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Meadow Brook Club

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TEPaul:
Pat:

Those holes that show up on an early aerial would be interesting to look into.  I don't exactly remember them per se but back in the mid 1950s when the golf course was just beginning construction I do remember going out there. That was pretty boring flat open land in my recollection and it backed up on that highway back there and there was quite a lot of highway noise over there. But the thing was whatever was built at that time sort of centered around a tiny little one room house that sat at the end of that lane you can still see in the aerial above that terminated right behind #3 green.

And the other thing that was interesting is the Whitons still lived in their house that's now the clubhouse. Mr & Mrs Whiton were getting a divorce (Emmy Whiton was my mother's closest friend in life), so obviously the club was acquiring additonal land or had planned it that way all alone. (you do know that Meadowbrook was in the process of moving from their former course?).

What I'm saying is it wouldn't surprise me at all if those holes that once were out in that area behind #1, 2, 3 where those buildings and that parking lot are now were just temporary holes. My Dad belonged to Meadow Brook and I remember going out to that tiny little house when he practiced. But the majority of the course (that which is now on the Whiton's old place was just beginning construction). Herman Whiton and I who were about 11 years old used to drive this old milk truck he had all over the construction site and get into trouble with the crews!!

So what I'm implying is I think it might be safe to say that all the holes that are present day Meadow Brook holes are Dick Wilson holes and probably originally planned Dick Wilson holes.

But the evolution of the beginning of that club would be interesting to look into anyway. My mother might even remember it. Obviously I can't ask my father.

Meadowbrook back then was the first place I ever took a golf lesson too, probably right about that time when I was about 12 years old just as it opened. Do you remember the original pro Shelley Mayfield? That's the one I took the lesson from. By then the Whiton's house was the clubhouse. The clubhouse itself is completely unchanged and is just the way I remembered it when the Whiton's lived there.  

TEPaul:
Pretty funny post there Pat about Cooreshaw and the blind taste test but the fact is you probably know far less about what those original holes back there were for than I do.

You seem to be assuming they were holes that were lost off of Wilson's original Meadow Brook but can you really prove that?

I'll probably be able to figure it out after a while but if I were to guess now I'd say they were probably just a couple of little temporary holes before the Meadow Brook course of Dick Wilson's got built!

SPDB:


--- Quote ---By then the Whiton's house was the clubhouse. The clubhouse itself is completely unchanged and is just the way I remembered it when the Whiton's lived there.  

--- End quote ---

Amazing what some of those old Gold Coast families would have at there homes. People must have thought the Whitons were crazy to have built a locker room and a bar on the east wing of their home.  ;D ;D

All kidding aside, its a nice locker room though. reminds me of GMGC's actually, in its understated-ness

TEPaul:
SPDB:

Bars in some of those houses were very important. Some of those old Long Island guys were definitely professionals when it came to drinking. All I'm saying is the rooms, although used differently now were just the way they still are. I particularly remember the old kitchen porch because one time Herman and Charlie Whiton and I were under the kitchen lighting matches and Mrs Whiton caught use and said; "Come with me." She took use up to the kitchen porch got some of those old blue tipped matches out of the kitchen and individually singed our fingers--obviously hurt like holy hell! Those were the days when some parents didn't take any shit at all from there children. Do you think that disturbed my mother? Not at all--she said it served us right and actually she thought it was pretty funny. I know I never played with matches again.

But Herman and I and that old 1929 milk truck of his and driving around on the course under construction---well, I shouldn't even mention that on this site. It was out and out vandalism and one time Herman drove across one of the green shapes and right into a bunker and almost flipped the truck. That stunt probably added that perfect nuance of internal contour to the green and character to that bunker too.

Patrick_Mucci:
TEPaul,

By luck, I ran into a member of Meadow Brook today.
We spoke about the abandoned holes.
He indicated that he would send me the history of their demise and the history of the new holes.

When I examined the remaining hole when I played there a few years ago, it looked anything but temporary.  The fact that it still exists may give weight to its permanancy.

As soon as this fellow sends me the info, I'll forward it to you.

The clubhouse is elegant, from an elegant era.

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