{"id":5379,"date":"2017-01-25T14:34:07","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T14:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/?p=5379"},"modified":"2017-01-26T19:58:24","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T19:58:24","slug":"former-caddy-remembers-cedar-rocks-golf-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/former-caddy-remembers-cedar-rocks-golf-course","title":{"rendered":"From Fairways to Victory Gardens"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

A Former Caddy Remembers Cedar Rocks Golf Course<\/h2>\n

[Note: Last September, we posted a story<\/a> about Wheeling\u2019s short-lived Cedar Rocks Golf Course<\/a>. Now, in anticipation\u00a0of spring, former caddy Bob Rine shares his memories of the final two years of the club\u2019s existence, before the attack on Pearl Harbor drew the United States into another world war.]<\/em><\/p>\n

by Bob Rine<\/p>\n

\n
\"Bob<\/a>
Bob Rine speaks at the \u201cElm Grove Memories\u201d program at Lunch With Books on Dec. 13, 2016.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the fall of 1939, we moved from the farm to 227 Stone Church Road in Elm Grove, and I started my freshman year at Triadelphia High School. The following three summers I caddied at the Cedar Rocks Golf Club<\/a>, which was two miles up Big Wheeling Creek Road, but actually, you were going south, into Marshall County.<\/p>\n

You turned left into the Club and drove along the left side of number 18, a straightaway par 4 with the tee on the other side of the creek and the green just left of the clubhouse. The parking lot, golf shop and caddy yard were behind the green. Chuck Onoretta was the Professional and his wife Cora ran the golf shop. She-paid the caddies through a window that opened onto the caddy yard, where we hung around waiting for a bag and later to get paid. The Caddymaster was an elderly Scotsman who still had the brogue. We called him Scotty. I think he favored me a bit, because as we all stood there waiting for him to hand out the bags, he would often give me the nod first.<\/p>\n

We got to the course by standing at the rock wall in front of Monument Place on Kruger Street, and members driving to the course knew we were caddies and picked us up. (I forget how we got back. We either rode with members or thumbed back to the. Grove. We certainly didn\u2019t walk back.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Mr. Rine was one of many caddies, like the one at left, who worked at Cedar Rocks during it\u2019s brief existence.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wooden steps led from the golf shop up the hill to the first tee. That was a pretty good climb with a golf bag on your shoulder. The only other climb was on No. 11, a par 3 to an elevated green. Chuck and Cora lived in a house between No. 11 green and No. 12 tee. Most of the course was open country, gently rolling, a beautiful setting. Except for the first four holes and No. 18, all the holes were on the other side of the creek, on land owned by Albert Schenk of the meatpacking Schenks. His home was between No. 15 green and No. 16 tee. It was called Elm Knoll, and the \u201cElm Knoll\u201d sign is still there as you turn-off the Creek road into the acreage. Some nice homes there now, including \u201cCasey\u2019s White\u2019s Horse Farm,\u201d plus corn fields.<\/p>\n

Most of the members were business and professional men from Wheeling. I remember R. P. Harold, an insurance man who was also a musician. He amazed and amused us caddies as he played the course. I remember a Scotsman named Sandy Campbell, who tipped a nickel. He carried a pen knife and picked up broken tees and sharpened them to use again.<\/p>\n

Caddies could play the course on Mondays, and my friend and I played often. He had a 2-iron and a putter and I had my older brother\u2019s driver and 9-iron. That\u2019s what we played with, sharing the clubs. We used balls that we found on the course. A Po-Do<\/a> cost a quarter at Walgreens and an Acushnet Titleist \u2014 the best ball \u2014 was 75 cents.<\/p>\n