Presentation of the Seagram Gold Cup to Walter Hagen, captain of the American team at the 1935 General Brock Open.
Club House, Lookout Golf Course, near Welland and Fonthill, Ontario. Photo circa 1930.
A new clubhouse for Lookout Point
In 1927 a new clubhouse was proposed to be built to replace the farmhouse that had been used as the clubhouse. Construction began a year later and this magnificent tudor-style clubhouse was completed in 1929. The course was appropriately rerouted with #1 tee moving from the #7 area near the original clubhouse, to its rightful place, at the top of the Niagara Region, with panoramic views from Lake Ontario in the north, to the Falls of Niagara in the east, and Lake Erie in the south, with farmlands dotting the landscape everywhere in between.
“The clubhouse is to be located on the highest point, where a splendid view can be had of Lakes Erie and Ontario. At present, the old farm house on the property has been used as a clubhouse. It is comfortably fitted up, but is outgrowing the requirements of the members and the many Buffalo and other visitors who every season play over this wonderfully fine course which provides one of the hardest tests of good golf in Canada.”
Walter Hagen tees off on number 3 at the General Brock Open, 1935.
The General Brock Open at Lookout Point 1935-1937
Golf immortals of the 30s flocked to Lookout Point for the General Brock Open, then one of the original stops on the fledgling US PGA of America pro tour. The tournament was played at Lookout Point in 1935, 1936, 1937 and was sponsored by the General Brock Hotel in Niagara Falls.
The best professional & amateur golfers from Canada, the United States and a group of touring pros from Japan played in this event. The high-profile field included US and Canadian amateur champions, Masters, Canadian Open, British Open, U.S. Open & PGA champions. Jimmy DeMerritt, Byron Nelson, Walter Hagen, Ben Hogan, Lloyd Mangrum and Jules Huot, the only Canadian ever to win the event, were all among the greats of the game that made the tour stop at Lookout. The immortal “Hague” once commented on Lookout: “You have to be a mountain goat to play this course.”
1935 - Champion - Tony Manero, 2nd Byron Nelson, Bud Donovan
1936 - Champion - Craig Woods with a course record of 68
1937 - Jules Huot, Royal Quebec Golf Club, course record 66
Ben Hogan finished second and won $125 so he collected $150 total at the 1937 Brock Open
Long Drive Competition in 1937 won by Jimmy Thompson
Stanley Horne 1912-1995
Canadian Golfer Magazine - mid 1930’s
Stanley Horne - from caddy at Lookout Point at age 9 to Canada’s Top Professional from 1937-1940
Stan Horne, considered one of Canada’s first homebred professional golf stars during the 1930’s and 40’s, was regarded as a pioneer of the game. Born in England in 1912, Horne’s family moved to Fonthill when he was just 6 months old. His father was greenkeeper at Lookout Point Golf Club where his auspicious career began as a caddy at age 9 when the club opened.
Horne won his first amateur title at 12 years-old capturing the Ontario Junior Boys championship. Three years later, he won his first club championship at Lookout Point and in 1929, he started his professional career tallying up a long list of triumphs.
Horne apprenticed under Fonthill’s renowned golf teacher Art Keeling and became Assistant Pro at age 18. At age 23, then Assistant Pro at Lookout, he was one of 225 golfers to participate in the 1935 General Brock Open. Weighing only 135 pounds and 5’6” tall.
Highlights of his career include winning three successive Canadian Professional Golf Association Championships (1936, 1937 and 1938) and finishing as runner-up in 1939 and 1941. He was ranked as Canada’s top professional from 1937 through 1940. From 1936-1938, Horne became the playing professional at Ottawa Hunt Club, then to Islemere Golf Club in Montreal for 29 years. He then fulfilled a dream of co-designing and supervising the building of the Nun’s Island Golf Course in Montreal.
The Ontario Ladies' Championships 1932
Miss Honor Bright, Lookout Point Country Club, Fonthill, Wins Interesting Final from Miss Winnifred Robinson, St. Catharines.
For the first time in the rather long history of the Ontario Ladies' Championship the champion will not be found in Toronto and Hamilton generally Toronto. At the really beautiful course of the Ladies' Golf Club, Toronto, Miss Honor Bright, of Niagara Falls (Fonthill), and Miss Winnifred Robinson, of St. Catharines, clashed in the finals. The two young players from the "Garden of Ontario" by sterling golf throughout the week had well earned the right to fight it out for the championship. Especially in the semi-finals had they risen to quite great heights. Miss Bright showed both skill and nerve to defeat the many times champion, Miss Ada Mackenzie, of Toronto. All square at the 18th, Miss Bright got a par 3 at the 18th and won an intensely interesting match. In the final Miss Bright had the edge on the young St. Catharines player throughout and won quite handily, 4 and 3. Especially a popular one as she is shortly to be married and the Ontario Championship will be more or less of "a golfing wedding gift" from Ontario.
All the leading ladies of the Province competed in the Championship which was faultlessly conducted by the Ontario Branch of the C.L.G.U.
Miss Honor Bright, a dashing young player from Lookout Point Country Club, Fonthill, who won the Ontario Ladies Championship.
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