Golf Course Information

Description

As Durand Brown recorded in the original
History of Stonycroft Hills
Club,
the land on which Stonycroft stands has a long and interesting
history.
For a number of years, stone arrowheads
and hatchets were
found on what was believed to be a path used by Chief Pontiac and his
men as they camped along a fork of the Rouge River in the area that is
now the club.
Legend also holds that a well on the property, capped
after it was owned by Stonyc
roft, was the only one in Oakland Co
unty
not poisoned by the chief.
During the mid
-
1800s prominent Detroit businessmen bought farmland
in what is now Bloomfield Hills, one Mr. Charles Stinchfield among
them.
In the early 1920s advertising executive Theodo
re MacManus
bought the farmhouse, ice house, smoke house, several tenet houses
and two barns that comprised the 72
-
acre farm from the Stinchfields
and named it Stonycroft.
Stony
, we can only assume, because of the
unusually stony composition of the soil (
including everything from
pebbles to large fieldstones) and
croft,
the British/Scottish word
meaning small farm.
Mr. MacManus son Ted later shared with a member of Stonycroft Hills
Club how his father made use of some of the farmland.
The elder
MacMan
us, having a desire to play golf but too shy to do so in public,
decided to construct his own personal course. It can be noted here Mr.
MacManus was a right
-
handed man, dispelling the commonly held idea
that the course was designed for left
-
handed golfers.
Clearing the land for this project was no small feat, as the smallest
stones had to be removed by hand

a job eagerly accepted during
those years of the Great Depression by men who were willing to do the
back
-
breaking task for meager wages. Many of the l
ands large
fieldstones were used for fencing along the roadways of the farm.
Mr. MacManus later donated the land on which an old barn stood for
the purpose of erecting a church which was named in memory of his
son, Hugo, who died at a young age.
Don and
Inez D'Onofrio purchased the 40+ acre golf course in the early
1930s and operated it as semi
-
private Stonycroft Golf Club until 1960.
In late summer of that year, as the golf season was coming to a close,
Don casually mentioned to member Ross Howard that
he and Inez
planned to put the course up for sale.
Ross, taken by surprise,
immediately spread the news among friends with whom he had long
played golf at the club, and the group began meeting to discuss ways
in which they could raise the $10,000 down pay
ment required by the
D'Onofrios.
Attorney John Mundell advised that they call a special meeting of the
general membership, form a corporation and elect a Board of Directors,
which they did. Board members Ross Howard, Stanley Morden, James
W. Harris, Grah
am Smith, Stanley Pratt, Everett Barber, Maurice
Simpson, Ray Wulff and John Mundell met for the first time on
September 29, 1960, elected Ross Howard as president and created
2
S
TONYCROFT
H
ILLS
C
LUB
H
ISTORY
ROSTER
CALENDARS
EVENTS
RULES
BYLAWS
HISTORY
the articles of incorporation. Stonycroft Hills Club was officially founded
Octo
ber
10,
1960.
Time
-
consuming
,
and difficult
,
best describes the Boards first year.
After months of meetings and much discussion, the Board decided to
offer the D'Onoffrios a lease/purchase proposal, the terms of which, as
recorded in the original
History
of Stonycroft Hills Club
, were "a five
-
year lease at $22,500 per year with option to purchase for $310
,
000,
with $50,000 down and monthly payments extending for 15 years at
3% interest per annum on the unpaid balance." The offer was formally
accepted on De
cember 31, 1961.
While the Board busied itself that winter with club business and
operation, sometimes requiring two or more meetings weekly, members
enjoyed the social opportunities available to them: ice skating on the
pond, cross
-
country skiing on the
golf course and, on Friday evenings,
bowling at Birmingham Bowl after which it was not unusual for the
group to end the evening socializing and playing cards at the
clubhouse.
With spring came Munch and Punch, an Entertainment Committee
event that made hi
story as it became the traditional signal of the official
opening of the club. The Spring Warm
-
up Scramble was the first golf
event of the season followed by organized golf for both men and
women beginning the first week of May. Social activities were a v
ital
part of life at Stony, loaded with cook
-
outs, costume parties, style
shows, luaus and even an old
-
fashioned box social. Golf season ended
with the Harvest Tournament in October. A dinner dance at a local
country club in November was the highlight of t
he social season, in
future years becoming known as the Presidents' Ball, honoring the
outgoing and welcoming the incoming president of Stonycroft.
Several years passed, and payment of annual dues

$180 for singles
and $300 per family

was inconsistent.
Many supporters of the
original lease/purchase agreement left the club as the time to exercise
the purchase drew near. This, along with the fact that the $400 initiation
fee from the 220 planned for members had not yet been achieved,
caused concern for th
e Board members.
In spite of this, the land
contract for the clubs purchase was signed on January 3, 1964, with
membership certificates being mailed to the 167 accepted members on
January
25,
1964.
William Kennedy served as club pro of Stonycroft from 19
62 to 1965, at
which time Gerry Prieskorn came on board.
Gerry initiated a Junior
Golf Program for children of members.
By 1969, 55 youngsters were
enrolled. The program was a launching pad for children of each gender
who competed and did well in state j
unior golf tournaments.
Later,
several of them competed in and won the Stonycroft Hills Club
Championship as teenagers.
Harold Fiebelkorn replaced Fred Meinberg as greens superintendent in
1966.
Harold also had mechanical skills and was able to repair m
uch
of the used equipment that had been purchased from the D'Onofrios,

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