\n
\u201cA golf course is the epitome of all that is purely transitory in the universe; a space not to dwell in, but to get over as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/em> -Jean Giraudoux<\/p>\n One of the best things about doing local history research and exploring local archival collections is learning about the wonders of old Wheeling that are now lost to time. And some of the most interesting stories about \u201cLost Wheeling\u201d are often the unlikely ones\u2014the ones that stretch the imagination, like the amusement park<\/a> on the Lower Sisters Island, the beer garden<\/a> at Wheeling Park, the town\u2019s old German singing societies<\/a>, and the Mozart Incline<\/a>.<\/p>\n Another one of those wonders was a short-lived, championship caliber golf course located \u201cout the crick\u201d on Big Wheeling Creek Road\u2014a place called Cedar Rocks Country Club\u2014where one of the greatest golfers of all time won a tournament 78 years ago today, on September 17, 1938.<\/p>\n And if you\u2019re like me, you\u2019ve probably driven right through this long gone golf course hundreds of times without even realizing it.<\/p>\n Since we started Archiving Wheeling<\/a> we have periodically received inquiries like this one:<\/p>\n \u201cHello there, Do you have any pictures of the old Cedar Rocks Country Club in Elm Grove?\u201d<\/p>\n Cedar Rocks? The truth is, I had never heard of such a place, and search as we might, we could find no information about, let alone pictures of, this Cedar Rocks Country Club. Then, one day, about two weeks after the latest such inquiry, I arrived at work and in my mailbox was a report with a plastic cover titled, \u201cCedar Rocks Country Club<\/em> by George S. Jones II, July 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n George is a retired Wheeling Electric (AEP) engineer who was born and raised in Elm Grove. He attended the first class ever offered at Wheeling College, served four years in the U.S. Air Force, and graduated from West Virginia University in 1963. He has been interested in Wheeling history since Chip West started the Point Museum. George is also an avid golfer who can be found, most days, on the links at the Moundsville Country Club.<\/p>\n His report contained intriguing information. George had done some impressive research, meeting with three of the club\u2019s caddies (now in their 90s), exploring the former course with the property owners, digging up a few remaining relics, and, most impressively, using still extant structures and artifacts (a bridge abutment, a house, hole yardage on an old scorecard) to painstakingly recreate a map of the entire, original 18-hole course, to scale.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s George\u2019s account in his own words:<\/p>\n \u201cSomewhere in the news media, Cedar Rocks Country Club was mentioned, and a friend called to see if I had any photographs of the club or course. With my curiosity piqued, I went online and found an article called \u00a0\u2018Remembering Cedar Rocks Country Club,\u2019<\/a>\u00a0on WTRF TV\u2019s website. The article really had no description of the course, only where it was located. Searching further, I found the state incorporation filing<\/a>, showing that it was incorporated in 1926 and closed in the 1940s. I also knew an old friend, Ray Pinto, who had been a caddy there, so I called him looking for photos. As it turned out, Ray had scorecards from the course.\u00a0One card was for 1926 to 1934 and another card was from 1934 to closing. From the cards and\u00a0Ray\u2019s memory, I decided to replicate the layout. I got satellite and topographical maps and made a rough layout using the scale from the topographical map.<\/p>\n \u201cAlbert Schenk, Jr. owned the property before the golf course was built, but when he died it passed to Albert Schenk, III. At his passing, it was divided among his six daughters who all still live on the property, except for Kathleen, who passed away on July 14, 2016.\u00a0The 3 C\u2019s church is also on the property.\u00a0With these maps, I went to tour the area. I was well received by everyone I met, as they too were curious about the golf course. They pointed out and showed me many features that are still remaining (noted on the map). After several versions and many consultations with Ray and two other former caddies, Nyal Irwin and Jim McGinnis, I arrived at this final version of the Cedar Rocks Country Club golf course map.<\/p>\n \u201cAlso included in this report are photos of signs recovered from the property and a photo of the house that was used for a locker room on the second floor, with a bag room on the first. I was told there was another building with a restaurant\/bar\/clubhouse) and a barn for equipment near the location noted on the map.\u201d When I decided to ask George if he\u2019d like to put his story on Archiving Wheeling<\/a>, I also asked him to show me what remains of Cedar Rocks. Luckily, George has become well acquainted with the current property owners, so he was able to give me a backstage tour. But please remember, though some of the old course is visible from the road, most of it is private property. So please respect that privacy, and enjoy our virtual tour.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Cedar Rocks Country Club is one of Wheeling\u2019s most recent golf layouts. Here the golfer finds another eighteen holes of championship length with many troublesome holes to demand attention. The Cedar Rocks course lies in the valley of Wheeling Creek, rimmed by a majestic series of hills. This course boasts the greatest yardage of any in the Wheeling district and is replete with hazards, natural and otherwise.\u201d You can still see a golf course.<\/p>\n In some places, it\u2019s overgrown and reclaimed by nature. In other places it\u2019s still well groomed, part of a manicured back yard or driveway, still tamed, clipped, controlled, but now meant for leisurely strolls or picnics, not \u201cgood walks spoiled\u201d<\/a>\u00a0with the snap and whir of drivers and wedges.<\/p>\n Here, a long ago tee still mounds from the surrounding earth. There, a long ago green, still\u00a0flat and vaguely circular, beckons: \u201cBring your putter.\u201d<\/p>\n Even where the goldenrod and ironweed have reasserted dominion, there\u2019s a design apparent beneath the chaos \u2014 a human design; a slowly decaying architecture. If you close your eyes, then open them, you can still see Slammin\u2019 Sammy Snead, standing on the Number 5 tee in his straw hat, readying his stance to crush a drive across Big Wheeling Creek.<\/p>\n For me, golf courses have always stirred mixed emotions. Sometimes, I agree with Jay Griffiths, who wrote in Wild: An Elemental Journey<\/em>, \u201cGolf epitomizes the tame world. On a golf course nature is neutered. The grass is clean, a lawn laundry that wipes away the mud, the insect, the bramble, nettle and thistle, an Eezy-wipe lawn where nothing of life, dirty and glorious, remains. Golf turns outdoors into indoors, a prefab mat of stultified grass, processed, pesticided, herbicided, the pseudo-green of formica sterility. Here, the grass is not singing. The wind cannot blow through it. Dumb expression, greenery made stupid, it hums a bland monotone in the key of the mono-minded. No word is emptier than a golf tee. No roots, it has no known etymology, it is verbal nail polish. Worldwide, golf is an arch act of enclosure, a commons fenced and subdued for the wealthy, trampling serf and seedling. The enemy of wildness, it is a demonstration of the absolute dominion of man over wild nature.\u201d<\/p>\n At other times, I feel as C.B. MacDonald did, \u201cI believe in reverencing anything in the life of man which has the testimony of the ages as being unexcelled, whether it be literature, paintings, poetry, tombs \u2014 even a golf hole.\u201d<\/p>\n Because it features elements of both Griffith\u2019s tame world and MacDonald\u2019s unexcelled artistry, what remains of Cedar Rocks offers a fascinating case study in human interaction with nature \u2014 both the transitory human attempt to tame it, and nature\u2019s wild but patient, relentless reply.<\/p>\n On the way back to his house, George and I lamented the lack of vintage photographs of Cedar Rocks Country Club. They have to be out there somewhere, we agreed. Have to be<\/em>. It\u2019s what we always say when there are no known images of something that we are certain must<\/em> have been photographed.<\/p>\n Inevitably, the next day, with the universe thus alerted, while searching for something else in the Pinkie Williams Collection<\/a> \u2013 a scrapbook of society column layouts from the Wheeling News-Register<\/em>, 1938-1942 \u2013 my colleague Erin Rothenbuehler called out, \u201cHere it is! Cedar Rocks Country Club!\u201d<\/p>\n And that\u2019s the big fun of archives \u2014 that serendipitous, eureka moment. We did have a few images of Cedar Rocks after all. They were under our noses all along, for all these years. And only the power of archival kismet (and Erin\u2019s instincts) brought them off the shelf at just the right time.<\/p>\n George and I discovered something else on the way back to his house: we both owned a set of Wilson Blue Ridge Sam Snead golf clubs. This was the first set of clubs I ever owned, and I still have them. And it is, after all, Slammin\u2019 Sammy\u2019s mastery of the course that added so much to the mystique of Cedar Rocks.<\/p>\n \u201cForget your opponents. Always play against par.\u201d Having said all of the above, it\u2019s still just an old golf course, right? So what? Big deal. Wheeling has lots of them.<\/p>\n Well, perhaps what makes this one special is that one of the greatest golfers of all time walked the links of Cedar Rocks, \u201ctrouncing par\u201d and winning, like he so often did elsewhere, at legendary courses like the Greenbrier<\/a>, Augusta National, and St. Andrews.<\/p>\n At midnight on September 14, 1938, a lean, nattily clad young man named Samuel Jackson Snead<\/a> from White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, checked into the McLure Hotel in downtown Wheeling.<\/p>\n A professional golfer known for his long, powerful drives, 26-year-old Slammin\u2019 Sammy was a sophomore on the PGA Tour, and already the tour\u2019s leading money winner, with several impressive victories under his belt. He was in town to compete in the West Virginia Open Golf Tournament at Cedar Rocks Golf Club in Elm Grove. He had won the two previous state opens at Huntington and Charleston.<\/p>\n But even before Snead, Cedar Rocks had made an impact on West Virginia golf. In 1934, just two years prior to Snead\u2019s first state open win, the Cedar Rocks Pro, one Rader Jewett<\/a>, had won\u2014on his home course\u2014the second West Virginia Open ever played. And well before that, one of the founders of Cedar Rocks, whose name is listed on the Certificate of Incorporation, a Wheeling man named Julius Pollock, won the first ever West Virginia Amateur Championship<\/a> in 1913 in Fairmont. He then went on to win 9 of the first 18 opens.<\/p>\n But in September 1938, the Wheeling Intelligencer<\/em> dubbed young Snead \u201cthe greatest the games has to offer.\u201d His primary rival for the title was Art Clark, who had arrived the previous day, impressing fans with a practice round of 71 on a rain-soaked course<\/a>. Wheeling pro Bob Biery<\/a>, \u00a0who would design both Wheeling Park\u2019s and Oglebay\u2019s Crispin golf courses,\u00a0was sidelined by a neck injury.<\/p>\n As for the Cedar Rocks course, the Intelligencer<\/em> declared it \u201cin the best condition in recent years\u2026set and ready for the state\u2019s leading shot-makers.\u201d<\/p>\n A pro-amateur round was set for Thursday with the state tournament to begin Friday, September 16. On Thursday, Snead shattered the course record, shooting an amazing 64 in a tune-up round. \u201cIt would appear the Big Wheeling Creek course had been built especially for the nation\u2019s leading money winner,\u201d the Intelligencer<\/em> reported, \u201cfor despite soggy greens and heavy fairways, dampened by yesterday\u2019s rain, he was tripped but once during the first tune-up round.\u201d Snead offset his bogie on the 12th with 8 birdies and one eagle, prompting the News-Register<\/em>\u00a0to quip that Snead\u2019s blistering round in the rain had cast a cloud over the hopes of the rest of the pros who had gathered at Cedar Rocks.<\/p>\n Adding to the anticipation, Snead was paired with the popular 15-year-old Huntington amateur Billy Campbell for the pro-am. But as \u201cyoung Campbell failed to contribute,\u201d [News-Register<\/em>] they were narrowly defeated by the pairing of Clark and state amateur champion Frank Crum, 68-69.<\/p>\n For his triumph, Sam Snead was awarded the grand sum of $140, consisting of $125 for winning the Open and another $15 for winning the pro-am. Chapman won $5.00, and as the leading amateur, Hoffer received a \u201cstatuette and an electric razor.\u201d<\/p>\n But that didn\u2019t stop the boys who stayed in West Virginia from having the last laugh. While Snead departed immediately for Pittsburgh to hop a plane for New York, he was \u201cchaffed by his fellow pros for his failure to leave the cup here.\u201d<\/p>\n His ears unpinned, The\u00a0Slammer<\/a>\u00a0went on to win an unmatched 82 PGA tournaments<\/a>, and is widely considered to be one of the legends of the game of golf.<\/p>\n As for Cedar Rocks, it seems to have stopped functioning as a country club and golf course around the time of the Second World War. But despite its brief existence, the spirit of Cedar Rocks lives on in local golfing lore. And now we know a little more about this wonder of \u201cLost Wheeling.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Some](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/IMG_2858.jpg?resize=300%2C225\")
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\nHave You Ever Heard of Cedar Rocks?<\/h2>\n
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\n-George Jones, July 2016<\/p>\n![\"Original](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/sign2.jpg?fit=300%2C215&ssl=1\")
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<\/a>
\nGhost Golf<\/h2>\n
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\n\u2013Forward Wheeling, May 1931<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"18th](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/IMG_2867.jpg?resize=300%2C200\")
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\nArchival Serendipity<\/h2>\n
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<\/a>
\nGiving Par a Trouncing at Old Cedar Rocks<\/h2>\n
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\n-Sam Snead<\/p>\n![\"Sam's](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Snead-Autograph0001.jpg?resize=300%2C176\")
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<\/a>Unlike most modern golf tournaments, which feature 72 holes spread out over four days of competition, the 1938 West Virginia Open was completed in just two days, with an intense, 36 holes played on each. And after the first day of grueling competition with windy conditions, Clark led Snead 145-146. It seemed the champ\u2019s usually trusty putter had gone \u201ccold.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"snead-putter\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/snead-putter.jpg?resize=133%2C300\")
<\/a>But on a drier, sunnier, and warmer day two, Snead\u2019s putter also warmed up<\/a>, allowing the champ to recapture his \u201cSub-Par Touch\u201d to claim the West Virginia Open title for the third consecutive year, \u201cunleashing a par-cracking finish\u201d to distance himself from\u00a0Clark, 280-291. Snead\u2019s blistering final rounds of 68 and 66, \u201cviewed by a large gallery that religiously kept pace with the racing Snead, enabled him to whip this year\u2019s field by the margin of 17 strokes.\u201d [Intelligencer<\/em>] Meanwhile, Cedar Rocks amateur George Hoffer finished 4th, posting a respectable 301. Rounding out the local contingent, Wheeling Park\u2019s pro Mickey Donoghue finished 8th, Cedar Rocks pro Chuck Onoretta finished 9th, and Wheeling Country Club pro A.J. Chapman finished 12th.<\/p>\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/snead-1938-1.jpg?resize=233%2C300\")
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<\/a>\u201cSam Snead has set at rest any rumors,\u201d the Intelligencer<\/em> declared, \u201cthat the boys who stay within the state\u2019s borders while he mops up on the big-time circuit might be capable of pinning his ears down.\u201d<\/p>\n