An Unexpurgated History of the Temple Terrace Golf & Country Club

Acknowledgements

A significant number of people played important roles in creating the history of Temple Terrace Golf & Country Club and many of them graciously shared memories of interesting and noteworthy events as part of this project. Although their contributions are detailed throughout the entire document and some might prefer to remain anonymous, I truly hope the following “key” contributors will accept this individual acknowledgement of appreciation for their contributions.

Don Whittemore, Brian Hawke, Frank McGhee and Bill Taylor contributed countless anecdotal details typically not recorded in the official (or even unofficial) business records of the club. Don and Brian are unique in that both “suffer” from having to play the game they love with handicaps that require “adding” strokes to their final score before settling bets; and both, as second-generation members, began accumulating Club memories while still wearing three-cornered pants. Frank’s valuable input was substantially limited to memories of events occurring “only” during his fifty-year membership. Bill is a marketing and sales expert, but it was his unique ability to convey definitive answers in the fewest possible words that at least to some small degree curtailed my tendency to ramble. For example, when I asked if he considered himself a good salesman, his response was, “Yes, when I offer the best price”.

John Rowe and Jim Musick significantly improved the final product by utilizing their vast life experiences and exceptional business judgement in reviewing and critiquing each and every draft of the material to ensure the storyline didn’t wander too far from the “entertainment” objective and remained focused on fact rather than opinion.

Katherine Musick and Candy Quinn “cheerfully” endured constant interruptions to their real work in order to help identify and track down source material.

Thank You All,

Ron Motto

Prelude

It was 1921 and a development company named Temple Terrace Estates was heavily involved in the Florida land boom after acquiring extensive real estate holdings from heirs of the Potter and Bertha Palmer family of Chicago’s Palmer House Hotel fame. They were in the process of building a golf course as the centerpiece of their planned golfing community when “Big John” Brinson, an eighteen-year-old from South Georgia, moved to Temple Terrace looking for work. He took a job planting grass on the fairways of the golf course. Nine holes of the Temple Terrace Golf Club opened for business in late 1922 and more than sixty years later, Big John would still be working on those fairways.

On the following pages, the first hundred years of that golf club’s journey are chronicled, sourced primarily from details found in the annals of local newspapers, club newsletters, minutes of Board meetings, transcripts from meetings of the voting membership and interviews conducted to reconstruct history from the “unfailing” memories of several  “senior” members who generally considered themselves authors and supporters of all historically good decisions and outspoken, outvoted critics of the bad.

The journey was never easy, but at every critical juncture members met the challenge with dedication and resolve. Have errors been made? Absolutely, and many of them are documented here; not as criticisms of individual Boards or Board Members (I was on a few of those Boards), but as irrefutable events in Club history that illustrate how good intentions don’t always elicit the desired result.     

A common characteristic of these Board Members is they cared enough about the success and well-being of the Club, they volunteered time and talent to help guide this member owned and operated organization through the veritable “whack-a-mole” of problem-solving challenges required to survive. This shared sense of responsibility and commitment was the result of strong emotional attachments their families developed for the Club and its members. However, this sense of “family” sometimes made them vulnerable to the assumption all members felt the same way and would support every proposed “solution”.

As the history unfolds, notice how the “financial viability” of the Club is a constant concern, even when the membership is full and there is a waiting list to join; notice how decisions made during times of declining membership numbers often tend to fuel a “Death Spiral” of declining memberships.

The original plan was to document this complex journey in a style I would describe as “painful humor”; however, the plan changed somewhat when in conversation with Leitha Bowles of the “100 Year Countdown Committee”, she coined the term “edutainment” as a worthy objective.

Should you choose to continue reading, I hope you will be entertained, but I’m more than confident you’ll be “educated” on some things you didn’t already know. (Whether those things are actually worth knowing is a decision each of you must make.)

Content

Chapter                                                                                                             Page

1. The Early Years ………………………………………………………………………….
2. Temple Terrace Outdoors Assumes Control (1956)…………………….
3. ”Members Only” Temple Terrace Golf & Country Club (1958) …..
4. Temple Terrace “Kids” Begin Making Golf History (1968) ………….
5. Implementation of the General Manager Concept (1987)………….
6. Building(s) For The Future (1996)……………………………………………….
7. The Temple Terrace Whine Club (1922-2022)…………………………….
8. The “Lower Cost/Broader Based” Strategic Plan (2009)……………..
9. Integrity Golf Company (2016)…………………………………………………..
10. Starting Over – Temple Terrace Reimagined (2017)…………………..
11. The Challenge of Year 100 (2022) …………………………………………….

Epilogue ………………………………………………………………………………………………

Appendix

1. Boards of Directors……………………………………………………….
2. Clubhouse Managers/Club Managers/General Managers …………
3. Centennial and 1922 Club Members…………..…………………………..
4. Lifetime Benefits Program Members………………………………………..
5. Membership Count ……………………………………………………………………
6. Annual Cost of a Senior Voting Membership……………………..
7. TT Women’s Golf Association Presidents And Club Champions..
8. TT Men’s Club Champions………………………………………………………..
9. The Course Record…………………………………………………………………..
10. The Temple Terrace All-Stars…………………………………………………..