Source: Tribune-Review (Greensburg, Pa.)
Hogan, Snead, Palmer and Steve Regrut?
Regrut, of North Huntingdon, has golfed many a round at Lincoln Hills Country Club, a popular golf course that once attracted Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and other leading professional golfers.
"I'm 92 and I still shoot in the 80s," he said Wednesday after news broke that the club will be sold to a developer who plans to convert it to a residential housing plan.
"We're going to miss that, boy," said Regrut, a former bartender at the club, located near the turnpike interchange in North Huntingdon. One of the perks of working at Lincoln Hills was free golf.
Regrut and his four brothers often played there. "We were OK golfers, but one of my brothers was a 6 handicap," he said.
Regrut was exposed to golf at an early age. He caddied at the Edgewood Country Club in 1926, '27, and '28.
"I got 60 cents a round. That included a 10-cent tip. Them days were tough," he said.
Word that the course had been sold to developer Robert Shuster caused a number of golfers to wax nostalgic about Lincoln Hills, or Baldoc Hills, as it once was called.
Not all of the "celebrity" of Lincoln Hills was found on its greens. Frank Ruta, who began working at Lincoln Hills after graduating from culinary school, became the head White House chef during the Carter administration and now owns a restaurant in Washington, D.C.
There has been talk off and on about selling Lincoln Hills to a variety of buyers over the years. A plan to convert the course into a Southpointe-type development fell through in the mid-to-late '90s.
James Aiello of JRA Development Group Inc. in Pittsburgh had proposed a 10-year project that would have created 3,500 to 4,000 retail and office jobs. The retail/commercial development would have had a residential development attached.
Shuster reportedly plans to build residential housing on the property. He could not be reached for comment.
"There's no information that we can give you," said a woman who answered the phone at his RWS Development Corp. office in North Huntingdon.
The golf course abuts a 57-acre parcel that will house the proposed Mills Pointe Shopping Plaza. That development, currently under appeal in Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court, will bring a Wal-Mart supercenter and other businesses to the property located along Route 30 and Barnes Lake Road.
The closing of Lincoln Hills will boost the economies of other golf courses that have weathered a nationwide dry spell, said Colleen Adams, president and general manager of Carradam Golf Club.
"We would be glad to have any of their business," she said. It's been a rough five years for the golf course industry.
Adams attributes the drop in golfers to declining national incomes and the state of the economy. People retiring at the age of 55 are spending much of their otherwise disposable income on health insurance, and young families with big houses have other priorities.
Still, the golf course industry in Pennsylvania generates more than $2.9 billion a year in income, said Adams, a member of the National Golf Course Owners Association.
Adams said while "anything is for sale at the right price," there are no plans to sell Carradam, despite the rumors.
"Bob Shuster has not approached us," she said.
Professional golfers like Snead, Hogan, Dr. Cary Middlecoff and others played Lincoln Hills, which was known then as Baldoc Hills. Another visitor was former Olympian and later film star Johnny Weismueller, who played Tarzan in the movies.
Developed in 1939 on 184 acres, the course has hosted outings by the Pittsburgh Pirates and entertainer/singer Julius LaRosa.
Daredevil Evil Knievel liked to play there, Regrut said.
At one time, it was strictly a Jewish country club. Former owner Greg Liprando, who died in April, was the only non-Jewish member. Members of the Liprando family could not be reached for comment.
While no plans have been submitted to the township, planning director Allen Cohen said Shuster may seek a change in the property's zoning classification to allow multi-family housing as well as single-family homes.
Cohen estimated as many as 400-500 homes could be built on the property.
Play will be allowed at Lincoln Hills through Dec. 31.
