Scarboro Centennial Book

Page 1

One Hundred Years in the Making Robert Brent Long



One Hundred Years in the Making – 1912 to 2012 Robert Brent Long © Copyright: Scarboro Golf and Country Club Ltd. 2012 321 Scarborough Golf Club Road, Toronto, ON, Canada, M1J 3H2


Table of Contents 4

FOREWORD

6

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

8

OUR ORIGINS

12

TIMELINE

David Cowx

24

GOLF COURSE ARCHITECTS

COPY EDITORS

30

THE CLUBHOUSE

Jeff Brooke Ted McIntyre

34

OUR CLUB PROFESSIONALS

38

TOURNAMENT PLAY

42

THE OPEN YEARS

AUTHOR & PUBLICATION COORDINATOR

Brent Long ART DIRECTION, DESIGN & PRODUCTION

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE

Ross Duggan and John Turley-Ewart CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Ted McIntyre, David McPherson, Lorne Rubenstein, Lou Cauz (75th anniversary manuscript) and members Dana Saccoccio and Ken Porter

50

HALL OF FAME MEMBERS

54

CLUB CHAMPIONS

60

OUR CURLERS

68

PAST & PRESENT

Transcontinental

78

ANNIVERSARIES

PRINTED IN CANADA

82

THE LAWSUIT

PRINTING AND BINDING

All rights reserved in all countries. This publication must not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form of by and

88

MEMBER MEMORIES

means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,

94

GREAT STORIES

viewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

103

EPILOGUE

104

PHOTO CREDITS

without the prior written permission from the publisher except by a re-

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SCARBORO GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB

ISBN 0-9879263



Foreword

S

carboro Golf and Country Club has become a second home to our family. I still find it hard to believe that I grew up in Scarborough, yet had never driven up Scarborough Golf Club Road until my friend and dentist, Tony Kekatos, introduced me to the Club in 1998. I had been a public golfer much of my life and wasn’t sure that playing just one course was for me, but I decided to join Scarboro on a one-year trial membership period. I fondly remember that first round of golf at Scarboro with Hilda Downer, Norma Lange and Lois Davies. On the first tee the ladies asked what my handicap was and I said I didn’t have one. ey very politely cringed. We played and at the end of the day they said, “You’re going to have a handicap really quick around here,” says Barrey who went on to win the Ladies’ Club Championship in 2002. e Ladies’ Executive assigned Lois Davies as my “Big Sister”. She took me under her wing and made sure I knew how to sign up for events and that I always had a game of golf to play with someone. at relationship turned out to be a very important one in my life. In fact, my decision to join after my trial year was based on the Loises, Hildas and Normas of the Club. Like all of you, Scarboro took my breath away and I joined. e more I played the course, the more I fell in love with our A.W. Tillinghast design that is so wonderfully challenging. en there’s our historic clubhouse that opened in 1914. While many clubs have demolished and rebuilt, we have modernized while cherishing the historic nature of a building that is now one of the most recognizable clubhouses in the country.

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As the days have rolled into years, the friendships and memorable moments at Scarboro have drawn me closer to the rich tradition and wonderful atmosphere that has attracted thousands of members and their families over the last 100 years. My parents are social members, my sister and her husband are curling members and we celebrate all our family functions here. I love our staff, whether they’re on the grounds crew, in the clubhouse or our new pro shop – they’re so welcoming and dedicated to making Scarboro the inviting and friendly second home that it is. It’s hard to believe that Scarboro G&CC has been a significant part of our community for a century. My grandfather worked for A. E. Ames & Company after he returned from the WWI in 1918. Ames was the Club’s first President and a visionary who guided us through our infancy. Now, as we celebrate 100 years, I’m honoured to be the first female President of Scarboro, 2010 - 2012. Our Centennial Committee has worked diligently over the last four years to plan a wonderful line-up of activities throughout 2012 that started with our New Year’s Eve bash and will end in November as we host e Dominion Curling Club Championship. It’s my hope that our members will enjoy reading the history and stories of Scarboro G&CC in this book and that you’ll create special memories of your own throughout our Centennial year. Fore! Maureen Barrey, President, Scarboro G&CC, 2010-2012 RIGHT: Hole No. 13



Acknowledgements

A

s we stood at the doorway to the Club archives and inserted two or three keys before finding the one that turned the deadbolt, there was a feeling of anticipation in the air – something like standing over a sloping 25foot eagle putt, a rare moment (at least in my books) to make something special happen. General Manager Denis Matte turned the aging door handle and we entered the vault. Once upon a time, it was one of the many upstairs clubhouse guestrooms that were rented out to members. e well-worn and unpolished hardwood floors creaked as we took our first steps. e hot, dry air on this 2011 spring day was nearly suffocating. Sunlight shone through the room’s two windows, giving us our first glimpse into the past, while a single light bulb dangled from the ceiling.

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What I did find was the unpublished manuscript for the Club history, True Lies, penned by former Globe and Mail writer Lou Cauz, leading up to the 75th anniversary in 1987. Later in the summer, I sat on the verandah and had lunch with Cauz. He shared some of his memories of the many months he worked here, handed over an envelope filled with photos and other notes and told me that not having the book published was one of the “great disappointments” of his professional career.

We were quickly confronted with mountains of materials, strewn across tables, bookshelves and in filing cabinets. A narrow path wound its way in a U-shape to the other side of the room. Boxes upon boxes, file folders, envelopes, carrying cases, photos, posters, magazines, newsletters, maps, old trophies and Bob Gray signature golf clubs were piled on top of each other – I guess you could call it a goldmine or a nightmare, depending on how you chose to look at it.

As it turns out, many Scarboro members took a stab at chronicling the Club’s history over the past 100 years. Cecil Howard, Club President in 1949 and 1950, was the driving force behind the creation of two wonderful red leather bound volumes – I call them the Red Books – that detail the Club history from 1912 through 1971. Former member Leopold Jones penned a short but interesting Club history in and around 1965, and more recently Karl Kelter, who started caddying at Scarboro in the mid-1960s, recounted a hole-by-hole overview of changes to the course in 1996. Other members who have contributed to the archives include; Vivien Brown, Tolie Coales, Ida Hewett, Terry Jones, Jack Rutherford and John Maxwell. We owe them a debt of gratitude for taking time to record and preserve a most interesting and inspiring history.

I saw it as a treasure and over the coming months would often find myself sitting on the floor with barely an inch to move, searching through box after box. I often wondered: What if the walls could talk, what secrets might they have told? I even heard tales from members and employees that the Club had been haunted by a ghost at one time. I never ran into her, despite wandering the basement corridors on numerous occasions, but shouldn’t every 100-year-old clubhouse have a ghost or two?

I could also tell you about the September day that I found the original 1912 clubhouse drawings wedged between two pieces of cardboard in one of the many boxes that I thought I had already searched – a beautiful gift. Or the day I was looking through the curling records and came up with the magnificent black and white photo taken back in the 1960s (page 3) of a solitary golfer with the clubhouse in the background – what a journey it has been. ere was the day in October when Janet Lake’s husband dropped off a plastic bag of goodies

SCARBORO GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB


that had been sitting in their home for nearly 25 years. On the bag it read, “Ken Fulton Golf ” – talk about taking a step back in time. Inside was a wonderful collection of memorabilia and photos that the former administrative assistant of 25-plus years had held on to. As I opened a 1973 Club roster book, out fell a photo of Pastry Chef George Langhammer – a photo I had almost given up trying to find, but perfect for member Dana Saccoccio’s memories of Scarboro. Many other people helped along the way and I would like to say thank you to them for their assistance and guidance as we pieced this puzzle together: Karen Hewson and Meggan Gardner at the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum; Claire Welsh with the Golf Association of Ontario’s archives; architect Ian Andrew, who provided a few gems thanks to his research for the recent bunker renovations; creative director David Cowx for his amazing book design; the Centennial Committee, including John Turley-Ewart and chairman Ross Duggan; and many current and former Club members whom I met in the Tillinghast Lounge, called for interviews or asked to take a second look through their personal photo collections, especially Bill Mc-

Murray, Ron Green and Bob Gillespie for their invaluable insight. I’m truly thankful to the wonderful staff here at Scarboro. ey have been so welcoming and friendly, and when I needed something they always came through. So thank you to: Daniel Beauregard, Blaguna Evrovski, Nada Mojsoski, Mohammed Ferhat, Molly Jagroop, Terry Kirkup and his staff, Bill Gilkes, Roy Weigand, Donna MacLean, Deborah King, Joseph Caun and to Denis Matte for listening to the funny stories and trials and tribulations that come with writing a book. As I turn the key to close the door to this project, I would like to dedicate this book to Jim Barclay and Norm Woods, two inspirational golf writers, publishers and gentlemen who passed away in 2011 as I penned it. I also say thanks to my wife Jenifer and son Jacob for their love and support. It has been a privilege to compile your Centennial book and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did putting it together.

e Name Game

Scarborough vs. Scarboro • •

• •

• •

• • • •

York County is created in 1792. The lands that would become Scarborough are originally named Glasgow, after the Scottish city. In 1796, the area is opened to settlement by British subjects with the first issue of land patents. It is renamed Scarborough after Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England, by Elizabeth Simcoe, the wife of John Graves Simcoe, the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada. The nearby bluffs along the Lake Ontario shores reminded her of the limestone cliffs in Scarborough, England. January 1, 1850: Scarborough is incorporated as a township In the 1870s and 1880s, typesetters in the printing business looked for ways to make their work easier. They went to a shortened version of Scarboro, concluding it with an apostrophe in some cases and other times without. Scarboro became the common spelling around town. Scarboro G&CC is incorporated on May 12, 1912 The shortened version of Scarboro is used into the 1950s, when Scarborough Mayor Ab Campbell insists that it be correctly spelled when referring to the municipality. April 15, 1953: Scarborough becomes one of 13 municipalities in the new Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto January 1, 1967: Scarborough is incorporated as a borough June 1983: Scarborough is incorporated as a city January 1, 1998: Scarborough retains its historic community name, but its municipal government becomes part of the amalgamated City of Toronto.

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Our Origins

O

ver the years many golf clubs have come and gone in our neighbourhood, but few have stood the test of time like Scarboro Golf and Country Club. Golf was introduced to the area by the Toronto Hunt Club, which purchased its current location on Kingston Road in 1895. Scarboro followed in 1912 and then Cedar Brook G&CC opened across the street as a member-owned facility in 1922 on the west side of Markham Road, south of Lawrence Avenue. e club changed hands in the 1930s and was renamed Cedar Brae G&CC in 1939. It was sold to developers in 1954. Over those years many Cedar Brook and Cedar Brae members joined Scarboro as they chose to remain in the neighbourhood.

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Architect Charles Edward Langley (inset) designed the clubhouse which was constructed in 1913.

In 2005, the Scarborough Historical Society and writer Don Allen chronicled the evolution of other neighbourhood courses that are now defunct: Crestwood G&CC, Cliffside GC, Rouge Hills G&CC, Shoreacres G&CC, Morningside GC, Westhill GC and Brookside GC. Municipal courses Tam O’Shanter GC and Dentonia Park GC have survived.


CLOCKWISE FROM THE TOP LEFT: Alfred E. Ames,

Thomas G. McConkey, Lieutenant-Colonel J.M. Miller and Richard Southam

Across Toronto, golf clubs were also evolving when Scarboro came into play. e Toronto GC (1876), Rosedale GC (1893), Toronto Hunt (1895), High Park GC (1896), Spadina GC (1900) were well established, but looking for new homes further from the city’s core. Spadina disbanded in 1902 and moved to the present site of Lambton G&CC in western Toronto. e University of Toronto GC (1898) had 11 holes, but closed in 1930. Highlands GC, a victim of encroaching development, shifted west from the intersection of Jane and Dundas streets to the banks of the Credit River in 1906 and was renamed Mississaugua G&CC. Oshawa G&CC opened in the east end in 1906. A couple of years later, High Park GC also went westward to Dixie Road and was renamed Lakeview GC. Rosedale was also located much further south before it moved in 1909 to its present home near Mount Pleasant Road and Lawrence Avenue.

At Scarboro’s first shareholders’ meeting on February 22, Southam, Livingstone, Morrison, Langley and Martin were elected provisional directors. By spring, the initial offering of 600 shares in the Club of $100 each had been exceeded. On April 20, the number of directors was increased to seven from five, and with Southam’s resignation, three new and very significant directors signed on: Alfred E. Ames, omas G. McConkey and LieutenantColonel J.M. Miller. Less than a month later, Morrison stepped down from his role as Provisional President and Ames (1866-1934), a fanatical golfer and imposing figure in the financial world as a pioneer Toronto investment banker, was elected the first President of Scarboro. McConkey (18701930), General Manager of Canada Life Assurance, was named Vice-President and Livingstone the Secretary-Treasurer, with a salary of $100 a month each to oversee the sale of shares.

e year 1912 proved especially significant for golf in Toronto. On Feb. 6, Toronto GC members gave approval to move to the club’s current location on the banks of the Etobicoke River. e Summit G&CC, meanwhile, filed letters of patent on May 14.

e purpose of the newly founded Club was “to establish an athletic and country club and to encourage and promote the playing of the game of golf.” On March 5, Scarboro entered into a contract with Charles C. Cummings to acquire slightly more than 125 acres of “light sandy loam” farmland (the Club paid taxes on 134 acres in 1912) around the Highland Creek in the distant neighbourhood of sparsely populated Township of Scarborough at a cost of $300 an acre. e Club was incorporated under the Ontario Companies Act on May 12, with capital of $100,000 divided into 1,000 shares of $100 each.

Scarboro G&CC came into being when the Ontario Provincial Secretary issued letters of patent dated Feb. 2, 1912, to John Stanley Livingstone, Henry Jasper Martin, Charles Edward Langley (clubhouse architect), Richard Southam and Gordon Fraser Morrison.

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9


At a meeting of the Directors on July 24, the architect firm of Langley and Howland were authorized to prepare plans for a grandiose 5,000-square-foot Victorian-style clubhouse to include 48 guest rooms, a spacious verandah and deluxe dining facilities. George Cumming, who designed the initial layout out of a cow pasture, hills, gullies and forest, and Joseph Mann were authorized to commence golf course construction. Cumming received $500 for his work and Mann, as foreman, $3 a day. Nine holes opened for play in 1913. Approval for the second nine received the green light on June 10, 1912, while the board approved a contract for a horse and man to cut grass on the course at a rate of 35 cents an hour. e entire 5,300-yard layout was unveiled in 1914.

ABOVE: Early golf course construction LEFT: Papers of incorporation dated May 18, 1912

e automobile was just starting to make tracks in 1912, so most people making their way to Scarboro from the city centre would have taken horse-drawn carriages for a 20-kilometre (12mile) trip along bumpy and dusty Kingston Road. e Grand Trunk Railway’s main line ran through the southern end of the property. A friendly conductor would allow the golfers a free drop near the entrance to the Club, a tradition that continued for many years. ere was also the Toronto and York Radial Railway, which ran east from Woodbine Avenue to West Hill. It conveniently erected a shelter on Kingston Road, leaving golfers a 10-minute walk to the Club.

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BELOW: A radial street car over the CN tracks. A stop near Kingston Road

left members a 10-minute walk from the course.


Our Origins Scarboro Opens with a Devastating Bang

T

he Club held a formal opening in the spring of 1914, but the outbreak of the First World War that year gave rise to serious financial difficulties. e roar of the cannons in Europe almost brought Scarboro to its knees. By November of 1914, Club Directors authorized the sale of furnishings for $5,000 “to pay wages and other obligations.” e leadership of Alfred E. Ames (1912-14) and omas G. McConkey (1915-1918, 1921) was crucial to the survival of the Club. ey took their turns at the presidency, wielding the power with a group of loyal directors to barely keep the Club out of the hands of creditors. e Club planned to issue bonds to cover the mortgage on the new clubhouse, but the war’s advent made it impossible to sell them to the public. e directors had to either hand the property over to the creditors or put their hands into their own pockets to keep the Club afloat until other arrangements could be made. Future generations of Club leaders successfully endured the difficult times of the Great Depression, the Second World War, gasoline rationing, mass resignations, a financial “scandal” that almost closed the Club in the 1940s, a property damage lawsuit against the City of Scarborough that was finally resolved in the 1990s and numerous attacks on the course by Mother Nature. Ames would merit inclusion in any reference book about Canada’s pioneering financial giants, having headed both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the Toronto Board of Trade, as well as being the first Chairperson of the Timiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway. A zealous Methodist, the Beaches resident led Canada’s Victory Loan

“Like a bolt from the blue came the Great War and conditions throughout Canada from a business, financial and sport standpoint alike, in a day, were shaken to their foundations.” Canadian Golfer Editor Ralph Reville campaign in 1917, founded City Dairy Corp. with the Massey family, was Vice-President of the Toronto Savings & Loan Co., served as V.P. of Imperial Life Assurance Co. and was President of the National Sanatorium Association, among many other positions. He had a nine-hole layout, aptly nicknamed e Ames, on his Glen Stewart estate on Kingston Road, which eventually became Toronto’s first 18-hole public golf course when he leased the property to municipal golf officials. McConkey followed in Ames’s footsteps. e General Manager and Director of Canada Life Assurance Co., and one of the founders of e Life Underwriters’ Association, is the man most responsible for keeping Scarboro from going bankrupt during the First World War. He, along with a handful of other directors, arranged with the banks for sufficient funds to carry on under a personal guarantee and together they weathered the storm. Initial annual golfing fees were $40 for gentlemen shareholders and $12 for ladies and the junior sons (ages 15 to 18) of shareholders. An amendment allowing junior daughters was passed in 1914. Green fees were 50 and 25 cents, or $2 and $1 on weekends.

e July 1917 edition of Canadian Golfer described Scarboro’s dire state: “It was June 1914, that the handsome clubhouse and 18-hole course were formally opened up and an unbounded success seemed assured. en in a few weeks, like a bolt from the blue, came the Great War and conditions throughout Canada from a business, financial and sport standpoint alike, in a day, were shaken to their foundations. “e directors of the old established golf clubs, with years of prosperity behind them, will remember the anxious days that followed; how members by the hundreds rushed to the colours; how the golf links were well nigh deserted; how revenues shrank to the most alarming degree and how the outlook for the Royal and Ancient was generally gloomy, almost beyond words. “If the war was a severe blow to the golf club of many years establishment, it was doubly hard on the newly formed club. And Scarboro, which had an investment in clubhouse and course of over $200,000, and which found itself in the unenviable position of a veritable ‘golf war bride,’ was especially hard hit. Virtually almost in a day, what was undoubtedly one of the most promising golf and country club propositions in Canada was turned into a very difficult undertaking to swing.”

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Scarboro Timeline

1913 e Club’s bank balance is reported at $348. e contract for cutting grass on the course is approved at 35 cents an hour for one man and his horse.

1914 e official opening of the clubhouse and the course is held.

1912 Alfred E. Ames is elected the first President of Scarboro G&CC in a meeting at the farmer’s cottage on golf club grounds.

e First World War starts and the Club’s directors authorize the sale of furnishings to pay wages and other obligations.

Newell Senour is hired as Club professional at a salary of $400 for the season.

SCARBORO GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB

WWI ends and in December the directors authorize the purchase of two pianos at $200 each for presentation to the soldiers’ consumptive homes.

1919 1918

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1918

Scarboro plays host to its first significant event, the PGA Championship of Canada.


1924 e Club budgets $40,000 for A.W Tillinghast to rebuild the course. It was built without fairway bunkers due to financial constraints. at amount is exceeded by $3,000 due to a problem with the grass seed. All the greens that had been seeded need to be rebuilt and sodded. ey are all open for play in August of 1926.

1920

1922

1927

e manager is instructed to buy a team of horses and the necessary equipment for the upkeep of the course.

Club directors give the gardener permission to play the course on his days off, as long as he dresses like a golfer.

Second-floor bedroom rates are as follows: men’s singles Nos. 2-14 and ladies singles Nos. 15-17, $7 a week, $25 a month and $1.50 a night; double rooms Nos. 18-27, $14 a week, $45 a month and $2.50 a night. 2S & G1 are $17 a week, $60 a month and $3 a night.

Greenkeeper A.W. Chinnery’s wages are raised to $125 a month from $115.

1921 Club directors decide that all new active members must receive a certificate from the Club professional stating they know the rules of golf. e first signs of Dutch elm disease start to appear. e Club asks for more information from the Ontario Agriculture College in Guelph. e lawn bowling section is $303 in arrears. It is decided that if the members of the bowling section cannot pay this debt by the beginning of the 1922 season, the Club will take over their space for use as a putting green.

1924 Dark red and gold are chosen as the official colours of the Club.

e Club accepts 50 playing members at the cost of $2.50 each, which includes playing fees for the year.

e Club is designated a bird sanctuary and seven directors contribute birdhouses.

1928 e Club purchases 20 acres at the east end of the property for $17,000 to expand the golf course, and assessments of $20 for male playing members and $10 for female playing members are levied.

Trees are planted along the first and third fairways to formally define the practice area between them.

A no-smoking rule is rescinded after the Club secretary posts a notice requesting female members not to smoke anywhere in the clubhouse, except in rooms allotted for their use back in 1917.

1929 e number of intermediate and junior members is limited to 70.

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1932

1937

Amid the Great Depression, it is decided to reduce all clubhouse and dining room wages 10 per cent, with a savings of $2,000.

e bowling green adjacent to the verandah is replaced with a practice putting green.

e laying of mains for the watering of the fairways begins and is completed in 1935.

1930 Greens No. 9 and 16 are resodded and brought into play. Green No. 2 is resodded with bentgrass from Scarboro’s turf garden, tees are constructed on Nos. 1, 2, 5, 8, 9 and 16 and 200 yards of riverbank are protected.

In July, architect Stanley ompson is employed as a greens supervisor at a salary of $200 for the rest of the season.

Club rules state that when a guest is accompanied by a member, the member must register and secure a green’s ticket for a fee of $2 for Saturdays and holidays and $1 on other days.

Club directors authorize the sale of beer and wine starting on July 24, but beer is not supplied in the sunroom or the main dining room.

Between 100 and 150 trees are planted along the 10th fairway, on the south bank of the 16th tee and around the 10th green in time for the Ontario Amateur.

1936

1931 Balls marked with members names are not being turned into the professional shop. In 1929, 2,931 balls were returned, but in 1930 only 1,463 balls are returned. e first recorded hole-in-one by a lady at Scarboro goes to Mrs. F.H.B. Lyon.

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1933

e membership committee reports that a group of 20 golfers, including Phil Farley of the Cedar Brook G&CC, which has closed, wishes to join Scarboro. ey each receive a $5 reduction in the annual fee.

Club President C.M. Jones advises that he wishes to have alterations made on the hill on the fifth fairway and that the cost would be borne by private subscription. Robert Gray Jr. is appointed Club Professional on Dec. 1 at a salary of $1,000. He’s given the profit from golf ball sales, and undertakes full charge of the professional shop, caddies and starter’s box.

1938 It is agreed to place paper drinking cups at the fifth, ninth and 15th pumps.

Breakfast costs 25 to 65 cents; lunch goes as high as 75 cents and dinner is $1.

1939

A member inquires if it would be possible to heat one of the rooms during the winter, as a number of members would use the Club for trapshooting and skiing.

An aggressive membership campaign is initiated and a fellowship committee is formed to look after new members to ensure that they are introduced to present members and assisted in the arranging of games.


Timeline

1945

1940

1941

Girls are used as caddies at the Club for the first time for ladies.

When troop trains are in town for an overnight stop, the Club will often invite soldiers out for a dance. e Club president also phones the Toronto General Hospital to ask the nurses to come out to dance with the soldiers.

Scarboro stages its first Canadian Open, won by Sam Snead.

As a youngster, Bryce Butler hangs out at Scarboro while his father works on the grounds crew. Bryce is responsible for planting the willow trees in the early 1940s along No. 5 that act as yard markers for 190, 180, 170 and 160 yards to the green and, at one time, 150 yards. He also plants willows beside the 18th tee and eventually became a long-time member and helps out in the gardens in his later years.

1946 1942 Club Secretary J.J. Cameron is fired after bank irregularities are found. He has hidden debts of $22,000, which the Club has to scramble to pay.

1943 e Club survives the war years thanks to the hard work of some Club executives, particularly C.M. Jones, Ralph Paget and Lou Messinger. e Club has to sell some of its belongings, including silver and crystal from the dining room, in order to stay afloat.

In the early days, the Club’s membership came primarily from the Toronto neighbourhoods of Rosedale and Forest Hill, but after the Second World War this changes and the membership is concentrated in e Beach and east end. J.P. Arnott’s wife buys him a new hole for his birthday. She pays for the reconstruction of No. 13. e price of a pint of beer increases to 25 cents.

1947 Scarboro holds its second Canadian Open, won by Bobby Locke.

Bobby Locke at the trophy presentation

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1954

1957

Hurricane Hazel strikes in October and devastates the course.

Curling arrives at Scarboro.

e Club receives its liquor licence.

1958 Electric carts are finally permitted for limited and restricted use after the Club purchased six.

1955 1950

e clubhouse is winterized and the Club is hooked up to the Township of Scarborough water and sewage system for the first time.

e name of Golf Club Road is changed to Scarborough Golf Club Road.

e first full-season operation of the Club results in an $8,000 loss.

1951 e Quarter Century Club is formed.

Of the Club staff of 33, all but three are residents of the Club and live in the basement.

1952 e first Scarboro Invitational is held, the Farley Tournament. A special meeting is held to hear Stanley ompson give his report suggesting methods of reducing heavy climbs on the course. It is agreed to proceed with improving the grades from the eighth and ninth holes and to reduce the slope of the fairway on the 18th. Greenkeeper Bob Anderson does not concur with the recommendations.

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1956

1953 Scarboro hosts its third Canadian Open, won by Dave Douglas. A 10 per cent gratuity is introduced instead of tipping. John Zigur starts as general manager at a salary of $4,000, plus $500, including room and board.

SCARBORO GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB

e contract for fairway wormpicking is awarded to Dominion Bait Co. for $1,500. Bob Anderson resigns as greenkeeper in March and is replaced by Mac McArthur. e Club purchases a house for the use of MacArthur on Dale Avenue at a cost of $11,500. e former greenkeeper’s house to the west of the 12th green on Markham Road is rented for $50 a month.

1959 e Oasis is built to serve golfers at the ninth, 12th and 16th tees. Ladies are allowed to wear knee-length Bermuda shorts for the first time. e main floor men’s locker room is converted to the Forum and later renamed the Bob Gray Lounge after Scarboro’s head pro.


Timeline

1960 By unanimous vote, Gray receives an honorary life membership in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the Club and the golf profession. In August, the Club-owned Dale Avenue property, the first house on the south side of Dale where Mac McArthur lived, is sold for $12,000. Work starts on construction of a new house for the superintendent, immediately south of the 18th fairway.

1964

1966

Heating units are installed in the curling rink in an effort to keep the temperature at a more comfortable level for the curlers and in the hope that the ice would be faster.

It is noted that 40 to 50 elm trees have been lost this season.

1961

1965

1967

Scarboro hosts one of the 25 matches played between Arnold Palmer and Gary Player. Player fires a bogey-free 67 to Palmer’s 69.

e old greenkeeper’s house on Markham Road is sold to the City of Toronto for $11,500 plus interest to allow for road expansion.

Canada’s Centennial celebrations on July 1 are the biggest event in Club history, with 690 members and guests attending dinner and other activities.

1962

e Club adopts the new Differential Handicap System recommended by the RCGA.

50th anniversary celebrations are held.

Bartender Tony Dimech introduces the Maltese Falcon to members Don Lush and Tommy ompson.

52,000 golf tees are used during the season at a cost of $294.

1963 A concrete floor is poured in the curling rinks, replacing the old sand beds in an effort to reduce cracked ice.

e Club’s first Grand Father’s Open is held.

e Club approves a dark or forest green colour and a light material for the official blazer.

1961

1963

In January, area neighbours are invited to a reception to let them know they are welcome to use the property in the winter for skiing and tobogganing – but to stay off in summer!

Scarboro stages its fourth Canadian Open, won by Doug Ford.

Evert J. den Boer starts as GM at an annual salary of $9,000, plus a $1,200 car allowance and five per cent pension.

1969 e Oasis is destroyed by fire and replaced with a new structure. e greens and long-range planning committees are empowered to employ a golf architect with instructions to have a complete report available before the end of the year. Spending is approved for a $225,000 alteration to the clubhouse.

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1973 A reception with media in attendance is held for Ontario curling champions Paul Savage, Bob ompson, Ed Werenich and Ron Green before they leave for the Canadian Curling Championship in Edmonton.

1970

1975

New lockers are installed in the men’s locker room.

e Glen Miller Orchestra, under the direction of Tommy Earlls, plays to a sold-out crowd of 600 at Scarboro in a black-tie event.

e entrance fee for senior men is increased to $2,000 from $1,800. e second-floor guest rooms are converted into offices, banquet and function rooms. A tree known as Her Majesty, which had quietly grown about 180 yards down the middle of the third fairway for an estimated 200 years, succumbs to Dutch elm disease and is cut down in November. More than 50 golf balls are retrieved from its branches. U.S. golf course architect William Diddel’s golf course alteration program starts in August.

18

1972 Captain Gary Young learns that the official colour of Scarboro is actually maroon, not green, as the Club celebrates its Diamond 60th anniversary.

1973 Head Pro Frank Whibley wins the Canadian Club Pro Championship at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas with scores of 69-72-77 to earn $4,000. Scarboro hosts the Ontario Golf Association’s 50th anniversary dinner dance on May 4.

SCARBORO GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB

1976 Bob Miles’ hole-in-one on Closing Field Day on No. 11 earns him a new Chevelle, sponsored by Alex Irvine Motors. Miles’ wife Muriel drives the car until 1987.

1978 Ken Fulton wins the Canadian Golfer Association’s first Club Pro championship and $3,000.

1976 Two severe storms in 1976 and 1977 prompt the Club to seek a legal opinion regarding possible negligence and the responsibility for damages to Club property by the City of Scarborough and other municipal agencies.

1979 Don Davis wins the inaugural New Year’s Day Open on Jan. 1. What used to be known as the McMurray Walk-a-on turns into a highly competitive 14-hole event.


Timeline

1985 Phase 1 of improvements to the clubhouse is approved, followed by Phase 2 in 1986. Doug and Mike French win the Ontario Father and Son tournament.

1982

1983

1986

e accounts receivable system is computerized.

Norm Smith aces No. 14 with a 2-iron on Sept. 15 and then makes another hole-in-one on No. 19 on Sept. 18 with an 8-iron.

On July 15, a judge awards Scarboro a judgement against the City of Scarborough in the amount of $3,076,146. e City appeals the decision.

e night watchman tries to burn the clubhouse down. He turns off the fire alarms and sets furniture on fire in the Bob Gray Lounge. When the sprinklers go off inside the clubhouse, another alarm goes off. e fire trucks roll in a few minutes later and put out the fire that has reached the second storey and causes $100,000 damage. e disgruntled employee tried to throw himself under an oncoming train, but he lives to see another day – just not at Scarboro.

Members Garth Bent, Al Crost, Ron Green and head pro Ken Fulton pick up diamond rings for winning the Canadian Crown Life Pro-Am national finals at e Summit G&CC in September. Purple Leaf Sand Cherries are planted to indicate 150-yard markers. e Blue Spruce originally used is replanted in a protected area near the sixth tee to separate the tee area from the fifth green.

1980 Legal action commences against the City of Scarborough and other agencies seeking $5 million for flooding and erosion damage to the golf course. e average width of the creeks has expanded from 18 to 52 feet during a 30-year period.

e greens are cut for the final time on Dec. 3 and the flags are in until Dec. 7. ere are a number of fanatics who play right through Christmas and are seen as late as January 6.

1987 Scarboro celebrates its 75th anniversary. Terry Kirkup is the spotter as Niel Osborn wins a $30,000 car from Heritage Ford on the fourth hole with a hole-inone during the two-day member-guest. He uses a 4-wood that slices into the creek, hits a rock, comes back up onto the green and rolls into the cup.

1984 Architect Rene Muylaert designs a new putting surface for the 13th green, which had been damaged by floods and drainage erosion.

1988 21,716 rounds are played, up from 20,729 in 1987.

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1994

1995

Green fees are set at $60, including taxes.

e year sees the first reciprocal play with ornhill CC, followed by Weston G&CC in 1996.

Toalie Coales receives an honorary life membership as an active member for 58 years.

1990

1992

Terry Kirkup is named Associate Pro of the Year for the PGA of Ontario.

e three-year erosion control program of installing 30,000 tons of armour stone is completed and brings an end to the lawsuit with the City.

Member David Markle and his guest Hugh Hand are recognized for their 25th consecutive appearance together in the 25th anniversary year of the two-day member-guest. Tony Dimech, who has dazzled members and guests with his cocktails for 25 years, also receives a silver champagne bucket.

e new 17th green, designed by architect Graham Cooke, comes into play.

First year as an equity membership club. Frank Sullivan Sr. is granted an honorary life membership for representing the Club throughout the recent lawsuit.

1993 is is the first year of a three-year plan for a new irrigation system.

1996 1995

1991 Conversion from metal to soft spikes begins over a three-year period.

20

On the 50th anniversary of the Veterans Tournament, the Harry Foster trophy is restored for the occasion after not being used for many years.

Some 3,000 balls go missing from the range throughout the year. Note to members: If you find 10 range balls on the golf course, bring them to the pro shop and receive one new ball.

SCARBORO GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB

A greenside bunker restoration project under the direction of Graham Cooke is started in the fall at a cost of $125,000. Eighty per cent of traps are restored and 20 per cent will be completely renovated by the fall of 1997. e range will close early in the fall of 1997 for reconstruction.

Scarboro adopts a local rule allowing spike marks to be tapped down on the green. e Club pays off its bank debt – a major goal for the introduction of the equity concept. In the spring of 1990, the Club had a debt of about $4.5 million.


Timeline

2003

2007

Renovations to the ladies’ locker room are completed at an estimated cost of $250,000.

Architects Ian Andrew and Gil Hanse are hired to do a master plan for the golf course leading to a major bunker renovation and greens restoration that fall.

2005 2002 Jessica Shepley wins the Toronto Star Women’s Amateur. Brad Smith wins the Club’s first-ever long-drive competition with a blast of 341 yards. Carlie Weppler takes the ladies division at 285 yards.

2001 e A.W. Tillinghast Lounge is built, replacing the Bob Gray Lounge.

2002 e Club has its first wait list since equity membership was introduced and the first overall since 1988. Men’s locker room renovations are completed. Dry cleaning, laundry service and car detailing are introduced. e equity share price increases to $50,000.

e final water-taking permit, valid until December of 2010, is received for Highland Creek. An August rain storm floods the course. It takes five days to get the course back up and fully operational. GM Joe Murphy is named Club Manager of the Year by SCORE Golf magazine.

374 curling members start the fall season, up 41 from April 1. e total rounds played are 26,505. e Club sponsors Louise Zylstra in her pro endeavours on the LPGA Futures Tour and the Canadian Women’s Tour.

2006 Food and beverage sales hit a record high of $2,818,041. Scarboro’s national ranking in SCORE Golf improves from No. 74 to No. 67.

e best-ever event in the modern era occurs, as the Club hosts the Canadian Tour International Matches and Pro-Am with a visit by the President’s Cup. e event is capped off with a playoff won by with a holein-one on the 19th hole by Adam Bland of Australia.

2008 SCORE Golf’s ranking improves 14 spots to No. 53 in Canada.

2009 e Men’s Scarboro Bridge Club celebrates its 40th anniversary. It was originally started by Owen Grimbly, Ted Murphy, Bob Pezzack and Glen Day on Monday evenings at 5 p.m. in what was the Forum – now the Tillinghast Lounge.

2007 A major capital improvement program is approved by membership. It is to include a golf course master plan, a new golf shop, a new golf course maintenance facility and a water retention pond.

An environmental committee is formed. One of its first initiatives is replacing plastic bottles with personal stainless steel containers. e move eliminates 35,000 plastic bottles a year at the Club.

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Timeline

2010

2010

Work on the new irrigation pond to the left side of No. 17 starts with tree clearing.

SCORE Golf’s ranking improves two spots to No. 51.

2011 2011

Renovations to the maintenance facility are completed. Maureen Barrey is elected the first female Club President in April. Total rounds played are 26,931. e course achieves Integrated Pest Management (IPM) accreditation.

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A gazebo is added in May outside the clubhouse for weddings and photographs.

Darryl Brown, who joined the Club in May, scores an albatross – a doubleeagle two – on No. 6 on Nov. 3, witnessed by playing partners David McMichael and Andy Pfundt. e pro shop starts the year upstairs in the clubhouse and then moves to the curling lounge before the new shop opens in July. Scarboro receives the CSCM award for Club of the Year.



Golf Course Architects George Cumming

B

y the time Scarboro Golf and Country Club was founded in 1912, George Cumming was already Mr. Golf to most Canadian golfers. He was known as an accomplished player, a wonderful teacher of club professionals, caddies and members, a master club maker and a gentleman of the old school, displaying good manners with wit and kindness.

At Work The following architects are mentioned from time to time in Club minutes over the years, but the extent of their employment and work at Scarboro is difficult to determine in some cases.

In his book, e Toronto Golf Club 1876-1976, author Jack Batten notes that teaching was Cumming’s life work and his consuming passion. Toronto’s head professional from 1900 through 1950 was known to keep pushing young men on the practice tee until blood showed on their hands. He would often slip a couple of new balls into a young golfer’s bag, balls that Cumming paid for himself, and he was just as free with advice about a golf swing. Batten reflects that a sandwich and a dram of whisky sufficed for supper in his office, enough fuel to keep him teaching until nightfall when he’d take the long walk to his house beyond the 13th hole. at said, Cumming’s greatest legacy to Canadian golf may be the courses he designed. As one of Canada’s earliest golf course architects, it appears he started the side business in 1909 by expanding Mississaugua G&CC to 18 holes from nine. By 1920, he’d partnered with Stanley and Nicol ompson in the firm ompson, Cumming & ompson. Architect Ian Andrew, who worked along with Gil Hanse on the recent renovations at Scarboro, says Cumming was initially selected to design courses because of his Scottish heritage and his place of prominence as the professional at e Toronto GC. Cumming turned out to be an excellent architect in his own right, designing such gems as Scarboro G&CC, Brantford G&CC and e Summit G&CC.

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George Cumming

George Cumming Willie Park Jr. A.W. Tillinghast Bill Diddel Stanley Thompson Rene Muylaert Graham Cooke Gil Hanse Ian Andrew


Andrew notes that Cumming was entrusted by e Toronto GC to select the new property for the Club’s relocation prior to Harry Colt’s arrival to redesign the course. “With Cumming’s experience and the close relationship he had with Stanley ompson, it would be most likely that Cumming was the first to teach the young man how to route and build a golf course,” says Andrew. “eir routing styles are remarkably similar, with both using short holes for drama and long holes to traverse lesser land. Both sought elevated tees and raised green sites and natural plateaus. eir holes tended to run through or along valleys, rather than playing directly across them. Neither designer minded a blind shot if the green site beyond was worth it.” In 1911, Cumming added the second nine at Oshawa G&CC, which was later remodelled by Stanley ompson. In 1912, he recommended that the founders of e Summit purchase the property where the club is located today. According to e Summit’s history book written by Lorne Rubenstein, Cumming did the initial layout with the assistance of George S. Lyon in the summer of 1912, although the course didn’t open for play until July of 1919. Cumming was also hired to design a nine-hole course for the Sarnia Golf and Curling Club, which, along with Scarboro and Summit celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2012. He also designed the initial layout at e Club at North Halton, Couchiching GC, Rivermead GC, Windermere G&CC, Sault Ste. Marie Golf Club, Highland G&CC, Oakville GC, as well as three courses that no longer exist: Graydon Hall, Humber Valley and Glen Stewart.

Cumming was selected initially to design courses because of his Scottish heritage and his place of prominence as the professional at e Toronto GC.

George and Lou Cumming

As e Toronto GC looked for a new site, Cumming helped identify several properties for consideration. Batten writes that in the summer of 1909, the Toronto club rejected the site that would become the home of Scarboro G&CC in 1912. In the end, e Toronto GC’s new course in Etobicoke opened to members in the spring of 1913 and Scarboro’s course and clubhouse formally opened a year later. Batten details Cumming’s humble beginnings at Scotland’s Ranfurly Castle Golf Club in the late 19th Century. Cumming started caddying at the age of 10. He was born in Bridge of Weir on May 20, 1879. In the summer of 1889, Cumming earned his first caddying job carrying the bag of Willie Campbell, the Ranfurly pro and arguably the finest golfer of his time. When Cumming was 14, he left Campbell and Ranfurly to spend two years at the bench of the Forgan firm in Glasgow, learning to make golf clubs. At 16, still employed by Forgan, he moved to the course at Dumfries where he began his career as a golf professional.

He arrived in Toronto on March 20, 1900, to start work at e Toronto GC. He met his wife Margaret and they had two children, Lou and Edna. Cumming won the Canadian Open in 1905, the second year it was played, and was runner-up in 1906, 1907, 1909 and 1914. He won the PGA of Canada Championship in 1914, finishing second in 1912, 1919 and 1924. He pioneered the start of the PGA of Canada as Captain from 1911 through 1913. Cumming and Lyon were an especially formidable team in the long series of matches they played against other proamateur teams over a period of several decades. During the First World War, the two men took part in many games to raise money for the Red Cross and were successful in two departments: raising money — $2,500 at one match here at Scarboro — and winning. ey never lost a round! A number of distinguished professionals apprenticed under Cumming, including Scarboro’s first two head professionals, as well as Charlie and Albert Murray, Karl Keffer, Frank Freeman, Dick Borthwick, Willie Lamb, Gordon Brydson, Nicol ompson and George’s son Lou Cumming. Cumming, who died at home on March 26, 1959, was inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in 1971 and the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame in 2000.

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Our Golf Course Architects

A.W. Tillinghast – e Forgotten Genius of American Golf by Lorne Rubenstein

N

ow then, who was A.W. Tillinghast? Scarboro members have bandied his name about the verandah for years; golf pros up on their history and inclined toward the romantic have always looked forward to playing Scarboro. “It’s a Tillinghast course,” they say eruditely, and then go off down the wide first fairway without so much of an inkling into the man’s background, let alone his nature. And that, friends, is a mistake. Tillinghast was a wild man. He didn’t so much celebrate life as consume it. He could drink until there was nothing left to drink and then order another bottle. is habit came early in life and led to some bizarre behaviour. From time to time Tillinghast would hurtle into a rage, when he was prone to wave a pistol. Perhaps this is why he became known as Tillie the Terror. Not to worry, though; the only damage he did with the pistol was frightening those around him. We should not make too much of Tillie’s drinking, but then again it cannot be ignored. He is thought to have suffered seriously from depression. He went through bouts of excess and had stretches of abstinence, and often the architecture reflected both. At the same time he could be a very sociable drinker; no doubt his willingness to participate in a much-talked-about party on the eve of the 1907 U.S. Amateur with roommate Jerome Travers helped the latter golfer win the championship the next day. Travers must have forgotten there was serious business on the morrow, and why not? He and Tillie had their drinks as a piper in kilts played for them. Such was Tillie’s ability to appreciate the moment. He simply perceived the world differently than others, and acted accord- The 1914 scorecard (top) ingly. He lived well beyond his means and compared to the 1924 eventually lost everything – even his house! Tillinghast scorecard

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The 17th hole in 1925 (inset) and today


“Tillinghast would come up to Scarboro to supervise course construction and under his coat on one side he would have a flask to wet his whistle while out in the field. On the other side he had a pistol just in case he came across something that didn’t agree with him in the wilds of Scarboro.” Scarboro member Ross Duggan Tillinghast was born May 7, 1874, in Philadelphia and died May 19, 1942, in Toledo, Ohio. Indulged as an only child, he grew up with a notable lack of discipline. Albert Warren, as he was named but which nobody later called him, once boasted, “I never finished a school I went to.” In truth he didn’t have to. Tillinghast was in thrall to golf from the time it caught on in Philadelphia in the 1890s until his death. And like golf course architects of the day in the United States, he invented his own course of study. Luckily for him, and for golfers all over America, he came to the game at a time of intense ferment; it’s fair to say that he was the central figure in what is called the Philadelphia School of Golf Course Architecture. As much as Tillinghast learned his craft from his fellow Philadelphians, he also went further. Soon after turning his attention to the Royal and Ancient game he visited its home, the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland. ere he heard the patriarch of the Old Course, Old Tom Morris, speak of the death of his son Young Tom; Young Tom won the British Open in 1868, 1869, 1870 and 1872, but was destined to die of a broken heart after his wife died in childbirth. Tillie and Old Tom, meanwhile, got to know each other fairly well, and soon Tillie was a frequent visitor to the Old Course. Tillie was also a bit of a player. He competed in the U.S. Amateur between 1905 and 1912, losing to first-class golfers such as Walter Travis, Chandler Egan and Chick Evans. He even finished 25th in the 1910 U.S. Open, captained a U.S. team in a match against Canadians in 1900 and played for the Americans when they entertained the hallowed Oxford and Cambridge Golfing Society on the occasion of the group’s U.S. tour in 1903. With all his interests, it’s hard to believe that Tillie had time to raise a family. But he did, having married Lillian Heath Quigley in 1920, with whom he had two daughters. Prior to the First World War, he wrote a syndicated golf feature; annually he ranked the top 12 Americans in categories of professional, men’s amateur and women’s amateur, and annually the golfobsessed awaited his placings. Knowledgeable fellow that he was, Tillie included the then 14-year-old Bob Jones in his 1916 rankings. How could you ignore a man so willing to go out on a limb, even if Jones had reached the third round of the U.S. Amateur that year?

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Ah, what courses he did design. Tillie started with the Shawnee course on the banks of the Delaware in 1907, when he was 32. He did the very difficult, and public, Black course at Bethpage State Park in Long Island, N.Y., in 1936, when he was 61. And in between he designed courses so alluring that golf connoisseurs absolutely must play them if they are to be considered, well, golf connoisseurs. ere’s the San Francisco Golf Club, for one, and the Baltimore Country Club at Five Farms in Maryland, where London, Ont. golfer Sandy Somerville won the 1932 U.S. Amateur; the West course of the Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, NY., site of the 1974, 1984 and 2006 U.S. Open championships; Baltusrol, New Jersey’s Lower and Upper courses, sites of many USGA competitions; and in Canada, what is now Dorval Municipal in Montreal. Scarboro is one of Tillie’s remodelling works, completed in 1926. It is a mark of his renown that we think of Scarboro today as a Tillinghast rather than a George Cumming course. His voice and his signature are that strong. Tillinghast liked to give golfers room off the tee and then pinch the course in as they neared the green. His greens tend to the small side, with enough curvature to give anybody who needs a six-footer for the match a touch of nausea. Tillie wasn’t averse to playing with a golfer’s mind. He wasn’t as enamoured of mounds as say, Donald Ross at Pinehurst’s No. 2 course in North Carolina, but he didn’t avoid them either. Golfers pitching to the hole from the right of the third green at Scarboro or from over the 11th green know that Tillinghast thought that a golfer shouldn’t have an easy up and down, should he miss a green. He meant to test a golfer’s shot making. He demanded touch around the greens; no touch, no par. Above all, Tillie was a genius at designing par-threes. It’s as if his mind worked best when focussed on an assignment both restrictive and broadening; to attach to one major stroke – the tee ball – all the importance that can be divided amongst the two or three shots it takes to reach a par-four or par-five hole. Tillie thrived on the challenge; he often said that the par-threes were the cornerstones of his overall designs. Who would not agree, for instance, that Scarboro has two of the strongest and prettiest par-threes on any courses’ opening holes? Walk away with pars on the second and fourth and you’re well on your way to enjoying Tillie’s brilliance.


Our Golf Course Architects

The 2007 Long Range Master Plan prepared by Gil Hanse and Ian Andrew.

1912 original George Cumming layout

Late 1920’s irrigation map showing A.W. Tillinghast changes

SCARBORO GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB

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e Clubhouse

Inset, the original main clubhouse entrance coupled with a larger view of today’s verandah.


O

nce in a blue moon, or maybe every one hundred years, the surprise of all surprises comes along. at’s the way I felt last September, sitting cross-legged on the wooden floor of a former upstairs bedroom, now a storage room, and the club archive, sifting through yet another box. e search for new material, images and information lost over time for this book didn’t stop until we went to press earlier this spring. On this very lucky day, squished between two pieces of corrugated cardboard, I found the original September 6th, 1912, architectural sketches by Langley and Howland Architects for this wonderful clubhouse, which officially opened with a grand ceremony in the spring of 1914 along with the golf course. If there was one defining treasure that I uncovered during the quest to compile the Club’s 100th anniversary book, this was it. e detail is wonderful: rooms in the basement for staff and the plunge bath, details of the main floor men’s locker room, the refreshment room, the kitchen and so much more. Upstairs we find the ladies’ locker area, the library, a maze of guest bedrooms and the balcony that once stood. Truly a gift! And now, if I could only find the original George Cumming golf course layout! Brent Long

The Gold Room in the 1950s (inset) and today

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The Forum evolved into the Bob Gray Lounge and is home to today’s Tillinghast Lounge.

TOP LEFT:

The old bar prior to curling on the main floor, where the main hallway to the rotunda and Tillinghast Lounge is located | TOP RIGHT: The Gold Room | MIDDLE: The Annex Green Room | BOTTOM LEFT: An early dining room photo | BOTTOM RIGHT: An upstairs bedroom

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The rotunda in the 1950s (left), as compared to today


Our Club Professionals Davey Spittal 1917 William J. Bell 1913-1916

W

illiam J. Bell was Scarboro’s first professional. He came to Canada from Scotland and worked at Hamilton G&CC, e Toronto Golf Club under George Cumming, who initially designed Scarboro, and Peterborough G&CC. Bell was the head professional at Waterloo Country Club from 1909 through 1912. Club records indicate he started at Scarboro earning a salary of $40 a month, 75 cents an hour for instruction, plus fees for the sale and cleaning of golf clubs.

Bell, who lived in a cottage on the property, played in the Canadian Open six times between 1905 and 1914, placing 10th twice. He was a founding member of the Canadian PGA in 1911 and was runnerup to Cumming in the 1914 Canadian PGA Championship. In 1917, Bell moved to the Birmingham GC in Alabama.

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D

avey Spittal was born in 1888 in St. Andrews, Scotland. He came to Canada and first worked at Lambton G&CC in 1913 and 1914. He spent 1915 at Sarnia G&CC and in Halifax the following year, before landing at Scarboro as the head professional. He also worked as a club maker for Spalding in 1915 and 1916. Spittal lasted only one year at Scarboro, before he enlisted for service in the army for the First World War. He returned to the United States after the war, and then to Canada, where he worked at several clubs including Timberdale near Montreal and then Uplands, Royal York, St. Andrews and Idylwylde in Ontario. Spittal played in the Canadian Open 15 times between 1914 and 1938, his best finish being an 11th-place effort in 1926. He died suddenly in 1938.

Newell Senour 1918-1937

A

brother-in-law to George Cumming, Newell Senour worked as an assistant at the Toronto Golf Club from 1914 through 1918, before taking the head job at Scarboro. He was a golf professional in the truest sense; not a professional golfer. Over the years, Senour provided faithful and conscientious service to Scarboro members. He was a gifted club maker, when hickory-shafted clubs were in vogue, and members often depended on his expertise to handcraft a custom set. Ahead of his time, he patented a very clever device whereby the weight of the wooden club could be adjusted by a series of brass rings in the sole of the club. Senour was also recognized as a great teacher, his prize pupil being two-time Canadian Amateur champion Donald Carrick. He played in the Canadian Open in 1912 and 1921.


Robert T. Gray Jr. 1938-1966

B

ob Gray Jr. was born in Fraserburgh, Scotland, in 1909, and arrived in Canada at age four. His father, Robert Trail Sr., was the head professional at St. omas G&CC from 1913 to 1916, followed by Chatham G&CC from 1919 to 1926 and Leamington from 1927 to 1933. e oldest of nine children, Bob first worked at Essex G&CC as an assistant in 1924 and 1925, before returning to Chatham as an assistant in 1926, advancing to head professional in 1927 and 1928. He went to the United States for five years, returning to Essex in 1935 and 1937, before moving to Scarboro. e handsome, charming, happy-go-lucky pro won his share of titles, and no one won more friends. In his day, he was a Knudson- Leonard-Burns-Kerr-Brydson-Horne-Borthwick rolled into one. Gray could be found on the verandah or the pro shop chatting with members or making a guest feel right at home. He also loved to play gin rummy with members in the pro shop or the Seagram Room. “Bob was simply a great big playboy, a fun-loving guy who loved to play cards,” said Gordon Brydson, the former head pro at Mississaugua G&CC. “To me, Gray was one of the most natural golfers I’d ever met, in Canada or the United States. Bob would also hit some of the worst shots you’ve ever seen, and he’d just stand there and laugh instead of getting mad. He was a student of golf, a thinking player and a great player from tee to green.” Canadian Golf Hall of Fame member Nick Weslock said the following of Gray: “He should have won the Canadian Open at least twice. His short game was a good as anybody’s in Canada, tremendous, nobody equaled him.”

“Robert Trail (Bob) Gray Sr. arrived in Canada from Scotland on the Pretorian on April 29th, 1913, and first settled in St. Thomas, Ontario. His wife Jeannie and their three children, Janet, Bob Gray Jr. and Anne, followed on the steamship Letita, arriving on July 15th, 1913. But the family almost didn’t make it to Canada. They had purchased tickets a year earlier to cross the Atlantic Ocean together, but Jeannie took ill and they postponed the voyage, and it’s a good thing. The ocean liner they were booked on hit an iceberg and sank on April, 15th, 1912. It was the Titanic. And now you know the rest of the story!”

Over the years, Bob became an intrinsic part of Scarboro. At times it was difficult to figure out whether Gray was a member or worked here. He was the first pro at the Club allowed into the clubhouse and onto the verandah. Bob would often accompany members to Toronto Argonauts games and was an outstanding curler who skipped many fine Scarboro rinks. His shop had an open door. If you took something, he’d tell you to sign for it. He ran it on the honour system. Interestingly, his only hole-in-one came on the 272-yard, par-four seventh. Between 1924 and 1960, Bob competed in 27 Canadian Opens, including the first three at Scarboro in 1940 (tied for eighth), 1947 (tied for sixth) and 1953 (missed cut). His best result was a second-place finish behind Sam Snead at Lambton G&CC on August 9, 1941, where he earned $600. In 1940, he pocketed just $65 for his eight-place finish. His total earnings at the Canadian Open: $1,624. e Club gave Gray an honorary life membership in May of 1960 in recognition of his 23 years of service. He died of a heart attack on Oct. 31, 1966. In 1987, the Club’s 75th anniversary, the name of the Forum, the card players’ room, was changed to the Bob Gray Room (today’s Tillinghast Lounge). He was inducted into the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame in 2003.

• • • • • • • • • • • • •

Ontario Open Champion: 1947,1948 Ontario Open Runner-up: 1938, 1941, 1952 Quebec Open Champion: 1943,1948,1950,1951 CPGA (Millar Trophy) Champion: 1940, 1942, 1943, 1949 CPGA (Millar Trophy) Runner-up: 1945, 1947, 1960 CPGA Championship Runner-up: 1937-38, 1946-47, 1949 Played 27 times in the Canadian Open Runner-up to Sam Snead in the 1941 Canadian Open Rivermead Cup winner as Low Canadian at the Canadian Open: 1936, 1940, 1941, 1947 Rivermead Cup Runner-up: 1945, 1949 Southern Ontario Open Champion: 1935 Qualified for and participated in the 1936 and 1937 U.S. Opens Represented Canada in matches against U.S. professionals in 1937, with a victory over U.S. Open Champion Ralph Guldahl 4&2

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ree Pros in ree Years 1943-1945

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aul Penna, Ralph Webb and George Kelly each spent a year at Scarboro during the Second World War. Bob Gray loaned out his shop while he went to work for Weaver Coal Co., but continued to represent Scarboro in tournaments and operate his winter golf school in downtown Toronto. Penna, an avid golfer as a youngster, was a “caretaker” in 1943, living above the pro shop and at Gray’s home. He went on to become President of Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. In 1944, Ralph Webb took over as club manager and professional. With his wife, who helped him run the club, they lived in Dr. Alex Elliott’s stone house above the seventh tee. In 1945, Webb shared the professional’s duties with George Kelly, who was the teaching pro that year. Kelly, a former pro at Galt CC, was a proficient wartime golfer and played professionally in the American Hockey League.

Frank Whibley 1967-1975

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ne of Frank Whibley’s all-time favourite birthday presents came late in the evening on January 30, 1967, when he received a phone call advising him he had the job as Scarboro’s head professional. Frank arrived at Scarboro with his wife Carol and three boys and two girls: Gordon, Bara, Karen, Michael and David – the oldest being 10. Frank apprenticed at Mississaugua G&CC under the legendary Gordie Brydson, where all four of Frank’s brothers (Bill, Vic, Jim and Murray) got their start as golf professionals. He moved to Pine Ridge GC in Winnipeg as head professional for one year, served for two years as associate pro at e Park Club in Buffalo and remained head pro at Westmount G&CC in Kitchener, Ont., from the fall of 1958 through 1966. Although the Port Credit, Ont., native preferred to be regarded as a golf professional, rather than a professional golfer, he could certainly play the game, having won the Millar Trophy as Canadian PGA champion in 1963. He played in the Canadian Open 12 times from 1953 to 1973, including 1953 with his brother Vic, and 1963 at Scarboro. Disappointed when his contract was not renewed, Whibley went on to sell real estate and was the pro at Annandale in Ajax. He purchased Orillia G&CC in the early 1980s, which the family operates today. e PGA of Canada later made him an honorary life member. He passed away on June 22, 2011, at 77.

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Ken Fulton and Lee Trevino at Chairman’s Day in 1987, part of the 75th anniversary celebrations

Ken Fulton 1976-1988

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he Prince Rupert, B.C., native was introduced to the game at St. Charles G&CC in Winnipeg, where his uncles worked alongside George Knudson, shining shoes in the back shop. Ken earned a full scholarship at Arizona State University in 1963. at’s where he met Ping founder Karsten Solheim at a driving range and soon started working in a nearby Ping factory assembling putters at night while attending ASU. Fulton made it through the PGA Tour’s Q-School in the fall of 1968 and played on the tour until he quit partway through the 1973 season. “I often say I made a living for six years, but didn’t make any money,” he reflected. “I really came off pretty broke.” Back then, the top 70 and ties made the cut and only the top 50 got paid. In 1969, Ken made nine consecutive cuts, but made less than $5,000 during that swing. Fulton returned to Ontario working as an assistant pro at Oakdale G&CC in Toronto and the head pro at Highland GG in London, before taking the job at Scarboro. He played in the Canadian Open 10 times between 1968 and 1984, but made the cut just twice. He did, however, win the Canadian Club Professional Championship in 1978 and 1983. Ken showed his true entrepreneurial spirit in 1980 by leasing a nearby golf range and then purchasing his own 36-acre facility on Kingston Road in Toronto in 1983, the Ken Fulton Golf Center. He ran the two operations while working at Scarboro. Fulton returned to Oakdale as Director of Golf in 1989. He became a Master Professional within the PGA of Canada in 2003 for his thesis, How Perfect Do You Have to Be?


Our Club Professionals

“It remains a special feeling to come home to Scarboro.” Arthur Ewing

Terry Kirkup 2000-Present Arthur Ewing and the legendary Moe Norman

Arthur Ewing 1989-1999

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rthur Ewing of Toronto came to Scarboro from Mississaugua G&CC as the associate professional. He worked under Ken Fulton for three years before becoming the head pro in 1989. It was a seamless transition for Ewing, who had the support of 385 members who signed a petition backing his promotion by John Brown. e PGA of Canada member equaled the course record of 63 in 1993. He had curled a bit at Mississaugua, but really came into his own at Scarboro where he greatly enjoyed throwing rocks with members. Arthur also enjoyed teaching many of the members and says it remains “a special feeling to come home to Scarboro” when he visits the Club. He left Scarboro at the end of 1999 to pursue a dream of building a new golf course north of Toronto – e Club at Bond Head – with Graham Cooke as the architect. When that didn’t work out, Ewing took on general manager duties at Burlington, ON’s Crosswinds G&CC, then Windermere G&CC, and most recently Oshawa G&CC.

T

erry Kirkup grew up in a golfing family with three younger brothers at Cutten Fields in Guelph, as a caddie and then junior golfer under the direction of head professional Vic Whibley (one of Frank’s brothers). He apprenticed at Southbrook G&CC and Bay-view G&CC before coming to Scarboro in 1987. He spent two years as an associate under Ken Fulton and another two under Arthur Ewing. Terry moved to St. Catharines G&CC for his first head professional position in 1999 before assuming those duties at Scarboro in 2000. Terry received the Ontario PGA Assistant Golf Professional of the Year Award in 1990 and was a nominee for Ontario PGA Professional of the Year in 2008. He started the Club’s sponsored junior program in 2006 as a way to grow the game. ere’s no doubt that he’s enjoying his office in the new golf shop that opened in July of 2011. Other memorable moments at Scarboro include helping Ben Crenshaw prepare for the 1987 Chairman’s Invitational when all his luggage and equipment didn’t arrive and being here to watch Adam Bland’s 19th hole playoff hole-in-one to win the 2007 Scarboro Pro-Am Classic.

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Tournament Play Over $1,400 was raised for the Red Cross in a Patriotic Tournament on August 24th FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Col. J. B. Miller, Scarboro Vice-President and umpire for the tournament; Willie Freeman from Lambton; A.J. Lewis, caddie for Freeman; Frank Wood, caddie for George Lyon; George Lyon; W. Hyslop, caddie for Chick Evans; Chick Evans of Chicago; T.G. McConkey, Scarboro President; George Cumming; and E.J. Northwood, Cumming’s caddie

David Black of Rivermead GC wins the Canadian PGA Championship with a score of 148.

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Harry Vardon and Edward Ray compete in an exhibition vs. George Cumming and Albert Murray. e Canadians lose the 36-hole match 7 and 5. RIGHT: The English champions and their oppo-

nents at Scarboro. From left: Ted Ray, Harry Vardon, George Cumming and Albert Murray


“I just came up here to have a drink of good Canadian beer, and found a cheque for $3,000 in the bottom of that bottle.” American Al Watrous, winner of the 1944 Maple Leaf Invitational 1921 George Duncan and Abe Mitchell match against Canadians George S. Lyon and C.M. Jones – e visitors won the 36-hole match by 12 holes.

1923 Englishman John Henry Taylor & Scotsman Sandy

e Labatt Open was held with a profit of $16,000 used to pave the parking lot and roads in and out of the Club. It was the fifth-richest tournament in the world that year and attracted a better field than the previous year’s Canadian Open, including Sam Snead, Gene Littler, Bob Rosburg, Porky Oliver, Doug Ford, Peter ompson, Wally Ulrich and Dave Douglas. American Bud Holscher won with scores of 69-67-70-63–269.

Herd exhibition.

1930 Ontario Amateur Championship: John Nash of London Hunt & CC wins 4&3. 1932 Ontario Junior Boys’ Championship: Jack Chinery of Humber Valley GC wins with a score of 77-78–155.

1935 Ontario Open: Lex Robson of Islington GC wins with a score of 76-69–145.

LEFT TO RIGHT:

Betsy Rawls, Babe Zaharias, Sam Snead and Peter Thomson played in an exhibition to kick off the 1954 Labatt Open

1938 Ontario Amateur Championship: Jim Boeckh of York Downs G&CC wins on the 21st hole.

1944 Maple Leaf Invitational: American Al Watrous wins with scores of 68-67-70-75–280.

1950 Ontario Juvenile Boys’ Cham-

1948 Ontario Open: Bob Gray wins the event with scores

pionship: Roy Romain of St. George’s wins with 85-81–166.

of 72-67-71–210.

Canadian Amateur Championship: Bruce Castator of Weston G&CC defeats Eric Hanson of Scarboro.

1956 Ontario Junior Boys’ Cham1950 Ontario Junior Boys’ Championship: Ron McAlpine of Hamilton G&CC wins with a total of 78-73–151.

pionship: Gary Cowan of Rockway GC wins with 75-73–148.

RCGA President John Blair presents the Earl Grey trophy to Canadian Amateur Champion Bruce Castator.

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Shepley and Markle Win Toronto Star Amateur Championships

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carboro hosted two exciting battles in 2002 and 2006, as the area’s top male and female players teed it up for the Toronto Star Amateur Championships.

Turns out those who braved the final round in the rain in 2002 viewed a terrific match-up between Oakville’s Jessica Shepley and Hamilton’s Alena Sharp for the women’s title. Shepley and Sharp put on a Glenn Goodwin and David Markle clinic of accurate 250-yard drives and crisp approach shots. Often, their balls were sitting side-by-side in the fairway, with Shepley eventually prevailing 2&1. Shepley’s pivotal shot was an approach from the fairway to within five feet on No.17. Sharp could not convert her birdie putt and conceded the match. At the time, the 5-foot-9 Shepley and the 5-foot-5 Sharp were rivals in the NCAA where they played on golf scholarships – Shepley for the University of Tennessee and Sharp for New Mexico State. Today, Sharp is a regular on the LPGA Tour and Shepley is fighting to stay there after playing in 11 events in 2011. In 2006, David Markle won his first Toronto Star Men's Amateur with an impressive five-shot victory. e 21-year-old Shelburne resident posted rounds of 68 and 66 at Cedar Brae G&CC over the first two rounds and had a 10-shot lead at the halfway point. After day three at Scarboro, the lead had shrunk to three shots over Christopher Ross of Dundas. Ross battled and whittled Markle's lead down to two shots on a couple occasions in the final round, but Markle, a third-year student at Kent State, finished with a one-under-par 70 and a four-day total of 279. At five-under for the tourney, he was the only player in the field to beat par. Ross, 19, shot 72 on the last day to finish second at 284, while Victor Ciesielski of Cambridge was third at 285.

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1960 Ontario Senior Amateur: C.B. Smith of ornhill G&CC wins with 76.

1961 World Series of Golf: Gary Player 67, Arnold Palmer 69.

Canadian PGA Championship: Jerry Anderson wins 65-70-68-68–271 in playoff over Kirk Triplett.

Ontario Amateur Championship: Gary Cowan of Westmount G&CC (above left) wins with scores of 69-72-72–213.

1969 Canadian Men’s Senior Championship: Philip Farley of Scarboro defeats James Boeckh of York Downs G&CC in a playoff. 1975 Ontario Senior Amateur: Nick Weslock of Mississaugua G&CC wins at ornhill G&CC and Scarboro G&CC.

Scarboro’s 75th Anniversary: Canadian Open Chairman’s Day Invitational won by Curtis Strange with a 66. He would go on to win the Open a few days later.

2003 Toronto Star Women’s Amateur: Alena Sharp of Brantford G&CC defeats Mary Ann Lapointe of e Club at North Halton 2&1 with the opening two rounds at Scarboro. 2007 Toronto Star Amateur: Dave Bunker of Don Valley GC wins with 68-66-71-71– 276 with the first two rounds at Scarboro.


Tournament Play 2007 Toronto Star Women’s Amateur: Karly Pinder of Highlands G&CC defeats Judy Dotten of Frog’s Breath GC 5&4 with the opening two rounds at Scarboro.

“e place erupted like no other event ever before in the history of the Club.” Terry Kirkup

2007 Canadian Tour International Matches and

Team Canada Wins Twice

Pro-Am Classic with the Presidents Cup on hand, is won in a playoff on the 19th hole by Adam Bland with a hole-in-one.

2008 John Ellis, the Canadian Tour’s leading money winner, wins the individual title as he equals the course record with a 63 at the Canadian Tour International Matches.

Course Record

63 1937 1947 1953 1954 2008 -

Don Carrick Porky Oliver Dave Douglas Bud Holscher John Ellis

Note: At the 1987 Canadian PGA Championship, Daniel Talbot fired an opening-round 62, but the course had been shortened to less than 6,000 yards by tour officials for the pro-am and the Club did not recognize this score as an official course record.

S

carboro hosted back-to-back victories by Team Canada at the 2007 and 2008 Canadian Tour International Matches. In 2007, the Presidents Cup made a stop in Scarboro on its way to Royal Montreal GC for the main event. One of the most exciting finishes ever occurred that day as Australians Adam Bland and Jon Abbott teed it up for a playoff after shooting 64s. With a full gallery around the 19th green and the verandah packed with spectators, Bland aced the hole. ere was a moment of silence as the achievement sunk in and then everyone erupted in amazement. Abbott stepped up to the tee and hit a perfect shot that landed just past the hole and the ball spun back to within a whisker of the cup. e cheer from the crowd was louder than the first as members nearly witnessed a second ace. “e entire Club atmosphere was already gushing from the events and the place erupted like no other event ever before in the history of the Club,” said head golf pro Terry Kirkup. “Our members were saying it was the best event ever at Scarboro and the proudest day for our Club.” e Canadians racked up 448 points for the victory as the Americans trailed at 427, followed by the Internationals with 422. Canadian team members included Mike Mezei, Stuart Anderson, Adam Speirs, Wes Heffernan, Graham DeLaet, Scott Hawley, Dustin Risdon and Derek Gillespie.

“I had a blast,” said Calgary’s Heffernan. “Every player had the time of their lives. Personally, I love the old-style course. is course has undulated, fast, perfect greens. It’s perfectly designed.” Team Canada retained bragging rights at the Canadian Tour International Team Matches in 2008. Andrew Parr and J.C. Deacon led the way as Canada earned 460 points, while the United States posted 423 points and the International squad 408. John Ellis, the Tour’s leading money winner, captured the individual title with a round of 63. Canadian team members included Speirs, Deacon, Parr, Gillespie, Heffernan, Risdon, Dale Vallely and Kris Wasylowich.

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e Open Years

I

n the period from 1940 through 1963, no club in the country played host to the Canadian Open, or any other high-profile event, more than Scarboro Golf and Country Club. e Maple Leaf Open was played here in 1944 and there was the Labatt Open of 1954, the year the top U.S. pros shunned the Canadian Open in Vancouver. Sam Snead, Peter omson, Babe Zaharias and Betsy Rawls played in an exhibition to kick off the tournament. In 1958, 18-year-old Jack Nicklaus was eliminated in the opening round of the Canadian Amateur. In 1961, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player attracted a large crowd in another exhibition, and there were numerous amateur events.

Scarboro’s Canadian Open champions: Sam Snead (1940), Bobby Locke (1947), Dave Douglas (1953) and Doug Ford (1963)

Club Presidents Jack Steen, Jim Arnott, Ed Norris, Lou Messinger, Ralph Paget and Charlie Vint can be credited with holding the door open for Scarboro’s guests. Show business celebrities such as Bob Hope, Danny Kaye, Mickey Rooney, Bob Newhart, George Gobel, Gordon MacRae and boxing champion Joe Louis were regular visitors to a club that earned a reputation for its hospitality.

Open Facts According to Golf Canada records, Scarboro made the following amounts hosting the Open: 1940 - $1,500.00 1947 - $4,249.13 1953 - $7,217.16 1963 - $20,665.79

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Slammin’ Sammy’s Honeymoon at Scarboro

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r. and Mrs. Samuel Jackson Snead arrived at Scarboro two days after their marriage. e honeymooners made the most of their stay in the Toronto area, where Sam had previously won the Canadian Open at Mississaugua G&CC in 1938 and would win again at Lambton G&CC in 1941.

Snead dazzled huge galleries with rounds of 67-66 (133) for a healthy lead over Ray Mangrum (138) and defending champion Harold (Jug) McSpaden (139), while others including Ralph Guldahl, Paul Runyan, Denny Shute, Ky Laffoon and Horton Smith trailed further back. e course had been stretched to 6,685 yards and played to a par of 71, including the 492-yard, par-four fifth. In 1940, Sunday sports in Toronto were still two decades away, so the players teed it up for a 36hole final on Saturday. Snead suddenly became Short Putt Sam as he wasted a five-shot lead with a morning round of 75 and followed it up with a 73. He could still have won with a birdie putt on No. 18, but it came up six inches short. McSpaden fired rounds of 69-70-73-69 to force an 18hole playoff – something that was nearly routine for Snead, who had won the 1938 Open in a playoff that went 27 holes. Snead and Guldahl spent Sunday at a paid exhibition in Niagara Falls, ON, which meant the playoff had to wait until Monday. e crowds that enthusiastically supported Scarboro’s first Open poured out from Toronto for the Monday playoff and were rewarded with a thrilling match that came down to the final hole. e Seagram Cup champion was decided in front of the throng circling No. 18 when McSpaden missed a two-foot putt for par. Rumour has it that before the match, the two men had apparently agreed to split first- and second-place money ($1,000 and $600). at same year, Scarboro head professional Bob Gray Jr. fired three consecutive rounds of 73, before finding some magic for a final-round, two-under-par 69 to tie for eighth place with Stan Horne of Montreal. ey played an 18-hole playoff, with Gray winning the Rivermead Cup for top Canadian honours. Scarboro amateur Phil Farley shared 18th place after rounds of 72-73-74-77.

Sam and Audrey Snead RIGHT: Sam with the Seagram Gold Cup TOP:

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Canadian Opens Locke and Load

A

bomber pilot from South Africa, who flew 1,800 hours on missions from Italy into North Africa, won the 1947 Open at Scarboro. Few North Americans knew the name Bobby Locke when he first arrived here in the spring of 1947. By the end of the year, he’d won seven events, including one stretch of four in five starts. A most courteous chap, who was still wearing a cap, tie, white dress shirt and plus fours, Locke quickly became a fan favourite at Scarboro. He said the huge crowds following him reminded him of being back in the British Empire. Locke responded with a four-round Canadian Open record, shooting 68-66-6767 to reach 16-under-par, despite playing the par-three fourth hole in two over. Porky Oliver (pictured right) led after the first two rounds with an Open-record 11-under 131 for a three-shot lead over Locke. Oliver made headlines on the second day with a competitive course record of 63 (32-31), which included a bogey six on No. 12. His round included 10 birdies and 10 one-putt greens. “It was one of those rounds when no matter where you knocked them they found the cup. I guess I could have hit them from the traps and the ball still would have gone in,” he told the press. Canadian amateur Nick Weslock, a former Scarboro member playing out of Detroit that year, played in Oliver’s threesome. “On the fourth, his drive is into the creek to the right. But the water is shallow and he hits out. Can you imagine? He can’t even see the pin, but he still gets a birdie as he sinks the shot. en on the eighth, the wind is in our faces and everybody hits onto the top of the hill. Porky’s second shot dives into the creek, hits a rock and jumps up onto the green and he gets another bird,” observed Weslock, who went on to finish third. With a pair of closing 67s, Locke certainly entertained the faithful at Scarboro and afterwards remarked, “I think I suffered more actual strain here than I have at any other time. I was back in the Empire, and although many people came to see me play in the States, this was the first time I had everyone pulling for me. I really wanted to win after the reception I received.” He picked up $2,000 for the victory. Bobby Locke signs a golf ball for Low Canadian Bob Gray. MIDDLE: Locke pulls the ball from the cup on the 72nd green. BOTTOM: Locke closed with a pair of four-under-par 67s to secure victory. TOP:

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Bob Gray had a much better showing in his second Canadian Open at Scarboro. e Club’s head professional fired rounds of 69-67-67, leaving him just two strokes behind heading into the last round. But 74 on the final day dropped him back to fifth. Afterward, Toronto Telegram columnist Ted Reeve wrote, “at was a great run our boy Robert made. Perhaps it was just as well big Bob didn’t win or the roof would have blown off the clubhouse.”


Bobby Locke at the trophy presentation


“is is the best course I’ve seen in Canada, and that includes Montreal’s Beaconsfield and your Mississaugua.” Jackie Burke Jr. Angels Smile for Dave Douglas

W

ally Ulrich, a 29-year-old, crew-cut Marine Corps veteran of the Korean War, was seeking his first win since joining the PGA Tour. In the final round, with a twostroke lead and two under for the day, he stood on the sneaky fast and tilted 15th green in regulation and appeared to be on his way to the Seagram Gold Cup.

He’d gotten there with sensational rounds of 67-69-67, but then everything fell apart in the blink of an eye. Ulrich’s eight-foot birdie putt whistled by the hole, rolled off the green and into the front bunker. ree strokes later, Ulrich had a double bogey. Up ahead, Dave Douglas birdied No. 16 at just about the same moment. “at’s where I won the Open,” Douglas said at the time. Douglas calmly birdied the 17th and 18th holes, while Ulrich finished with a trio of pars, including a lip-out for birdie on No. 18 that would have forced a playoff. “I played one of my best games, and never putted better. e angels were smiling on me, too, and Wally Ulrich was real nice to me,” he said of his final-round 66. Douglas (68-70-69-66–273) picked up $3,000 for the victory, while Ulrich settled for $1,500 after his fourth-round 71. ird place went to Dutch Harrison, followed by Canadian Pat Fletcher and Gardner Dickinson who tied for fourth, four shots off the pace. Scarboro’s Phil Farley was the top amateur with rounds of 72-73-69-71–285.

Dave Douglas receiving the Seagram Gold Cup

e only hole-in-one of the tournament went to Bill Givens Jr., another amateur from Scarboro, in the second round on the 11th hole. Future Masters and PGA champion Jackie Burke Jr. enjoyed his tour of Scarboro, saying: “is is the best course I’ve seen in Canada, and that includes Montreal’s Beaconsfield and your Mississaugua.”

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“Moe Norman was one shot behind Ford on the 16th green and had a 10-foot putt for birdie to tie. But Moe deliberately three-putted. You could see him getting nervous about the possibility of winning and being in front of the crowd. He knocked the first putt ten to twelve feet past the hole, then knocked the second putt to within an inch of where he started, then sunk the third putt, just to show everyone that he could make it. Then he slipped back further on the final two holes.”


Canadian Opens Scarboro’s Final Open

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record purse of $50,000, an increase of $20,000, was up for grabs as Scarboro staged the Canadian Open for the fourth and final time. Toronto newspapers called it the “No Show Open,” because many of the game’s top players – Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Billy Casper and U.S. Open winner Julius Boros – passed on Canada for the British Open. Nevertheless, the field included three U.S. Open and three Masters champions, as well as seven previous winners on the PGA Tour. e course had been lengthened to 6,752 yards with new greens on No. 4 and No. 8. As Doug Ford stood on the tee at No. 17, he squinted toward the green which was hidden behind a bluff to the left and protected by the sluggish Highland Creek. e distance from the tee to the sloping green was 371 yards; from tee to creek it was 230 yards. e 40-year-old veteran turned to the crowds flocked behind him and announced to no one in particular: “My dad used to say when you’re in tight, hit it hard.” Ford was in tight. News had reached him that Al Geiberger was in with 65 and leading the 54th Open at three-under-par 281. Scorecards revealed Ford stood at 273 with two holes to play, both par-fours. Simple arithmetic showed he needed a birdie on one of these holes if he was going to sip from the sponsor’s cup once again. On No. 17, Ford pulled out a 2-iron and landed the ball safely in the fairway. e 1959 Canadian Open champion followed it up with a wedge shot and a 17-foot birdie putt to gain a valuable shot. He would par No. 18 to win the Seagram’s Cup and $9,000 with a four-under total of 280. George Knudson finished in seventh as top Canadian pro at 284 and Nick Weslock the top amateur. Moe Norman carded three 71s, before a final-round 75 while playing with Ford. “I hit seven rugs, but I three-putted six greens. at’s why I lost,” Norman said of his final round. Doug Ford with the Seagram Gold Cup

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Bobbing for Accolades: A Pair of Scarboro Caddies Battled for History in ’63 by Ted McIntyre

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early 50 years later, the memories are still vivid for Bob Carson and Bob Gillespie: Moe Norman intentionally three-putting the third-last hole to avoid potential victory and the fanfare that would surely accompany it; Bob Rosburg tossing his three-wood into the creek and then making his caddie wade in to get it, before firing him after the round; Fred Hawkins’ remarkable 4-iron on No. 12 on the final day, which he hooked thirty yards around a stand of cedars to just six feet, before missing the crucial putt; the six dozen Titleist balata balls that winner Doug Ford kept for himself, even though he was sponsored by Dunlop. Carson is still bitter over Ford’s golf ball grab. One of perhaps a Fred Hawkins and Bob Gillespie half-dozen of Scarboro’s junior members to volunteer for the honour, along with a slew of the club’s regular caddies, Carson had just turned 18 when he received word that he would be looping for Ford, the 1959 Canadian Open champion. Fellow junior member Gillespie, two years his senior, drew perennial PGA Tour bridesmaid Hawkins. A handful of the game’s biggest names – Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Billy Casper and Gary Player – had departed for the Open Championship in Britain, but there was nevertheless a charismatic cast to draw fans’ attention, among them major championship winners Ford, Dick Mayer, Herman Keiser and Dow Finsterwald, long-hitting George Bayer, Charlie Sifford and Canadian favourites Norman and George Knudson. “Ford was a friendly guy with a great sense of humour,” Carson recalls. “I’d been warned beforehand that he could be cheap and nasty, but I didn’t see that...until the end of the tournament.” While Gillespie’s pregame and postgame ritual consisted of the standard dodging of flying balls on the tight driving range where caddies shagged for their respective pros, Carson was told to merely show up a half-hour before tee time. “Ford never once went to the range,” Carson notes. “His warm-up consisted of going down the 19th fairway and hitting a dozen wedges from sixty yards into the green. en he went to the putting green for fifteen minutes, then teed off.”

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“One of the many interesting stories from the 1963 Canadian Open is a tale about Moe Norman. I wasn’t there, but apparently a group of Scarboro members were chatting on the verandah one evening when one of them looked over the railing and saw Moe sleeping in the hedges beside the practice putting green. They took up a collection and drove him down Kingston Road to a nearby motel for the night. They gave him the money for the room, only to see later that night that he had returned to Scarboro and pocketed the money – he was back sleeping behind the hedges. There’s also a rumour about one of the earlier Opens where one of the pros was found with one of the waitresses out back, but I don’t have all the details on that one!”


Canadian Opens

“Ford never once went to the range. His warm-up consisted of going down the 19th fairway and hitting a dozen wedges from sixty yards into the green. en he went to the putting green for fifteen minutes, then teed off.” Bob Carson Gillespie, meanwhile, is left to ponder what might have been. Tee to green, his man Hawkins was as good as it got that week in July. But the drawling Texan was a ladies’ man and enjoyed his stay, along with several other tour players, at North York’s freshly minted Inn on the Park hotel, which may well have contributed to his short-game woes. “Fred showed up in rough shape a couple times,” Gillespie remembers. “He probably missed seven to 10 short putts that week.”

e most critical was a three-and-a-half footer on No. 16 in the third round. “For the first time in the tournament, he didn’t ask me if he had the right line or not,” Gillespie says of Hawkins, who, his emotions getting the better of him, attempted to drive the green at No. 17, then chose the wrong club on No. 18, leading to back-to-back bogeys— two strokes that would eventually separate him from the winning score. Routing for the 1963 Open

Never out of top spot by more than a stroke all week, Ford seized the lead for good with a 17-foot birdie putt on No. 17 on Sunday, subsequently pulverized his finest tee shot of the event on the final hole, then did something that stunned his caddie. “During the entire tournament, including practice rounds, all he wanted to know were the yardages,” Carson relates. “He never once asked what club he should hit or for help lining up the putt. So we’re standing in the middle of the 18th fairway, and he stares me right in the eye and asks, ‘What club do I hit?’ I was shocked. He had 140 yards left, to a raised green. And I remember thinking, plain as day, ‘He’s pumped up, so I’m gonna suggest an 8-iron.’ He listens and says, ‘No way it’s an 8-iron. Give me the 7.’ And he takes a three-quarter swing, hits it into the middle of the green and two-putts to win. I know to this day that if I’d have said it’s a 7-iron, he’d have said, ‘No way it’s a 7iron! Give me the 8!’ en he would have hammered it into the middle of the green and two-putted to win. He walked off after winning without saying a word to me. I just know, with the tournament in the bag, he deliberately made himself mad at me on the 18th fairway so that he could pay me less. “He won $9,000 and I got $300, which was more than anyone else,” Carson says, “but I think I was the only caddie that didn’t get any of those Titleists.”

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Hall of Fame Members Donald Day Carrick Donald Carrick’s Record • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

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Ontario Junior Champion: 1923; runner-up 1924 Third low amateur at 1923 Canadian Open at 16 years of age US Junior and Western Junior Champion: 1924 Low amateur in qualifying round for 1924 Western Open Member of Canadian team that played the Walker Cup team in 1924 Canadian Amateur Champion: 1925 & 1927 Defeated Sandy Somerville in 5 of 7 meetings between 1925 & 1927 Ontario Open runner-up: 1925 Western Amateur Championship runner-up: 1926 Ontario Amateur Champion: 1926 &1933; runner-up: 1925 Low amateur at the 1927 Canadian Open Team Ontario Interprovincial Champion: 1930 Winner George S. Lyon Team Championship: 1934 Member of inaugural Canadian team to Britain: 1935 Federal MP for Trinity, Toronto constituency All-star hockey defenseman with Toronto Varsity Blues University of Toronto Sports Hall of Fame member

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• • •

Inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in 1997 Inducted into the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame in 2000 University of Toronto Sports Hall of Fame Honoured Member

A

s a young boy Donald Carrick learned the game of golf at Scarboro. He first handled a golf stick in Port Arthur, ON, where he grew up, one of three sons of J.J. Carrick, an MP, stock promoter, newspaper columnist and allaround feisty character. When J.J. and his wife moved to Toronto in 1917, the parents initially lived at the Queen’s Hotel while the three boys – Jack, Don and Alex – boarded at St. Andrew’s College during school months and in rooms on the second floor of Scarboro’s clubhouse in the summer. “at’s how I became a golfer,” Carrick told Jack Batten for his 100th anniversary book on Rosedale Golf Club. “We were stuck away out at Scarboro for three months, and there wasn’t anything to do except play golf.” He was only 11 when he was given membership privileges at Scarboro in 1918. He subsequently joined Rosedale in 1925, although Scarboro remained his home club throughout the 1920s.

• • • • • •

Three-time Canadian intercollegiate boxing champion Canadian light-heavyweight amateur boxing champion Fifth place in the light-heavy weight boxing division at the 1928 Olympic Games Undefeated in boxing meets at West Point and US Naval Academy Runner-up to Lionel Conacher for Canada’s Male Athlete of the Half-Century Graduated from Harvard Law School

In 1925, Don, 18, became the youngest male golfer to ever win a national championship, capturing the Canadian Amateur 5&4 in a major upset at Royal Ottawa over Sandy Sommerville. Carrick finished runner-up in both the Ontario Amateur and Ontario Open that summer. He would go on to win the Ontario Amateur in 1926 and another Canadian Amateur title in 1927 at Hamilton G&CC, defeating Frank ompson. Batten noted that, “many have said that if he had not decided to put his profession first, he would have been another Bobby Jones.” Carrick had many other interests aside from golf – boxing, football, hockey, cricket, wrestling, rugby and, equally important, academics and a future as a lawyer and MP. He excelled in everything he attempted while attending St. Andrew’s College in Aurora and the University of Toronto. He was considered Canada’s best all-around athlete in the 1920s. Carrick went to the 1928 Summer Olympic Games in the 175-pound


“Many have said that if he had not decided to put his profession first, he would have been another Bobby Jones.” Jack Batten boxing class, but lost in the second round. In the voting for the outstanding athlete of the half-century in 1950 by Canadian Press, Carrick finished second behind Lionel Conacher. He retired from competitive golf in 1934 to focus on his family and law practice, but still managed to win the Rosedale Club Championship in 1938. He didn’t play again until 1955, but captured the Rosedale title again – the last time he would ever play the event. At Scarboro, on September 2, 1937, shortly after his 31st birthday, Carrick toured the course with his wife Betty, former Club champion, Dr. Alex Elliott and his wife Jane. Carrick posted 32-31 – 63, a course record, which although tied three times by professionals, stood until 1987, when Danny Talbot shot a 62 from the forward tees in the first round of the Canadian PGA Championship. Carrick, who was born September 18, 1906, received the Order of the British Empire in 1946 for his service in the Royal Artillery during WWII. He died in 1997 at the age of 90.

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Phil Edward Farley • •

Inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in 1997 Inducted into the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame in 2000

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he year of 1912 was good for golf. Not only did it witness the founding of Scarboro, but the birth of a dominant triumvirate – Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson and Sam Snead – and one local legend, Phil Edward Farley.

Phil Farley’s Record •

• •

• • • •

• • • •

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Low Amateur in Canadian Open Championship: 1931, 1934, 1937-1938 & 1941 Winner of the Canadian Seniors' Association Championship: 1967 & 1972 Ontario Amateur Champion: 1931, 1934, 1940, 1943, 1945 & 1948; runner-up 1942, 1944 & 1946 Ontario Open Champion: 1942 & 1945 Ontario Juvenile Champion: 1927; Junior Champion: 1930 Quebec Amateur Champion: 1936 & 1937; runner-up 1938 Won the George S. Lyon Team Championship with Scarboro: 1940-1942, 1944, 1950 & 1953 Ontario Senior Champion: 1963, 1964, 1966; runner-up 1962 Member, Canadian Senior Amateur Team 1967 & 1969 Ontario Better Ball Champion with Phil Brownlee in 1961 Captained Canada's Team at 1952 America's Cup Matches

SCARBORO GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB

e one title he didn’t win was the Canadian Amateur, where he finished runner-up on three occasions.

Hailing from the east end of Toronto, Phil’s first course was neighbouring Cedar Brook GC, later Cedar Brae G&CC. He was a stonepicker in the 1920s, earning 12 cents an hour. Leaving school at the age of 13, golf became his education. He later caddied, learned from Scottish head pro Tommy Cairns and persuaded Cedar Brook’s executive to permit the five young stonepickers to play the first two holes as many times as possible between daylight and 9 a.m. any day of the week, and that’s where it all started. Phil won the Ontario Junior in 1930, the Ontario Amateur six times, twice captured the Ontario Open and the Quebec Amateur. He was a member of Willingdon Cup teams at the Canadian Amateur 15 times, 12 for Ontario and three for Quebec, as he also played for Marlborough GC out of Montreal for a time. e one title that eluded Farley was the Canadian Amateur, where he finished runner-up on three occasions. In 1937, he lost to Sandy Sommerville on the 35th hole of the 36-hole match-play final at Ottawa Hunt. In 1949, at Riverside in Saint John, NB, he was three up with five holes to play on Dick Chapman, a former U.S. Amateur champion, but missed key putts on the final two holes and went down on the second playoff hole. In 1951, Phil staged a huge comeback after being down eight holes after the morning match-play round at Royal Ottawa by rallying to make it to the 35th hole before Walter McElroy of Shaughnessy Heights won it. Farley captured the Golf Canada National Senior Championship in 1968 and 1969.

Winner Phil Farley and runner-up Jack Walsh at the 1931 Ontario Amateur Championship at the Royal York Golf Club.

Farley joined Scarboro in 1937 and became an Honorary Life Member of the Club in 1952. He served as a Director of Scarboro from 1948 to 1950 and again from 1958 to 1960. But Farley held prestigious posts beyond the Scarboro grounds as well. He was elected a member of the R&A Golf Club in 1955; was president of Golf Canada (the RCGA) in 1967, Canada’s Centennial year; a member of the Golf Canada Board of Governors from 1950 to 1974; Tournament Chairman for the Canadian Open from 1955 to 1957 and 1963 to 1965; and a member of the Board of Directors for the Golf Association of Ontario from 1944 to 1949, when he served as president for one year. He died April 10, 1974, at the age of 62.


Golf Hall of Fame Members Gail Harvey Moore • • •

Inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in 1998 Inducted into the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame in 2000 Inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 2004

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“Winning that title was the major achievement in my career.” Gail Harvey

ail Harvey started playing golf with her mom at Uplands, where her father was Club President, as an eight year-old before joining Scarboro in 1958 at the age of 14. e following year she was runner-up to Flo Seawright for the Club Championship and would go on to win the C.M. Jones Trophy six consecutive years from 1960 to 1965, three times defeating Flo and three times edging Mary Marvin. Gail also won three consecutive Canadian Junior Championships from 1958 to 1960, a title the great Sandra Post would capture from 1964 to 1966.

Gail Harvey’s Record • • • • • • • • •

Ontario Ladies’ Amateur Champion: 1959 Ontario Junior Ladies’ Amateur Champion: 1960 & 1961 Quebec Ladies’ Championship: 1962 Canadian Ladies’ Amateur runner-up: 1963 Canadian Ladies’ Closed Champion: 1964 & 1965; runner-up 1963 & 1968 Runner-up in the World Amateur team competition: 1966 Pacific Northwest Golf Association runner-up: 1969 BC Ladies’ Amateur Champion 1970; runner-up 1969 & 1971 British Columbia Interprovincial Team Member: 1968-1972, 1977-1980, 1982, 1983 & 1991

In 1959, Harvey won the Ontario Ladies’ Amateur Championship and represented Ontario for the first time in interprovincial play. In 1963, she placed second at both the Canadian Ladies’ Amateur and the Canadian Closed Championship. e next two years Gail won the Canadian Closed event and for seven straight years (1959-1966) she was an Ontario interprovincial team member. e York Mills Collegiate Institute and University of Toronto graduate married Dr. James B. Moore and moved to Vancouver at the age of 22, where she raised three children and continued her golf career at Vancouver GC, where she was the ladies’ club champion from 1977 to 1992, with the lone exception of 1979. She became a fixture on the B.C. team, representing her adopted province in four different decades. In 1969, Gail was in a near fatal car accident and was confined to a hospital bed for several months to recover from a broken pelvis, hip and ribs. rough determination and hard work she came back the next year to win both the B.C. and Canadian Amateur

Gail Harvey winning the Ontario Junior title at Brantford G&CC in 1961.

Championship, which she snatched from fellow hall of famer Marlene Stewart Streit on the third extra hole as she limped over Oakdale G&CC. “Winning that title was unquestionably the major achievement in my career, even more so now when I look back on it. My dad, who helped and supported me so much, so wanted me to win. He died in February of the next year, but it was very important winning it for him.” Gail also represented Canada in international play on the World Amateur team in 1966, where they finished second, and in 1968 and 1970. She was also a member of the Commonwealth team in 1967, 1971 and in 1979, when they won gold. Gail was born in Toronto on June 13, 1943 and died in Vancouver in 1993.

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Club Champions A.E. Ames Trophy a Treasured Prize for Champions

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ho do you think is the best male amateur golfer to ever have come out of Scarboro? It’s a question that has been debated for decades on the verandah or in the lounge over a few drinks. e names that have popped up in conversation have no doubt changed as the years have passed by, but the debate usually settles between two players: Canadian Golf Hall of Famers Donald Carrick and Phil Farley. Carrick won the Club championship in 1922, 1924 and 1933, while Farley opted not to compete. e two men tied with the most Club titles, at eight apiece, are Ron Green and Paul Davis, while Sonny Adams, Jackie Brown, Rick Grundy and Ryan Cobb each have their names inscribed five times on the A.E. Ames Trophy.

Ron Green

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Ron Green is showered in champagne after a Club Championship victory.

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on Green remembers sneaking on to the back nine to play a few holes before joining as a 14-year-old junior in 1961. A one-time caddie, Green bleeds Scarboro red through and through, having learned to golf and curl here. He won four successive junior golf titles from 1963 through 1966, as well as three consecutive junior mixed curling championships in the 1960s. (Larry Longo holds the record for most consecutive junior titles at five, from 1975 through 1979.)

Green’s eight Club championships came between 1977 and 1998, including a record four consecutive victories from 1977 through 1980. He was also runner-up four times, with three of the defeats against Jackie Brown – the last one on the 38th hole! He also won the McCaffrey Trophy for the Club Handicap Championship twice, was a member of two George S. Lyon Trophy winning teams and teamed up in 1983 with head professional Ken Fulton and members Garth Bent and Al Crost to win the Canadian Interprovincial Pro-Am Championship.

“e first time I played Scarboro I shot 117. I still remember it like it was yesterday. I was devastated,” says Green who also recalls the 1963 Canadian Open in detail, when he caddied five rounds for PGA Tour rookie Frank Beard. Beard made it through the qualifier with a 65 and then tied for 31st for the week. For two of those memorable rounds, he was paired with Canadians Moe Norman and Alvie ompson.

Although he doesn’t curl any longer, Green was at the height of his game in the 1970s. In 1973, he reached the Canadian Curling Championships in Edmonton, where he played as the power sweeping lead for Paul Savage’s rink, which included Bobby ompson and future world champion skip Ed Werenich. Green’s rink also won the Canada Life Bonspiel in 1976, Scarboro’s Men’s Invitational in 1984 and was a fivetime winner of the Club’s Major Trophy.

SCARBORO GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB


Paul Davis

Sonny Adams

P

S

aul Davis came to Scarboro in 1984 from Whitevale G&CC, having already won the Alberta Amateur in 1977 and the Ontario Amateur in 1979. He placed second in the 1981, 1982, 1987 and 1988 Ontario Amateur to Gary Cowan, Bill Swartz, Steve Hayles and Warren Sye, respectively. He learned to play the game at Rouge Hills G&CC in eastern Toronto and finished second at the 1970 Canadian Junior Championship before attending Ohio State University for both hockey and golf, where he was a two-time All-American. “We’d always drive by Scarboro on the way to Rouge Hills,” Paul recalls, noting his father drove a taxi for part of his childhood. “It was a distant dream when you were 10 years old to imagine playing here or being a member.” Living in e Beach today, he is quick to note that there’s no place else he’d prefer to play or be a member.

Davis won his long line of Club championships in 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1993, 1995, 1997 and 2010. He may have won others, but passed up on several occasions to play in provincial and national events. He won the Ontario Mid-Am in 1995, but lost in the semi-finals of the Canadian Mid-Am later that summer. His children Ryan and Ashley also learned to golf at Scarboro, with Ashley going on to win the Ladies’ Club Championship in 2005. Davis says playing golf at Augusta National GC with Ashley in 2007 has to be one of his favourite golfing memories and more than made up for losing a bet to Ryan a few years earlier. e younger Davis, in his last year of high school, had wagered that he could beat his dad on the golf course, and did one afternoon – by one stroke. It cost Paul a $30,000 Jeep.

onny Adams, who came to Scarboro from Cedar Brook G&CC with golfing buddy Phil Farley, won the Club crown five times between 1936 and 1950 in addition to the 1936 Ontario Amateur. He was also runner-up on five occasions for the Club title. In addition, Sonny was a member of four of Scarboro’s George S. Lyon Championship teams, as well as being a semifinalist in the 1938 Ontario Amateur.

Jackie Brown

T

he always colourful Jackie Brown won the Club championship five times – 1967, 1969, 1970, 1973 and 1974 – and was runner-up in 1975. He started caddying at Scarboro at age nine and continued for for seven years before working in the pro shop for three seasons for Bob Gray. “ere was a putting green with six holes down below where the caddies hung out. We would putt with wooden sticks for quarters and also toss quarters into the cups,” says Brown, who still plays with friends at the Club from time to time. He joined Scarboro as an intermediate member in the mid-1960s for $500 and remained here for a decade, but as a teacher he couldn’t afford a full membership when he turned 30. Brown once shot 69-68 over the final two rounds on the Saturday to win one of his Club championships and has four deuces on No. 9 over the years, to go along with an impressive three aces on No. 11 and one on No. 4. Brown, who liked to gamble, especially on the horses, may have had the rawest talent of any male golfer at the Club. He was practically unbeatable at Scarboro, especially when there was money on the line, but away from his home track he didn’t shine as brightly as others.

SCARBORO GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB

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Men’s Club Champions - Medal Play

Rick Grundy

W

hile he won five Club championships between 1994 and 2006, it’s the losses that have added up for Rick Grundy. Incredibly, and you can’t blame him for losing track, Grundy says he has finished second or tied for second 12 or 13 times.

He arrived at Scarboro as a novice golfer with a 25 handicap in 1977 and was inspired to improve his game by Mel Rothwell’s tenacious play in the Club championship that year. After struggling for years to just make it into the championship flight, he finally beat good buddy Ron Green in 1994 for his first burgundy jacket. “Over the years I have had a lot of pain,” admits Grundy, who lost to Don Davis by one shot one year, and fell to Ryan Cobb on another occasion, by a stroke after calling a penalty on himself on the seventh hole when his ball moved on the green after he addressed it. en there was the year that he had played 41 holes at just a few over par and was standing on the sixth tee with a comfortable lead and carded a 10 on the hole, but still managed to win.

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SCARBORO GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB

2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979

Bruce McEwen Paul Davis Ryan Cobb Bruce McEwen Frank Mihalek Rick Grundy Ryan Cobb Rick Grundy Rick Grundy Ryan Cobb Ryan Cobb Ryan Cobb Rick Grundy Ron Green Paul Davis Don Davis Paul Davis Rick Grundy Paul Davis Frank Mihalek Ron Green Ron Green Paul Davis M.J. French Paul Davis Paul Davis Paul Davis Ron Green Larry Longo Dr. Robert H. Penney George Bannister Ron Green Ron Green

1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970 1969 1968 1967 1966 1965 1964 1963 1962 1961 1960 1959 1958 1957 1956 1955 1954 1953 1952 1951 1950 1949 1948 1947 1946

Ron Green Ron Green Chris Bundy Jim Dolan Jackie Brown Jackie Brown David Robertson Jim Dolan Jackie Brown Jackie Brown Mel Rothwell Jackie Brown Mel Rothwell Don Hewson Eric Hanson Eric Hanson Ross Beveridge Bob Pezzack Ray Coole Bob Pezzack Eric Hanson Doug McKellar Pat Bingham Bill Givens Doug McKellar Ken Jacobs Robert Fair Bill Tredway Sonny Adams Robert Fair Paul Paletti Bill Givens Russ Mayo

1945 1944 1943 1942 1941 1940 1939 1938 1937 1936 1935 1934 1933 1932 1931 1930 1929 1928 1927 1926 1925 1924 1923 1922 1921 1920 1919 1918 1917 1916 1915 1914

Sonny Adams Bob Lee No Competition Sonny Adams Bruce Eyer Chuck Lloyd Sonny Adams Chuck Levy Sonny Adams Sonny Adams Chuck Levy George Stewart Don Carrick Lewis Brown Chuck Levy Bill Givens Dr. R.E. Davidson Harry Phelan C.M. Jones Rud Curry C.M. Jones Don Carrick C.M. Jones Don Carrick Jess Carrick C.M. Jones Tom Fairley No Competition Tom Fairley Dr. Alex Elliott R.W. Banks H.F. Fisher


Club Champions Dana Saccoccio creeping up on Flo Seawright

I Ryan Cobb

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yan Cobb started hitting balls on the range as a seven-year-old with his father Paul before joining in 1991 at age 12. After winning the junior championship on his last try in 1999, Cobb went on to win the men’s Club title from 2000 to 2002 and followed up with victories in 2005 and 2009.

“e first victory is most memorable,” he says. “ree of us, Rick Grundy, Bruce McEwen and I, were tied walking up the 18th fairway. I made a 35-foot putt for birdie to win. It went downhill across the green from left to right and right in the middle. I have wondered if it would have stayed anywhere near the hole if I had missed it.” Making the wins more special was having his dad on his bag for several of the victories. “It’s always fun to be in the mix on the final day,” added Cobb, whose other accomplishments include a hole-inone on No. 11 and an albatross on No. 10.

f someone is to replace Flo Seawright as the woman with the most Scarboro Ladies’ Club Championship titles in the foreseeable future, it might well be Dana Saccoccio. Saccoccio joined the Club in 1970 and won three consecutive Junior Girls’ Championships from 1973 through 1975. She won her first of nine Ladies’ Club crowns in 1995, followed by additional wins in 1999, 2003, 2004 and then five in a row beginning in 2006.

“e funniest Club championship story I have may be the year I won when my main competition (Cheri Grogan) went into labour and gave birth the night before our fourth and final round that year,” says Saccoccio, who has played against a long list of Scarboro champs over the years, including Seawright, Grogan, Mary Marvin, Mary Way, Peg Rothwell, Sharon Robertson, Jan Atkinson, Susan Clark, Marianne Klein, Penny Hirsch and Maureen Barrey. “Although I love competitive golf, something that I look forward to each week during the summer is regular Friday morning golf-and-gab with friends, usually Maureen Barrey, Marian Carter and Penny Hirsh and sometimes Bonnie Bush. ose are special times.”

“During the 1940s and 1950s, Flo was practically unbeatable on her home layout,” Rothwell, the 1974 ladies champion, told writer Lou Cauz in 1987. “is was her Club and she would be the first to defend it if anybody ever tried to run it down.”

For now, however, Seawright remains the standard. She and Scarboro G&CC were linked in the hearts and minds of fellow members from the 1940s until her death in 1986. She holds more Club championships than any other golfer at Scarboro, having won the C.M. Jones Trophy 13 times. Susan Clark has her name etched on it 10 times of her own, followed by Marvin at seven. e ladies’ competition dates back to 1920, when Jessie Riddel won the first of her seven titles.

Two weeks before her death, Flo, at 78, played her final round with Clark, her admirer and then the reigning Club champion. “She was feeling a little down, but we had one of the loveliest days,” Clark says. “She only liked to play with serious players and it was a great last round together. She asked me, ‘What do you see?’ I told her that her shoulders were on the same level but that she wasn’t being aggressive. Flo always had a great swing. She was a swinger, not a hitter. She’d take a couple of practice swings and hit it a ton.”

Winner of 13 women’s Club championships, Flo Seawright

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Seawright was one of the Cedar Brook G&CC golfers who transferred to Scarboro at the end of the Second World War. She quickly proved she could adapt to this course’s many hazards. In her first Club championship in 1945, she was beaten by Eileen McEachren, who had won the title the three previous years. However, from 1946 until 1959, Flo won 11 times. She was a six-time runner-up in the Club championship and also had her name inscribed on the Mutton, McConkey, Burns and President’s Prize trophies. She lost by a stroke in the 1949 Canadian Closed Championship to Bab Davies in Vancouver, twice won the Canadian Senior Women’s title and was twice the runner-up. She was a four-time winner of the Ontario Ladies’ Golf Association Senior Championship, a member of Scarboro’s winning Sydney Mulqueen Trophy team that included Gail Harvey, Marion Forsythe and Dorothy Hinton, and represented Ontario numerous times in interprovincial play. Seawright was also an outstanding curler and played for many years out of the Toronto Granite Club. However, in 1958, which was Scarboro’s first full season of curling, she and Doris Gillespie skipped the Club’s two rinks in the Ontario Tankard. e rookies from Scarboro won the twoteam championship. Today, when long-time members reminisce about Seawright, the talk invariably gets around to matches she had with Mary Marvin. “ey were really competitive. In the latter years you could not put them in the same pairing. ey didn’t see eye-to-eye. ey were real characters and they liked to drink,” says Eleanor Erion, who started playing golf at Scarboro in the 1940s with her father, Harold Sinnott. Erion’s parents would rent what is now the boardroom on the second floor of the clubhouse and keep their liquor there. She would sit at the top of the stairs on Friday nights and listen to the pianist playing in the rotunda.

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SCARBORO GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB

“Flo always had a great swing. She’d take a couple of practice swings and hit it a ton.” Susan Clark “One day we were playing the 13th and after Mary hit her second shot, I asked, ‘What did you use there?’” Erion remembers. “Mary shot back, ‘Eleanor you should know better than to ask a question like that; there are strict rules.’ Apparently I didn’t; I wasn’t that competitive.” Marvin, on the other hand, was a different case. On the course, she was mentally strong and had a level of concentration few could achieve. If you made a good shot Marvin just played better. She had a softer side, though. A farmer’s wife, she was always bringing in fruit or vegetables for the ladies. Seawright and Marvin died in 1986 within a couple of months of each other. Another of the titans, Susan Clark arrived at Scarboro in 1977 from Sleepy Hollow CC. She won her first Club championship the following summer and went on to win nine more times, closing the book in 1993 as she reached double digits. She remembers a summer where she stomped into then-pro Ken Fulton’s office and told him she couldn’t stand playing as poorly as she was. “He asked me how badly I wanted to get better and, ‘Are you willing to give up two years to do it?’ I foolishly said yes and he took my swing apart and put it back together with these awful drills.” Clark’s mental toughness evolved throughout the later 1980s and the 1990s. She also caddied for Ron Green in the Men’s Club Championship. By 1993, the ladies’ championship had expanded from three to four rounds and Clark climbed from a six-stroke disadvantage after the first round to defeat Grogan and Jan AtkinsonHall. She left the Club in 1996 for Weston G&CC and rarely plays today.

TOP LEFT: Jessie Riddel | TOP RIGHT: Dana Saccoccio with Terry Kirkup BOTTOM: Club President Bud Casserly and Mary Marvin.


Club Champions Women’s Club Champions 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1988 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979

Penny Hirsh Dana Saccoccio Dana Saccoccio Dana Saccoccio Dana Saccoccio Dana Saccoccio Ashley Davis Dana Saccoccio Dana Saccoccio Maureen Barrey Marianne Klein Cheri Grogan Dana Saccoccio Cheri Grogan Cheri Grogan Cheri Grogan Dana Saccoccio Janet Atkinson Susan Clark Cheri Grogan Susan Clark Sharon Robertson Sharon Robertson Susan Clark Susan Clark Susan Clark Susan Clark Peg Rothwell Mary Way Susan Clark Susan Clark Mary Marvin Susan Clark

1978 1977 1976 1975 1974 1973 1972 1971 1970 1969 1968 1967 1966 1965 1964 1963 1962 1961 1960 1959 1958 1957 1956 1955 1954 1953 1952 1951 1950 1949 1948 1947 1946

Susan Clark Mary Marvin Mary Marvin Mary Marvin Peg Rothwell Mary Marvin Mary Marvin Mary Marvin Mary Marvin Flo Seawright Mary Marvin Mary Marvin Flo Seawright Gail Harvey Gail Harvey Gail Harvey Gail Harvey Gail Harvey Gail Harvey Flo Seawright Dorothy Hinton Flo Seawright Flo Seawright Flo Seawright Flo Seawright Flo Seawright Flo Seawright Flo Seawright Dorothy Strickland Al Reeve Flo Seawright Flo Seawright Flo Seawright

1945 1944 1943 1942 1941 1940 1939 1938 1937 1936 1935 1934 1933 1932 1931 1930 1929 1928 1927 1926 1925 1924 1923 1922 1921 1920

Eileen McEachern Eileen McEachern Eileen McEachern Eileen McEachern Dait Hall Jane Fisher Jane Fisher Dait Hall Isabel Amell Dait Hall Dait Hall Dait Hall Estelle McCord Jane Morin Lillian Wright Jessie Riddel Jessie Riddel Charlotte Fisher Jessie Riddel Jessie Riddel Brodie Firth Jessie Riddel Lillian Wright Jessie Riddel Louise Risdon Jessie Riddel

Scarboro’s 1950 George S. Lyon trophy winners Sonny Adams, Bob Fair, Phil Farley and Bill Givens

George S. Lyon Shield

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he George S. Lyon Shield, named after the 1904 Olympic gold medallist in golf, was first presented in 1931 by member clubs in Toronto for an annual competition between teams of four men from each club, with the best aggregate gross score winning. It was co-ordinated by Scarboro’s Phil Farley and Fred Lyon until 1948, when the George S. Lyon became an official event of the Golf Association of Ontario. Scarboro won it for the first time in 1941 with the team of Farley, J.G. Adams, C.W. Levy and Bud Donovan. ey repeated in 1942. Over the years the Club has won it an impressive nine times: 1940, 1941, 1942, 1944, 1950, 1957, 1975, 1979 and 1997. e 1997 team was comprised of Jesse Collinson, Rick Grundy, Paul Davis and Don Davis.

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Our Curlers

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aving been established in 1834, Fergus Curling Club remains the oldest continuously operating curling club in Ontario. Since that time curling has evolved into one of the most popular sports in our nation. Today, there are about 1,050 member clubs across the country and the Canadian Curling Association estimates there are over one million Canadians who play the sport each year.

and the first stones were thrown in competition at St. George’s G&CC on November 11, 1957. Scarboro first rocked the world on December 7, 1957, with a memorable grand opening. Other clubs followed – Mississaugua G&CC in 1958 and Burlington G&CC in 1959, to name two – to the point that the Toronto Curling Association was formed in 1960. Curling came and went at some clubs, including Lambton G&CC, which added curling in the early 1960s, but closed it in the mid-1990s.

Initial rendering of the proposed curling facility

Impressive numbers, especially when one considers that as late as 1950 only about a quarter of the 100 or so curling clubs in Ontario had artificial ice. en, starting in the mid-1950s, the golf clubs of Ontario’s cities started to grow the game, but as a byproduct of their own financial interests. Clubs looked for ways to retain and attract new members and become profitable year-round so their clubhouses would not sit virtually closed over the winter months. Curling became the answer.

According to Scarboro records, curling was first discussed at the Board of Directors’ level on October 19th, 1955. During the evening discussion Bob Metcalfe received the green light to head up a “committee of one” to investigate “the possibility” of the Club building a curling rink. e Club first opened for off-season business in the winter of 1954-55, but found that social functions and members’ interest were insufficient, with a resulting $8,000 loss. Tobogganing, skiing, horse-drawn sleigh rides and gin rummy games weren’t going to cut it. With this in mind, Metcalfe made his report at a January 23, 1956 meeting. e Board approved in principle the building of a sixsheet curling rink at an estimated cost of $160,000, although its location became the subject of great debate.

e preliminary design called for the rink to be built on a site located in the valley, on the same level as the present golf course maintenance facilities, at a cost of $185,000. e rink would have been connected to the Club by a tunnel that would have been built beneath the main entrance to the clubhouse. is design was based on a feasibility study that suggested insufficient space to simply extend the existing clubhouse to the west. As discussions proceeded, the tunnel option was deemed too expensive. Another estimate of $250,000 would have had the rink built in the existing driveway, parallel to the train tracks. At that point, Cec Howard, a Club director, went to the drawing board himself, designing a cardboard model to show that a six-sheet rink could be built to the west of the Club, despite what the feasibility study said.

On its website, Dundas Valley G&CC states that it was the first golf club to integrate golf and curling, with the addition of a six-sheet rink that officially opened in February of 1956. Others quickly followed suit: Weston G&CC’s rink opened on November 17, 1956,

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Howard’s fellow directors were convinced by his presentation. Plans and specifications were drawn up, and the sod was turned on June 7, 1957. Construction proceeded throughout the summer, with the finishing of the rink’s roof in September. By late November the interior was complete. e power grid and ice-making machines were set up and ready to be tested, with a crew working 24 hours a day in the final week. e ice was painted before a final flooding and the brand new rink was ready to greet its first curlers. Guy Scott was hired as Scarboro’s first curling instructor, secretary and icemaker. Howard was on site virtually every day throughout construction. In his Grand Opening remarks on December 7, 1957, to a crowd of 300 onlookers, Club President Terry Jones commended Cec for his daily dedication to the project and noted that more than any member Howard was responsible for its design, construction and overall success. Other key figures involved with bringing curling to Scarboro included Ted McCall, Bill Tredway, Phil Farley, Bill Atkinson, Stan Defoe, Bob Gray, Doris Gillespie, Ruth Farley, Betty Casserly, Molly Lawson, Doris Harrington, Mary Mothersill, Doreen Lyon and Mrs. L.C. Johnston. When it was all said and done, the final cost for the building, equipment, furnishings and some improvements to the entrance was $238,000, including $3,288 for the first set of rocks. With 237 gentlemen curling members and 76 lady members that first year, it was a gala opening indeed and the first of many great days and nights of curling to come in the years ahead. Within a month of opening the new facility, Scarboro ladies won the Club’s first major, the 1958 Ontario Ladies’ Tankard – a double-rink competition in which the combined scores of both rinks decided a victory. e first team was skipped by Flo Seawright with Dot Strickland, Marion Hoar and Molly Lawson, and the second team was skipped by Doris Gillespie with Anne Green (Burns), Mary Bailey and Alma Atkinson. e Scarboro ladies would go on to win the Ontario Tankard again in 1966. e only holdover from the 1958 squad was Anne Green, who moved up to skip a rink made up of Carolyn Millen, Isabel Darlington and Barb Hibben. e second Scarboro squad consisted of Lee Scott, Jean McAlpine, Betty Barraclough and Sue Kilty. TOP LEFT: First day of construction under the watchful eye of Cec Howard | TOP RIGHT: Terry Jones delivers the

opening rock | BOTTOM: Scarboro ladies score the first major win for the Club, taking the 1958 Ontario Tankard within a month of the opening.

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Curling Timeline 1958 e Paget Trophy for the Day Ladies’ Club Champions is introduced and a year later the T. L. Jones Ladies’ Invitational Bonspiel Trophy is added.

1959 e curling membership peaks in the 1959-60 season with 389 male and 220 female members.

1961 Jack Millen, Doris Gillespie, Andy Rogers and Carolyn Millen win the Imperial Life Bonspiel (City Mixed Championship).

1963 Doug Peacock starts as curling secretary after a four-year stint in the golf shop as an assistant to Bob Gray. Amazingly, Peacock gave up a well-paying job at IBM to make $50 a week at Scarboro. He calls it “the best decision of my life.” He spent the summer of 1963 playing on the PGA Tour, where he made three of nine cuts and was supported by some Scarboro members who gave him a car and $300 a week in spending money to travel. Peacock lived upstairs at the Club and acted as curling secretary until the end of 1975 when he left for a job at Brockville G&CC. Scarboro members gave him a $1,000 bill and a few extra hundred dollars in appreciation for his time at the Club.

1964 Heaters are installed in the curling rink in an effort to keep the temperature at a more comfortable level for curlers and in the hope of faster ice conditions. 1965 e inaugural Men’s Club Championship for the Major Curling Trophy is held.

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e Heritage 1965 It’s believed that the first Senior Men’s Playboy Bonspiel, for gentlemen 60 years of age and older, was played in 1965. It was instigated by curlers Hugh Betts, Stan Kidd and Warren Labbett and got its name from the popular magazine that a curling member owned the Canadian rights to at the time. He donated one-year subscription prizes of the magazine that year, but that ended after a wife of one of the winning curlers complained to Scarboro’s Club president. 1966 e official curling sweater is adopted in hunter green with gold piping. 1967 e rink is panelled at a cost of $6,154. 1968 Dehumidifiers are installed in the rink.

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he Heritage Bonspiel, originally called the Scarboro Mixed Invitational Bonspiel, began in February of 1958. It was a five-day bonspiel starting on a Tuesday and finishing on a Saturday.

In February of 1966, the cost per team was $40, with 48 teams entered – 24 teams played on the Tuesday and 24 teams played on the Wednesday. Six American teams entered the bonspiel that year, which was highlighted by a dinner and dance on the Saturday night. During the 1971-72 curling year, the Heritage dropped to a 36-team, four-day bonspiel starting on the Wednesday and finishing on the Saturday. e top 24 teams returned on the final day for the playdowns at 8:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m., with the final at 7 p.m.

1972 e inaugural Men’s One-Day Bonspiel is played in January and a year later renamed the Men’s Beer ’n Beef Invitational Bonspiel. In 1977, it went to a three-day event with the introduction of a new trophy and remains one of the top bonspiels of its kind in the province. When too many Scarboro teams enter there is a playdown to determine the home team entries. e Friday night Calcutta and hip-ofbeef dinner are longstanding traditions. Saturday, after curling, the ladies are invited to a full course sitdown dinner and dance – the largest dinner at the Club each year.

1973 In January the Scarboro team of Joan Willis, Edna Shields, Carol Young and Madelin Hutchinson posted a rare eight-ender on home ice.

In February 1973, the bonspiel went to a three-day event and in 1977 its name changed to the Mixed Heritage Bonspiel. From 1978 through 1981 the bonspiel was a two-day event. During the 1980-81 curling year, the name of the bonspiel changed once again and became the Scarboro Mixed Heritage Invitational Bonspiel, shortened to the Heritage Bonspiel, and was back to a three-day event running Friday to Sunday. From the 1997-1998 curling year to the present time, the Mixed Heritage Bonspiel has been a one-day bonspiel held on a Saturday in February. It is still well attended by both outside and Scarboro teams.


Our Curlers Team Savage and e Wrench

Curling Timeline

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rom the early 1970s until the late ’90s, no single curler had anywhere near the influence in the game as Ed Werenich. Before the creation of the free guard zone, Ed showed the curling world how to play aggressive with strategies that had never been seen before. When he first started putting up corner guards after a competitor had placed a rock in the four-foot, most skips scratched their heads, not knowing what to do next. Ed took a game that had become boring and made it exciting. His open, working-class personality appealed to everyone. Curling on TV drew unheard-of audiences and the “Wrench” was the star of the show, with his trademark moustache, ball cap and tooth pick always prominent. He was always good for a quote and welcomed interviews. His shot-making skills have not been duplicated. Ed played out of Scarboro from 1972 through 1975, along with good friends Paul Savage and Ron Green. e trio won Scarboro’s Major Trophy for men’s league play in 1972, 1973 and 1975 with a different fourth each time, including Norm Holman, Bob ompson and Chris Bundy, respectively. In the beginning it was actually Savage who skipped the teams, but Werenich soon found his touch. “Ron and I first met in the local high school championships and we teamed up together to win the 1966 Ontario Junior Boys’ title,” says Savage, who first caddied at the Club as a teenager and then joined as a curling member from 1972 to 1983.

1974 Ontario Champions Ed Werenich, Bob Thompson, Paul Savage and Ron Green

1976 Scarboro hosts the Canada Life Bonspiel for the second time (1963), and this time a local boy triumphs. Ron Green, who learned to curl here, returns home to win with teammates Reid Ferguson, Doug Smith and Bob Sellers. 1976 e first Veteran’s Day Bonspiel is hosted at Scar-

Savage, Green and Werenich played together in the 1973, 1974 and 1977 Briers, finishing runners-up in both ’73 and ’77. Representing Scarboro in ’73 and ’74 Savage noted that, “We had terrific send-off parties at the Club both years,” and were given traditional Scarboro blazers to wear along with financial support. In 1973, member Bruce Buckingham proclaimed himself team manager and accompanied the squad to Edmonton, AB, on his own dime to assist the team. In 1974 at the Brier in London, ON, two busloads of enthusiastic Scarboro members and fans helped propel the team to a third-place finish. Ed skipped his own team to the Brier in 1981, but still could not win. In 1983, after years of acrimony between the pair, Savage and Werenich reunited to create what was known as “the Dream Team.” Finishing with a 12-1 record, the Ontario squad hoisted the Labatt Tankard in Sudbury. ey went on to win the World Curling Championship that year over Sweden at the Agridome in Regina, SK. Team Werenich returned to the Brier in 1984, finishing second, and again in 1988, before winning for the last time in 1990 – this time without Savage. Savage would go on to win a silver medal at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

boro under the guidance of curling members Hugh Betts and John Gray for teams of veterans and Legion members across Ontario. In 2000, the event is moved to Tam Heather Curling Club and renamed the Legion Memorial Day Bonspiel.

These clowns include: Laura Argue, Joan Brownlow, Bonnie Brown and Karen Saunders.

1978 e first Business Girls Clown Bonspiel is held on December 2, with 90 per cent of the teams arriving in clown costumes. It went on for 10-plus years before being renamed the Christmas Classic.

1980 In February, George Cushnie and his rink of Vi Cushnie, Dr. Charles Robson and Roberta Robson score an eight-ender in Wednesday night mixed curling.

1982 In December, 300 past and present curlers gather to celebrate the 25th anniversary of curling at Scarboro. Club President Ed Fleury welcomes everyone, and rinks that had won major events during the first quarter century are recognized. It remains a challenging time for curling, with only 124 male and 134 female members.

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Curling Timeline

“Standing on the podium and listening to ‘O Canada’ was a spine-tingling moment.” Bob Turcotte

1991 e Little Rocks Spiel is introduced at Scarboro for

Team Turcotte – A Proven Winner

youngsters.

1991 Skip Bryan Cathcart and teammates Louise Cath-

In 1999, Team Turcotte won a gold representing Canada at the first annual Olympic Commemorative Curling Bonspiel in Japan, where the 1998 Winter Olympics had been played. “Standing on the podium listening to ‘O Canada’ was a spine-tingling moment,” Turcotte says.

cart, Harvey Walker and Joan Walker post an eight-ender in November at Scarboro.

1992 In January, the team of Ian Buckingham, Arthur Ewing, Mike French and skip Steve Tsukamoto win the 87th Canada Life Trophy Bonspiel (City Men's Championship). Nearly 3,000 curlers participate in the weeklong event that features 1,492 games and 28 clubs.

1993 For the second year in a row the Scarboro team of Steve Tsukamoto, Arthur Ewing, Ian Buckingham and Mike French win the Beer ’n Beef.

1993 e first Senior Skins Invitational is held. 1994 e Club hosts a retirement tribute to Don Campbell in June to recognize his many years of service and dedication to the Club. 1994 TSN attends the 4th Annual Little Rocks Curling Bonspiel in March, with 96 curlers aged 7-12 participating from 11 different clubs in the GTA. e event is sponsored by the Canadian Curling Association and used by TSN to promote Little Rock Curling across Canada. A Scarboro team skipped by Steve Wilkins with David Grant, Charles Strathdee and Brandon O’Brien wins the first draw.

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Team Turcotte at the 2000 Canadian Senior Men’s Championship

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ince the mid-1990s, Bob Turcotte and his Scarboro teammates have enjoyed stellar results on the provincial, national and international stage.

In 1996, 1997 and 2000, Scarboro’s Team Turcotte – Bob Turcotte, Roy Weigand, Bob Lichti and Steve McDermot – won the Canadian Senior Men’s Championship and went on to win the first Senior Men’s World Championship, defeating Scotland in 2000. ey also represented Ontario at the Canadian championship on two other occasions – in 2004 and 2008, the latter of which they won silver. Ken Cochrane replaced Lichti on the team in 2007. Weigand was selected as first-team all-star third in four of his five Canadian championships (1996, 1997, 2000 and 2008).

At the 1999 Canadian Mixed Curling Championships Team Turcotte with Kristen Turcotte, Roy Weigand and Andrea Lawes struck bronze in Victoria, B.C. Weigand was selected as a first-team all-star and Bob Turcotte made it to the second team. After nearly a decade’s absence from the championship as a result of scheduling issues, the quartet once again won provincials in 2008 and came second at the nationals. “I have always been a believer in working harder to get better and more consistent,” says Turcotte. “e more we practiced, the better we got. Like any sport, the more you put into it, the more you get out of it.” A decade after joining Scarboro as the Club’s first curling manager, Weigand received the 2007 Toronto Curling Association Outstanding Contribution Award in recognition of his efforts to increase the Club’s profile and draw more members into the game. Looking back, Bob Turcotte says 2008 was an incredible year, as his teams competed in four provincial championships (men’s, senior, mixed and intermediate) and two national championships (senior and mixed).


Our Curlers GM Goodwrench Skins Game Lands at Scarboro in 2000

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anada’s top curling teams gathered at Scarboro for the fourth GM Goodwrench Skins Game in February 2000. e five-day $75,000 event saw Team Wayne Middaugh win $35,700, defeating Team Stoughton in the final after 14 hours of nationally televised curling action from Scarboro. “ey created an East vs. West theme for the week, with the four teams from each region squaring off against each other,” recalls curling member Louise Germain, who acted as the bonspiel chair for the event. “It was a friendly rivalry and I think they really enjoyed their time together off the ice in the country club setting, because many of them had not been exposed to that atmosphere.” Germain notes that more than 100 Scarboro volunteers helped make the event an enormous success. Bleachers that filled to a capacity of 850 spectators for the finals were erected in the lounge and on the ice surface, and television cameras raced up and down the ice to capture all the action.

Curling Timeline 1995 e Business Women’s team of skip Louise Cath-

The Skins Game contenders included: WEST • Team Kerry Burtnyk - World champion and two-time Brier champion from the Assiniboine Memorial Curling Club in Winnipeg • Team Vic Peters - Brier champion from Winnipeg’s Granite Curling Club • Team Kevin Martin - Two-time Brier champion and defending GM Goodwrench Skins champion from Ottewell Curling Club in Edmonton • Team Jeff Stoughton - World Champion and two-time Brier champion from Charleswood Curling Club in Winnipeg EAST • Team Guy Hemmings - Two-time Brier finalist from Saint-Lambert, QC • Team Mike Harris - 1998 Olympic silver medallist from Tam Heather Curling and Tennis Club in Scarborough • Team Wayne Middaugh - Two-time world champion from St. George’s G&CC • Team Ed Werenich - Two-time world champion from the former Avonlea Club in North York

cart, Colleen Fruman, Lynn Couto, and Shirley French post an eight-ender in December.

1997 e Heritage Mixed Bonspiel is won by the first Scarboro female skip in over 35 years of competition: skip Louise Cathcart, Dr. Joe Massad, Wendy Paquette and Ron Paquette.

1998 e First time curling is in the Olympics. 1999 Advertising is first introduced on curling rocks. Members have their names engraved on a rock for $50 and 96 are sold to cover the cost of a new set of rocks for the Club.

2001 Advertising is posted on the walls of the curling rink for the first time, and in 2003 it went into the ice. 2001 Almost 300 people attend Championship Night in April – a huge success for members, friends and family.

2002 e men’s Beer ’n Beef event is won by the Scarboro team of skip Brian Roblin, Cy Crocker, Tom Roblin and John ompson. 2002 Annual curling fees are restructured among the various categories. A three-year phase-in period is approved to ensure all curlers became full-year members of the Club.

Team Middaugh receiving the championship cheque at the GM Goodwrench Skins Game

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Don Campbell Award Winners

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he Don Campbell Award has been presented since 1995 at Championship Night to “an outstanding curling member who in the spirit of goodwill and sportsmanship has enhanced the strength of the Curling Section in an exemplary fashion, through examples of contribution, dedication and leadership, thereby advancing our reputation in the curling community.” Don is remembered for his passionate commitment to curling. He was the Club’s icemaker, but was also a curling icon with a deep passion for the game and a long history of involvement, both as a competitor and builder. In the 1940s and 1950s Don and his brothers formed a formidable curling team in their home province of Saskatchewan, winning provincials in 1954, 1955 and 1957, and e Brier in 1955, when Don played vice. ey settled for second at the Brier in 1954 and 1957.

Award Winners

TOP: Don Campbell BOTTOM: Brian Campbell

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1995 Bill Baker 1996 Cheryl Powers 1997 John Gray 1998 Bob Riches 1999 Eric Downer 2000 Elaine and John Kozie 2001 Louise Germain 2002 Delaine Payton 2003 Brian Roblin 2004 Al Gunn 2005 Jane and Cy Crocker 2006 Joan Brownlow 2007 Bruce Grundy 2008 Marc Bobbie 2009 Tom Roblin 2010 Gregg Truscott 2011 Anne Miron

After moving to Ontario, Don became the sport’s first “professional”. From 1967 to 1971 he owned and operated the Campbell Curling Club in Hamilton and his resulting business, D.C. Campbell Curling Supplies Ltd., remains a going concern today. Don assisted in the building of the original Tam O’Shanter Curling Club and the Avonlea Curling Club, which was named after his hometown in Saskatchewan. He left Toronto Cricket Club to join Scarboro in 1981 and remained here until he lost his battle with cancer in the fall of 1994. “My dad always enjoyed his days at Scarboro,” says son Brian, who took over the Scarboro ice-making duties in 1995. “People who knew him would tell you he was a very honest, forthright individual, very compassionate for the sport and the curlers, and grateful for what the sport provided.” Don and Brian also operated fishing charter boats on Lake Simcoe and Lake Ontario for many years. “He loved to fish and take curlers out on the water to have some fun,” says Brian, who at the age of five, threw his first curling stone at the opening of Avonlea Curling Club in 1960. He also curled with his dad and brother Wayne for a period in the 1980s and even supervised ice-making at six clubs simultaneously prior to taking on the full-time role at Scarboro.


Our Curlers Curling Timeline 2002 e Roy Weigand team of Louise Germain, Tom Roblin and Carolyn Caswell win back-to-back Energizer Mixed Bonspiels in 2002 and 2003, and win the Melitta Sunshine Bonspiel in 2003.

2010 e Karen Kubis team of Lenore Lecky, David Moll and Barbara Weber score an eight-ender at Scarboro. 2008 Scarboro hosts the five-day Ontario Senior Provincial

2003 e Brian Roblin team of Cy Crocker, Tom Roblin,

Curling Championship for men and women in January as part of curling’s 50th anniversary jubilee activities that also include a grand outdoor curling match at Cedarena, a quaint 81-year-old skating rink in Markham. e modified Scarboro logo is unveiled to reflect curling at Scarboro. Many of the members in attendance that evening sign the back before it is hung in the curling rink.

and Bruce Grundy win the GTA’s Energizer Men’s Bonspiel both in 2003 and 2004.

2010 In March, Laura

2004 e Closing Bonspiel is added to the curling season for first time, taking place after Championship Night. ere were 128 curlers in the inaugural year and it now tops out at close to 200.

2007 e 50th anniversary of curling at Scarboro includes a gala dinner and dance highlighted by Paul Savage’s recollections of his early years at the Club.

Crocker is presented with the Canadian Junior Women’s Championship banner that hangs proudly in the curling lounge. at same month, Laura and her Team Canada members win silver at the World Junior Women’s Curling Championships in Switzerland.

2011 Playing second, Laura Crocker enjoys another stellar year, making it back-to-back Ontario Junior Girls’ championships, but playing for different teams. Laura also skips the Sir Wilfrid Laurier University women’s team to OUA and CIS championships.

2011 Tom and Brian Roblin, playing second and third on the Guy Racette senior men’s team playing out of the Royal Canadian Curling Club, win provincials.

2011 Six of the 12 board members at Scarboro are curling members, including Curling Director Denis Mulock.

2012 Scarboro hosts the TCA Mixed Bonspiel in February as part of the Club’s Centennial celebrations and e Dominion Curling Club Championship in November. e Dominion requires 180 volunteers for the week-long event that features 28 teams from across the country.

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Past & Present

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hat was once today is now ancient history. In the following pages of the Past & Present we capture what were once familiar faces to some, but as the days have turned to decades, and now a century, many of their names have been lost in time. You will also find some photos of those who work or play here in 2012. Over the years, members and staff have continued to come and go, but there’s little doubt that most of them loved their time at Scarboro – you can see it in their faces and smiles. LEFT: Past President Terry Jones with GM John Zigur in the 1950s | BELOW: 2011

Past Presidents’ and Directors’ Day | OPPOSITE: 1956 Past Directors’ Day

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Past & Present

OPPOSITE: 1969 Ladies’ Field Day TOP LEFT: Scarboro ladies circa 1934 TOP RIGHT: Ashley Davis follows in her dad’s

footsteps as Club champion BOTTOM LEFT: 1985 Ladies’ Field Day BOTTOM RIGHT: 2011 Ladies’ Field Day

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Looking down the first fairway prior to the 1953 Canadian Open, and the view today


Past & Present

CLOCKWISE FROM THE TOP LEFT: 1969 Club Champion Jackie Brown (second from the left) with three Club Presidents – George Ball, Charlie Hoar and Ken Bundy | Ladies’ Club Champions Marianne Klein, Jan Atkinson, Maureen Barrey and Dana Saccoccio | Scarboro members make their first trip to the Bermuda Goodwill Tournament in 1960 | GM Denis Matte and 2011 Employee of the Year, Najat Ferhat

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Past & Present

Evert J. den Boer

Club Secretaries and Managers Denis Matte - 2008 to present Joe Murphy - 2001 to 2008 Dave Warren - 1995 to 2000 Tibor Veghely - 1990 to 1995 Ronald Lach - 1989 Al Mercato - 1983 to 1989 Patrick McCann - 1981 to 1983 Evert J. den Boer - 1965 to 1981 John Zigur - 1954 to 1965 Donald Potter - 1945 to 1953 Ralph Webb - 1944 to 1945 M.A. Chadwick - 1942 to 1943 John J. Cameron - 1926 to 1942 J.W. Ingleson - 1920 to 1926 A. Carlyle - 1916 to 1919 R.G. McDonald - 1916 Frank Adams - 1912 to 1915

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Golf Course Superintendents Bill Gilkes - 2008 to present Keith Rasmus - 1993 to 2007 Dennis Pellrene - 1982 to 1992 David Moote - 1978 to 1981 Elwood (Mac) McArthur - 1956 to 1977 Bob Anderson - 1945 to 1955 Sandy McCallum - 1920 to 1945 William Chinnery - 1918 to 1922

LEFT: Sandy McCallum ABOVE: The Greens Crew today OPPOSITE: The Greens Crew circa 1926



Past & Present

LEFT: 2011 staff golf tournament | TOP: Members and staff in the old bar prior to curling on the

main floor where the main hallway to the rotunda and the Tillinghast Lounge is located | BOTTOM: Greens crew in the late 1920s with superintendent Sandy McCallum on the left

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Architects Gil Hanse (left) and Ian Andrew work on bunker renovations on No. 11 in the fall of 2007 (inset) and the finished result today.


Anniversaries Scarboro’s Centennial Arrives After Years of Celebrations

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nniversaries have always been particularly big events at Scarboro – such as the celebrations marking the Club’s 25th, 50th, 60th, 75th and 90th years. In 1937, the Entertainment Committee didn’t take any chances of weather spoiling its 25th anniversary gala. It scheduled festive events all season: the formal Coronation Ball in May, the Silver Anniversary Dance in June, as well as the Floral and Ladies’ Dances, the formal President and Directors’ Ball and the Members’ Ball. Tickets to the 1937 Coronation Ball, incidentally, cost $2 per person, while earlier this year, the 2012 New Year’s party cost $125 per member.

In 1962, gold and green were chosen as the colours for the Club’s Golden Anniversary and 47 specially ordered gold putters were given out at special events and Club championships. Janet Lyon, a non-resident member, has one of those putters. She recalls winning the Junior Girls’ Championship that summer. “I still use the putter today. It has brought me lots of luck over the years,” says Lyon, whose

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brother John won his third consecutive Junior Boys’ title that summer. “I remember the whole year being a year of 50th anniversary celebrations,” John recalls. “If memory serves me right, I played the final match against Bob Carson and our fathers played along with us. I remember a putt on No. 10 that went in for birdie that was key.” e Club, which increased fees for all classes of golf membership by 25 percent at the start the year, celebrated Canada’s Centennial with a huge party on July 1, 1967, attended by nearly 700 members and guests. e day-long party included a square-dancing band, costume party, pony rides, games, a Buffalo BBQ and a Western Bar and concluded with fireworks. Scarborough Mayor Ab Campbell unveiled the Centennial gate project that had been erected at a cost of $6,049. e Club marked its 60th year with a Diamond Jubilee Anniversary Ball featuring a 14piece orchestra under the direction of Larry Elgart, who played for the 500 members and their guests in attendance.

LEFT: The special 50th anniversary

scorecard | TOP: John and Janet Lyon inspect the 50th anniversary golden putter she won back in 1962 | BOTTOM: The 1967 Canada Centennial celebration


LEFT: Members Ray Avery and Frank Morely at the 50th anniversary in 1962 BELOW: Scoresheet from the 1987 Chairman’s Invitational

Scarboro’s 75th birthday party was the social event of 1987, primed with both black-tie parties and informal evenings on the verandah. Looking back on that July 11th, when the thermometer topped 90° F in the shade, it was a great day capped with fireworks and a 25-canon salute. On the golf course, Scarboro members enjoyed watching the Canadian Open Chairman Day’s Invitational on June 29th, as Curtis Strange fired a five-under 66, including birdies on Nos. 3, 8, 9, 11 and 15 to win the one-day event. e only other golfers to break par on that day were Keith Clearwater at 68 and Johnny Miller, Bruce Lietzke and Ben Crenshaw at 70. Other pros like Lee Trevino, Craig Stadler, Hal Sutton, Corey Pavin and Mark McCumber enjoyed their day and entertained members with stories and trick shots. Strange, the leading money winner on the PGA Tour in 1985, 1987 and 1988, went on to win the Canadian Open later that week.

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Anniversaries LEFT: Chris Bundy and Ben Crenshaw | RIGHT: Neil Gillespie and Kirk Triplett | OPPOSITE: Centennial celebrations kicked off with a New

Year’s Eve bash attended by 200 members and guests.

Terry Kirkup, an assistant to head professional Ken Fulton at the time, recalls a great story about Crenshaw arriving at Scarboro in a limo wearing bluejeans and cowboy boots after his luggage and clubs didn’t make it to Scarboro. “We took him to the locker room and we went through Ken’s collection of clothes and found him some clothes and clubs,” Kirkup relates. “We had to staple up the pant cuffs, but he was perfectly fine with it.” When Crenshaw arrived on the practice tee Lee Trevino took one look at him and quipped, “Ben, make sure you give me the name of your tailor.” “Crenshaw was a history buff and a big fan of golf course architecture and Tillinghast, so he really wanted to see Scarboro,” Kirkup continues. Upon seeing the 13th green, Crenshaw commented it couldn’t be a Tillinghast green, and he was right, it had been altered. e Club hosted the $125,000 PGA of Canada Championship in September and those in the tourney included Dan Halldorson, Dave Barr, Danny Mijovic, Bob Panasik, Jim Nelford, Richard Zokol, Jim Rutledge, Daniel Talbot and Jerry Anderson, among others. Talbot broke the course record by a stroke with a 62 in the opening round, but the course had been shortened on that day and they had played from the ladies’ tee on at least one hole. In the final round, the challengers, with the exception of Anderson and American Kirk Triplett, who each fired 68s to finish with 13-under 271s, slowly fell off the pace.

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After sinking a difficult 10-foot downhill putt on the first extra hole for a birdie to tie Triplett, who earlier had made a 15footer, the 31-year-old Anderson won the playoff with a routine par on No. 2 as Triplett settled for a bogey after his 4-iron shot found the trap on the left. Anderson, who grew up on Kingston Road and attended R.H. King Academy, played a near perfect tournament with rounds of 65-70-68-68.

Later in the month, the Club hosted more than 200 competitors for the week-long Toronto Curling Association Mixed Bonspiel. “I love all the great stories about people and special times at Scarboro over the years that have been coming out,” said Ross Duggan, Centennial Committee Chairperson. “We do have this rich history and heritage at the Club and it’s wonderful to be celebrating it as we reach this milestone.”

“I had never been to the Club until that week, but had driven by many times,” says Anderson, who has fond memories of the event. “My mom, dad, wife and a lot of friends were there, and winning $25,000 didn’t hurt either.”

Preliminary planning for the Centennial started with the Long Range Planning Committee back in 2008 and the Centennial Committee, which included Bob Simon, Don Gedge, Gary Oborne, Jim Chung, John Maxwell, John Turley-Ewart, Marianne Klein, Peter Davis, Wayne Kozun and staff members Denis Matte, Blaguna Evrovski, Daniel Beauregard and Terry Kirkup. Other scheduled events included Opening Night on April 27th, a Centennial Gala Black-Tie Dinner on June 9th, Canada Day Centennial celebrations, themed dances and tournaments, inter-club matches with e Summit G&CC which also celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2012, the Canadian Tour Championship from August 23-26, and e Dominion Curling Club Championship, which Scarboro will host in November. e Club also unveiled a Centennial print of the 5th hole, not to mention this Centennial book.

is year’s Centennial celebrations started with a rocking New Year’s Eve bash attended by 200 members and guests. Following a wonderful dinner, members danced in the gold and black balloon-filled rotunda to a live band and watched the Leafs and Team Canada’s Juniors in the bistro. At midnight, from the main staircase overlooking the rotunda, President Maureen Barrey toasted the start of the Centennial celebrations and ushered in the New Year to roaring applause and champagne-filled glasses. A few minutes later everyone gathered on the verandah or watched through the Green Room windows as fireworks lit up the sky.

“We get to No. 4 and Trevino asks the yardage and says, ‘Give me the driver.’ So he turns to the crowd and says, ‘All the other wimps here today have been hitting three- and fouriron, so watch this!’ He deliberately aims down the eighteenth fairway, and probably sliced it 60 yards, and honest to God, he landed it within four feet of the pin, but because it was coming in so hot, it hit the green and bounced over the back, off a tree and back onto the green. When I caddied for Doug Ford and saw those other guys, you could tell they were really good. But you didn’t get a sense that they were great. Trevino was great.”



e Lawsuit Sweet Victory, but at a Cost

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hen you start interviewing lawyers for a story, you know it’s going to get complicated. To make it a little more interesting, this is a twisting tale that started back in the late 1950s when then-course superintendent Mac McArthur first expressed concern to the Board of Directors about the continual erosion and widening of Highland Creek, which ran through the property. is eventually led to a drawn-out legal affair in which the Club sued the City of Scarborough, its taxpayers and others over the erosion damage, which didn’t end until the creek beds were finally rebuilt by the end of 1993 as a result of the Club’s lawsuit victory. Flood damage to the golf course in 1986

e epic battle, and that is not a word that is chosen lightly, took years to resolve. It’s very likely that if the courts had not found in favour of Scarboro G&CC, the Club would not be here today. e average width of the creek had expanded to 52 feet from 18 feet during a 30-year period as the widening banks ate into the golf course due to spring flooding and other nasty storms. Long-time members still tell stories of jumping across Highland Creek with their clubs in tow in their younger days, where few would dream of doing that today. In the mid-1960s, Scarboro member Bob Pezzack took over the role as the Club’s lawyer from Jim Arnott. He was asked for a legal opinion on where the liability for the damage being caused to the course might lie. Pezzack suggested the responsibility rested with the City of Scarborough because the municipality continued to approve new

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subdivisions and commercial development regardless of the effect it would have on waterways, including the creek that ran through Scarboro G&CC, as the water made its way to Lake Ontario. Initially, the Club’s Board of Directors opted not to fight the mighty machine of City Hall. But after a couple more major storms in the mid-1970s resulted in course closures, the Board opted to ask for an outside legal opinion. e response was in line with Pezzack’s position – that if Scarboro remained silent, the course would eventually be washed away. e Club engaged Torys LLP in 1980 and lawyer Lorne Morphy went to work building a case with the assistance of engineer Mac Cosburn, who completed detailed water flow studies. e Province of Ontario, the Municipality of Metro Toronto, the City of Scarborough and the local conservation authority were all named in the $5 million suit.


At the time, Pezzack warned the directors it would be a long drawn-out case. In addition, the Club lawyers would be arguing a new legal concept, but Pezzack still believed they’d win in the long run. e case dragged on throughout the early 1980s. Scarboro member and former Club President Frank Sullivan Sr. spent 27 days in the discovery portion of the lawsuit as the Club’s representative. e Province of Ontario and Municipality of Metro Toronto were eventually dropped from the case. e ensuing trial lasted 24 more days at the University Avenue Court House in downtown Toronto. e Club’s lawyers argued that allowing all the subdivisions to dump water without control into the Rouge River system and other waterways was against the law because it changed the flow of the water in the state of nature. During this time, floods continued to damage the course. e Club went nearly $3 million into debt in making necessary repairs to the golf course and covering the cost of legal bills with the hope that it would win the lawsuit and pay off the debt. Finally, on July 15, 1986, Mr. Justice John Cromarty of the Ontario Supreme Court awarded Scarboro a judgment against the City of Scarborough in the amount of $3,076,146, plus costs – which would have amounted to an extra $100 in taxes for each Scarborough homeowner. However, the City said it would appeal and did so unsuccessfully. It wasn’t always a popular fight with some Club members, who were required to dig into their pockets in the latter stages to help finance the battle through a series of promissory notes totalling $2,000 for each senior member.

TOP: View of the 17th green from Scarborough Golf Club Road in August 1976 BELOW: The 17th green after the flooding withdrew

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It’s very likely that if the courts had not found in favour of Scarboro G&CC, the Club would not be here today. Outside the courtroom, lawyers and officials eventually negotiated a final settlement in the fall of 1990. Following Pezzack’s advice, the Club agreed to give ownership of the incised channel of Highland Creek to the City of Scarborough. In return, and this has been one of the major keys to Scarboro’s survival, the City agreed to be responsible for all future repairs to the creek bed and golf course as a result of flooding and erosion. is clause has saved the Club millions of dollars over the years. After this case, the city instituted a zero run-off policy on future development sites. In response to concerns about the continuing water in the creek, Scarboro’s lifeblood, the City agreed that it would “ensure that sufficient waters will flow through the creek” to enable the Club to continue using this creek as its sole source of water for irrigation purposes. As Pezzack recalls, the Club spent about $1.5 million on the lawsuit and received $3 million in damages plus costs, with a portion of the legal fees expensed in taxes. at went a long way to paying off its debt and previous repairs to the golf course. e settlement didn’t cover interest on money borrowed over the 12-year battle, which left Scarboro in the red. e Club agreed to a three-year erosion control program that was completed in the fall of 1992 and included the installation of some 30,000 tons of armour stone along the banks of the creek under the direction of then-course superintendent Dennis Pellrene and golf course architect Graham Cooke. At the same time Sullivan was given an honorary life membership to recognize his substantial contribution of time and unfailing support to the Club during the lawsuit years.

ABOVE: 1986 flood damage to the 6th fairway looking back towards the tee BELOW: August 1986 flood aftermath on the 7th hole

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e Lawsuit e Move to an Equity-Based Membership

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ore than 20 years after the fact, Jim Boyko still finds himself explaining the story behind Scarboro’s conversion to an equity concept of membership. He had joined the Club in 1979 and, as a chartered accountant at Clarkson Gordon at the time, was asked to join the Board of Directors in 1989 to become Club Treasurer. He had no idea what he was getting himself into, but within a few weeks Boyko quickly learned to his astonishment that the Club was about $4.5 million in debt. Behind the scenes, bills had been piling up for repairs to the golf course and the Club continued to operate with an annual deficit in the hope that when the lawsuit was settled, all the worries and the bank debt, including a mortgage, would disappear. e lawsuit was settled in the fall of 1990 in the Club’s favour, but all of the outstanding debt didn’t magically disappear as some had hoped. Boyko told President John MacLean that he needed another CA on the Board to help clean up the mess and Ron Blainey was added. Tibor Veghely, a strong food and beverage man, was hired as Scarboro’s new GM in 1990 to manage costs as part of eliminating operating losses. e Board reduced budgets for the golf shop and golf course operations with the help of head pro Arthur Ewing and course superintendent Keith Rasmus. “We told them to live within the budget or we would find someone else to do the job. To their credit, Tibor, Arthur and Keith worked very hard to make ends meet,” says Boyko.

At the same time that Scarboro was dealing with its financial crisis, the economy soured, with extremely high interest rates compounding the problems. A new form of membership was being sold at new and existing golf clubs in the Greater Toronto Area. e National Golf Club of Canada, Islington GC and Markland Wood GC had just converted to equity. Newly opened equity clubs included Beacon Hall (1988), followed in 1991 by Devil’s Pulpit, King Valley GC, Greystone GC and Royal Woodbine GC. Scarboro’s Board of Directors noted that it was becoming increasingly difficult to sell large non-refundable initiation fee memberships, so they opted to investigate equity. Boyko chaired the Equity Committee that included the likes of Ed Fleury, Bob Pezzack and Ron Blainey. Initially in excess of 90 per cent of the membership supported the general concept of equity membership whereby new members purchase an equity interest in the form of shares of the capital stock of the corporation. e club, in turn, sells a retiring member’s share to a new member at an agreed upon price, usually deducting a 10 to 15 per cent transfer fee and paying the net proceeds to the retiring member. In the spring of 1991, the Board of Directors, led by President John MacLean, went to the membership with two resolutions that would have essentially eliminated “A Class” shares (non-voting) if the Club went to an equity format, leaving only “B” shares (voting). After serious debate, they were unable to receive the necessary approvals from the “A” shareholders. As a result, Scarboro was not able to offer a pure equity membership. e Club, instead, developed a genderless family equity concept that is the basis for today’s membership.

In the end, existing members were required to pay $17,200 to stay in the Club as equity members, and most did as Scarboro launched into a new era as an equity club in the spring of 1992. e Club also adopted a “90 Rule” category. Any member whose age and years of membership totalled greater than 90 was allowed to continue on in the Club with full playing privileges but without the necessity of making the final contribution to equity. Fifty-eight members took advantage of the offer, but they didn’t receive a transferable Class B share. e Club developed a Membership Marketing Committee in November 1991, led by Chairman Mike Shea, Ed Tovey and Bud Scully, to actively market Scarboro’s equity program. It was a novel approach at the time for a club to actively go out and try to sell memberships! Shares were valued at $42,200 – made up of $25,000, which had been the most recent initiation fee, plus the $17,200 in promissory notes as part of the equity concept. e board also elected its first female Director in May 1992, with Susan Clark accepting the position. On May 8, 1996, the Club sold its 16th equity share of the year, reaching its full complement of 375 equity members for the first time. A few years later, the membership approved an increase to 400 equity members. After all was said and done, after receiving the settlement from the City, after assessing equity members $17,200 and after the sale of new equity memberships, the Club paid off all of its debt, with enough cash left over to completely renovate the men’s locker room and the Bob Gray Lounge (now the Tillinghast Lounge). It was also able to bank a few hundred thousand dollars for a rainy day. It remains there today, and this is the story Jim Boyko will tell you if ever ask him, “Did we really have to go equity?”

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e Lawsuit

“We lost every bridge as the water carried them downriver like battering rams and our lower course was left in a morass of debris and uprooted trees.” Cec Howard Hurricane Hazel and other Stormy Disasters

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n October of 1954, a killer hurricane named Hazel ravaged North America’s east coast including Toronto. Early on Oct. 15, local meteorologists issued extreme storm warnings with forecasted winds up to 113 kilometres an hour and torrential rains. ere was no way of predicting how much rain would fall, but Scarboro members were well aware of the damage caused by previous storms.

“Hazel hit us with the heaviest concentrated rainfall the area had ever seen, as nine and a quarter inches fell over a 24-hour period,” Cec Howard, Chairman of the Greens, reported to the membership. By nightfall, Highland Creek was on a rampage. “A wall of water roared down on us and in no time our fairways at the fourth through eighth, 12th, 15th and 17th were transformed into a vast lake, with the creek bed impossible to locate,” Howard wrote. “We lost every bridge as the water carried them downriver like battering rams and our lower course was left in a morass of debris and uprooted trees.” It took weeks of additional work and $6,000 to get the course back into tip-top playing condition. e storm caused 81 deaths in the Toronto area.

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e Globe and Mail reported on Oct. 19, 1954, that damage was heavy at Scarboro, yet comparatively light at neighbouring Cedar Brae. “Scarboro lost 15 bridges with not a plank left; the erosion left the creek three times its normal width. Six holes in the valley are silt covered and a couple of the championship tees are believed ruined … Six bridges are out at Cedar Brae.” On Aug. 3, 1965, a flash flood took out 11 bridges, with additional erosion on the fourth and eighth fairways. Flooding continued to be a major concern for the Club. ere were significant back-to-back storms in 1976 and 1977 that caused severe damage and another terrible tandem in August and September of 1986 that only reinforced the desire to stick with the lawsuit against the City of Scarborough. Most recently, the course was flooded on Aug. 19, 2005, as seven inches of rain fell in a two-hour period, drenching the layout. e fourth, fifth, sixth, 12th and 17th holes were completely under water and there was partial flooding on the seventh, eighth and 15th. e course opened five days later and it took another four weeks to repair bunker damage in the valley, with further improvements to the waterway in 2006.


The original 3rd hole without bunkers (now No. 4), storm clean-up on the 4th hole in 2005 and the way it looks today


Member Memories Bill McMurray – He has Seen it All

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first caught of glimpse of Bill McMurray on July 15, 2011, as I climbed a wobbly 20-foot wooden ladder to take a photo of the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new golf shop. From the corner of my eye I could see a gentleman – and that’s the word that came to my mind as I teetered in the fresh air – sitting quietly on the sidelines beside his walker as people gathered for a photo. You could tell he was taking it all in. Another moment in time in the history of Scarboro Golf and Country Club was ticking away. In one of my early conversations with members, I had been told to touch base with Bill. Eighty-six years old and a Life Member since 1987, Bill had joined the Club in 1953. When I came back down to earth, I scooted over to introduce myself for the first of many chats. Not that Bill has been around here longer than anyone else, but he certainly knows his history – names and events from the past that helped to define Scarboro as one of Toronto’s elite private country clubs. On this day, while taking in the grand opening of Scarboro’s third golf shop, Bill shared his recollections of the initial wooden-framed building that served the Club until the late 1950s, and he spoke of his own colourful history at the Club. Starting in 1953 and for 26 consecutive years, Bill teed it up on Men’s Field Day with Gary Young and the Morley twins, Al and Norm. At first it was four good friends playing a round together, but after a decade they decided to dress in costume for the closing event. One year, they sported Beatles wigs. Another time they were hippies, or they wore plus fours, or matching sweaters. ey were a sight to be seen, but the run finally finished when Gary’s business took him to California. TOP: The clubhouse and original golf shop to the right, circa 1913 | MIDDLE: The second golf

shop in the late 1950s | BOTTOM: The opening of the new golf shop on July 15, 2011

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“In the 1953 Canadian Open, Tommy Bolt was playing with Jackie Burke in the final round. Bolt bogeyed each of the first three holes and started walking off the course towards the clubhouse. His wife was following him and made him go back and play. He was a great player, but what a temper.” Bill McMurray Bill was here on Oct. 15, 1954, when Hurricane Hazel blew in and wreaked havoc. Every bridge on the course was washed away in the flooding. He says it remains the worst storm that ever hit this golf course – and Scarboro has had its fair share! “A lot of the members pitched in and helped clean up the debris and the mess. It was the only way we were going to get opened again.” When Bill first arrived at the Club, the men’s locker room was close to where the bar in the Tillinghast Lounge stands today. He spoke about taking a dip in the pool that was originally built in the basement of the clubhouse, below where the men’s shower and steam rooms are now located. He sat on the Board of Directors from 1963 through 1969 and remembers planning the Canadian Centennial celebrations at the Club in 1967. It was a big deal back then, as Scarborough Mayor Ab Campbell dropped by on July 1 to officially unveil the new Centennial Gates at the main entrance.

Remember the chestnut tree that stood in the middle of the fairway on No. 3 until 2008? Well, it wasn’t the original. Bill remembers the first tree, a towering elm that stood until 1970 when it finally succumbed to Dutch elm disease. When they cut it down, more than 50 golf balls were found lodged amongst its limbs – Bill swears that none of them were his! He witnessed three Canadian Open championships at Scarboro – 1947, 1953 and 1963 – not to mention the 1958 Canadian Amateur, where Jack Nicklaus made a brief appearance. In the 1953 Open, Bill stood on the 15th green and watched in amazement as leader Wally Ulrich imploded after his eightfoot birdie putt whistled by the hole, off the green and into the front bunker. e resulting double bogey was a killer as Ulrich lost by one shot to Dave Douglas.

Once known as the Junior Mafia, this fabulous foursome added colour and fun to Men’s Field Day from 1952 through 1977. From left to right: Al Morley, Gary Young, Head Professional Bob Gray, Bill McMurray and Norm Morley.

Bill will even tell you his story about marshalling for the 1961 match between Gary Player and Arnold Palmer and coming face-to-face with Player on No. 16 while the South African was trying to cut through the crowd and Bill was trying to hold the people back.

en there were Bob Hope’s visits. ere was a time in the 1960s when any entertainer who attended the Canadian National Exhibition was welcomed at Scarboro. en there were the Toronto Maple Leafs that liked to call Scarboro home, but that’s for another chapter elsewhere in this book.

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Dana Saccoccio – Family Memories

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n 1964, my father, Bill Saccoccio, joined Scarboro. As kids, before we started to play golf, favourite times at Scarboro for my sisters Gina and Barbara and I were Sunday night buffets in the Gold Room where we enjoyed the best desserts prepared by pastry chef George. I loved the strawberry Jell-O moulds filled with fresh strawberries and the mocha butter cream-filled horns. What a treat! Other popular desserts among the members were George’s famous Florentines and chocolate-dipped strawberries that everyone loved to take home. Before my mother, Helen, started to golf, my father would take the three girls to caddy for him. ree children for caddies and one golfer – my dad was a brave man! ere was lots of fishing for golf balls, but the best part was arriving at the Oasis. I’m not sure who chose the name Oasis, but it is still perfect today. Other favourite times were sitting on the verandah after golf drinking orange floats. I think orange floats were served if my father had a good game with all three of us in tow. I remember a huge celebration at the Club in 1967 for the Canadian Centennial. Buffalo was served for dinner on tin plates and we wore centennial gowns and very bad-looking hats! My parents attended the annual President’s Ball at Scarboro. It was a very formal affair. My father would dress up in a tuxedo and bow tie and my mother would wear a formal dress, beautiful jewelry and long white gloves. It was a very special time at Scarboro.

Former Pastry Chef George Langhammer

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In August 1968, the first of our family wedding receptions was held at the Club for my mother’s younger sister. At that time, the original open verandah wrapped around the back of the Gold Room. Family weddings continued at Scarboro with Barbara’s wedding in March 1972. My wedding was August 1983, and Gina’s was August 1986. Other family celebrations at the Club included my father’s 50th birthday bash, christening parties for all of my children and my sisters’

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Three generations of Scarboro members in the Saccoccio family

children, as well as my parents’ 25th and 50th anniversaries. It is a great place for a party! My parents introduced me to golf at Scarboro when I turned 14 – the beginning age for a junior member at that time. Nobody booked tee times then; the tee always seemed to be open when you wanted to play. e first pro I remember is Frank Whibley. He was somewhat intimidating, but I took golf lessons with him and later from Dave Wood, an assistant pro who believed in the ‘triangle track and target’ method and a lot of mellow talk! ere were not many junior girls golfing when I started to play at Scarboro, but I do remember playing Club championships with Patty ompson and later Cary Richardson and my younger sister Barbara. Most of my early golf was played with the Scarboro business girls, fondly known as the BG’s. ey were a group of single businesswoman who played golf on the weekends at Scarboro. Sometimes Flo Seawright would join the weekend group. I really hoped that I would not be put in her group! She was very intimidating with a very deep voice.


Member Memories

“I think orange floats were served if my father had a good game with all three of us in tow.” Dana Saccoccio Later I met Mary Marvin. She was a great golfer, consistently shooting in the 70s. I would say she was the best Club champion at Scarboro I have played with. Although I never played with Gail Harvey, she was undoubtedly the best female golfer ever to play at Scarboro. When I was 18, I played for the Scarboro District team with Mary Marvin and Stacey West from Bayview in the Ontario Amateur at the Board of Trade CC. I also played quite a bit of golf with other juniors, Greg and Brett Davis, and later had a regular after-work group with Doug Ludwig, Chip Johnson and Larry Longo. We called him “Leapin’ Larry with the Long Lizard-Like Legs,” or “e Leap” for short. We had lots of fun, including playing the course overland from the second tee to No. 12 green. We also took paper Coke cups from the Oasis and would tee a ball up on the 17th tee, place the cup over it and explode shots out onto the 17th fairway. Larry could hit the green with the ‘cup shot’! e two most significant changes to the golf course since I was 14 are to the 8th and 13th greens. e 8th green was originally left of the new green and it was a triple-tier green that was impossible when the flag was on the middle tier. e old 13th green was much easier to hit with more fairway in front of the green, but the old green sloped much more severely from back to front. Today, the creeks are a lot wider and deeper now. I think I could jump across the creek on No. 12 back then! Something that has not changed is the majesty of the Scarboro clubhouse. My favourite picture is coming up 18 at dusk and seeing our beautiful old clubhouse appear, with all of its lights twinkling back at you.

My three children have all been junior members at Scarboro. Carlie at age 12 and Kate at age eight both started to learn to play golf with lessons at Scarboro from then-teaching pro Norm Moote. My son Johnpaul and I love to play the Scarboro parent and child tournament together and have managed to win the mother-son category a few times. Hopefully we will win the overall trophy someday. Being a member at Scarboro has been a privilege that I am very proud of. It has been the setting for both major and minor family celebrations and lots of memories. I truly appreciate the natural beauty of the course, the creek meandering through the property, and every deer and fox sighting is just as exciting as the one before. I always think of my parents when I am at Scarboro. ey were also blessed to have known such a magical place. I have met many remarkable people here over the years who I am sure have and had their own special memories and stories to tell. I look forward to what future years hold for all of us. It is true what they say: One never gets tired of playing Scarboro!

TOP: Barbara Saccoccio’s wedding at the Club in August 1986 LEFT: The Saccoccio women on the golf course RIGHT: Dana and son Johnpaul at age 4

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Ken Porter – e Looper Becomes a Scarboro Member

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n 1968, as a 12-year-old growing up and living a 15-minute walk from Scarboro Golf and Country Club, I heard the Club was looking for caddies. Always one to look to make some spending money, I wandered over and applied. After filling out the application, I was told to return the next day and was also advised what to wear. I remember going home excited, as I now had my first summer job. My father asked what I would be earning and I didn’t even know. All I knew was that I had been accepted as B caddie. e next day, I arrived at 7 a.m. and was told to sit with the other caddies over on the lawn, under the crab apple tree bordering the driveway into the Club. I soon learned how it all worked. Everyone waited until the Caddie Master would call out from the window for an A or B caddie. e first kid to run across the parking lot would get the assignment. e first day was disappointing. I didn’t get to carry a bag and went home with empty pockets. e next day I was determined, so I arrived a little earlier, at 6:30 a.m., and was one of only a few to start that day. Before long, the Caddie Master yelled through the window, “I need a B Caddie,” and I ran as fast as I could. Guess what? I got there first. I was then taken to the bag drop and introduced to the member and a rather large golf bag. Back then, golf bags were made of leather, not nylon, and weighed some 50 pounds. I was 12, and weighed a mere 70 to 75 pounds soaking wet. Off we went, proud as could be. I was a B caddie at the most beautiful golf course I had ever seen!

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I remember very clearly that my golfer wasn’t very good and I spent much of my time looking for lost balls in the creek on holes No. 4 and No. 5. e weight of the bag left the shoulder strap cutting into my shoulder, but I refused to let anyone see how much I was struggling. We finally managed to get to the Oasis on No. 8, known to the caddies as the Hot Dog Hole. I was asked if I would like a hot dog and a Coke – WOW – for sure! is was awesome, I thought. We proceeded into the hot afternoon. By the time we reached the 17th tee, I was extremely tired and wondering how I was going to make it down that hill with a bag on my shoulder that weighed almost as much as me. Half an hour later and totally exhausted, we had completed 18 holes and my day was done. I took the chit from my golfer and went into the pro shop to cash in. I received $2.50 and a 50 cent tip. I couldn’t have been happier! I remember walking home with my day’s pay securely in my pocket and thinking how much money I could make over the entire summer. From that day on, I was full of wonderful stories of being a caddie at Scarboro. I was so proud of being part of the Club that I told my dad that one day I would become a member. He said, “Son, work hard and yes, you can be a member one day.” My dream came true in 1998 when I joined Scarboro as a member. at first week I couldn’t wait to play and reserved a table on the verandah for a BBQ with my wife, children, mom and dad. I remember standing on the 19th tee box getting ready to hit when I looked up and saw my dad waving at me. He was so proud. His son was a member – something he was unable to do. We had a big hug and a laugh and I will always remember him saying, “Son you did it!” Sadly, my father passed away the following year. To this day, every time I walk out to the verandah I think of my dad and how proud he was.


Member Memories

“Of the 31 years I was Santa, there were only two years we could not fly because of inclement weather.” Bill Whiteside Bill Whiteside – Santa Comes to Scarboro

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ill Whiteside has enjoyed a view of Scarboro G&CC that few members will ever experience. See, there are several advantages to being a jolly old fellow, who for more than three decades delighted thousands of children at the Club’s annual Christmas party. For the majority of those years, Whiteside, who joined Scarboro in Canada’s Centennial year, would fly from Buttonville Airport and land near Scarboro’s 19th green to the delight of the expectant children. Stepping out of the chopper in his red suit and hat with a bag full of goodies for the children was a magical experience for both Santa Claus and the many families who returned each year for the fun-filled afternoon. “Of the 31 years I was Santa, there were only two years we could not fly because of inclement weather and one of those was my last year,” says Whiteside, who last appeared as Santa in 2007.

Over the years Bill flew with and was assisted by a number of helpful elves, including his daughter Allison and later Deborah King and her daughter Amanda. Each year they would be greeted by upwards of 500 children, members and family members, and this storied tradition remains one of the truly memorable events in Club history.

Bill says it is one thing to belong to a club, but he always believed one should contribute to its growth and success as well. So back in 1977, when he was on the Board of Directors, Bill stepped up to the challenge when long-time Santa Stan Manchester handed over the reins to the chopper.

“It’s a great event. Everyone tells me it’s their favourite family event of the year,” says Whiteside, who was recognized for his contribution to the club with an honorary membership in April 2006. He also played significant roles in the development and continuation of both the Champagne Open and Veteran’s Tournament.

LEFT: Terry Kirkup with Santa

Santa went through a growth spurt in 2008, but nobody blinked an eye as 6’ 5’’ Gord Love slipped into a new suit.

RIGHT: Bill Whiteside’s last Christmas party as the jolly old elf in 2007

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Great Stories Our Leafs – A Budding History

T The 1967 Toronto Maple Leafs and the Stanley Cup

here was a time that Scarboro Golf and Country Club members bled blue and white. at notion might sound strange for a Club where burgundy runs deep in the Club history, with its royal lion logo, but many Toronto Maple Leafs players have been happy to call Scarboro home. Dating back into the 1930s, members of the Boys in Blue would pack away their skates, sticks and pucks and then grab their clubs each spring and hit Scarboro’s fairways.

It’s difficult, if not impossible, to say exactly how many members of the Leafs have been members at one time or another, but Dave Keon looks back fondly on those days. “Bobby, Duffy and Nevy were members, so I decided to join them,” says Keon, who held a membership at the Club from about 1963 through 1990. He is referring to teammates Bob Baun and Bob Nevin, as well as Dick Duff. Keon’s three children – David, Kathleen and Timmy – rode their bikes over to play the course all the time. e boys caddied a lot and Kathleen won a Junior Club Championship. In 1974, Keon missed the Club Championship by one stroke when he lost to Jackie Brown, a five-time champion. If you look closely on the J.P. Arnott Trophy, you’ll see that Nevin won the two-man better-ball tournament in 1967 with Jack Steen, and Duff won it along with Fred Toby in 1965. “At one time there was a photo in the golf shop of the four Leaf captains who were all members at Scarboro – Teeder (Ted) Kennedy, Syl Apps, Jimmy omson and me,” Keon recalls. In 1967, Canada celebrated its Centennial, and Maple Leafs fans will know that the team last won the Stanley Cup on May 2 of that year. What’s less known is that former Scarboro member Oscar Walden owned the two seats at ice level right beside the Leafs bench for years. Brown recounts a wonderful tale in which Walden, a Bay Street stockbroker and well-known gambler at the Club, laid down $500 on a 100to-1 bet that Toronto would win the Stanley Cup later that season.

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TOP:

Hockey legends Bobby Baun, Eddie Shack, Scarboro member Ken Porter, John Ferguson,

BOTTOM:

John Ferguson Jr., Dick Duff and Johnny Bower at Scarboro in 2005 Head professional Arthur Ewing, Ron Baird, Scott McLeod and Gary Armstrong in 1993 with the Stanley Cup

Other NHLers who had memberships at Scarboro include: Davey Kerr of the New York Americans and Brad Park of the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins. Baun, who was also on the Stanley Cup-winning Leafs team in 1967, was a member from 1957 into the early 1980s. He was sponsored as an intermediate member by Kennedy and omson, and he recalls hearing stories of Leafs great Charlie Conacher, who played on Toronto’s Kid Line in the 1930s, being one of the earliest Leafs at Scarboro.

“When we won the Stanley Cup, Oscar had all of us out there to celebrate for a day. We had lunch, played golf and had dinner. It was a very good day,” says Keon, who remembers Walden making the large bet. Members of the Leafs played with different Club Members. “Back then, members were all big Leaf fans, so they enjoyed a day with all the players.” “Saturday and Sunday, Scarboro was the place to hang out,” Keon remembers. “Everybody was there. ey’d play golf and sit out on the verandah and socialize with each other. We’d have dinner out there and members became friends. It was a really fun place to be.”

Baun recalls the tale of the night Turk Broda, who played net for the Leafs from 1936 through 1951, and Don Durno, who played tackle for the Toronto Argonauts in the late 1940s, got into a big fist fight. “Everybody thought Turk, a small guy, would lose that one, but he demolished Don that night,” says Baun, who lived off the first fairway at 24 Cromwell with his three children and wife. “My wife used to think I was out cutting the grass and I’d go play golf,” he says with a laugh. Turns out Walden liked Baun’s company and a few times a year he’d invite Bob to join his daily high-stakes golf game. “He used to pay me $250 to play with them and they would cover my bets as well,” says Baun, who sponsored Keon as a member along with CFRB radio man and Hockey Night in Canada broadcaster Jack Dennett.

For four consecutive years in the 1980s, Scarboro played host to Baun’s tournament that raised money for both spinal cord research and Baun’s childhood friend Don James, who broke his neck in an accident at 16 and was a social member at Scarboro for a time. “Scarboro is a special place; it’s the people, the members and the staff who work there,” says Baun, who lives in the Pickering, Ont., area now. “It’s still like going back home when I visit the Club.” While Keon says the Stanley Cup didn’t travel to Scarboro for the team celebration, it did make an appearance here in 1993 when the Club held a Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame event. More recently, member Ken Porter has held several celebrity tournaments at Scarboro, and one of his favourite stories relates to none other than Eddie Shack. On this day, Eddie’s 1967 Stanley Cup ring fell off his finger and he couldn’t find it. Eddie wasn’t playing golf, but was riding around the course in the beer cart with Porter’s daughter, Brittany. “After discovering his ring was missing, they backtracked where they had been the past 30 minutes and pulled up to the 10th tee box,” Porter recalls. “ere by the cart path was Ed’s Stanley Cup ring, a quarter-inch buried in the grass, recently run over by a golf cart. Ed jumped out and retrieved the ring and was the happiest man on the planet. He was so delighted that he generously bought drinks for everyone – and charged it to my tab.”

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Traps, Greens, Player Too Much for Palmer

A

s a young teenager, Herb Holzscheiter couldn’t imagine a much better day than following Gary Player and Arnold Palmer for 18 holes at Scarboro. Holzscheiter, who caddied and later worked in the backshop for head professional Bob Gray from 1958 through 1967, still remembers every hole they played back on August 17th, 1961, as though it was yesterday.

“Sure, I remember the winner; Gary Player shot 67 and Palmer shot 69. It was a beautiful August day, about 83° F, no wind, and I would say there were about 3,000 people on hand,” says Holzscheiter, the retired head professional from Weston G&CC. Palmer was coming off his victory at the Open Championship in July of 1961 and five other wins on tour that season. Player had already beaten Palmer a couple of times that year, including his first win at e Masters. is was the third match of their 25-game $100,000 global tour. Palmer won the first match in St. Andrews, Scotland, and Player had won at Fort Wayne, Indiana. e world’s No. 1 and No. 2 golfers were duking it out at Scarboro. “Gordie the Fox was caddying for Palmer and Casper was caddying for Player; they were a couple of oldtime caddies at the Club,” says Holzscheiter. “I’ll tell you a story about Gordie the Fox and Palmer,” he says while having a bite to eat in the Tillinghast Lounge. “On the second hole, it is 215 yards. Palmer hits a fiveiron and he comes up short and he starts complaining to Gordie, who turns around and looks at him and says, ‘I thought you were Arnold Palmer.’ On the next hole, Palmer tries to smooth things over. He says they’re playing for a lot of money and they just need to work together. Gordie says, ‘We have guys around here who play for more money than this every day,’ and they never spoke again that day.” Player, who didn’t have the desire or the muscle to match Palmer’s power game, played each shot with a delicate precision for nines of 34 and 33. Palmer, who left his footprint in five Scarboro traps and one creek, shot 36 on the front nine and 33 on the way back. Player earned $2,000 for his victory and Palmer picked up a $1,000 cheque. Holzscheiter says Player didn’t go above par on any hole, although Palmer would consistently out-drive him. Player had four birdies, two on each nine. Palmer had three birdies and one bogey on No. 4. Palmer scored a five on the first hole and another five on the sixth. ey were four or under the rest of the way. Palmer, normally an exceptionally accurate putter, had one of those days when he was rimming cups.

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Great Stories

BACK ROW: Art Harvey, Mark McCormack, Gary Player FRONT ROW: Arnold Palmer signing the contract and Henry Toews

Bringing the Palmer vs. Player showdown to Scarboro was the brainchild of members Art Harvey and Henry Toews, a member at Scarboro since 1958. They each ponied up $1,500 and rolled the dice. As it turns out they didn’t make a cent, as most people snuck in to watch the event and Scarboro members watched for free. “We went down to Fort Wayne to see the exhibition between the two of them and signed the contract with Mark McCormack, who would go on to found IMG. We went out for dinner and afterwards. Arnold was ready to go out on the town and have some fun, but Gary just wanted to go up to his room and have a glass a milk. They were two totally different personalities,”Bobby says Locke Toews.at the trophy presentation

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Risk Reward – When Going for Broke had a Literal Meaning TOP: Jackie Brown | BELOW: Oscar Walden, Walter Davidson, Ken (Sulley) Sutherland

and head professional Bob Gray Jr. | OPPOSITE TOP: John Greco | OPPOSITE BOTTOM: Ernie Midgley, Walter Davidson, Pete “The Pro” Finlayson and Bob Sansone

by Ted McIntyre

N

ow there’s a guy with some betting stories,” says Jackie Brown of nattily attired, 93-year-young John Greco, seated nearby. Brown, a five-time Club champion and former caddie, had a ringside seat to Scarboro’s high-rolling days of the 1950s and ’60s, although it’s hard to swing a dead cat on this sublime autumn afternoon without hitting someone in the grillroom with a gambling story to tell.

“John Richardson used to play ‘the Grec’ all the time for fifty-cent nassaus with presses, and Greco used to give him strokes,” relates Brown, who left the Club in 1973. “Richardson told me one day, ‘Grec pays for my memberships every year just on these fifty-cent bets!’ ” While that was hardly small potatoes, hundred-dollar bills floated as freely as October leaves in those heady days, when a clan led by stockbroking magnate Bud Knight regularly teed it up after the markets closed at 3 p.m., playing $200 nassaus before repairing to the pillared “Forum” for multiple libations and matches of gin rummy. “e big bettors at the Club in the late ’50s were Bud, Bobby Sansone, Ernie Midgley, Oscar Walden and Bob Metcalfe,” Brown recalls. If they were playing for $10,000, they had $10,000 in their pockets. No cheques or credit cards in those days. Bud liked to play $1 a yard, so if the hole was 500 yards, they played for $500.”

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Scarboro’s Opening and Closing tournaments became the stuff of legend, with post-round gambling drifting well into the wee hours and several members crashing afterward in rented rooms upstairs or the half-dozen cots downstairs in the “Recovery Room.” e floodlit putting green also regularly saw action past 1 a.m., with Walden and company playing for as much as $100 a hole. Even guests saw a piece of the action. “ere was a guy named David Winchell, who owned a mining company downtown,” Brown recalls. “e only way he’d play at Scarboro was if I caddied for him. He had a $10,000to-$1,000 bet that he couldn’t break 90 here. We got to the eighteenth hole, and I knew the bet and the score. I handed him a five-iron, and he says, ‘It’s a long parfour; what am I doing with a five-iron?’ I said, ‘You need a six to break ninety. You just have to get it over the fence. He got a six, won $10,000, and gave me $50 for caddying, which was more than I’d make in a week.” Brown’s talent as a player also paid off in huge calcutta events at Idylwylde G&CC in Sudbury, where he was thrice recruited by Scarboro members to compete— his most famous match being an $8,000 semi-final triumph when, after being 4-down on the front nine, Brown switched to left-handed putting to shoot fiveunder on the back to win 1-up.


Great Stories

“ose were the good old days. Scarboro was the greatest country club in the world back then.” John Greco Longtime member Bob Gillespie has that story trumped. “Frank Riley once tried to take Walter Davidson’s keys away after a particularly late night,” Gillespie recalls. “Walter said, ‘I’m fine – I could drive home in reverse!’ So Riley bet him $500 he couldn’t, then followed him all the way home – about 10 kilometres – as Walter drove down Kingston Road all the way to the Beaches – backwards. Fortunately, there wasn’t much traffic at that time of night back then.” Davidson was equally happy to part with his money. “Midgley and Sansone were partners in a casino in Cooksville until the police broke it up,” Gillespie shares. Midgley spent some time in jail as a result. “I heard a story that Walter would go down to the casino and maybe lose $10,000, and then borrow $100 from anyone he could and tip the dealers and staff who had just emptied his pockets.” Knight exhibited similar generosity, including an $8,000 bet that he could make his way around Scarboro in 95 shots or less – with a putter. “He had a 12-foot putt for 95 on the 18th hole, but missed it,” Greco remembers. “en he went in to play gin, and within a half-hour he had $2,700 back.”

e biggest number of all involves Walden, a stockbroker in Knight’s firm who had season seats next to the Toronto Maple Leafs’ bench. “He won $50,000 after receiving 100-to-1 odds for the Leafs to win the Stanley Cup in 1967,” Brown notes. “He brought the whole team out here one day for golf and dinner. “Oscar was a Damon Runyan-type character, as was E.R. Hoolans,” says Brown. “Hoolans would play the 19th hole for double or nothing, and if he lost he’d pay the guy off with a car since he was a used car dealer.” “ose were the good old days. Scarboro was the greatest country club in the world back then,” sighs Greco, waxing nostalgic about the stockbroking crew and many of Scarboro’s departed members. “ey were part of a group of guys here that had a winning attitude, and it permeated the entire Club. ere was a sense of community that can’t be taught or legislated.” You could probably bet on it.

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Jack Nicklaus and the 1958 Canadian Amateur - A Caddie’s Tale by David McPherson

S

carboro’s Eric Hanson came within a hole of winning the 1958 Canadian Amateur on home soil, but it’s perhaps Jack Nicklaus’ loss in the opening round of match-play that remains most memorable.

“We endured countless golf swings in our living room as dad tested out an endless string of ‘secrets’ to the perfect swing. Every wall, beam and piece of furniture in the house had a few dents in it. His passion for golf never faded. The week before he died in 2007 at the age of 81, he shot a 76 in the Beaumaris club championship.” Barbara Hanson

TOP: 1958 Canadian Amateur finalist and Scarboro member Eric Hanson with his daughter | RIGHT: Team Ontario Willingdon Cup winners Gary Cowan, Nick Weslock, Hugh Patterson and Gordon Ball. Kneeling in front is Canadian Junior Champion Bob Panasik.

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e 186-man field featured a who’s who of the game from Canada and the United States. ere were names like defending champion Nick Weslock, Detroit’s Tom Draper, Kitchener’s Gary Cowan, American Dick Chapman, who had won the Canadian, British and U.S. Amateurs previously, Bob Panasik and others. Despite all these marquee players, the 36-hole match-play final saw a Toronto battle between Weston G&CC’s Bruce Castator and Scarboro’s own Eric Hanson, with Castator edging Hanson on the final hole. Oh yeah, there was also one other young American in the field – an Ohio State 18-year-old stalwart by the name of Nicklaus. After playing a practice round, which included a few holes with Scarboro member John Greco, the golf prodigy, who would go on to win 18 professional majors, lost in the opening round to one of the lesser-known players, Gordon Mackenzie from Lambton G&CC. Nicklaus never returned to Scarboro. He played in both the 1962 and 1964 Canadian Opens, but passed on the 1963 event and in 1987 he didn’t attend the Canadian Open Chairman’s Invitational at Scarboro despite teeing it up at Glen Abbey GC.

While Nicklaus doesn’t remember his match against Mackenzie, Shayne Randall does; he caddied for Jack that day. He recalls those four-plus hours walking Scarboro’s fairways with the Golden Bear as if it were yesterday. “As a caddie, I knew all the players and who the good loops were,” says Randall, who caddied at Scarboro from 1954 through 1960. “We knew about Nicklaus. He was on the driving range hitting prodigious drives. All the caddies knew he had star quality. “In the qualifying rounds, Jack had another caddie, a guy by the name of Scarface – I was good friends with the caddie master Burt Eliott, who we called Pops. After Nicklaus qualified, I knew Scarface was going to a card game that night and he was a pretty good drinker, so I didn’t think he would show up the next morning. I got there bright and early and told Pops that Scarface probably wouldn’t make it and I wanted Nicklaus’ bag. Sure enough, 20 minutes before Nicklaus tees off, no Scarface, so Pops gave me the bag.”


Great Stories

“All the caddies knew he had star quality.” Shayne Randall When Nicklaus saw the 16-year-old Randall, he said, “Where’s my caddie?” as he was sceptical of the young man’s ability, but Randall convinced him that he could read the greens, knew the course and would do a good job, so off they went. “Gordon Mackenzie played one of the greatest games under pressure of any amateur in many moons,” says Randall. “e first hole is 577 yards. Nicklaus hit it about 30 to 40 yards past the big tree on the left – about 270 off the tee. en, he hit a four-wood to the middle of the green. I had never seen anyone hit that green in two. Here he was right out of chute knocking it on in two. Mackenzie hits a decent drive and gets on the green in three. He makes his putt for birdie and Nicklaus two-putts. at’s how the match went. Nicklaus was 80 to 90 yards past Mackenzie off every tee, but Gordon hung in there.” According to Randall, who once caddied for Bob Hope at Scarboro, the 13th hole was pivotal. e match was tied. With Nicklaus already on the green in two, Mackenzie was 100 feet above the green, up near the fence, and proceeded to hit one of the greatest shots Randall has ever seen. “He hooded a short club and hit it about a third of the way down the hill,” Randall recalls. “It almost stopped, then it started to trickle again, trickle a little more and finally it got on the green. It looked like it was dying all the way, then started creeping, creeping, and wouldn’t you know it, it goes in the hole and he makes three. Nicklaus missed his putt to go one down and couldn’t recover over the closing holes.” “ey walked to the parking lot after the match and Nicklaus was fuming,” Randall says. “He had a green Chevy. He opened the trunk, grabbed his clubs from me, picked them up over his head and threw them so hard into the trunk I thought they were going to go right through. He gave me a five-dollar bill, said ‘thank you,’ then got in his car and peeled out of the parking lot.” Today, Randall says he’s lived a rewarding life, but that day 50-plus summers ago is still one of the high points of his “career.” “I always tell people, ‘I would love my old job back,’ and they say, ‘What was that?’ I reply, ‘I was a caddie for Jack Nicklaus!’” LEFT: Jack Nicklaus

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Great Stories

What Could Have Been!

F

or a brief moment in time in the mid-1950s Scarboro considered a land swap with the owner of Box Grove GC, Nelson Davis, one of Canada’s wealthiest men. e ultra-private and challenging layout designed by Rosedale golf pro Jimmy Johnstone was established in the early 1950s and was known for rarely having more than a group or two playing at any time. As John Greco recalls, Box Grove was offered to Scarboro for $1.6 million. Bob Gray would bring Scarboro members to Box Grove for a day unlike any other. Legend has it that Davis once invited Arnold Palmer to play the 7,435-yard, par-72 course one year when he was here to play in the Canadian Open. When he was asked what he thought of the course, Palmer said, “I don’t think anybody is going to watch Arnold Palmer shoot 76.” It was difficult! Scarboro members deemed that the Markham property was too far out in the country. Davis subsequently sold Box Grove to IBM in 1966 for $3 million and it operated as the private IBM G&CC for 25 years. In 1992, the majority of the property was re-zoned for development and the valley portion of the course was conveyed to the Town of Markham, operating as the Markham Green Golf Club, a nine-hole public facility.

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In October 1959, the property committee submitted a report on the feasibility of selling the present golf course property and purchasing land known as Tyrell Orchards between Sheppard and Finch Avenues, east of Little’s Road. e property contained 425 acres and would have accommodated 36 holes of golf, a practice fairway, putting green, clubhouse, curling rink and about 75 lots for residential development. Scarboro superintendent Mac McArthur laid out two holes on the property and said the soil was perfect for a golf course. As John Greco recalls, the cost of the new property, which was valued at $470,000 and owned by a group of speculating Scarboro members, would have been about the same as could be obtained from the sale of Scarboro’s existing property. After much debate by the committee the proposal was defeated. e site is now the Toronto Zoo.


In Closing

I

n 1912, a unique village originally called Scarboro Golf & Country Club Ltd. was incorporated due to the fine efforts of visionary and golf fanatic Alfred E. Ames and his associates. is village would soon include a magnificent clubhouse, outbuildings, stables and an 18-hole golf course that fully opened for play in 1914. Other amenities included a swimming pool, lawn bowling green and sleeping quarters for members and their guests and attendants. Over the years, many generations have visited the village, each bringing their own fashions, values, memories and music to the community. Members and visitors have enjoyed superb golf and, more recently, curling. ey have participated in a wide array of social events such as baby showers, anniversaries, birthdays, graduations, weddings, first dates and, as life will have it, memorial services and receptions. Our golf course, renovated by A.W. Tillinghast in the 1920s, has played host to four Canadian Open championships and numerous other national, provincial and local events and it remains a jewel amongst its peers.

Also a tip of the hat to some of the characters that have trod our fairways, including the usual suspects, baggers, fashionistas, slow players and rabbits, low handicappers and the rest of us, the raucous voice of the Grec from three fairways over, the three Bills, the Miller Light brigade, the ham and eggs winners of Arnotts’ past, Gary and Jack, and Karl Kelter, who knows the name of nearly every blade of grass on the course. Our 100-year history has taken place against a vast canvas of world events: wars; the Roaring Twenties; the Dirty irties and the Depression; postwar baby booms; rock ‘n’ roll; the British invasion; men on the moon; Gen X, Gen Bust and Gen Y; and economic booms and collapses. roughout it all, members and visitors alike have had the pleasure of just playing the course regardless of whether they be young or old, scratch golfer or rank amateur, perhaps for a few dollars or bevies, or for the winner’s bragging rights (at least until the next round). At several times during the Club’s history, its survival was precarious. However, through members’ perseverance and dedication, (which sometimes included manual labour) and continued financial support, the Club has survived and thrives to this day.

While 100 years is not a long time in the scheme of things, it does represent a permanence that transcends many of the buildings and enterprises that existed at the time of the Club’s birth. I rejoice in this permanence and hope that a future generation will have the opportunity to celebrate our bicentennial. Gary Oborne, Vice-President, Scarboro G&CC, 2010-2012

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Photo & Illustration Credits • • • • • • • • • • • •

• • •

• • •

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Andrew, Ian, 29 (2007 course illustration) Barber, Clive, (Cover photo and golf course photos) 5, 19, 20, 23, 27, 30, 72, 77, 87 Canadian Tour, 41 Carson, Bob, 80 (Lee Trevino) Caun, Joseph, 6, 81 Cobb, Ryan, 57 Crocker, Cy, 67 (Laura Crocker) Davis, Paul, 55 Ewing, Arthur, 37 (With Moe Norman), 64 (Canada Life Bonspiel), 95 (Stanley Cup) Gillespie, Bob, 32 (Bob Gray Lounge), 46 (Ticket), 48 (Fred Hawkins), 73 (Bermuda), 80 (Kirk Triplett) Golf Association of Ontario, 40 (Gary Cowan) Golf Canada Archives, 14 (Stanley ompson), 16 (Dave Douglas) 24, 25, 38 (David Black and Patriotic Tournament), 39 (Bruce Castator), 40 (Curtis Strange and Jerry Anderson), 43 (Sam Snead), 46 (Dave Douglas), 50, 51, 100 (Eric Hanson and Willingdon Cup winners), 101 Green, Ron, 54, 63 (Canada Life Bonspiel) Grundy, Rick, 56 Long, Brent, 21 (Joe Murphy), 22 (Irrigation pond and golf shop), 37 (Terry Kirkup), 66 (Brian Campbell), 68 (2011 Past Presidents’ and Directors’ Day), 71 (2011 Ladies’ Field Day), 73 (2011 employee of the year), 76 (2011 staff golf day), 77 (Ian Andrew and Gil Hanse), 78 (Janet and John Lyon), 88 (2011 golf shop and Bill McMurray), 92 (Ken Porter), 99 (John Greco) McIntyre, Ted, 98 (Jackie Brown) McTague, Nicki, 74 (2011 greens crew) Macdonald, Bill, 102

• • • • • • •

Messier, A.J., 21(Tillinghast Lounge), 31 (Gold Room), 32 (Tillinghast Lounge), 33 (Rotunda), 104 MLSE, 94 Porter, Ken, 95 (Hockey players) RBC Archives, 9 (Alfred E. Ames) Saccoccio, Dana, 73 (Club champions), 90 (Family photo), 91 Toronto Star, 21 (Jessica Shepley), 40 (David Markle) All other photographs and illustrations from the Scarboro G&CC Archives




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