Sewickley Herald

              Herald
The Sewickley Valley's Home-News Weekly
SEWICKLEY, PA., FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 1936
Price 5 Cents
"GROWING     PAINS11
High School Stage Guild Presents Comedy of Youth Tonight
Members of the cast: seated, left to right, Dorothy Seghmoycr, Wanda Hite, Lois Gregg, Betty Wynn, Kathryn Graham,
Selena Holthaus, Bill Hite, Jean Adams, Libby AVolfe and Helen Garey. Standing: Doris Black, Mary Kate McMaster, Eleanor
Garter, Jean Handy, Mary Alice Ballos, Laura Bulkeley, Eobert Evans, Jack Dolan, Bichard Evans, John Hobaugh, Alden
Adams, Bichard Brown, Willis Sprague, Bill White, Arvid Nyberg and William Bradford.
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GOLF TOMORROW
Opening Day on the Improved "Y"
Course
The Sewiekley YMCA Golf Courso
will open formally on Saturday, April
2_th, with the greons rolled and trimmed, the fairways cut and ready for
play. Due to the lingering moisture
following tho sevoro freeze of last winter, our opening was delayed about two
woeks. Wo have somo now members
lined up and we wish to ask tho members of last year to come around and
give them tho welcome hand, and mako
tho 24th a big day. A kickers' handicap tournament will be run on opening
day and our schedulo of tournaments
for the soason will be posted. Wo havo
boon reinstated into membership in tho
Western Pennsylvania Golf Association,
which will mako you eligible to play
in the tournaments sponsored by them—
wo will havo tho dopo on them at tho
club house. Paul Trudoll will again act
as caddy-master and will assist our
Miko in maintaining tho courso, along
with an oxtra man for part-time work
to koop the rough cut. Mr. Stanley
Currie, at ono timo a finalist in the
National Open of Scotland, will bo the
professional. Mr. Currie is connected
with the Olympic Sporting Goods Store
in Pittsburgh as golf professional, and
will be on our course in thc evenings
and week-ends. Ho will also coach the
Sewickley High School golf team. In
the following paragraphs the golf committee have summarized the work of
reconditioning the "Y" golf course,
which began in the fall of 1934 and
"has progressed continuously since that
time under tho new committee.
It was on a hot ovening in August of
1934 that tho first serious discussion
by a group of .members of tho club occurred, after tho foursomes strolled into
tho club house moaning and groaning
about tho hard greens that were almost
baro, tho crab-grass on tho fifth green,
tho jungle of shrubs hero and there, and
tho height of tho rough in general. Oaf
first thought and ambition was to mako
somo improvement in tho greens, but
wo wore almost stymied when ono mom-
bor told us of bids on this work taken
at ono timo that amounted to about
$.1,000 a groou. Of course, that meant
a completely rebuilt grcon, drained and
with tho best of basos prepared for tho
putting surface
Ordinarily those discussions wore ambitious and inspiring, but the frequency
of thorn foretold of tho usual inertia
that tho impossibility of any progress
makes on us. Though somehow this particular meeting sank a littlo deopor into
tho minds and hoarts of a few and an
undercurrent of inquiries on how to go
ahead—what wo might expect—what it
might cost—gradually formulated into a
seemingly workable plan, which was not
too costly for our tiny budget, but also
allowed a gradual improvement over a
period of years. It Was through the
valuablo ideas and plans of two very
good friends, Mr. John Pressler, greens-
keeper of tho Alloghiiny Country Club,
and Mr. John Quaill, groonskeeper of
Highland Country Club, that enabled
us to mako a definite plan towards tho
rehabilitation of thc putting greens and
the construction of several new toes.
We wish to emphasize the fact that it
was only through the aid receive-, from
thoso men that wo were tibio to hope
and plan to go ahead with any improvement program on tho money available,
and wo wish to publicly thank them
for this great favor to tho golf committee.
After forming our plan and detailing
tho ontiro procoduro to our.own satisfaction, we presented our ideas to tho
Board of tho YMCA, who gavo us permission to go ahead, hoping that wo
would bo able to do it, though with tho
fear that it would fail. Tho task did
seem .herculean to us also and possibly
becauso of that it inspired us to put
forth unusual efforts.
Tho golf course was closed early in
September in 1934, as the work on tho
greens made them unfit for uso during
tho fall of that year. The large amount
of crab-grass on the greens caused us
to rake them almost bare to grub out
most of this weed. Then we spike-
rolled them and sowed a good quantity
of creeping bent seed (for which wo
paid by borrowing on tho now season's
membership fees), and with a good application of fertilizer and water wo loft
them to grow, hoping that all would bo
woll next spring. Then we turned our
attention to the tees, increasing the
size of numbers two, four, eight and
nine. Pour grass tees were built with
moro or less success. The new number
ono was very good and withstood a season's play quito well, tho now ones on
five, six and sovon will need to bo enlarged in the near future though they
wero an,improvement over tho old tees.
Considerable yardage was added to tho
length of tho course, though wo always
kept in mind the effect tho chango was
making in the new golf shots. Making
a now tco is not as simplo as it sounds,
especially when you have no matorials
with which to work, except those lying
around tho courso. Old tree trunks, old
telephone poles and such wero usod for
initial props, iill camo out hero, o-o-o-o-o,
and wont in there, by the wheelbarrow
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