Golf Digest Editor Recalls Juniata Days

Golf Digest Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Jerry Tarde, who grew up in the Juniata section of Northeast Philadelphia, recalls in the the days of his youth learning to play golf on the hard scrabble fairways and greens of Juniata Golf Club in the magazine's August issue.

"Par was 63 with nine 3s, nine 4s and nine bunkers -- no rakes or flagsticks. Dried sunflower stalks with empty beer cans stuck on top were placed in the holes, and there was an art to leaning the 'flagstick' on chip shots. The tees had rubber mats except for the ones that didn't, and those were hard-baked dirt that required some of us to carry an ice pick to pierce the ground so a wooden tee could stand up. The price was right: 50 cents for golf all day. I didn't go home till dark every night, and sometimes we even pulled the car lights to the putting green for another round of quarter skins," writes Tarde in his monthly Editor's Letter.

The August issue salutes municipal -- or muni -- golf, and Tarde has not forgotten his public golf course roots. He praises the renaissance that Juniata has enjoyed in recent years under the care of Bob Wheeler, who Tarde selects as #1 on his "Top 5 Heroes of Modern Public Golf."

Bob Wheeler

Tarde concludes his letter: "Thanks go to Bob Wheeler, a retired cop from the neighborhood, who put together a nonprofit foundation to run the course when a succession of management companies and the city had given up hope. Wheeler got the local unions -- carpenters, bricklayers, steamfitters and heavy-equipment operators -- to work on the course pro bono (or at least for the 10 cases of beer they go through a week). 'Great guys, heavy drinkers,' says Bob. He also talked himself into a $200,000 grant from the state. Every cent has gone into course improvements, he says. And now Juniata is among the cheapest, best golf in Philly. Golf fees for seniors, firefighters and police officers are $20; regular play is $32 weekdays and $37 weekends -- all including carts. High schools play for free. I remember those days."

Read Tarde's entire letter here.