The Ridley Park Golf Club House still stands at 214 W. Ridley Ave. It is now a private home. Local boys would meet golfers at the Crum Lynne Train Station and caddy the 18 hole golf course for 25 cents and if lucky a 5 cent tip!! The course closed in 1914.
NOTE: The Ridley Park 18 hole golf course was created in 1899 to bring more people to visit Ridley Park and to also generate money for the Ridley Park Association. The golf course was on the west side of Ridley Lake and extended into Crum Lynne proper.
RIDLEY PARK GOLF CLUB TOTALS OVER HUNDRED
Organization is in Flourishing Condition and is Rounding Out the Twelfth Year
The Ridley Golf Club is purely a community organization as the membership of one hundred and twenty is made up almost entirely of the residents of Ridley Park. While the club has among its members some of the best players around Philadelphia, few of them compete in the numerous tournaments held in the Philadelphia district each year. It is not that the Ridley players are afraid of not being able to hold their own against other players, for they have proved the contrary at various times. Outside tournaments to them do not make the special appeal that attracts golfers from other clubs.
The Ridley Golf Club is now in its twelfth year and is in a most flourishing condition. Three men were largely responsible for the inception of the club, George C. Hetzel, Z.T. Hall and H.F. Kenney. Hetzel is and always has been the life of the club and has probably done more towards making it a successful organization than any other member of the organization. Ridley has had its hard times as has any other small country club.
It was a nine hole course from the start and while the golfing possibilities of the club have materially increased in the past few years, it is still a nine hole course and probably will remain as such. The club is fortunate that the plot of ground covered by the links is adapted naturally to golfing conditions. While it is not and never has claimed to be a championship course, there are holes at Ridley that are as chuck full of good golf as any one wishes to find around Philadelphia.
The course is over a rolling country and the fairway well as the greens are always kept in splendid condition.
There are plenty of natural hazards and after a player has gone over the course a few times he is frank to confess that the course is by no means an easy one.
The present officers of the club are: President, George C. Hetzel; vice president, E. P. Williams; secretary, Earl V. Deane; treasurer, J. Miller Sinclair. The board of governors in addition to the officers are made up of Bert Egbert, H.E. Vanden, R.W. Shurter, H.W. Avise, Jr. and W.E. Hetzel. Bert Egbert is chairman of the green committee and the chairman of the other committees are: House, H. E. Vanden, match, W.E. Hetzel, and entertainment, R.W. Shurter. The club champion is G. Hetzel Atherholt.
Ridley made the best showing of any nine-hole club in the Club Cup Record competition this year, fi the women members are eliminated. It scored a total of 80 odd points and was excelled only by Huntingdon Valley, Merion and the Philadelphia Cricket Club. These points were made entirely by the team in the Suburban Cup series. In its own division Ridley beat Camden County, Belfield and the Athletic Club of Philadelphia. In the semi-finals with Overbrook, Ridley lost the match by a single point. In its division matches Ridley scored more individual victories than any of the other eleven clubs.
Ridley’s suburban Cup team varies but little from year to year. Each season finds the same RELIABLE FIFTEEN MEN PLAYING ON THE TEAM. No golfers are ASKED TO JOIN FOR THE PURPOSE OF STRENGTHENING THE TEAM FOR Ridley takes the very sportsman like view of winning or losing solely on the strength of a team almost entirely recruited from Ridley Park.
E.P. Williams, a member of the golf team has given a cup for the best composite score and the trophy is now in the possession of Robert Tyson. The Dickinson Cup, given to the player who wins a handicap tournament based on match play, is the property of J. E. Gilmore.
The links are most conveniently situated to Ridley Park, and as has been said, the great majority of players are residents of Ridley Park, with a fair sprinkling of Chester men. A number of changes will be made in the course next year. The only bad feature has been the absence of a long hole. This defect will be remedied and a sterling hole is now being arranged, which promises to be one of the best long holes around Philadelphia.
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