's grounds. In 1910 and 1911, Walter J. Travis renovated the course in anticipation of attracting a major golf tournament. [6]
In 1912, the course hosted the 1912 U.S. Open, [7] won by the defending champion, 20-year-old John J. McDermott, Jr., [8] still the youngest-ever champion and the first American to win the title. [9] McDermott won the tournament with a score of 283. [1] [10]
In 1922, the Country Club of Buffalo began acquiring new property, and in 1925, the existing course was sold to the City of Buffalo for $800,000. In 1926, the club completed its relocation to its present location in the Town of Amherst at 250 Youngs Road in Williamsville, New York. [2] [11]
When the club moved to its present location in Amherst, the existing site was renamed Grover Cleveland Park to honor the former Mayor of Buffalo, Governor of New York, and President of the United States. [12] It was at this time, that the Main St. property was rezoned from being part of Amherst, NY to becoming part of Buffalo, NY. [2]
The present course has hosted the U.S. Women's Amateur in 1931, the Curtis Cup in 1950, the Carling Cup Matches in 1960, and the National Junior Girls Championship in 1962. [2]
The transported Country Club of Buffalo, located in the Town of Amherst is a 6,600-yard (6,040 m) (from the back tees), par 72 Donald J. Ross, ASGCA designed golf course also opened in 1926. The course rating is 71.8 and it has a slope rating of 127 on Bent grass. Timothy P. Minahan, CCM manages the course as the general manager. The clubhouse, which overlooks the eighteenth green, was designed by Duane Lyman and opened in 1927. [6]
Erie County is a highly populated county located along the shore of Lake Erie in western New York State. As of the 2010 census, the population was 919,040. The county seat is Buffalo, which makes up about 28% of the county's population. The county's name comes from Lake Erie, which was named by European colonists for the regional Iroquoian language-speaking Erie tribe of Native Americans, who lived in the area before 1654. They were later pushed out by the more powerful Iroquoian nations tribes.
Beaver Island State Park is a New York state park located on Grand Island in northwestern Erie County, New York in the United States. It is situated at the southern end of the island on the bank of the Niagara River and served by the Beaver Island Parkway, a 2.72-mile (4.38 km) highway linking the park to Interstate 190 (I-190).
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John J. McDermott Jr. was the first U.S.-born golfer to win the U.S. Open, in 1911 and 1912, and he remains the youngest player to win the event, at age 19, as well as the second youngest to win any of golf's four major tournaments after Young Tom Morris. He was the first player to break par over 72 holes in a significant event, which he did at the 1912 U.S. Open. He was one of the world's top players between 1910 and 1914.
Chicago Golf Club is a private golf club in the central United States, located in Wheaton, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago. The oldest 18-hole course in North America, it was one of the five founding clubs of the United States Golf Association (USGA) in 1894. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2020.
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Winged Foot Golf Club is a private golf club in the northeastern United States, located in Mamaroneck, New York, a suburb northeast of New York City. The club was founded in 1921, by a group largely made up of members of The New York Athletic Club, and opened in June 1923. Winged Foot's name and logo are taken directly from a sculpture in the lobby floor of the New York Athletic Club in Manhattan.
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Cedar Crest Park, formerly Cedar Crest Country Club, is a public golf course in the southern United States, located in Dallas, Texas. South of downtown in the Cedar Crest neighborhood, the course was designed by A. W. Tillinghast and was the site of the tenth PGA Championship in 1927, won by Walter Hagen in early November. It was his fourth consecutive PGA title and fifth overall, the ninth of his eleven major championships. Cedar Crest also hosted the Dallas Open in 1926, won by Macdonald Smith in late January.
The Los Angeles Country Club is a golf and country club in the Western United States, located in Los Angeles, California.
Glen View Club is a private country club located in Golf, Illinois, a suburb just north of Chicago.
The 1912 U.S. Open was the 18th U.S. Open, held August 1–2 at the Country Club of Buffalo in Amherst, New York, a suburb east of Buffalo. Twenty-year-old John McDermott successfully defended his U.S. Open title, two strokes ahead of runner-up Tom McNamara.
Alexander Campbell was a Scottish professional golfer and golf course architect of the late 19th and early 20th century. In total, Campbell had five top-10 finishes in major championships.
The Niagara Falls Country Club, located at 505 Mountain View Drive, is an exclusive country club and golf course located in the Lewiston Heights neighborhood of Lewiston, New York, just outside Niagara Falls, New York.
John "Jack" Dowling was an American professional golfer. He had two top-10 finishes in major championships: a tie for seventh in the 1912 U.S. Open and a quarterfinal loss in the inaugural 1916 PGA Championship. He won the 1921 Westchester Open and finished third in the same event in 1920.
Thomas Anderson Jr. was a Scottish-American professional golfer who played in the early 20th century. Anderson's best performance came in the 1909 U.S. Open when he tied for seventh place. He finished tied for eighth in the same tournament the following year and was tied for tenth place in 1912.
Charles Richard Murray was a Canadian professional golfer who played in the late 19th century and early 20th century. His best finish in a major championship was ninth in the 1912 U.S. Open. Murray was a 9-time winner of the Quebec Open.
The Schenck House is one of the earliest extant homes currently within the City of Buffalo limits. It was built by early pioneer and farmer Michael Schenck (1772–1844) and his son Samuel Schenck out of locally quarried limestone, where many fossils can be seen on the eastern side of the facade. The Schenck family dates back to 1709 when they first arrived in America in an effort to escape religious persecution for being Anabaptist, specifically Mennonite. Just over a hundred years later they would find themselves in two covered wagons, traversing the Allegheny Mountains, and settling at the border between the City of Buffalo and Town of Amherst. There they practiced the same farming techniques they had in Pennsylvania and earlier in Germany. These techniques by today’s standards could be termed "environmentally friendly" and polyculture due to their use of crop rotation, production of multiple food products on a family farm, and the use of cow manure. The Schencks like other German settlers practiced the keeping and feeding of multiple types of animals, housing them in a barn through winter. This practice was considered unusual by farmers of British heritage. While the German idea of feeding and housing animals through winter was adopted by non-German farmers in the 19th century, the keeping of a variety of animals was not. Many 19th-century farmers began to develop specialized farms, unofficially becoming a "pig farmer" or "cattle rancher". Three generations of Schencks continued practicing polyculture of crops and animals even when monoculture continued to expand and “special” or synthetic fertilizers were being developed and used.
