This is the first in a series of posts by The Scrambler (Kevin Lynch) who appears to have lost the will or ability to post under his own name. Putting that trivial element aside, the Scrambler is nothing if not a top-shelf bloodhound. His sleuthing first appeared this spring (http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,55850.0.html on golf club atlas. The next installment will appear here on Saturday, June 29th.
For starters, here is the current diagram of Westwood Country Club. I’ve rotated the image to a Northern heading so it will align with some later aerials.
Buffalo’s Historic Golf District – Sheridan Drive Region
As a little backdrop for this discussion, it’s interesting to be aware of the number of older courses near Westwood/Willowdale. Much of Buffalo’s older Golf History seems to be concentrated in one 6 mile stretch along Sheridan Drive.
Below is a link to an aerial of Westwood Country Club.
http://binged.it/17WYJAn
Adjacent to the Northeast portion of Westwood’s property is a municipal par-3 course (Town of Amherst – Audubon Golf Course). The “C-Shaped” pond on the east is part of the Par-3 course. Across Maple Road to the North is the full 18-hole Audubon Golf Course (which abuts against the University of Buffalo). These two courses were built in the 1940’s (by William Harries).
While these two Audubon courses don’t have the deep history, if you shift to the East along Sheridan Drive, you will take a tour of Buffalo’s older historic courses.
First, you will come across Park Country Club – host of the 1934 PGA Championship. This course is attributed to the firm of Colt & Alison and built in 1927. Ian Andrew recently performed some restoration work at the Club.
Continuing East (Sheridan & Youngs), you will come across Donald Ross’ Country Club of Buffalo (1924) – host of the 1931 US Women’s Amateur. The previous location of the CC of Buffalo was several miles away (Main Street & Bailey Avenue) and hosted the 1912 US Open (currently the Grover Cleveland Golf Course).
Finally, if you continue East along Sheridan, you will come to Brookfield Country Club, host of the 1948 Western Open. This course has its own interesting history and mystery. The 18 holes existing at Brookfield are attributed to William Harries (1927). According to the Brookfield site, the course was formerly known as Meadowbrook and changed names in 1943.
However, George Bahto had an interesting thread a few months ago indicating that this property may have had a course designed by Seth Raynor in 1922.
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,48335.0.html
In an older aerial (around 1928), there appeared to be 9 holes directly east of Brookfield which no longer exist (possibly named Glenn Acres). This may have been the mystery Raynor course from George’s 1921 article (on the current aerial, this 9 hole course was in the “Hurlburt lane / Brookfield Lane” area).
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All this background is interesting because it shows the boom of golf in the 1920’s with names such as Park, Ross, Colt & Raynor present in Buffalo. But, also present in the same timeframe was little-known William Harries (1886-1972). In my next post, I’ll dig a little deeper into this man’s contributions to Willowdale/Westwood as well as other historic courses in the region.
