BURLEIGH – The Wildwood Golf Club was incorporated in 1916, but it wasn’t until 1921, that the club opened in Burleigh, on the site of a farm previously owned by one Joe McKissick.
It was then that some Wildwood businessmen realized their dream. Golf was becoming a popular activity with the wealthy, upper social class, and the businessmen hoped a golf club would attract visitors to vacation in Wildwood, to play golf and patronize their businesses.
The organizers, most of who were from Wildwood, formed a closed corporation to acquire the land, build a clubhouse, and design a golf course.
Some owned hotels, or lumber yards, others had businesses that benefitted from summer visitors, while some were residents prominent in the community.
They included: H. Foster Goslin (Goslin Lumber Co.), Charles Douglass (Douglass Candies), W. C. Hunt (Hunt’s Theaters), Charles Getsinger (Wildwood Lumber Company), Palmer M. Way (attorney, later a judge), Asa Colson (Colson’s Lumber Yard), Fred and Alex McMurray (Dayton Hotel), John Beecher (Beecher Kay Realty), Howard and Rae Topham, and about a dozen others.
Clyde Spaulding and Jonathan Sayre were from Court House.
Purchase and Mortgage
The land purchase and course construction were financed by a mortgage of approximately $150,000 held by the Wildwood Trust Co., as well as non-interest bearing bonds of $100 or $500 sold to individuals. Those who purchased $500 bonds were given course privileges worth $30, an amount equal to annual dues.
The club pro was Jimmy Young.
The club was managed by a board of permanent trustees. Club members had no voice in any club activities.
For the first 10-12 years, the trustees were interested and active, and the club was efficiently operated. Because play was infrequent, golfers were brought in to play exhibition matches in hopes of attracting visitors.
The golf season opened with a tournament at Easter and closed with one at Thanksgiving.
A Ladies’ Auxiliary was formed to encourage women to learn and play golf. Several did, including Rae Topham, Mrs. Sayre, and Mabel Hunt, wife of W.C. Hunt. It is Mabel Hunt whose family honors her annually by sponsoring the Hunt Cup Tournament. The women also held a weekly bridge game.
New Club Pro
In July 1926, the club acquired a new professional, Harry Avery, who proved to be a fortuitous acquisition. “Pop” Avery did everything from teaching golf to serving as a greenkeeper and even filled in at bridge. As the trustees who had held the club together, passed away or lost interest, meetings became less frequent, and membership dwindled. Pop Avery became the sole manager and operator.
There remained a debt of $25,000 from the original land purchase and course construction. The debt, which was in the form of a note guaranteed by the original owners’ personal endorsements, had been renewed over the years.
So many of the original founders had died, those remaining were afraid of being liable for the entire amount.
H. Foster Goslin suggested they raise money to pay the debt by selling $500 life memberships. Although too few were sold to meet that goal, A.J. Cafiero, our dad, bought one.
Brink of Bankruptcy
By 1940, only a dozen or so members remained, and the club was on the brink of bankruptcy. Dad, Gus Heil, and a few others determined to keep the club going. They persuaded Harry Avery to remain in charge.
Dad resurrected the “Goslin” plan and this time successfully convinced 50 men to buy $500 life memberships in a new organization, a non-profit corporation, to be known as The Wildwood Golf and Country Club.
The creditors were paid, and the bond debt discharged.
New Trustees
Dad created a governing structure of 20 trustees, eight to be the active managers and 12 to serve as overseers. He believed the active trustees would give their time and energy to manage the club and would be accountable to the members through an annual election.
The 12 overseer trustees were to be lifetime appointees who could act without the need to win votes for reelection. The appointed trustees were not to manage the club, but rather to preserve it, acting always, and only, in the club’s best interest.
The “12” could always outvote the “Eight” if they believed any proposed actions were injurious or risky. Their purpose was to insure financial stability so the club would never again face financial ruin.
In 1955, by letter to the Club President Curtis Young, dad explained the purpose for the two categories of trustees. For another 25 years or so, the club functioned well and had a waiting list of prospective members.
A Few Women
After the 1942 reorganization, women, who were not permitted to be members of the club, nevertheless actively supported it by continuing or reorganizing the Ladies’ Auxiliary.
A few women played golf, but most were wives of members. The ladies actively supported the club, holding (and cooking for) fundraising dinners, and organizing parties and dances.
The Auxiliary met monthly either at the club or in members’ homes, and a review of their minutes evidences their involvement with the club and with each other.
The women were friends and neighbors who, together with their spouses, enjoyed the club as a center of social activity. They raised funds for their activities, furnishings for their lounge (the present cloakroom, storage area and ladies’ room adjacent to the ballroom) and for the club.
The club members and their families knew each other socially, or through business interests, and many were close personal friends.
Memorable Times
Among the memorabilia displayed was a St. Valentine’s Dance program from Feb. 17, 1945. The program was pasted in my brother’s (James Cafiero) high school scrapbook.
His band, “The Merry Makers,” consisted of nine Wildwood High School students, who played for the event. Jimmy was the drummer, Fred Langford, owner of Laguna Oaks Golf Club, played the trumpet, and Maryann Getsinger, daughter of Charles Getsinger, an original founder 100 years ago, played the piano.
The Ladies’ Auxiliary sponsored the dance. Of the nine Dance Committee members listed on the back, five were close personal friends of my parents, and I knew them well.
A Gathering Place
In the ’40s and ’50s, the club was not just a golf club; it was a gathering place, a social center. The members weren’t retired, they didn’t winter elsewhere, and except for Hunt’s movie theaters, there wasn’t much to do, especially in winter.
Members brought their children to the club where we played shuffleboard and drank Shirley Temples.
Over the next decade, many women began to play golf and eventually membership was opened to them.
Women Golfers
In 1958, the Wildwood Women’s Golf Association was organized; however, women paid lower dues and were denied early weekend tee times. It was not until approximately 20 years ago that full privileges were granted and dues were equalized.
Presumably the Ladies’ Auxiliary disbanded when membership in the club became available.
More Gray Clouds
By the mid-80s, the roles of the appointed versus elected trustees had blurred, and some members became displeased. They believed their voices were not being heard as the 12 permanent trustees often outvoted the eight elected trustees in management matters.
Attempts to resolve the issues were unsuccessful, and a lawsuit was instituted to change the structure. The lawsuit was not successful and the issues which caused it were not resolved.
Eventually, history repeated itself, the club acquired much debt and restructure again became necessary. The new board is working hard to emerge from the financial abyss into which the club again ‘fell; an abyss which Dad believed he had forever avoided.
Future Hope
We hope that club members, old and new, will find this history and these reminiscences interesting. We also hope everyone understands how, 100 years ago, the dreams and investments of a few people from Wildwood founded a golf club, how 25 years later; a few others from Wildwood saved, nurtured, improved and preserved it, to become the club we have today.
Will The Wildwood Golf and Country Club weather this storm? We hope that it will not only survive, but flourish.
Andrea Cafiero Balliette
James S. Cafiero
August 20, 2016
