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Willow Lakes at PAFB
This is the first of the “Courses Lost” posts, which I share, and invite others to share, memories of courses that have closed. Willow Lakes Golf Course opened in the Fall of 1968 on Pope Air Force base but it was not until the following October, upon my return from Mildenhall RAF, England to start my discharge from service process, that I played the course. As it was, the USAF allocated 30 to 45 days for an airman to complete the procedure, so there was a lot of “hurry up and wait” downtime while waiting for one office to send my records to another one involved in the process. Therefore,…
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Golf Courses never more
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A Friendly Wager
“ Want to play the last three holes for lunch? ”, my playing partner asked as we finished 15th hole during my first round at Stryker Golf Course in the Spring of 1967. Being fairly new at golf and first time playing a regulation, par 70 plus, 18 hole course, I was not sure how to reply. Was this part of the game? Was this normal? In essence, wanting to make a good first impression, and, since I had enjoyed playing with the “old sarge”, I agreed; telling myself it was not that much money, two or three dollars, besides it could be a free lunch. While, knowing deep down,…
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Gotcha Covered
Look at anyone’s golf bag and, chances are, one of the first things you will notice are the headcovers. Why is that? Could it be because they tell a lot about the golfer? Such as, how new the clubs are, brand or model being played, striker or hacker i.e. handicap level, and perhaps, if there is an obsessive-compulsive tendency. Today, every driver, fairway wood, hybrid and putters comes with a headcover. However, that was not always the case. In the early 1900s, when first introduced, headcovers were not designed to protect the heads but the shafts of the clubs from being damage cause by chips or dents in the wood…
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More than a Name Change
Ordinarily in the “Golf Ghosts section you would find post about companies, products and courses that are no longer around. However, periodically, there is an attempt to rescued the brand. Park Mammoth is such a case. As I stated in another post, I discovered Park Mammoth Golf Course in the late summer of 1970. At that time it was part of a Best Western resort which included tennis courts, a putt-putt course, horseback riding, private cave, and a miniature train that would take you “to and from” the lodge to various points around the complex including the golf course. A collage of Norman Rockwell scenes in real life; that was…
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Willow Lakes at PAFB
