The Temple Terrace Golf & Country Club
“Providing an exceptional golf and country club experience as well as an inviting social atmosphere while creating and preserving rich family traditions since 1922”
Chapter 1 – The Early Years
When the Temple Terrace golf course first opened, you could play all day for $1, all week for $5 or all month for $15. The first Head Professional was James Martin Barnes, a Hall of Fame golfer with twenty-two PGA tournament wins including four major championships; the US Open, the British Open and the first two PGA Championships ever held. During his years as Pro, “Long Jim”, as he was called, and Temple Terrace hosted the prestigious Florida Open twice, attracting what was considered at the time, “The greatest field of golfers ever assembled in Florida”
The first Florida Open, played in February of 1925, attracted a field of golfers that included Walter Hagen, the reigning British Open champion, Cyril Walker, the reigning U S Open Champion, Tommy Armour and Gene Sarazen. One week earlier, the AAU Women’s National Swimming & Diving Championships were held at the Club’s pool facilities. A majority of the United States Olympic Swim Team competed in this major swimming competition where several world records were broken.
While Head Professional, Jim Barnes remained active on the PGA Tour and during his employment garnered three of his wins including the British Open, while also playing in nine other Major Championships.
Due to his heavy travel schedule there was usually another Club Pro on staff. Initially it was James Kelly Thompson, a Scotsman from North Berwick, who came to Temple Terrace from the noted Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pennsylvania; however, in 1925, Maude Fowler, who was on the Executive Committee of Temple Terrace Estates, (She and her son Cody were primary investors) talked the Club’s Caddy Master into not only taking the Club Pro job, but into changing his name from Joseph Duhamel to Kid Boots. At that time, Kid Boots was a Broadway musical (hit song “Dinah”) starring Eddie Canter as Kid Boots, the devious Caddy Master at a Florida golf course. Duhamel not only agreed to change his name, he agreed to dress like his namesake from the stage play. He stayed on as Club Pro until 1933. (I found no information on how long he continued to dress in character.)
- Tampa Daily Times March 25, 1923 – “The last nine holes of the course are practically ready for play despite the fact that the management of Temple Terrace did not intend to complete the last nine before the end of the season. A new hole is being planned to supplement the present course, one calling for a shot of 125 yards across the river which winds in and out along the course.” (Did they change their minds on that extra hole or is there a little used tee box somewhere in the woods to the right of #8?)
In 1926, the local real estate market hit the skids and Temple Terrace Estates was forced into bankruptcy. On July 24th their real estate holdings, including the golf course, were deeded “for ten dollars and other valuable considerations” to the City of Temple Terrace which had been incorporated on May 28, 1925, and now, barely a year later, was being forced into the golf business.
Although golf was definitely not a priority for most locals during the “Great Depression” years, the golf course remained open in order to comply with a deed restriction requiring, “that said above-described property and real estate shall be held retained and used by, said City of Temple Terrace or its successors, for public parks, golf courses and other athletic purposes…..”
As a new city already taking on huge bond debt in order to survive, being thrown into the golf business could not have been something the City’s founders were prepared for; however, considering the many periods of weak economy experienced during the past hundred years when closing the golf course would have been the City’s easiest, and possibly best economic decision, it’s not unreasonable to assume that had it not been for the forward thinking of the individuals responsible for creating the deed restrictions noted above, the golf course green space still being enjoyed by residents of the Temple Terrace community would have long since disappeared and been replaced by urban sprawl.
By 1932, times were so bad, the City put all employees on a ten-hour day, six day a week work schedule, at a salary of $2.00 per day; however, they were still unable to meet their financial obligations on a regular basis. Notes from a 1934 City Council meeting listed employees owed back pay and John Brinson was shown with an amount due of $83.50. But Big John stuck with it by doing whatever needed to be done. In addition to caring for the golf course he helped at the City Water Department and in repairing streets.
In January 1933, Basil Brook replaced Kid Boots as the Club Pro and for other than a two-year period documented elsewhere (See “The Amazing Basil Brook”) he would hold the job for the next twenty-six years. The official announcement of his hiring stated, “Mr. Brook will be paid ten dollars per week plus the concessions at the caddy house”. During his first stint as Club Pro, he also functioned as City Clerk and as Chief of Police. During his absence, Fred Best held the job.
Basil returned from a two-year hiatus, and on December 19, 1939, as World War II was heating up, Basil’s wife Mary and three other Temple Terrace women informed the city they were interested in leasing the upstairs room in the city swimming pool building located behind the clubhouse to serve as headquarters for the Temple Terrace Women’s Golf Association (TTWGA) they had organized a year earlier. In January 1940, the ladies were given a five-year lease on the room to house the sixty members of what is reported to be the longest continuously active Women’s Golf Association in the United States. Considering the population of Temple Terrace in the 1940 U.S. Census was only 215, assembling a women’s golf association with sixty members seems like a significant accomplishment.
Over the years the influence of the TTWGA on the health and well-being of the Club has been essential in surviving the lean years and in achieving the good ones. Basil’s influence on its members was significant the day his wife helped create the organization, was significant the day he retired and the TTWGA named a tournament after him and was significant on all the days in between as he helped teach them how to play the game (Even Hall of Famer “Patty Berg would come by for an occasional lesson”) and helped them develop and execute a full tournament schedule. It’s also reported that Babe Zaharias would periodically play the course until she was asked not to come back because of her “foul language”.
“The Lord Works in Mysterious Ways”
“He looked a little like James Dean back then, rangy with hair combed high and a passion that made his soul restless. On this night, with a silvery moon illuminating the water oaks dressed in Spanish moss, the restlessness got to him. He walked the streets that separated the Florida Bible Institute from the sloping hills of a golf course and the marshy banks of the Hillsborough River. He prayed nonstop to God, asking for help to ease the pain of losing a girlfriend and to find some direction in life. Finally, he dropped on the dewy green to gaze towards the heavens.”
“That’s when his miracle occurred – right there, as he lay near the 18th hole of the Temple Terrace Golf Club. ‘Looking up at the moon, the stars, the moss, it was quite a wonderful evening’, Billy Graham recalls of his epiphany in May 1938. And all of a sudden, ‘I just felt God was speaking to me, and he said, ‘I want to use you’” (As told by Billy Graham to Michele Bearden of the Tampa Tribune)
(I’m confident this was not the only time that God’s name has been invoked on the 18th hole of the golf course, and I trust Reverend G exhibited the golfing courtesy of not wearing his street shoes while on the green.)
- On December 15, 1950, The Tampa Tribune sports section highlighted Doris Bower winning the Tampa Women’s Golf Association’s Handicap Championship held at the Temple Terrace Golf & Country Club. Doris would become a member of the club in June of 1964 and continue playing there regularly until several months after she participated in a golf tournament organized by the Temple Terrace Women’s Golf association to celebrate the 100th anniversary of her July 13, 1920, birthday.
- On February 26, 1951, Brian Hawke was born. It was not realized at the time, but for decades to come, this event would negatively impact every male club member’s chances of winning a Club Championship. As of this writing, Brian’s total of Club Championships won stands at thirty-six and counting.
In the early 50’s , the local real estate market began to improve significantly, to the point Temple Terrace’s growth between the 1950 and 1960 Census (414 to 3,812) qualified it as the “Second fastest growing city in America”
