Rehoboth Beach Country Club Rehoboth Beach Country Club
On March 26, 2025 Members, guests, and Talon Tribe members sang “Happy Birthday” to RBCC in the Eagles Nest Bar to celebrate the founding of Rehoboth Beach Country Club 100 years ago.
CENTENNIAL COMMITTEE
2022 through 2025
Karen Schneiderman, Chair
Jeremy Fitzgerald
Frank Fraser
Lori Hardwick
Kimberly Hutzel
Peggy Marilley
Marilyn Martens
Raquel Maynes
Sally McDonough
Susie Nevins
Diane Palmieri
Barbara Sievers
Anne Slonaker
Laura Truchio
Cathy Zambito
Spaska Ivanov
Bethany Ackerman
221 West Side Drive
Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971
Clubhouse: 302-227-3811
Golf Shop: 302-227-3616
rehobothbeachcc.com
Event Recap
Peace, Love, and Memorial Day Cookout
As we sore through the years, the Club celebrated Memorial Day with a sixties themed cookout!
A pivotal event in RBCC golf history was the hiring of Ron Barrows in 1965. As a 20year-old, Barrows was the youngest golf pro in the country. It was not the smoothest start. “The day I started”, Barrows recalls, Mr. Crowley (then Club president) told me, ‘We may not make payroll this week.’ But I did get paid.” Additionally, members weren’t sure about this very young man as Club pro. “When I came here, many of the older members would saunter into the pro shop and ask me, ‘Hey boy, where’s the pro?’”
But soon, Ron earned their respect. He says, “I was approached to give lessons, and two ladies signed up. That sort of broke the ice. It wasn’t long after that I was giving lessons to a retired Washington DC general, lawyers, a large auto dealer and many women. Before the season was over, I was averaging six lessons a day.” By then, there was an impressive pro shop facing the golf course and the bay. Barrows and his charming wife JoJo would be the welcoming faces of the shop for the next 40 years. “JoJo was the detail person, and I made the decisions we made a great team.” The Barrows have become active honorary members in retirement. Ron reflects, “Members have always treated the staff with respect—it always felt more like a family than working. I couldn’t have lived a better life.”
YOUTH GOLF TEAM
Club activities really took off now that there was room to grow. The Van Pelts were cochairs of a youth golf team. Jean Van Pelt’s son Lindsey shared recollections of the team, including his precocious hole-in-one at age 10. “I was the youngest in DE at the time, and a reporter from the Delaware State News came out to interview me while I was cutting the grass at home. I was asked to get my driver out and pretend to hit the ball for a photo.” The young team members competed all over the area, making lasting memories: “In Green Hill, it was so hot that we all got sick. At Nasawongo, an animal grabbed the ball and ran off; we didn’t know what to do. And once we drove home in the wrong direction (the “Welcome to VA” sign was a tipoff).” The junior golf team eventually became a feeder team for the Cape Henlopen golf team.
MEN’s DAY, LADIES’ DAY, & MEMBER GUESTS
The grownups enjoyed their golf as well. The member-guest tournaments were popular; with so many entrants, it was a hard tournament to win. Men’s Day was Wednesday and Women’s Day was Thursday. The winners would spring for free drinks for all players. The golfers became close friends, enjoying card parties and trips together. At a memorable week-long tournament held in Bermuda, according to Jean Van Pelt, “It was great fun. There’s a photo somewhere of my husband, jumping in the pool wearing his tux!”
A THIRD GENERATION STORY
On the social side of things, Scott Talbott has some fun childhood memories of the club in the early 1970s, including the famous Easter egg hunts: “Back then, there were brackets based on age, with the older children going first. RBCC offered a dollar prize for whichever child collected the most eggs in each bracket. One year, my older brother went first. He then gave my twin sister and me all the eggs he had collected. So, my sister and I won our age bracket. We then gave all our eggs to our younger sister who easily won her age bracket. My parents figured out what we had done when we got home, and made us donate the $3 to the church.” Those clever Talbott kids would also put plastic baggies in their jacket pockets to bring home handfuls of the mints on the hostess stand in the dining room. “Once again, our parents found out and confiscated the stash of mints, and every time we went to dinner, they would check our pockets.”
Scott Talbott, pictured above in a tweed jacket, helps his sister during the Easter egg hunt. Also pictured below at Easter Brunch in 2015 with his family. Scott Talbott is now the President of the 1925 Eagle Foundation.
REHOBOTH BEACH, DELAWARE CENTENNIAL
Rehoboth Beach began marking the first of two centennial celebrations in the summer of 1973, the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Rehoboth Camp Meeting. Special events included an Easter parade on the boardwalk with participants dressed in 1920s attire, a Mariners’ Centennial dinner dance at the Convention Hall, the unveiling of a 100 anniversary commemorative coin and plate, a Fourth of July parade with fireworks, and the Labor Day “Piping Out” of the season with Sammy Ferro, a beloved Rehoboth tradition. th
The original Rehoboth Beach Country Club Pool of the 1970s at Eagle Point.
