PHOTOS: While there are no statistics citing how many first responders play golf, firefighters in hundreds of departments, organizations and charity events across the nation often flock to the course. With flexible 24-hour work schedules, they can play more often than almost anyone.
Some even fashion their own work area at stations to make golf clubs. Hoping for uneventful shifts as they report for duty between 7 and 8 a.m., they’re also preparing for the worst, confirming everything is in working order: trucks with proper fuel and water levels, safety equipment, hoses, medical supplies, personal gear and more.
They must be ready at a moment’s notice. One of those moments came on Feb. 17, 2022, on what dawned as a foggy and mild Michigan winter morning. Little did the golfing members of one Detroit area fire department know they were about to make golf history … by saving golf history.
Looking forward to a day off after a rough week, Oakland County’s Bloomfield Township fire chief John LeRoy normally hears alerts coming in 24/7. The one from 3951 Maple Road was especially troubling when the kitchen staff in the clubhouse at the legendary Oakland Hills Country Club smelled smoke.
At 9:17 a.m.—which sounds more like a tee time—the first call rang in and as the radio calls intensified, the chief rushed to the scene. “We get smoke calls all the time,” LeRoy says. “You can often tell by specific odors whether it’s electrical or something else and then discover its source; but the smell and location of this one was hard for anyone to define.”
The elegant 100-year-old wooden clubhouse was designed by Charles Howard Crane, an OHCC member and famous Detroit architect whose credits included the Fox Theatre, Detroit Opera House and the original Olympia Stadium, opened in 1922.
Extensive renovations had been made since 1968, including a major project in 1999, adding numerous club amenities and a memory-laden galleria along the second-floor hallway with more than 200 pictures of the early clubhouse, grounds, and tournaments past. Oakland Hills has hosted six U.S. Opens, three PGA Championships and a Ryder Cup.
Sports Illustrated
The post As a 2022 fire destroyed a clubhouse in Michigan, firefighters rushed to save golf history appeared first on Daily Dispatch.