They began clearing the land of stumps and underbrush in April 1915 and, believe it or not, the course opened for play on June 19.
“Originally it was a gravel pit,” said golfer Steve Kerns, who has worked at the course. “It had to be. You’d try to dig cups and you’d hit rocks.”
The Moose course was the only one in Sidney until Shelby Oaks opened in 1965.
Unlike most golf layouts, the Moose course has undergone few changes in the last century. Except for a creek that had to be moved and a minor switch in the routing, golfers today are playing the same nine holes their fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers played.
The Loyal Order of the Moose, which was given deed to the course in 1944, has never been in position to afford any major renovations.
“It’s kind of an aggravating little (par 35) course,” Perry Bayley Jr. said a few days ago. “My dad shot 30 there 15 times but never shot 29.”
Bayley’s father, Perry Sr., was the unsalaried golf pro at The Moose Club for many years. “He took up golf after the war and turned himself into a really good player,” said Perry Jr., a 79-year-old thoroughbred horse owner living in Berlin, Ohio. “In the winter he worked for Davis Love II at Sea Island, Georgia.”
In the summer Perry Sr. was a fixture at The Moose course, selling clubs from the trunk of his car and always working on his putting. “My dad had the best short game of anybody,” his son said. “He putted for hours and hours at Sea Island. He went 13 years without three-putting a green.”
Whoa! Hold your horses, Perry. He did what?
“The main thing he did was was wait for somebody to show up with a couple hundred dollars and wanting to putt for money,” he said, recalling the time a guy from Toledo challenged him and dropped $420.
Perry Sr. taught many golfers. One of his best students was a Sidney eighth-grader named Glenn Apple. He won the Ohio Public Links Championship four times and was a three-time runner-up in the Ohio Mid-Amateur. Apple, 75, is in the Ohio Golf Association Hall of Fame.
Dorsey Nevergall, an amateur who had auto dealerships in Lima and Sidney, was probably the best golfer to play the Moose course, but he didn’t play there often. He polished his game on 18-hole courses and played in amateur events all over the country. He once tamed the Moose with an 8-under-par 27 — a score also achieved once by Bernie Kerns.
“The best golfer who played there regularly was Bernie Kerns,” Perry Jr. said. “He was the all-time best. Nobody could argue with that.”
At one time the club championship was passed around regularly between Bernie Kerns, his brother, Lenny, and Web Young. Nevergall’s son, Mel, and Steve Kerns also were among the Moose’s best.
Former Shelby County engineer Steve Hubbell watched all them play. “Those guys played some pretty good golf with the equipment they had,” he said.
Chip shots
• A memorial service for former Madden Golf Course professional Pete Brown will be held on Tuesday at 11 a.m. at Corinthian Baptist Church, 700 South James McGee Boulevard. Professional golfer Jim Dent will be among those speaking. Brown, the first black player to win a PGA Tour event, died May 1 in Augusta, Ga. He was 80. Brown was pro at Madden from 1982-2004.
• Jeffrey Scohy of Bellbrook has advanced to the sectional round of qualifying for the U.S. Open. Scohy was one of eight who shot 70 in the local qualifier at Kinsale on Monday. In a playoff the following day he got one of the six spots available to the 70 shooters.
• Dayton Country Club will host the Women’s Western Golf Association’s 116th national amateur championship next June. The WWGA’s six-day event, which attracts mostly college golfers, was held on the DCC course in 2013. This year’s tournament is scheduled for June 15-20 at Nashville Golf & Athletic Club in Brentwood, Tenn.
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