Bob Glass had kept an eye on the weather reports, but there was nothing he could do. A perfect deluge of rain that swept across the Midwest had a special inaugural hickory golf outing at Clearview Golf Course in doubt. The hard rain departed in time, but it left the course in a waterlogged, walking-only condition. No matter, the golfers soldiered on and enjoyed every minute of the inaugural Tri-State Hickory Open, held Sunday, July 18. It was all in celebration of the Powell Family legacy of golf on this historic course created by Bill Powell after his return from service duty in World War II.
Before the hickory event though, the prior day was a given over to a GHS-sponsored “Heritage Golf” outing, held in collaboration the Tri-State Hickory Golfers and with Clearview’s LPGA Hall of Fame owner Renee Powell, who is also the resident professional at Clearview.
GHS President Bern Bernacki was on hand to help celebrate both the event and the Powell Family legacy that is so much a part of Clearview Golf Course. Here’s his take on this unique golf outing:
Last weekend several GHS members traveled to East Canton Ohio to be a part of GHS and Clearview GC history. These golfer/ historians participated in two events: Our first ever GHS-sponsored “Heritage Golf” outing, enjoyed with hickory, pyratones and steel shaft clubs, as well as modern equipment and all just for the fun of it. I’m very proud of the effort put in by all to make this history-making heritage golf day very special.
Renee Powell mesmerized all of the travelers with the story of Clearview, her father, William Powell, and the Powell Era Legacy Foundation.
Gary Wyckoff provided an impressive and educational array of golf antiquities for show and sale and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette covered these events in an online article. Visit our Facebook pages for more coverage and photos!
The event is planned to be an annual one and Powell is all in favorite of it, to judge from her comments to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Caroline Pineda. Click here to see the story that Pineda posted for the newspaper about the event. For someone new to reporting on hickory golf, Pineda nailed it (except for a perhaps unfortunate statement that suggests the common range for starter hickory golf sets are around $1600 – actually, you can get some good starter clubs in the $350 and up range – but that’s just a quibble.)
It’s important to note, too, that the photo on the opening link of this website was taken by Sarah Simpson for the Post-Gazette. It shows Doug Sheppard putting.
