Brandywine Country Club

Within less than a month of VJ Day, the first meeting of the board of governors of Brandywine Country Club was held. The date was September 10, 1945, and the place was the Wilmington YMHA, at 5th and French Streets. The board was an unusually large body, 30—ten to serve for one year, ten for two years, and the third group of ten for three years. A lottery determined length of term. Drawn to serve for one year were Saul L. Cohen, S. Samuel Arsht, Barney Cantor, Max Keil, Harry Kaufman, John Mittelman, Milton Kutz, Sol Zailea, Ben Shindler, and Meyer Pressman. The two-year group consisted of David Braunstein, Dr. M. Greenstein, Joseph Handler, Harry Jacobs, Michael Hendler, Joseph Lazarus, Morris Leibowitz, H. Albert Young, Harry Cohen, and Theodore Tuckerman. Board members to serve three years were Robert Bell, John Kane, Dr. Joseph M. Barsky, Dr. Charles Levy, Nathan Miller, Aaron Finger, Maurice Swimmer, J. Margolis, Joseph Lipsky, and William Feinberg. The size and structure of the board was prompted by three important considerations: representation of a broad cross-section of the membership, continuity of management, and a regular infusion of fresh thinking.

Dr. Joseph M. Barsky was elected president. Nathan Miller was chosen as 1st vice president. An 11-man executive committee, made up exclusively of board members, was also named.

Bernard Isaacson, one of the founding members, was selected to fill the post of financial and recording secretary, and the board voted to compensate him for his considerable efforts by exempting him from paying dues. Mr. Isaacson also agreed to permit his office. Room 312 in the Equitable Building, to serve as the temporary headquarters of the fledgling club.

At a board meeting in February, 1946, it was decided to issue bonds to those members who paid the full subscription of $1,000. Very shortly thereafter the club acquired a 160-acre farm on Route 202, not far south of the U.S. 1 intersection. A three-bedroom farmhouse was earmarked for the clubhouse.

One month later the building committee submitted its estimate of the costs attendant to developing the Brandywine Country Club:

It was in June of 1946 that English-born Alfred H. Tull was retained to design the golf course. In the late 1930s he had laid out both the Nemours Course for DuPont Country Club and the Hercules Country Club eighteen. The ground-breaking ceremony was held on June 16, 1946. Roughly one year later, the course opened for play, by which time there were 176 members. The club’s first greens superintendent was Angelo DeLitta, who remained in the post until his retirement in 1980.

Running the golf shop at the outset was William E. "Wild Bill" Melhorn, one of the more vivid members of the touring professional troop during the 1920s. Melhorn finished fifth or better in the U.S. Open five times, was chosen for the inaugural Ryder Cup Match (1927), and between 1921 and 1929 won 16 tournaments. The club agreed to pay him an annual salary of $3,000 and to give him and his wife a 10 percent discount on club food but no discount on alcoholic beverages.

Melhorn remained on the job for less than two years, to be succeeded by Eddie Bush. Then came Jack Futerer, Carmen Steppo, John Suvie, and, currently, George McNamara.