Lake Garfield Country Club
1927 to 1941 by Linda Thorpe

An interesting, but short-lived period in the history of Monterey from 1927 to 1941 was that of the Lake Garfield Country Club. The Club’s founding family names included Diefendorfer, Eaton, Wing, Taggart, Whitestone, Groehl, and of course, Tryon. Wallace Tryon had a hand in turning a rough landscape layout into a playable nine holes and was the only year-round member.

The club was one hundred-plus acres spanning the area down Main Road east on Route 23 and up Tyringham Road. Throughout the 1930s it was a gathering place for not only golf but dances and other social events.

Barbara Tryon recently told me the story of how, as a child, she remembers getting in the family car and driving up from Sheffield on Sundays, and after a day of her father golfing, everyone would gather for a regular Sunday night hymn singalong. She said they would pass out little paper booklets with hymns and other songs for everyone, youth and adult alike to join in.

As a youth I can remember family friends, Dr. and Mrs. Robert C. Sellew Jr., speaking of how they would get all dressed up on a Saturday and drive up from North Canaan, Connecticut to attend Saturday night dances in the clubhouse. The doctor was a regular golfer here and his wife would join him on Sundays and have tea in the clubhouse with the ladies while the men were on the course. The doctor always said it was a very challenging course.

Amy Enoe worked at the clubhouse collecting golf fees and selling drinks and snacks. Bud Moulton was the groundskeeper, Bill Everitt mowed the greens, and Dick Danaher was the golf pro. The caddy shack was the former library in the center of town that was located on the edge of the bridge near the post office.

The clubhouse was on what is now 387 Main Road, the 3rd hole was on 427 Main Road, and the 6th hole was at 35 Tyringham Road. The locations for the tees and greens is approximate, based on peoples’ recollections. Please remember that at the time there was no Fox Hill Road. My information about the club and course was compiled after numerous conversations with two members of the community who remembered first hand when the Lake Garfield Country Club was a thriving and vital part of life in this town.

Trips to the Southern Berkshire Registry of Deeds to confirm the property boundaries indicate an original lease-and-purchase agreement for one hundred acres from several people along the Main Road and Tyringham Road in 1927. Another deed in 1930 for the 6th hole, and a final exchange of one acre for a place to install a water pump and tank near the Konkapot River for water for the greens.

Of interest in the original lease was that the owners reserved the use of the sugar maple orchard with the understanding that the persons operating the maple orchard shall not cross the fairways of the golf links. Also reserved was a right to keep a portable house of the former owners on the property until such time as it was sold and moved. This was a Sears and Roebuck house that was shortly sold and moved to Tyringham Road.

Dick Tryon knew the layout of the course well because he caddied there in his youth. He said that it was a very challenging course with the range of fairways anywhere up to 250 and 300 yards. The shortest, between holes 3 and 4 was about 150 yards. From the 5th to the 6th one had to shoot across the river, being careful to avoid a group of trees, walk down and cross a footbridge and go back up to the 6th green. Then tee off to shoot down to the 7th hole back across the river. From the 7th hole one had tee off and drive the ball uphill, then climb a steep flight of stairs to get to the 8th green. At that point the end was in sight with the 9th hole behind the clubhouse. And then you could do it all again to make an eighteen-hole game of it. This does not even begin to tell of all of the other numerous trees that one would encounter along the way. (There might be lost balls still in the woods that grew along the fairways.)

The stock market crash had reverberated throughout the country and the club held on, but with the coming of WWII, the club was no longer able to sustain itself and closed in 1941. A few years after closing, the clubhouse burned down.

I want to thank Dick Tryon and Raymond Tryon for all the help they gave me in recreating the course and map; Barbara Tryon for her reminiscences; and George Emmons for the opening paragraph.