(Although Bob Labbance passed away in 2008, his words continue to inspire us to be better researchers and writers. In his honor, we have left this introductory paragraph as it was when Bob joined us in 2007.)
Bob serves as contributing editor to Golf Styles New England. He also designs and edits The Bulletin for the Golf Collectors Society and serves as golf editor for Turf Magazine. In addition, his freelance writing and photography has appeared in numerous national magazines including Golf Magazine, USGA Golf Journal, Links and Golf Course Management. He is the author of thirteen books on golf-he began writing guidebooks to the golf courses of New England nearly 20 years ago and has also written a number of club history books—in addition to biographies, history and fiction. Bob is a panelist for Golfweek’s “Top 100 Courses” list, an award-winning photographer and a multiple winner of writing awards from the GCSAA. In an unprecedented agreement, he has agreed to supply original work in second and third printings for BuffaloGolfer.Com.
From the forthcoming book on The Life and Work of Wayne Stiles by Bob Labbance and Kevin Mendik, to be published fall, 2007. The 200+ page volume will contain a wealth of historic and modern photos of the courses.
Wayne E. Stiles was born June 22, 1884 in Boston, Massachusetts. He began his career as an office boy for the Boston landscape firm of Franklin Brett and George Hall. After being made a draftsman and finally a junior partner in 1909, Stiles subsequently opened his own landscape design office on Newbury Street in Boston in 1915. Within a year he branched into golf course design, not surprising for a four handicapper at Brae Burn. Although golf course design eventually consumed the majority of his time, he also completed subdivision, park and estate landscape projects, including subcontract work for the landscape firm of Frederick Law Olmstead.
Stiles added Cornell graduate John Van Kleek as an associate in 1923, and made him a full partner in 1924. The firm of Stiles & Van Kleek had offices in Boston, New York City and St. Petersburg, Florida. Van Kleek managed the St. Petersburg office, while Stiles spent most of his time in New England. The firm produced more than 50 designs, with many more underway when the Florida land bust and the Depression canceled dozens of projects. All told, with Van Kleek and solo, Stiles designed nearly 70 courses that still exist today.
East Aurora Country Club
In 1921, when Wayne Stiles was trying to land a contract to design South Shore Country Club in Hamburg, New York he used his work at nearby East Aurora Country Club as a reference. Stiles secured the contract in Hamburg, but in subsequent years he never added the East Aurora citation to his course list.
Often that means that either the architect wasn’t paid for his work, or that his efforts were promptly altered and the finished product did not meet his standards. An invoice dated September 14, 1921 and an entry in the club minutes clearly shows that Stiles received $250 for a “rearrangement of the present golf course;” $75 for a “visit and staking of new holes;” and $112.26 in traveling expenses. Thanks to the organization of the Club’s records and the expertise of historian Ray Zorn those facts are well documented. So what became of the work he cited in 1922 but failed to include on a 1924 course list?
When Stiles first visited East Aurora he found a nine-hole layout of only 2,587 yards; when he completed the work of adding two long holes and remodeling the other seven the course was stretched to 3,200 yards. There’s no question that eventually Stiles’ work was altered, but that didn’t occur for 40 years when the Club secured additional acreage and shoehorned nine more holes onto their grounds. The two longs holes he added as four and five still exist as sixteen and seventeen; but little else of his handiwork has survived subsequent alteration.
East Aurora occupies one of the most unusual pieces of property any golf course can be found on. Portions of the land are nearly as level as a tabletop and tightly contained by peat-bottom wetlands. The rest of the acreage is practically mountainous with abrupt rises, precipitous falls and nary a flat hole or lie anywhere. Every inch is perfectly manicured by Superintendent Drew Thompson, who has experience at some finely tuned tracks elsewhere. The successful player at East Aurora will need far more than a long tee ball to score well. In fact they’ll need shotmaking skills that went out of fashion a generation ago.
That hasn’t stopped the Club from trying to identify young performers of the ancient craft. Every year since 1953, this western New York private club has hosted the International Junior Masters, a prestigious invitational that started with local men 17 years of age or younger and has grown to include invitees from across the United States and Canada, as well as Mexico, Columbia, Scotland, South Africa and elsewhere. The talented champions win the Rennie Merritt Trophy, named for H.R. ‘Rennie’ Merritt, Jr., the Club member who got the ball rolling 54 years ago.
(Originally published on BuffaloGolfer.Com in July-August of 2007)
Related Articles: Wayne Stiles and South Shore Country Club
