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June 26, 2017
Dear Exmoor Members and Families,
I am writing to you this Monday morning to commemorate – and to celebrate with you -- an important milestone at Exmoor Country Club.
On this day – exactly 120 years ago – Exmoor held its Grand Opening celebration, when nearly 1000 members and guests jammed our grounds to learn the game of golf and to experience a new aspect of American social and sporting life – the country club.
June 26, 1897 was a day like no other in the history of Highland Park: Golf was played for the first time in the village (then with barely 2000 residents). The morning rounds (then nine holes) featured women golfers, and after a sumptuous luncheon buffet, the men’s handicap event began at 2 p.m. Players wore Scottish-style red coats, tailored with piping in Exmoor’s original club colors: purple and white.
Our first golf professional, H. J. Tweedie, a native of Liverpool, England, showed the members how to grip their clubs and swing. Winner of the first men’s silver cup was G.A. McKinlock, who toured the layout twice, posting a score of 109, seven shots ahead of William A. Moore, who, unfortunately, faltered late in his round.
After golf, dinner parties began and dancing continued late into the night, but not a minute into the Sabbath, as was the club’s tradition, then and ever since.
Our club’s wonderful history began on that exciting day so long ago, and our historian Don Holton has penned a brief essay that conveys many of the values and achievement that have made -- and continue to make -- Exmoor such a special place.
I hope you will take a few minutes to read Don’s essay. Please click here.
Sincerely,
Joseph Burger
President
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