KEBO VALLEY GOLF LINKS - 1899

KEBO  GOLF  LINKS  -  1899

A Description Of the Place Where This Favorite Sport is Indulged In.

The Kebo Valley Club was organized in 1888 as a social club, with the general purposes of a country club, including horse races, tennis, and other pastimes.  Early in the history of golf in this country six holes were laid out inside of the fence surrounding the Club grounds.  Last year the fence was removed and additional land was leased for a term of years, and a nine hole golf course of about 2,300 years in length was made out.  During last Autumn and this spring the course was lengthened to 2,500 yards, and changed very much for the better, and in addition nine hole practice putting green has been built on which the ladies may play when the rule which excludes them from the course in the mornings in force.  The extra length was obtained by abandoning the old seventh hole, thus allowing the ninth hole to be lengthened some thirty yards, and the eight hole about sixty yards;  the fourth hole was lengthened forty-five yards by placing the teeing ground that distance further back, and a new and longer hole to take the place of the abandoned seventh hole was made.
The teeing ground for the first hole - the Lodge - 318 yards, is about sixty yards from the clubhouse on the edge of the bank above one of the club roads.  About seventy yards from the teeing ground is a sand bunker beyond which is flat ground with good lies.  Thirty yards from the hole is another sand bunker about thirty-three feet wide and 200 feet long, which guards the green in front;  small trees and bushes and the club driveway at the back and sides make it bad for the player whose ball overruns or goes wide of the green.

The second hole - Bunker Hill, 275 yards - is equal to a much longer hole because of the steep hill, seventy-two feet high to be overcome on the approach;  a good drive will carry the ball over two roads onto slightly rising ground, which a few yards beyond begins to rise sharply, and woe to him who with brassy or iron lands his ball short of the green, for he may see the ball come jumping down the hill even to his feet. The green is just over the brow of the hill and is in the form of a great dish, a jagged ridge of rock lies a little to the right of it, and a few pine and spruce trees are scattered about near it.
A fair drive from the teeing ground the third hole - Amphitheater, 195 yards - will take the ball safely over a steep downward sloping ledge.  Standing on the teeing ground, sixty feet above the putting green, one has a beautiful view of the mountain range, Newport, Dry, Green and Kebo Mountains and of their wooded valleys.
A short walk through the trees and across the Cromwell Harbor Road brings the player to the fourth teeing ground, which also serves as the teeing ground for the seventh hole, and is a flat turfed knoll about sixty by thirty feet square.  This hole - Kebo, 445 yards, is the longest of the course.  a topped ball, or much sliced ball, will be caught in the low land lying at the base of the teeing ground, and on the right of the course; and a pulled ball will find itself among the trees on the left, a good drive will find a good lie.  On the left the course opens out on to rolling meadow land gradually sloping to the edge of the bank twenty-five feet above Kebo brook and about one hundred yards from the hole;  on the right the course is bounded by graceful evergreen trees until it nears the brook which guards the putting green - a little meadow in itself around which branching oaks and maples cast their shadows.
The teeing ground for the fifth, the short hole, -the Brook, 110 yards, is washed in front by the running pebbly stream shaded by large trees.  On the opposite side of the brook the ground rises abruptly, reaching its extreme height twenty-five feet, forty yards from the teeing ground.  The teeing ground for the sixth hole, the Birches, 230 yards, is close to the Harden Road, the drive being over new ground cleared last summer.  The putting green is guarded in front by a sand bunker about 120 feet long, and some thirty feet wide, twenty-five yards from the hole, and has at the back another sand bunker and trees and bushes making it a difficult green to approach from a short drive.
From this putting green to the teeing ground for the next, the new seventh hole - the elbow, 260 yards, is the longest walk on the course, between putting greens and teeing grounds;  but the walk is a pleasant one, winding through birch and pine trees.  The base of Kebo Mountain rises sharply from the flat lies about 160 yards from the teeing ground, between which 110 yards from the teeing ground, runs the brook, which must be carried on the drive;  the second stroke, almost at right angles to the lie of the drive, must again carry the brook and a sand bank twenty-seven feet high which runs completely across the course.  The hole lies about twenty-five yards from the edge of the bank on a sloping plateau, commanding a charming view of the mountains on one side and of the club grounds and clubhouse on the other.  In the making of the hole a small forest was torn up by the roots and the course of the brook changed for 500 feet.
The teeing ground for the eighth hole - the Spring, 335 yards, is on the edge of the Cromwell Harbor Road, at this point deep with sand, and across which the hill must be driven over an irregular rough grassed mound, which has been rolled up to serve as a fence.  The putting green is on the side of a hill and must be approached with  care as it is partially surrounded by large trees free from underlaid and on the edge of it, behind is a large rock.
A few steps through the trees the ninth, the last teeing ground, from which to the Home hole is ? yards.  The lane of play passes between the first and eighth courses.  A drive of ? yards will carry the large sunken sand bunker Sahara, which is forty feet wide and over ? feet long, and serves not only as a hazard for this hole, but also to separate the three courses at this point.  Two hundred and forty yards from the teeing ground is another sand bunker between 250 and 300 feet in length with a highcop.
The grass is to be left long in front of the teeing grounds and long grass will separate the first and ninth courses, the forth and sixth courses, and the forth and fifth courses.
The putting greens and teeing grounds have been enlarged, and the latter well sodded.  The fair green has been put in much better shape than it was last year, and has been reseeded,  fertilized and rolled, and water has been piped to all the putting greens and teeing grounds, and the course now is wide, free from trees, varied and calling for good golf.
Douglas, the professional, who gave such good satisfaction last year, is on the grounds and has begun to give lessons and several members and subscribers have this early paid the dues for the season to the assistant treasurer, Mr. Fred C. Lyman, and are playing on the links daily.


(NOTE;  Notice from the drawing how the first clubhouse was located at the opposite far corner of the course than where it is located today, with the clubhouse road coming out almost across from the Woodbury road.  There is a section of old road there that can still be seen and I had always wondered where it once led, now I know.  This would of placed the clubhouse not far from the Building of the Arts building, which now explains why in a photo President Taff is seen standing not far from the arts building about to hit the ball.  Also worth noting how the course of the brook was changed so the brook ran in a different direction.  In a couple of places the number of yards appear as a question mark, this was dus because the numbers could not be read.)