Hershey Country Club was formally established when Milton Hershey hosted a dinner party at his home, High Point, for one hundred of his friends on April 27, 1930. Preceding dinner, Mr. Hershey announced he was donating his home to the new Hershey Country Club for use as a Clubhouse. He went on to explain that the Club was to be established for the recreation and enjoyment of his friends, Hershey employees, as well as residents of the Hershey community. At this point, Milton Hershey asked his guests to lift their plates. Underneath each plate was a Hershey Country Club Charter Membership card for each guest.

In 1933 the Professional Golfers Association urged the Hershey Country Club to put on a tournament. Hershey Country Club accepted the idea and established an invitational Hershey Open Golf Tournament. First held in1933, the purse of $5000 rivaled that of the U.S. Open and attracted some of the game’s best players.

The Tournament was held for several years. The winners were:

1933 Ed Dudley

1934 Ky Laffoon (French Indian golf star of Denver)

1935 Ted Luther

1936 Henry Picard

1937 Henry Picard

In 1938 the format was changed to a Round Robin Four-Ball Invitational. That year the team of Ben Hogan and Vic Ghezzi took first place. The tournament returned to its traditional format the following year and was won by Felix Serafin.

PGA U.S. Open Tournament, 1940 Byron Nelson tees off while competitor Sam Snead looks on from the sidelines.

The Hershey Open was not held in 1940. In its place, Hershey Country Club hosted the PGA U.S. Open.. In that tournament Byron Nelson edged Sam Snead 1-up to win the PGA Championship. The ninth and last Hershey Open Golf Tournament was held August 28-31, 1941.

 

Hershey Open Golf Tournament, 1941

Juvenile Country Club, ca. 1935-1950

 

In 1932 Hershey added its most unusual course. The Juvenile Golf Club [today Spring Creek Golf Club] was the only course in the United States dedicated to children under eighteen years old. Youth golf fees were $.35 and for an annual fee of $10, children had unlimited access to the Juvenile course. As a result, golf was very popular with the community’s youth. Lessons were offered to teach the game fundamentals and golf etiquette. Several youth tournaments were held each summer and the results often made the front page of the weekly Hotel Hershey Highlights. The sport was equally popular with girls and boys. Many boys, as soon as they were big enough, spent their summers playing golf and caddying for the Country Club.

The Juvenile Club facilities included a substantial log cabin for its clubhouse. The cabin was decorated with a hunter’s theme, with the walls covered with animal pelts and antlers. The main room also featured two limestone open fireplaces. The clubhouse provided male and female locker rooms and showers.

The Juvenile course was repurposed as a public course open to golfers of all ages in 1969 and renamed Spring Creek Golf Course.

While Hershey is well known nationally for its iconic milk chocolate bar, Milton Hershey’s model town attracted much attention for many other reasons.  Hershey Country Club, established in 1930,  received national attention shortly after it was established through its choice of golf professionals to represent the club.  Shortly after the club opened Henry Picard, one of the game’s best players, was hired as pro.  When he left the job several years later, he recommended as his replacement a young player enjoying early success and who seemed to hold a lot of potential to emerge as a leading golfer:  Ben Hogan.

Ben Hogan began his golf career at age 11 working as a caddy. His first professional triumph came when he was 25 when he teamed with Vic Ghezzi to win the 1938 Hershey Four Ball, Ben Hogan won his first individual title, the North & South Open (in Pinehurst), in 1940.

In the Spring of 1941, Henry Picard was serving as the Hershey Country Club’s Pro. Advised to live in a better climate for his health, he resigned from his position and moved to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. To fill his position he recommended a young professional golfer, Ben Hogan, as his successor. Hershey Estates President Charlie Ziegler telegraphed Ben Hogan, who was at the Thomasville Open, asking him to please telephone him. Over the telephone the proposition was discussed and that day Hogan became the professional of Hershey’s 54 holes of golf.

Hogan was still an up and coming professional golfer when he accepted the job as Pro for the Hershey Country Club. Unlike Picard who also served as a teaching pro in Hershey, Hogan’s career focused on competition. His success brought prestige to his employer, the Hershey Country Club.

It was while he was representing Hershey that he experienced his most successful season. In 1946 he won 13 events. At the height of his career Hogan suffered a terrible accident. On February 2, 1949 his car collided head-on with a Greyhound bus on Texas 80, just outside Van Horn. He suffered a crushed pelvis, fractured left leg, crushed shoulder and broken ankle. He spent the next two months in the hospital. Yet barely more than 14 months later, at age 47 he won the 1950 PGA U.S. Open at the Merion Golf Club, Ardmore, PA.

Hogan continued to serve as the Hershey Club Pro until 1951.