Our Story

Cincinnati’s Wyoming Golf Club grew from a 6-hole neighborhood course that crisscrossed streets and wound around houses.

By Frank C. Woodside, III M.D. J.D.

Wyoming, Ohio is a northern suburb of Cincinnati with a current population slightly in excess of 8,000. Among Wyoming’s early settlers was the Pendery family, which arrived in 1805. The Wyoming Golf Club (WGC), a 9-hole course that traces its history to 1897, is the second oldest golf club in the greater Cincinnati area. For all but the first year of its 119-year existence it has been located at 81 Mt. Pleasant Ave. in Wyoming. It is has been recognized as the 12th best 9-hole course in America (out of 4,600 regulation nine-hole courses in the country).

The author of this article has a longstanding relationship with The WGC, first as a caddy, beginning in 1955, and currently as a member. The author is also a law partner of John W. Fischer III – the current president of The Golf Collectors Society. Upon seeing the 1897 “site plan” for the 6-hole course constituting the Links of The Wyoming Golf Club (which “site plan” will be addressed more fully below) the Society president immediately declared it to be the type of “treasure” that should be shared with the GCS membership. That request served as the impetus for this article. – FCW III

Over time, as improved equipment and balls have necessitated longer golf courses, the time it takes to play a traditional 18-hole round also has increased. Because of changing lifestyles many find it difficult to find the time to play a full 18 holes. In 2010, Brandon Tucker, managing editor for Golf Advisor, made a number of observations:

“Today, 18 holes is the universal norm for a round of golf. And chances are, unless you’re on vacation or retired, you probably don’t have time for it – at least not regularly. …The 18-hole-or-bust standard may well be one of the main reasons golf is in a state of decline.”

“With time and money a premium these days, more golf courses are turning to less-than-18-hole layouts. Courses such Scotland’s Shiskine Golf and Tennis Club and Toronto’s Derrydale Golf club are thriving with 12 holes.”

Tucker notes, among other things, that courses with 6-hole “loops” or units have recently been constructed. There also are campaigns promoting 9-hole courses.

In 2013 Bill Fields reported that Golf Digest, in concert with the USGA and the PGA of America, was promoting a new initiative called “Time for Nine,” to encourage shorter rounds of nine holes that golfers could fit into a busy life style.

Historically there is precedent for designing and building golf courses with fewer than nine holes as the “loop” or “unit” of play. In 1951, William B. Langford, president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, challenged the thinking that rounds of 18 holes had to be made up of Neighborly golf – since 1897 Cincinnati’s Wyoming Golf Club grew from a 6-hole neighborhood course that crisscrossed streets and wound around houses. Ninth green in the foreground with the eighth green beyond at the 9-hole Wyoming Golf Club near Cincinnati, Ohio. September 2016 17 www.golfcollectors.com nine-hole “units” when he made the following statements in support of courses with six-hole loops:

“While 18 holes constitute a standard golf course, there is nothing in the Rules which gives any official standing to nine holes as a unit.”

“Limitations of population, resources or ground frequently preclude the construction of an 18-hole course, and there is a general feeling that in such a case the course built must consist of nine holes. Tradition does not support this feeling.”

Thus it is clear that nine or six-hole courses are an acceptable alternative for golfers with busy lifestyles so they may play as little or as much as they desire – and that this is not a new phenomenon. That is, it is sanctioned by ancient history

FAUX NEIGHBORHOOD GOLF
- There is, of course, no limit to human ingenuity. To further reduce the time and expense of playing golf the folks at AlmostGOLF suggest that golfers can: “Create [their] own neighborhood golf course.”
  
  “All you need are an [almostGolf ball], an almostSHAG to reduce neighborhood divot damage, and the club of your choice.”
  
  “Make your own almostGOLF range or course in the convenience of your backyard or neighborhood.”
  
  While the construction of a faux neighborhood course may be a recent development, true “neighborhood” golf courses were built more than a century ago.
HISTORICAL NEIGHBORHOOD GOLF COURSE
- In the mid-1890s William Cooper Procter, grandson of William Procter, a co-founder the Procter & Gamble Company, returned to Cincinnati after a year at Princeton carrying a bag of golf clubs. He laid out a golf course in Glendale, a Cincinnati suburb just north of Wyoming, on his father’s property and invited his friends to play with him. One of his friends, George Kinsey, was so taken with the game that in 1897 he built a six-hole golf club near his little farm in Wyoming. The course occupied portions of the property of the Pendery family, one of the earliest residents of Wyoming.
  
  It is little known and seldom appreciated that during the first year of its existence the Wyoming Golf Club was a true six-hole “neighborhood” golf course. The attached site plan of the “Links of the Wyoming Golf Club Six Hole Course” (dated Dec. 1, 1897) has hung on the wall of the Club’s 19th hole for decades. It is this historic map, above, that the members of the Society will find most interesting.
  
  While many early golf courses were constructed in open fields the map reveals that the fairways of the course George Kinsey laid out not only circled homes in the area but actually crossed streets and intersections in the neighborhood.
  
  The course was laid out at the intersection of Pendery and Burns Avenues – an intersection that exists today just as it did in 1897. The map depicts the homes in the neighborhood – most of which still exist today – and the names of the residents. For instance, Mr. Kinsey lived at the northwest corner of Burns and Wentworth Avenues.
  
  A detailed review of the map provides additional information about the Links and the game to be played on them. There were six holes, thus three times around the course constituted a full match of 18 holes or a “complete match.”
  
  The first hole was 230 yards. The teeing ground was at the southwest corner of Burns and Pendery Avenues and the first putting green was diagonally across the intersection. Thus the fairway crossed two streets – both Burns and Pendery Avenues.
  
  The second hole was 165 yards in length and re-crossed Burns avenue – this time in a northwestern direction. Today, the parking lot of the Wyoming High School occupies the site once occupied by the second putting green.
  
  The fairway of the third hole ended in a putting green immediately adjacent to the home of one member of the Pendery family.
  
  A comparison of the second and third holes on the site plan reveals that the holes were apparently not drawn to scale. Although the yardage of the third hole is listed as 290 yards, it is drawn as being shorter than the 165 yard second hole.
  
  The fourth hole was 230 yards in length. It had the distinction of not only crossing a street (Pendery Avenue) but also intersecting the fairway of the sixth hole. The teeing ground was virtually in the front/side yard of Mr. Pendery.
  
  The fifth hole was 160 yards in length and crossed the fairway of the sixth hole. Its putting green was adjacent to the Pike, the main road from Cincinnati to Springfield, Ohio. Springfield Pike remains to this day – with the added fact that it is Ohio Route 4. (The author of this article grew up at 441 Springfield Pike, only four blocks from the site of the original links of The WGC.)
  
  At 351 yards, the sixth hole was the longest hole on the course. It is noteworthy for two reasons. First, its fairway intersected with the fairways of the third and fourth holes. Second, the fact that is listed at 351 yards (instead of a round number) is some evidence that the lengths of the holes were accurately measured.
  
  As the Links crossed streets and went around homes there is no question but that it was a genuine neighborhood course. There was nothing faux about it.
SUNDRY OBSERVATIONS
- The map notes that caddies were to return “sheet iron flags” to Mr. Kinsey’s barn (behind the Kinsey home on Wentworth Avenue) when not in use. One can only wonder from whence the caddies came. Another unanswered: Who was it to “place the flags” at 2 p.m. each Saturday when the course was to be open for play? While the caddies were to return them no mention is made of who was to set them out.
  
  The map is dated Dec. 1, 1897 with the course scheduled “to be ready [for play] by Saturday, December 4th.” Mr. Kinsey and his golfing companions must have been hardy folks as it was specifically noted (by a hand written addition to the typed version of the document) that the course would be available for play on Saturdays “all winter!”
  
  There is little information regarding the totality of the membership in 1897. There must have been at least three members as “Geo. Kinsey, Pres., C. L. Warringer, Sec’y, and W. S. Stearns, Treas.” are all listed. It should be noted that both “Gentlemen and Ladies” were welcome as members. Ladies received a substantial discount in the annual fees: $2 instead of the $3 charged to the Gentlemen.
  
  Although “Tennis Grounds” are shown on the map there is no mention of whether they were actually a part of the golf course operation and, other than the fact that they are shown on the map, no further mention of them.
  
  Note that two future steps were contemplated. If the club membership was to increase sufficiently the course would be increased to 9-holes (although the location of the additional three holes is not shown) and the putting greens would be leveled and improved. It must be surmised that the club membership was significantly increased because the course was short lived. The club was apparently so successful that instead of being enlarged (as noted in the document) it moved to its current location within 12 months.
  
  In 1898 the club leased part of the current site on Mt. Pleasant Avenue – less than a mile south. An additional 53 acres were added in 1912. The club was officially incorporated on Dec. 16, 1927. William Cooper Procter (who by then had become the president of the Procter & Gamble Company), upon whose Glendale Course George Kinsey first played, was one of the original incorporators and a member of the corporation.