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COURSE HISTORY
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Stanwich: A Vision…and a Little Luck
By Don Wade
There's an old saying that in life, timing is everything. The same is true when you are trying to start a golf club.
Just ask the men who were at the heart of the decision to form The Stanwich Club.
In 1960, the wait for membership at Greenwich's venerable Round Hill Club was some five years - a figure almost unheard of for clubs at that time.
"Several of us thought that we were at a point in time when Greenwich needed a new golf club," remembers Everett Fisher, who met one June morning in his law office with two old friends and fellow members of the founding board of directors at Stanwich, David Agnew and Frank Coyle. "It was clear that we were certainly going to need one in the near future."
The good news was that there was an ideal piece of property that was available, or close to it - the old Semloh Farm, originally a 330-acre parcel in the backcountry of Greenwich. It had been a magnificent gentleman's farm owned by Edward T. Holmes, that featured gently rolling property, numerous lakes, carefully cultivated gardens, and 15 fountains.
When Holmes died, the property was purchased by Jacob Hekma, a close friend and business associate of Wendell Wilkie, the Republican party's presidential candidate in 1940. Hekma died in 1949 and when his wife died in 1960, three different groups were considering developing a golf course on the property.
"The clubhouse at Greenwich Country Club had burned to the ground and there was interest among the members in moving further north, with consideration being given to the Hekma property," explains Fisher. "There had also been a lot of interest in having the town build a public course. Then there was our group, which was made up of Jim Linen, Frank Coyle and myself from Round Hill and Jack Carrott, Al Gannon and Emmett Harrington from Greenwich Country Club."
As luck would have it (at least from the Stanwich point of view) the fine, soft hand of the law came into play.
"The estate was tied up in litigation," says Fisher. "Both the town and the country club were working under time constraints, but no one could afford to take a chance on buying the property without getting a good title. We also had an edge over the town because Frank Hekma, a surviving son, preferred that the land be developed as a private club. We had time on our side."
It wasn't long before the town chose another site and Greenwich Country Club decided to rebuild its clubhouse and stay put. This set the stage for the creation of the Northwich Development Company in 1962, which purchased 270 acres of the estate for the princely sum of $2,000 an acre - a figure that staggers the imagination today given the price of real estate in Greenwich, inflation or no inflation. As a means of financing the purchase of the property, 19 four-acres lots on the perimeter of the course were sold for - again, a seemingly unbelievable figure - of between $10,000 and $15,000 to investors in the corporation. The sale of the lots raised $205,000 for Northwich.
"It may sound quaint today, but many of the people who bought lots or invested in the development company did so out of a sense of community spirit," recalls Fisher. "Many of the people who bought lots never joined the club and we made it very clear to the investors in Northwich that while we would make every good faith effort to buy their stock back at their cost, no one would realize a profit from the investment. And many of the investors never joined the club."
At this point, work began in earnest to determine who should design the course and what it should look like. For a time, the celebrated Robert Trent Jones was considered but instead the father-son team of William and David Gordon got the nod. In part, this was because of the work William had done in designing the highly-regarded Grace course at Saucon Valley Country Club in Pennsylvania, and in larger part because of his training at the hands of architects Donald Ross, Willie Park Jr., Devereux Emmet and the firm of Toomey and Flynn, where he worked on such classic tests as The Country Club, Kittansett, Shinnecock Hills and Merion's East course.
Gordon toured the farmland and told the representatives of the development company that "if you let this property get away from you you're crazy." (At least he spared them that famous bit of rhetorical nonsense attributed to Ross and others, that the "Lord intended this piece of land for a golf course.") Gordon was far more practical. He told them he could offer them three versions - one costing $350,000, another coming in at $375,000, and one with all the bells and whistles, that would cost $485,000.
"Let's see how the $485,000 version would look," said Jim Linen, who would go on to become the club's first vice-president.
It looked just fine, and that was the version that was built.
On October 16, 1962, the development company sold 186 acres, including the main house and four other buildings, to The Stanwich Club, which had been formally organized that summer with Varick Stout as the first president, for $475,000. The sale moved smoothly through the necessary Board of Appeals process until the attorney for Lewis S. Rosenstiel, who owned 1,146 acres across from the proposed club, voiced his client's opposition, citing grounds of noise, increased traffic, water availability and other factors. Not the least of Mr. Rosenstiel's opposition was focused upon the club's application for a liquor license - a wonderful irony since Mr. Rosenstiel was the heir to the liquor business. The case wound its way through the legal system until it reached the State Supreme Court. Attorneys were actually gathered at the courthouse in Hartford when Mr. Rosenstiel withdrew from the case.
Construction began on the course in September 1963. In reality, it was a course that could never be built today.
"Most of the land on the left side of the entrance way was swampland that was drained," says David Agnew, the club's second president. "That never would have been allowed under today's wetlands regulations. The construction crews created ponds and used the fill to build the fairways. Hundreds of trees were cut down. The stumps were placed onto piles with old automobile tires and set aflame at night. It looked like Valhalla."
In the years since the club's founding, a belief has emerged that The Stanwich Club was conceived as a men's-only, national golf club along the lines of Augusta National Golf Club or Pine Valley Golf Club. There is some truth to this, but very little.
"There was some discussion very early on about Stanwich being a men's-only club but it never really went anywhere," remembers Frank Coyle, another former president. "The focus was always going to be on golf, though. Initially, we didn't plan on tennis or a swimming pool and certainly not on a children's summer camp. But we quickly decided to build tennis courts and a pool. The summer camp just evolved."
David Agnew agrees.
"I think we knew all along that it would be a country club with an emphasis on golf," he explains. "From the beginning, however, we were agreed that it would be named "The Stanwich Club" and not the "Stanwich Country Club."
As for a national membership, again there is some truth to that, but just a little.
"In the early days, when we were looking for members, Jim Linen (then the president of Time, Inc.) would call some of his prominent friends and ask them to join," recalls Agnew. "It didn't cost them much and they were happy to do it as a favor. The reality is that we drew most of our members from Greenwich, but also a lot from neighboring towns. Someone from New Canaan would join and bring neighbors along as members. The same with Darien and Bedford. Howard Laeri, who was at Citibank at the time, joined and brought along a group of members from the bank. The membership grew steadily. That was never really a concern."
Everett Fisher has another take on the early membership.
"There was a sense of community spirit in the early years," he says. "A lot of the early members were also members at Round Hill and Greenwich Country Club. They stayed on until the success of the new club was assured."
Billy Farrell, the son of 1928 U.S. Open Champion Johnny Farrell, was hired as the club's first golf professional - a position he held until 2000. Billy, a former Tour player and successful competitor in Met and Connecticut golf circles, helped attract top quality players and tournaments to Stanwich.
Stanwich has been the site of numerous prestigious local events, including two Met Opens, a Connecticut Open, the Ike tournament and several other championships. It is perennially ranked as the best course in Connecticut by Golf Digest and has frequently been included in its rankings of the "100 Greatest Courses in America."
And, now the 2002 U.S. Mid-Amateur championship, the first national championship hosted by the club.
All in all, not bad and a source of pride for the founders whose vision made it possible - their vision, and a little luck and good timing.
"Yes, pride and a certain loss of memory," quips Frank Coyle.