Municipal Courses in Pennsylvania
The road to Pittsburgh’s first municipal course was long and slow. In 1896 wealthy residents were granted permission from the Director of Public Works to use sixty acres of Schenley Park for a golf course. The Pittsburgh Golf Club maintained the course and discouraged the course from being used by non-members of the Club. In 1906 the issue drew public attention questioning the private clubs’ control of public property. It was four years later before the new mayor ordered the course to be opened for public use.
1900 sparked interest in building a public course at Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. Thirteen years later President William Howard Taft personally wrote to the Fairmount Parks commissioners to build a municipal course. The commissioners rejected the plan, instead the town’s council granted funds to build a eighteen hole course in Cobb’s Creek Park. Cobb’s Creek Park finally opened in 1916 making Philadelphia one of the last major cities to build a public golf course.
