Golf: Fitting moment for centennial celebration at SACC

Richard Dunn

SANTA ANA HEIGHTS - Santa Ana Country Club pioneers survived World

War I, the Great Depression and WWII.

It seems only fitting that the oldest golf club in Orange County,

which will celebrate its long-planned centennial Saturday night at the

private club, will add a color guard to the festivities “to recognize the

incident,” SACC General Manager Jeff Schlict said, of Tuesday’s terrorist

attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

“We’re also looking at a little higher numbers as far as attendance

(Saturday),” said Schlict, who is expecting about 500 members and guests.

“Some are procrastinators (and register late for the party), while others

have had travel plans changed since the tragedy, so our numbers are going

up.”

The event, which could be the greatest private golf celebration in

Orange County history, will start at 6 p.m. and continue until midnight.

A live orchestrate with dancing will perform outside under the stars

following ceremonies near the lake at 14.

One SACC member has created a video for the celebration that will

focus on the Great Depression of the 1930s, during which the club was $50

to join with monthly dues of $7.50.

“But if you left the club, you had to pay $100. Nobody had $100, so

they all stayed at the club,” Schlict said, reflecting on Santa Ana

Country Club lore.

The club is also working on a book of the first 100 years, which will

be completed with photographs from Saturday’s celebration, and a time

capsule to be opened at the bicentennial celebration in 2101.

Marianne Towersey, the club’s 17-time women’s champion, has “written a

wonderful epilogue for the book,” said SACC member Paul Watkins, Chairman

of the Santa Ana Country Club Centennial Committee.

Alyce Hall, 95, has been one of the club’s oldest members, but she

moved to Vermont last month to be closer to family and reportedly will

not be in attendance Saturday.

The late Gerald Hall, the club’s longtime head professional who

collaborated with Watkins to write a book about the first 90 years, will

be missed Saturday by many. He died July 31 at age 78.

The celebration will include a nostalgic look at the first 100 years,

along with a museum, an oversize cake to serve 500 guests and fireworks.

The club’s main dining room will be transformed into a

turn-of-the-century golf club, complete with a sand putting green.

In 1901, when Santiago Golf Club was formed, a precursor to Santa Ana

Country Club, the first golf holes in Orange County were played on

oil-soaked sand for “greens” and native soil, or hard dirt, for fairways.

Food at the centennial celebration will also be “tailored toward that

era,” Schlict said, with handmade tortillas and other early California

tastes.

Next for members and guests will be the museum, which will provide an

interesting historical look at Santa Ana Country Club with photographs

and information posters. The museum is expected to open today and remain

open to members through Sept. 24.

After a tour through the museum, centennial party-goers will move

outside to the lake at 14, where the large body of water will represent

“the Castaways,” the club’s second of three locations.

The club originally leased acreage in the Peters Canyon area, a small

valley two miles southwest of present-day Irvine Park, where club

founders built a nine-hole course.

In 1912, the members moved to a 160-acre site at the Castaways along

the Newport bluffs and renamed the club Orange County Country Club.

The club moved to its third, and present, site in the 1920s for water

irrigation purposes as golf courses turned to grass fairways and greens.

In April 1923, it was announced that Orange County Country Club would

move to Santa Ana Heights at Newport Boulevard and rename itself Santa

Ana Country Club. The club paid $71,000 for the property.

After speeches and a video presentation, there will be fireworks and

the cutting of a large centennial cake, then spirits and dancing will

last until midnight.

Watkins, SACC men’s club president Ken Shelton and women’s club

president Janet Cencel will cut the centennial birthday cake.