The early years of Erie Golf Club are in some ways faithfully documented in other publications and have gone through periodic evaluation in our local newspaper, especially during the past few years,.  The Raptor does not have access to much of that information at this time.  What the Raptor would like is to show old photos and scorecards etc.  Therefore, I will attempt to track down that info and plug it into this page at a later date.

Suffice it to say that the facility has been in operation since the early 1920's, which makes it one of the oldest in the region.  Several of my associates have reflected on the way golf was played at Erie in the early years.  

These scorecards are so telling about how golf was played back in those years.  Note that the Erie Club was referred to as "An Attractive and Outstanding Public Fee Course".  Let's try to put that statement into perspective.  In the period following the depression, most folks didn't have much disposable income, even for a .75 cent round of golf. 

Other courses in use at that time included, Kahkwa, Lake Shore, Lawrence Park and Glenwood.  Lakeview, Downing, OverLake, Green Meadows and Gospel Hill were not yet built. 

Since the big three were exclusive to members, the left Erie and Glenwood available to the inner city crowd. While sitting down with John Demarco and talking about golf then, John reflected on some of the features of Erie.

John was born in 1918 and he began playing organized golf after obtaining some used hickory shafted clubs around 1935. John had been caddying at Kahkwa from the time he was nine years old and he recalled that he won the caddy tournament in 1937 and 1938.  The 1939 event was cancelled because the caddies were on strike at that time.

Since John did not have an auto at that time, he was forced to hitchhike in order to get to Kahkwa and Lake Shore for caddy work and he recalled that on one occasion, the farmer that was providing the ride out West Lake Rd slowed down slightly while the hitchhikers had to jump off the moving vehicle.

John also recalled that the access road to the Erie Club which was transformed in the 1960's to make way for Interstate 79 had a old wooden bridge across Walnut Creek which was called the "white bridge".  Since the bridge was weakened by age, individuals who drove to The Erie Club parked north of the bridge and walked up the hill to the clubhouse to sign in. 

John mentioned that the swampy large grass bunker left of the 18th green was as much of a problem in 1940 as it was until the recent renovations.  The greens crew was made up of a couple of workers and the only turf care involved laying down lime in the fall.  Nonetheless, the greens were generally in good shape and rolled true.

As will be noted later the routing of the course was substantially different from today.

The 1st hole began to the west of the clubhouse on what is today the 12th hole. The front nine continued from there.  The 5th and 6th hole traversed what is today the 15th and 16th hole.  At that time a walking bridge was used to get from tee box to fairway.  The Raptor recalls the bridge when I played there in 1970.  However, it was torn down shortly after that.  John recalled that large quantities of soil were trucked in after the bridge was torn down to minimize the tremendous depth of the creek bed there.

The 7th, 8th and 9th holes were on the south side of the road and the back nine started where the first hole is today.  The back nine of yesteryear followed the route of the pre-renovation pattern of recent times.

The Raptor has looked at some of the course rules and would like to point out a few thoughts.  First, Hubby Vogt was the Erie Pro from the 30's until the 60's when he passed the mantle to Al Keller who passed it to George Munro.  George ultimately retired in 2005 and had started his career at Erie in the 60's, a span of 40 years.

There was a warning on the card that The Raptor finds interesting. It states "Do not buy balls from caddies.  You are asked to purchase from the professional". This appears to be a modified statement since the back of the card from 1937 also has the sentence " The reason is obvious" included.  In addition, the statement "No two players shall play out of one bag" is included which very rarely is seen on the scorecards of today.

The Raptor notes that there is a statement that states that "The Width Of This Card is Six Inches" For many years when match play was the primary form of competition, the stymie rule created a situation when the player could be blocked by an opponent which could affect the match. In 1938, The USGA modified the stymie rule so that a ball may be lifted if it is within six inches of another golfer's ball and within six inches of the hole. The ball was to be replaced after the other golfer plays.  Therefore the scorecards of the day had the 6 inch measurement to simplify scoring.

The yardages where possible to compare are differing in most cases.  Note that the 2006 12th hole is measuring at 314 yards where the 1937 yardage for the same hole measure at 393.  This leads me to believe that the tee box was back in what is today the parking lot

My own beginnings there occurred in the spring if 1970 when I was 14 years old.  The Raptor had never played the course until then and had played mostly at what was then called Glenwood which today is called JC Martin, the nine hole course next to the Erie Zoo.  I had started at Glenwood in March of 1968 when I was about to turn 12 years old.  One memory The Raptor has of my first round at Glenwood was the weather in relation to the time of year.  For a March play date, the weather was downright balmy,  I do not remember who I played with but I remember shooting a 66 for nine holes.  

The clubs The Raptor used were a 25 year old set of woods and irons given to me by my grandfather, Arthur.  The woods were MacGregor Byron Nelson 1 & 2 wood and the irons were Butchart-Nichols.  I still have the clubs.

Anyhow, my reason for going to Erie Golf Club in the spring of 1970 was to attempt to qualify for the Prep Golf Team.  I am guessing that there were at least 25 Prep Frosh vying for one spot.  The golf coach at that time was Father Swoger.  The most qualified player that year was John Brabender and he was chosen over the other disappointed players including me.  John is now the spokesman for Presque Isle Downs Casino and is frequently mentioned in the news.  The Raptor does not think he plays much golf any more but I am sure he could play well since he had a dynamite short game.

I previously mentioned that the course was rerouted.  I believe that just prior to the 1970 golf season, the 1st tee and the course in general were rerouted to it's present configuration.  So, what today would be the 12th tee and for years since the 2006 golf season had been the 13th tee was at one time, the 1st tee.  

Another previously mentioned unique feature of the old Erie Golf course was the rickety wooden walking bridge that spanned a ditch over what is today the 15th hole.  Another feature, which still is there is the water? drinking  fountain which is behind what is today the par 3 8th hole.   

The Raptor continued to learn the intricate layout through high school and played many memorable rounds of golf there.  During the summer, we walked the slopes with our bags slung over our shoulder and came to enjoy the hard and fast conditions 

As previously stated, Erie continued to deteriorate during the 80's and 90's to the point when it was virtually unplayable.  I do recall that the course took a turn for the better in the 70's when Ray massing was the greenskeeper.  

Many of the Erie region's finest golfers played at Erie at some point in their career.  It's a safe bet that when they come back the nostalgia flows.