Greene County CC: A place for brotherhood and golf
WAYNESBURG – Tucked away in the corner of Greene County, hemmed in between Route 221, also known as Lippencott Road, and Jefferson Road, sits the quaintest little golf club a wayward drive might run into.
It’s called Greene County Country Club but don’t be misled. You’ll find none of the stuffiness and attitude that infects some country clubs. This place is more like a brotherhood.
The club has been welcoming members since 1921 and is celebrating a century of operating.
Yes, it has a pool but not a gigantic one.
And it has ghosts, honest. Just ask superintendent Mike Vukmanic. He’s seen them with his own eyes hanging around the pro shop, maybe looking for some golf tips.
Vukmanic lives in the allowed space above the pro shop, has been the course superintendent since 1975 and caddied at the club starting in 1964.
He has seen a lot at the club, but there were other anomalies.
“One time I saw a fireball from a lightning strike inside the maintenance building years ago,” he said. “It came down the electric line, it was spinning in the wall, then just disappeared.”
Another time, a similar lightning strike came down through the electric line and made its way into the locker room, right next to where one of the members was taking a shower.
On this day, Vukmanic, thankfully, had the rough cut down, making off-target shots easier to navigate. The nine-hole course fits nicely among the more than 700 trees, most of them planted by Vukmanic. A straight shot is a golfer’s best friend at Greene County Country Club over the 6,256-yard course (blue tees).
This writer made the rounds with Bob Dugan, president of the club and one heck of a driver off the tee, Scot Moore, who besides his day job as athletic director at Jefferson-Morgan High School, serves as Governor at Large at the club.
When fire destroyed Moore’s home a few years ago, the majority of the 250 members donated their time, effort, machinery and materials to rebuild it.
“Just about everybody came out,” said Moore. “That’s what we mean by saying this is a brotherhood.”
Then there is another Governor at Large, Lou Giachetti, or better known on this day as chief table mover. He was working hard for the celebration coming the following evening and wanted to make sure everything was just right.
The club was preparing to mark its 100-year anniversary and help was needed setting up tables. There was food, music and even a magician on hand to entertain.
The club opened in 1921 and interestingly, there were only nine true golfers who made up the nuclei of interest in golf in Greene County. The course has run through tough times and good times, except during World War II from 1943 until 1945. All outstanding bills were paid and bonds were retired at 50 cents on the dollar before the shutdown because of the war.
One doesn’t let a golf course sit unattended for a few years without the fairways and greens being affected. Weeds had overrun the course and it was all they could do to get it back into good playing condition in spring 1946.
The course is lined mostly by Norway spruce trees with a number of ashe samplings mixed in. White oaks seemed to be the tallest and when one fell in a storm a while back, workers counted 110 rings.
“I don’t think there are a lot of courses that are 100 years old,” said Dugan. “The golf industry is up 20% since the pandemic.”
There has been talk about expanding the course to 18 holes but there are other problems associated with that move, including debt, parking issues and pro shop space.
So the course and its membership march along, making improvements where it can and being thankful for what they’ve had for 100 years.
“A lot of people think that country clubs are full of snobs who play scratch golf,” Dugan said. “Nothing can be farther from the truth at this place. We’re not that good, and we’re not snobs.”
Just good people.