Orchard Ridge Country Club

Founded 1924 — 4531 Lower Huntington Road

Founding: Orchard Ridge was the second country club, built for the automobile age on the city's southwest side. The club's own history states the founding plainly: organized in 1924, and in 1925 the club leased 115 acres of rolling ground on Lower Huntington Road, where the course and clubhouse still stand. The first course was nine holes, opened in 1925; by 1929 it was a full eighteen, designed by Frank MacDonald — the History Center's exhibit record spells the architect's name McDonald. Clay tennis courts followed in 1936, replaced by the present courts in 1975; Arthur Hills redesigned the course in 1990, and the clubhouse was completely redesigned in 1994, with a further redesign the club dates to 2021. (Online course databases that credit the course to a "Charles Maddox" and date it 1979 contradict the club's own history on both points and are not followed here.)

The tournament years: Orchard Ridge's ground carries two genuine firsts in American professional golf. The Fort Wayne Open, a PGA Tour event sponsored by the Jaycees, began at Orchard Ridge in 1950 — Lloyd Mangrum won it at 271, thirteen under par, for a $2,600 first prize — before moving for its remaining six years to the Elks' course described above. And in 1955 Orchard Ridge hosted the first LPGA Championship ever played, won by Beverly Hanson; the year before, it had hosted the LPGA's one-year Fort Wayne Open, won by Marilynn Smith. For a few seasons in the 1950s, in other words, championship golf in Fort Wayne belonged as much to the second country club and the Elks as to the first — a standing reminder that the club map and the golf map were never quite the same map.

Sources:

1. Orchard Ridge Country Club, "About Us — History" (orchardridgecc.com), as also carried by the Indiana Golf Association — founded 1924; the 1925 lease of 115 acres; nine holes in 1925, eighteen by 1929 under Frank MacDonald; the 1990 Arthur Hills redesign; tennis courts 1936 and 1975; the first LPGA Championship, 1955.
2. The History Center, virtual exhibit record (fwhistorycenter.org) — Orchard Ridge founded 1924, nine holes 1925, eighteen by 1929, the architect's name spelled McDonald.
3. Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana, 1950–1959 timeline of Allen County, from the News-Sentinel archives — the 1950 Fort Wayne Open at Orchard Ridge, Mangrum's 271 and $2,600; the tournament's six following years at the Elks Country Club.
4. Fort Wayne Open (PGA Tour event), tournament record — played 1950 at Orchard Ridge, 1951–1956 at the Fort Wayne Elks Lodge No. 155 course; Arnold Palmer's first professional paycheck, $145, earned there in 1955.
5. Fort Wayne Open (LPGA Tour), tournament record — the LPGA event played at Orchard Ridge in 1954, won by Marilynn Smith.