Some courses are known for the legendary golf played upon them. Others are known for the legendary golfers they produce. For Latrobe Country Club, home course to Arnold Palmer, it is fair to say that the latter is true. But that is not to discount the beauty, history and challenging golf that the the club’s course offers. Rather, it is simply a consequence of the outsized impact that Arnold Palmer had on the world of golf.
Ali, Jordan, and Gretzky are associated with their sports in this way, and they are also associated in an equal measure to the impact they have had on culture. These athletes have a “sporting” place that they called home—where the seeds of their greatness took hold and bloomed. For Ali, it was Columbia Gym in Louisville; for Jordan, his high school gymnasium; for Gretzky it started on a rink built by his father in their backyard. For Palmer, that backyard was Latrobe.
Established in 1920, on the heels of World War I and the 1918 flu pandemic, Latrobe Country Club was founded by a group of local businessmen, industrialists, and bankers in Latrobe, Pa. (pronounced LAY-trobe, locally), just southeast of Pittsburgh. At the time, Latrobe was an industrial hub and a part of the steel manufacturing tradition that defined Western Pennsylvania for generations.
In the summer of 1921, at age 17, Palmer’s father, Milfred “Deacon” Palmer, began working on the construction crew that built the original 9-hole course. “Deke,” as he was known, then stayed on, working as the groundskeeper and eventually becoming the head pro at the club. In that time he lived in a frame house off the course’s sixth tee with his family, and his position as groundskeeper allowed him to take his son Arnold along with him to work.
It is easy to imagine that in those days spent tending to the course there would have been lessons that the elder Palmer imparted to the younger—about golf, about the way a course is designed and maintained to create varied and interesting challenges for players and, almost certainly, lessons about life and living that fathers tend to try to impress upon their sons.
Over the 10 decades since its inception, the times and the course both have undergone changes. Over the years, additional land was acquired and by 1960 enough had been amassed for the course to be expanded to 18-holes. After a period of design, construction on the expansion began in 1963. Both Palmers contributed to the design and layout of the course that debuted 9 new holes and 10 new greens in 1964. That course layout is essentially the same today. Latrobe Country Club shares many attributes with other storied NCA members. Meticulously kept grounds, a stately clubhouse looking out over the course, and additional activities like tennis and swimming for members and their guests. But it also bears the personal stamp of the legend with whom it is associated. For instance, Arnold Palmer had covered bridges built over a picturesque creek to provide shelter when storms kicked up. And of course, the club also carries the spirit of Arnold Palmer on every hole and in every building of the club.
Latrobe Country Club has persevered through the Great Depression, the Second World War, the social upheaval of the Civil Rights and social movements of the 1960s, the recessions of the 1970s, the data revolutions of the 1980s and 90s and now, on into the digital age; not without impact, to be sure, but happily, without falter.
Perhaps what has helped it to endure are the contributions of its most famous member (and former caddy). Not only financial contributions, as he purchased the club in 1971, but the contribution Arnold Palmer made to the growth of the sport of golf and its place in American and world culture—as well as the contribution of his character and, to some degree, the positive ideas that he embodied.
Arnold Palmer’s affability, his “go for broke” playing style, easy good looks, charm, and his modest background brought to golf an accessibility that it had lacked—perhaps even yearned for.
For the growth of the sport the timing was ideal. With the advent of television and the development in popularity of televised sports, Palmer’s rise to fame and professional dominance coincided with an opportunity for large numbers of people to watch a sport that many had never seen played, let alone witnessed being played at the professional level.
While the American golf tradition is but an upstart in the shadows of St. Andrews, still, it is rich with tradition and has produced many major contributors to the sport. Most, if not all, of these contributors grew up playing golf on a “home course.” While these terrific contributions to sport lend themselves to folklore and often dominate the spotlight, these individuals are only a reflection of what Latrobe and clubs like it all over the country contribute to sport and to our culture.
The way clubs intertwine in a community— with people coming together to build a golf course and a club, and through those clubs fostering traditions of celebrating, socializing, and engaging in the joy of golf—not only for its athletic challenge, but for the social and, perhaps even spiritual, aspects of the game. By providing a venue for the development and nurturing of young people to the traditions and values of golf and by providing a place of social bonding and networking for adults throughout their lives, clubs offer more than just access to a leisure activities. They are communities, stitched together through a shared love of sport, but held together by the bonds forged of camaraderie and shared experience. Latrobe embodies that spirit, through its style, its history, its ownership, and its enduring sensibility.
It is not in spite of hardship and challenges that clubs endure and grow stronger, but because of them. Clubs, and the communities they embody, rally together in times of need and uncertainty, often contributing to the social fabric of a place and providing the much-needed support to members and to the community at large.
So, on the centennial of the founding Latrobe Country Club, NCA is proud to honor a legendary member. The club has a long and storied history, and it continues to thrive today. It represents the best of NCA’s membership through its commitment to the Western Pennsylvania community it serves and the extraordinary environment it provides to members. Of course, it will also always be known for the essential role it played in the history of professional golf by helping to shape one of the game’s greatest leaders, Arnold Palmer.
