Golfers Carl Brunick, Tom McAleer and Lee Trentsch talk about the changes at Fort Myers Country Club. Video by Craig Handel
When golfers stroll into Fort Myers Country Club on Friday, they’ll step into history.
They’ll also get a souvenir.
Why?
It’s the Fort’s 100th birthday.
On Dec. 29, 1917, officials opened the Fort Myers Golf and Yacht Club with a flag raising and competition between Jack Croke, hired as club pro, and three local players, according to Maryann Dominiak, who has researched the history of the course.
Croke won 2-up.
“We’ll have a birthday cake and a little party for the players and give them a centennial ball,” said Rich Lamb, who has been Fort Myers Country Club’s director of golf for 40 years. “People who don’t know golf history don’t know how special it is to be 100. There’s a few exceptions but most of those courses are up north. There’s not many courses down south.”
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There are approximately 15 U.S. courses that turned 100 in 2017, according to Golf Vacation Insider. Eight were designed by Donald Ross, who shaped Fort Myers Country Club. The others include French Lick (Indiana) Resort; Galen Hall Golf Course in Wernersville, Pennsylvania; Country Club of Pittsfield (Massachusetts); Evanston (Illinois) Golf Club; Kahkwa Club in Erie, Pennsylvania; Oakland Hills (Michigan) Country Club (South Course); and Palm Beach Country Club.
Mission Inn Resort & Golf Club in El Campeon, is the only other southern course that is 100 this year.
Lamb said city official smartly hired Croke, who had been working in Chicago, so he could help lure Midwest golfers to Fort Myers in the winter months.
Two months after the opening, Chicago Tribune golf reporter George A. O’Neil arrived and gave this critique:
Fort Myers is very fortunate in having a number of real golfers who thought the best none too good for their tourists when they started to build a golf course. They have put Fort Myers on the map and every golfer who plays here will have a word of praise and surely plan to return. Donald Ross never has done better work and again the committee showed great wisdom in selecting the well-known architect. I have never seen as pretty a set of 18 consecutive greens. After looking over most of the golf courses in Florida, I can conscientiously say that I have seen none that afford the golfer the thrills and pleasure that this course will.
During his visit, there was a pro competition on March 11-12, 1918 that included future World Golf Hall of Fame honorees Jock Hutchison and Willie Park, Jr.
In February 1919, the club staged a special event to draw spectators to the course, Dominiak said. The competition included some of the wealthiest members:
- Charles Stadler (creator of Stadler Central Heights, Seminole Park, and York Manor subdivisions)
- John Morgan Dean (builder of Dean Park and other subdivisions; owner of Dean Brothers Groves, Lee County Packing Company, and the Morgan Hotel
- Harvey Heitman (banking, real estate, railroads, citrus groves, and the Bradford Hotel). He also served 21 years on the city council.
- Dr. Franklin Miles (founder of Miles Laboratories whose most famous product was Alka-Seltzer).
The referee? Thomas Edison. According to Dominiak, he and Henry Ford didn’t play golf.
City officials didn’t want a repeat of their first golf course, which died due to neglect.
In 1908, Dr. Marshall Terry and wife Tootie McGregor Terry, a Fort Myers benefactress, turned a cow pasture into the Fort Myers Yacht and Country Club. A $2,500 clubhouse was built and unique features like a fireplace, locker rooms and shower baths were added. Annual memberships were sold for $100.
Six years later, The Fort Myers Yacht and Country Club went out of business. Terry Park now rests on its site off of Palm Beach Boulevard.
“I think Tootie McGregor was concerned Fort Myers never would be more than a cow town until they got a road from the city to Punta Rassa,” Lamb said. “That’s why she paid to have it built.”
Fort Myers voted to give golf another try in 1916. Cost for the land was about $20,000. Design and construction totaled $30,000 and the first clubhouse cost $15,000, Dominiak said. That equates to about $1.5 million today.
Dominiak, whose book about the first 25 years of Fort Myers Country Club will come out next month, wrote about how the city kept it going through the Great Depression (1929-1940).
Unlike many courses, women could play the Fort.
“The woman who participated in the initial club championship was Miss C. Sheehan. In those days, women and men played from the same tees. A qualifying round determined the best eight players who then competed in match play.”
Among the other Hall of Famers who played the course included Fort Myers’ own Patty Berg as well as Babe Didrikson Zaharias; Louise Suggs; Gene Sarazen; Arnold Palmer; Gary Player; Lee Trevino; Bobby Nichols, who lives in Fort Myers; and Fuzzy Zoeller, who went to then Edison Community College, now Florida SouthWestern State College.
A number of other major winners and tour winners have played here. Lamb said a landmark will be made of those players and he’ll consult with members to see the best place for a display.
In 2014, the course added some curves after a $5.8 million renovation.
But the Fort still keeps some of its old-time features. Players can walk the course, yet play it in about 4 hours, 20 minutes, Lamb said.
“A tremendous amount of credit goes to the leaders of Fort Myers who always realized how significant and how important golf is this area and the economy of Southwest Florida,” Lamb said. “They realized people from the Midwest wanted to get out of the cold. Remember, we were just incorporated in 1885. And this is a big part of our history.”
Fort Myers Country Club Timeline
August 12, 1885: Fort Myers – which had 349 residents – becomes a city.
April 26, 1906: Dr. Marshall Terry and wife Tootie McGregor Terry, a Fort Myers benefactress, complete plans to turn a cow pasture into the Fort Myers Yacht and Country Club.
February, 1908: A $2,500 clubhouse is built and becomes first structure on park grounds. It has a fireplace as well as locker rooms and shower baths, an unusual feature in those times. Annual memberships were sold for $100.
Feb. 21, 1908: Four people take part in a golf tournament on what is described as a crude, nine-hole course.
1914: The Fort Myers Yacht and Country Club goes out of business. It later becomes Terry Park.
April 6, 1916: At a city meeting, members and winter visitors gave a “hearty and unanimous endorsement” of building a golf course in Fort Myers.
May 19, 1916: Attorney F.C. Alderman drew up paperwork that incorporated the Fort Myers Golf and Yacht Club. The initial stock issue would be for $150,000. Stocks were sold for $75,000 to buy land, and build a course and clubhouse. A board of directors was chosen.
July 20, 1916: Directors make the first land buy – 25 acres from Vida Mitchell of Chicago for $2,500. Land quickly was cleared. Civil engineer A.L. White obtained dredge to build canal.
August, 1916: Directors buy 58.8 acres from Fannie and W.B. Graham for $8,500.
Oct. 19, 1916: Directors make the third land buy.
Dec. 8, 1916: The Board of Trade organizes a meeting where famed architect Donald Ross answered their questions. Construction superintendent J.B. McGovern arrives. Ross noted that the soil conditions allow construction for half the cost of other Florida courses.
Dec. 18, 1916: Officials break ground on Fort Myers Golf and Yacht Club.
Dec. 7, 1917: Jack Croke chosen as first club professional.
Dec. 29, 1917: Fort Myers Golf and Yacht Club officially opens. The name is later changed to Fort Myers Country Club.