Members at the Webster-Dudley Golf Club, located south of Worcester on the Connecticut border, have uncovered that Emmet was the original architect. I played the course 20 years ago and have no recollection of it. I'll be up in that area for Thanksgiving and intend to check it out.
Here is a flaw-filled article from the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
Anthony
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Webster-Dudley is course run by, for golf fans
Ed Patenaude
So I’ve Heard
Directors of the Webster-Dudley Golf Club are researching club history, piecing together more than 80 years of corporate changes, President Robert P. Galante and Treasurer Bruce J. Ziemski agreed on a recent morning.
Their discoveries date back to November 1925, when Horatio Nelson Slater, then president of S. Slater & Sons Co., hired the golf course architects Devereaux-Emmett Co. to plan a Webster-Dudley course, making the design service his contribution to the project.
Devereaux-Emmett was a New York City company and Mr. Slater, the last in his family to head the Webster industry, ran the business pretty much from that city, observed Mr. Ziemski, displaying a knowledge of the enterprise developed by Samuel Slater and, more importantly, Devereaux-Emmett.
The Webster-Dudley layout was designed by a respected group, he observed. It wasn’t a bunch of people sitting around, setting drawings on a plot plan, and ultimately giving some order to things, Mr. Ziemski suggested.
Organization of the Webster-Dudley golf course, on Airport Road in Dudley, was verified through a series of dates: secured option on their existing site, Jan. 26, 1926; chartered, Feb. 3, 1926; bought acreage adjacent to their property at the first meeting of corporators, Feb. 11, 1926. Membership cards were distributed on the same date, but the charter wasn’t closed until April 12, 1927. Some 125 people purchased certificates of ownership.
The Great Depression, starting in 1929, brought financial ruin to millions in the United States and all but claimed the Webster-Dudley Golf Club in its wake. While the Depression lasted about 10 years, economic stability eluded the local golf scene much longer.
Faced with maintenance problems, directors leased the nine-hole course to Nichols College for 10 years on March 24, 1949. Hal Chalmers, athletics director at the college, and Bernard Bazinet, coach of the college’s golf team, were named manager and pro. The college stepped forward because it had the personnel and equipment to maintain the course, never expecting to retain management obligations for more than a decade.
The arrangement persisted for 51 golfing seasons, through 1999. The Webster-Dudley Golf Club directors remained in charge, even as their membership changed, but they didn’t have a whole lot to do, except for an annual meeting and conferences with the Nichols managers.
Edmund “Ted” Malboeuf and William Sujdak, the directors who signed the initial Nichols lease, left the panel and others followed suit.
Today, the nine-member board includes Mr. Galante, Mr. Ziemski, Virginia Tanko-DiDonato, secretary-clerk; Edward J. Papski, Richard Androlewicz, Richard Langieza. Richard Tessier, Brian M. Ravanelle, and David R. Halloran Sr.
Incumbent directors share a major objective, Mr. Galante said. “We all want to keep the course going,” he said, adding a line about general difficulties with nonprofit golf courses. Webster-Dudley has only nine holes and none of the big plusses, such as tennis courts or a swimming pool, but programs and maintenance make it an attractive destination.
The Nichols College administration took a look at their golf course obligations in 1999 and decided they should be a college first and foremost, said Mr. Ziemski. There may have been a flush of anticipation, but the directors were left with challenges unknown to their body. The Nichols crutch was gone, and they had to oversee a half-million-dollar business for the first time in a half century.
An interest in golf, even a fondness for the game, is the common thread among the current management panel. President Galante is a recently retired educator and was once the football coach at Shepherd Hill Regional High School. The late John K. Logan and lawyer Kevin W. Sullivan were his predecessors — or the men that headed the board since Nichols cut its strings to the course.
Clubhouse facilities have run to a four- or five-way cycle, starting with the original clubhouse. It evolved into a restaurant fairly early on, and golf-related activities were restricted to a back corner of the property. The modern clubhouse now in service was built as a memorial to Lucille (Carmel) Lavoie by her husband, Roger Lavoie, before he expired; the facility recognized their love of the sport and interest in the local course. Mr. and Mrs. Lavoie were aunt and uncle to treasurer Ziemski, so he brought a knowledge of the bequest to the board of directors.
If research has given the current management team any direction, it is that the Webster-Dudley layout was never intended to be exclusive to the towns in its name. This misnomer took root early on, but a scan of the current membership includes residents from the region, according to Mr. Galante.
The concern is an apparent switch in the membership. Potential members can walk in, register and play, suggested President Galante. “There’s no waiting list,” he said, wondering how this might affect the club. At the same time, though, couples and junior enrollments have increased somewhat. “This seems to be the way it is growing.”
A membership will cost $1,100 next year, and just $20 for the person who buys the winning ticket in a membership drawing Nov. 5, when a year-ending tournament will be held.