- Foundation Nights
- Scholarships
- Recognition by RTJ Sociaty
- Eisenhower Clubs Acceptance
- Cylke Print Acceptance
Foundation Nights
These events will be hosted by the ANCC Foundation for all ANCC Members to attend. Each event will provide to the membership the results of the Foundation’s initiatives to research and document ANCC’s history and they will include the history of design and changes in both golf courses, acquisitions and sales as well as the development of tennis, swimming and fitness programs.
The Foundation Presented “Golf Night II” and “Golf Night Fairfax” – The Foundation completed the initial presentation of the history of the Army Navy Country Club Fairfax Golf Course on May 9, 2017 at the Arlington club house and did a reprise of the presentation on June 16, 2017 at the Fairfax club house. Click on the links below.
History of the Fairfax Golf Course Presentation
“Golf Night”
Golf Night originated in May of 2016 as a presentation by Bill Stahler (volunteer historian/researcher of the Foundation) to 175 ANCC members on the history of the development and changes in the Arlington Golf Course.
History of the Arlington Golf Course Presentation
Scholarships
On June 7th John Reardon, one of the Foundation volunteers that spearheaded the scholarship initiative, awarded the first $1000 scholarship to Ms. Kinza Mahmoud, a senior at Fairfax High School, for her essay about how Admiral Grace Hopper inspired her. Ms. Mahmoud will be attending the University of Maryland in College Park.
The essay topic was: “The Army Navy County Club’s members reflect service to their fellow citizens and our country—a commitment nurtured by the communities where they attended high school. Who from Northern Virginia displayed extraordinary service to others, while in the U.S. Armed Forces, either in the past or the present, and inspires you towards service to others? Why? How do you intend to follow that inspiration?”
Eisenhower Club Acceptance
Army Navy Country Club Foundation Eisenhower Golf Clubs Dedication Video on May 12th 2015
On May 12, 2015, the Army Navy Country Club Foundation placed an original set of President Eisenhower’s golf clubs on permanent display in the Eisenhower Lounge of the Arlington Clubhouse. On September 19, 1927, Major Eisenhower became a Founding Member of the Club. With the exception of his eight years as President, General Eisenhower was a lifelong member of ANCC. The original set of clubs was donated by ANCC Golf Pro emeritus, Steve Tobash.
ANCC Foundation President Kent Maxfield began the event by thanking the Club’s Chairman, John Tuck and President, Admiral Jay Foley and the ANCC Board of Governors for their support of this project and their overall commitment to the Foundation. Mr. Maxfield also introduced and thanked Steve Tobash for his most generous donation of the clubs, and the event’s guest of honor, General Eisenhower’s granddaughter, Susan. He then introduced Captain Jerry Burke, the Foundation’s Vice President and the event’s organizer.
Captain Burke provided a brief biography of one of the club’s most distinguished members, General Eisenhower, from his commissioning at West Point in 1915 through his presidency. Captain Burke noted that, after his wartime service, golf became General Eisenhower’s passion. In putting his remarks together, Captain Burke found an April, 1957, letter from President Eisenhower to the Club’s President thanking the club’s greens keepers for repairing the putting green on the White House lawn. In his note, the President said: “…….the putting green here on the White House lawn is already in such excellent condition…” Due to his passion for golf and his close friendship with Arnold Palmer, himself an Honorary Member of ANCC, during Ike’s tenure as President the number of golfers in the country doubled to more than six million.
Captain Burke then introduced ANCC Golf Professional Emeritus Steve Tobash. Steve has been a member of the Professional Golfers Association since 1954, and part of ANCC since 1960. Steve gave a brief history of his service as the golf professional at Fort Meade, how he was given the president’s golf clubs, and his personal involvement with ANCC as it grew to the family friendly club it is today.
Steve and the Foundation’s Honored Guest, Susan Eisenhower, were then invited to pull the curtain revealing the club display. The walnut display case features not only the clubs, but also pictures of General Eisenhower, original correspondence between the General and the Club after his Presidency, and a brief chronology of Ike’s membership and his commitment to golf.
Susan Eisenhower is General Eisenhower’s granddaughter and the daughter of Ike’ son, General John Eisenhower. In her youth, she was herself a junior member of ANCC. Susan shared a number of insights into Ike’s warm and caring personality.
The permanent display of General Eisenhower’s golf clubs will provide members and their guests insight into the life of one of Army Navy Country Club’s most distinguished members and his commitment to golf.
THE ROBERT TRENT JONES SOCIETY RECOGNIZES THE ANCC FAIRFAX COURSE
Recently, the Robert Trent Jones Society’s web-site was updated to include the ANCC Fairfax Golf Course on its “List of Courses” with the annotation “Routing Only.” This change and ANCC’s petition for RTJ Society recognition was approved at the Society’s November 2014 annual meeting after considerable ANCC related research and effort as described below.
A little over a year ago as part of an ANCC Foundation project, ANCC member Bill Stahler began researching the architectural history of the ANCC golf courses. Though it has been widely acknowledged within the club for years that Robert Trent Jones, Sr. was responsible for the original layout of our Fairfax course, it quickly became apparent to Bill that the RTJ pedigree was not well recognized outside of the club. ANCC’s copy of the “Fairfax Country Club Estates General Plan” (the course was known as Fairfax Country Club until ANCC acquired the property in 1958) clearly shows that Robert Trent Jones, Sr. was the architect. Further evidence of this fact is provided in an account of an interview with John S. Connolly, the developer of Fairfax Country Club, as reported in the “Army Navy Country Club 1924-1989 Historical Review”. However, “Architects of Golf”, a widely respected reference work by Ron Whitten and Geoffrey Cornish (incorrectly) lists Herbert Strong as the architect. In addition, ANCC Fairfax was not included on the Robert Trent Jones Society web-site’s list of RTJ designed courses. Recognizing that correcting the “Architects of Golf” is not feasible as it has been out of print for 22 years, Bill set out to gain recognition from the RTJ Society.
Stahler’s inquiries to the RTJ Society brought him in contact with Roger Rulewich, who started working for RTJ in 1961 and is the Society’s “keeper of the list.” According to Roger, RTJ believed “field work” was an essential element of golf course design and, therefore, generally did not consider a course to be his unless it was constructed by one of his companies – apparently Fairfax was not. In discussing the matter with Keith Beaver, our Head Pro at Fairfax, Stahler learned of a conversation between Keith and long-time Fairfax greens keeper Charlie Mock who worked for John Connolly. It seems that Connolly, who in addition to being the developer of Fairfax Country Club, was the greens keeper at ANCC Arlington from 1932 to 1936. Connolly constructed the course himself from RTJ’s drawings, opening one nine in 1940 and the second in 1946.
As stated above, sound research and persistence has paid off with ANCCs Fairfax course now officially being listed by the Society as one of RTJ’s designs. To view the course list, go to roberttrentjonessociety.com/courses/course-list, click on “Download Complete Course List” and look under 1940.
The club owes a debt of thanks to the ANCC Foundation and, more particularly, to Bill Stahler for this, the first of many efforts directed at researching, understanding and publicizing key elements of the legacy and history of the ANCC and its members.
Cylke Prints Accepted
On May 14th 2014, ANCC Member Mr. Steven Cylke along with his wife Georgia presented a collection of Civil War prints to the ANCC Foundation. Mr. Kent Maxfield, the Foundation’s President, accepted this first major gift presented to the Foundation. These prints depict a variety of imprtant Civil War scenes, assembled by Steven’s father, Mr. Charles Wilbur Cylke, an American and Civil War history enthusiast.