Source: VT Golf Magazine | Issue: Summer 1997 | Author: Bob Labbance
Synopsis: This article discusses the stories behind the formation of clubhouses across Vermont. It includes some of the challenges and ongoings that accompanies building them.
‘Whether we turn to the temples of Greece, to the aqueducts of baths of Rome, to the great cathedrals of the Middle Ages or the palaces and churches of the Renaissance in no case will we find the perfected structure for the special use until after years of fumbling and experimentation leading by trial and error to a gradual mastery of the problem.” wrote architect Clifford Charles Wendehack in his monumental 1929 work Golf & Country Clubs.
“We must remember,” he continued, “that the clubs at the outset were small in membership, that the funds available were limited, that the more or less ramshackle farmhouse or even a half tumbled down barn might seem a welcome addition to a leased acreage.” But by the end of the 1920s Americans had put their distinctive, and grandiose stamp on the ancient game. “Having built up the fabric of elaboration and being accustomed to greater conveniences and equipment in this country than abroad, architects and building committees entrusted with the construction of new clubs find no alternative but to keep pace with the times.” In other words, an apple tree at the first tee no longer satisfied members as it once had served St. Andrew’s America’s first golfing outpost in Yonkers, New York.