THE GOLF PROFESSIONALS OF PARK RIDGE The Story of Park Ridge Country Club’s Golf Professionals from the Early Days to the 21st Century PREFACE The formation of golf clubs in the United States began during the 1880s and grew rapidly in the latter part of the 1890s. There were 40 U.S. clubs in 1893. By 1900 there were almost a thousand and the number grew to 1,800 by 1910. Park Ridge Country Club’s founding in 1906 likely places it among the first 1,500 U.S. clubs. The newness of the game of golf in this country created an immediate skills problem that continued for more than twenty years. Who was going to build the courses and supervise their maintenance; who would produce the golf equipment used to play the game; who would teach the game to the thousands of anxious beginners? The answers came in the form of a very large immigration of “professionals” from Great Britain. These men were more than the teaching and organizing club professionals of today. Virtually all of them were greenkeepers as well as instructors; many of them were competitive players; many were also club makers; some were even golf course designers. These were multi-faceted professionals. The characteristics of the early professionals who served Park Ridge Country Club match well with those of professionals at other early clubs. Unfortunately, because of missing records of the club’s early years, and despite rigorous research of early golf magazine and newspaper archives, there is no information about professionals who may have served the club in the 1906-1911 timeframe. It’s possible that the new club decided not to engage a professional until after the golf course was expanded to eighteen holes in 1911. The purpose of this document is to give you more complete knowledge about the background of the professionals who have served the club, and a better understanding and appreciation of the contributions they have made. In addition to the head professionals listed below, John Porazin is included as the longest serving first assistant in the club’s history. The Park Ridge Golf Professionals 1906-1911 Unknown 1912-1914 Robert Jolly 1915-1920 William N. Brown 1921-1933 Al Hackbarth 1934-1942 James Wilson 1943-1944 Jerry Glynn 1945-1955 Lou Strong 1956-1990 Ken Weiler 1991-2019 Rick Groessl ROBERT JOLLY (1912-1914) Robert Jolly was one of six brothers from the St. Andrews area of Scotland, four of whom immigrated to the Chicago area. All four brothers were engaged in various golf positions – some players, some club makers and some club professionals. Bob Jolly was born in 1890. Before leaving St. Andrews he was a member of the St. Andrews Golf Club, the club for artisans whose clubhouse is opposite the 18th green of the Old Course. He won the club’s medal (championship) at age seventeen with a score of 76 on the Old Course. He went to Ireland in 1909, served as the professional at three clubs and competed in Irish PGA tournaments. Bob immigrated to America in September, 1911 at age 21, where he joined his brother Dave at North Shore Country Club. His last position in Ireland before coming to America was as the club professional at the County Louth Golf Club (Baltray) near Drogheda. Bob played in an open tournament at the Westward Ho club just a few days after his September arrival in Chicago. Later in the fall it was announced that he would become the professional at Park Ridge in 1912. At 5 feet, 4-3/4 inches tall, Robert Jolly was a diminutive person. He had the nickname “Wee Robbie.” He played frequently in Chicago area tournaments with modest success, and played in the 1912 Western Open. In October, 1913 he played a match against the famous Chicago amateur, Chick Evans. Unfortunately, the result of the match was not reported in Chicago newspapers. Newspaper coverage of Bob’s time at Park Ridge indicates that he had a jovial nature and was well liked. He also had a reputation for issuing and responding to challenges. One such challenge involved the length of a tee shot. A local attorney experimented with warming golf balls in wintry weather and claimed that he could hit a drive 350 yards. Without being told of the warmed balls, Bob challenged the claim and lost a wager when the warmed balls and the frozen ground made the feat possible. With his Scotch aroused, Jolly issued a counter challenge that he could drive a ball a thousand yards; the attorney agreed to a wager. Bob went to the frozen Des Plaines River, and with a ball warmed to 105 degrees he sent the ball bounding down the sheet of ice at forty yards to the bounce. A judge at the 1,000-yard mark said the ball was still going strong when it passed him. Another challenge involved the number of consecutive 9-foot putts he could make while blindfolded; there are no details of the result. Over the winter after the 1914 golf season, Bob Jolly worked at an indoor golf school in Quincy, Illinois. In March of 1915 it was reported that he was leaving Park Ridge to accept a position as the professional at the Country Club of Terre Haute in Indiana, a club at which he was employed in 1915 and 1916. In December, 1916 he returned to Chicago, where it was reported that he was going to work at the Miami Country Club in Florida with his brother William. If and for how long he was at the Miami club is not known. In October, 1917 Bob enlisted in the Canadian army and served in France during World War I. The war experience had a significant effect on the rest of his life. During what would be two tours of duty in France, Bob was wounded four times and gassed once. He received shell wounds to his right foot and leg. Before he was discharged from the army in April, 1919, he had been treated in eight hospitals. At the time of his discharge it was reported that he was still lame with a limp, but was hoping to get a position with a golf club in the United States. At the end of May, 1919 it was reported that Bob accepted a position at a club in Deer Park, Maryland. Whether he went there at that time is not known, but in October, 1919 it was reported that he had left the professional ranks. He accepted a position as a salesman with the Meyercord Company, a Chicago-based manufacturer, at the company’s Toronto offices. His move to Toronto may have been influenced by his 1919 marriage to Lily Beatrice Bilton, a Canadian woman from Acton, Ontario. Bob Jolly’s departure from golf didn’t last very long. In 1920 he became the professional at the Waterloo County Golf and Country Club in Galt, Ontario, Canada and remained there through 1922. In February, 1923 he took a position with the Arkansas City Country Club in Kansas. By 1925 he was at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Golf Club in Ontario. He participated in the 1925 Ontario Open and Canadian Open, and apparently his war wounds were not seriously hampering his golf game. He set a course record of 70 in the second round of the Ontario Open and, with a 74, tied with Walter Hagen for the low second round of the Canadian Open. In 1928 Bob traveled to the Fort William Golf and Country Club in the Thunder Bay, Ontario area. The Fort William course was designed by the famous Canadian golf course architect Stanley Thompson. It opened with nine holes in 1926. Bob’s role was to finish laying out the course, but he also became the club’s first professional. He remained at the Fort William club for several years before retiring because of poor health. He continued to live in the Thunder Bay area and died there in 1954 at age 64. 1920 Advertisement in Canadian Golfer Magazine WILLIAM N. BROWN (1915-1920) Also known as “Will” and referred to as “W.N.,” William N. Brown was born in 1884 and had been a club maker at the famous Robert Forgan works in St. Andrews, Scotland. He immigrated to America in 1905 and listed Laurie Auchterlonie at the Glen View Club as his destination. His initial position in the U.S. was as a club maker with Fred Herd and William Yeoman at Chicago’s Washington Park Club. From 1906 through 1908 he was a club maker and golf professional at the Windsor Golf Club in Chicago. In 1909, Brown formed a club making partnership with Jamie Smart at a shop on Dearborn Street in Chicago. A May, 1909 article in the USGA’s GOLF magazine noted that both men made clubs for some of the leading players in the country, and that all clubs made by the firm were fitted with Brown’s special Russia calfskin grips. The Brown-Smart venture was not successful and Will became the golf professional at the Westward Ho club in Oak Park, Illinois in 1913. Will Brown came to Park Ridge in 1915. It appears that he did not compete often in local or national tournaments, and that his focus was on greenkeeping, teaching and club making. The golf club shown was made by Brown at Park Ridge; it is displayed at the club. After he left Park Ridge at the end of the 1920 season, Brown became the golf professional at Memphis Country Club in Tennessee (1921) and at the Yazoo Country Club in Yazoo City, Mississippi (1926).