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The Oxen Tale # 17
The Amador Golf Club
By
Frank Tortorich
“The Amador Golf Club began in 1923, with Ralph McGee, President, and Harold
Tallon as Secretary. Land for the course was
provided by the Kennedy Mine. The old stone powder house was given by A.
Ginocchio on a hill above the links. The Zeiley
Mining Company, that closed in 1912 and was bought up by the Kennedy Mining Co.,
formally owned the land.”
It was a six-hole, par 24 course with sand greens and naturally irrigated
fairways. This made summer play very dry but the
ball rolled forever. During the winter and spring the native grasses in the
fairways were mowed but the rough could get to be
18 inches tall. If you hit a ball into the rough you could consider it a lost
ball.
The actual location is where the new Amador Sutter Hospital sits today. The
parking lot is on the par five fifth fairway. Golf
Course Road is off Bright Avenue. If you were to drive to the end of that road
and look east, you would be looking over the
first tee. The old stone clubhouse (powder house) is still there. I grew up on
the top of that hill looking over the golf course.
As a youngster I would caddy for the locals who played there every weekend. Most
of those old timers are now gone but I
have fond memories of fellows like John Huberty, Frank Cuneo, Gene Boro, Doc.
Wilson, Harvey Vinciguerra, Joe Fuentes
and Guy Tofanelli. I learned to play on that very course and some of these
fellows taught me the honorable game of golf. My
clubs were from the late 1930s, with names such as Mashie, Brassy, Niblick, Mid
Iron, and Spoon, all with Hickory shafts
with worn-out slick leather grips. I always had a good supply of golf balls
because after school I often went out and searched
through the tall grass for the balls lost that previous weekend. When Mace
Meadows Golf Course was built, the old course
fell into disuse but I still play that course on “the back roads of the memory
of my mind.” If anyone is interested, SIRS might
just want to do a walking tour of the old course.
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