Local Club Archives - Larrimac Golf & Tennis Club

From Pasture To Fairway 1924-1937

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To the present members I would say:

“Enjoy to the full the blessing of that little golf course which is yours, in that lovely setting of the old Gatineau, and once in a while give a kindly thought to the old timers who made it possible”

Larry McGooey, Co-Founder

The Larrimac story seems to me an encouraging record of unselfish cooperation in developing a golf course that later generations could enjoy.

James McCook.

Excerpts from Larry McCooey's Letter to J.M.Manson, January, 1963.

As a sort of prologue to the history of Larrimac, I believe it would be of no little interest to describe, as well as I can remember, the Gatineau as I first saw it some forty years ago.

To go “up the Gatineau" in those Model T days one had the choice of a very rough motoring journey on a gravelly stoney road which began at the junction of Hull and Wrightville, or to make the journey by train, considered much the preferred way then and for some years afterward.

The Gatineau seemed more beautiful in those days, and regarded as most fortunate were the comparative few, mostly civil servants, who had discovered this treasure existing but a few miles from Ottawa. They brought in most of their foodstuffs and other items from Ottawa, pumped and carried their water, often a good distance, and happily put up with the inconvenience of outdoor plumbing, but mostly they enjoyed to the full the utter tranquility and beauty of those summer days and nights of the early 1920's.

Larrimac, or Lacharite, as it was known in those days, was a CPR flagstop. Although mispelled, the name Lacharite was derived from that of a family of old-time settlers by the name of Lacharity, and the last of that family to own the surrounding acres was Owen, a bachelor farmer about fifty when I first met him. The land which is now the golf course, and the many acres flooded in 1926 were Owen's and he loved every inch of this land which his father and grandfather before him had cleared. The farm buildings comprised the old homestead, then over 100 years old, three large barns, and a dwelling of box-like construction, plain but very practical. Very happy was Owen with his lot, but in the Gatineau Power Company expropriations stampede, about 1924-25 poor Owen sold out his birthright for $6000 and settled in Ottawa. I met Owen one bitter winter afternoon in the early 1930's on Laurier Avenue Bridge. He was carrying a snow shovel on one shoulder, and with a wry smile he told me that he had to shovel snow for a living for very little of the $6000 was left due to bad investments. He was knocked down by a car and killed a few months later.

I visited Lacharite (Larrimac) for the first time on my return from overseas in 1919. There were about four cottages in the area, three of which were for rent and one owned and lived in by my first wife’ s mother, and subsequently by the Hazelgroves. I was married in 1921, and in June 1922 took up summer residence in the little cottage built for me on the hilltop. This I latterly sold to the Chowne. Built a few months later was the old Anson Green Cottage, originally owned by the Norman Allens.

I discovered the wonderful rolling pasture land of Owen Lachearity late in the summer of 1922. It so reminded me of certain features of a U.K. course on which I had played as a small lad that I resolved then and there to lay out a "course" for my own pleasure in the following year. It could be truthfully said that the first golf ball ever hit over the present site was in May, 1923.

I think it was in early July, 1924, that three people came over the hill from Kirk's Ferry direction and surprised me while I was happily swatting balls around my little course. They were Phil and Eta Sherrin and Bunty Carver. It was my first meeting with these very wonderful people, and now, locking back, it seems that this meeting just had to be, for because of it Larrimac was born, and born with that utterly mad enthusiasm that only golfers know.

I am afraid that there exists no record of "Board" meetings in those days, or of brilliantly executed plans for development. But soon were mustered about a dozen or so interested and fun-loving cottage residents in the general area of Kirk's Ferry and Lacharite, and it was decreed that a small club of sorts should be established ans called Larrimac after the founder. The membership fee should be $5.00, Owen Lacharity should be paid $10.00 a year rental for the use of his land, all suitable mechanical equipment owned by members should be made use of for initial greenskeeping, poles and flags should be made up and score cards printed which were to show by map the tees and holes laid out by the founder.

Before the summer of 1924 had ended the little club had become firmly eatablichea. Much hard work had been done, especially by the four charter members: the founder Larry McCooey, Phil Sherrin, Harry Periera, and Arthur Elias. Owen lacherity's sheep helped considerably in cutting the "fairways". There was of course no clubhouse, but this can be said, that there was no happier group anywhere than these oldtimers who, with golfing equipment mostly relic of the 1900's bashed golf balls over the old Larrimac.

Early in 1926 was the expropriation of Owen Lacharity's farm and pasture lands by the Gatineau Power Co. Arrangements were made between the club and the company for the continued rental of the land for golf purposes. From the Company was obtained the expropriated cottage of the Lambe family. This, when moved, became the first clubhouse and the scene of many happy times. With about thirty-five or forty members at this time the added finances permitted the acquisition of a horse drawn mower for the fairways and the employment of Gordon Wilson as greenskeeper.

Among the other things decided upon for 1925 was the laying out of an experimental 18-hole course! That the actual golfing area was only enough to meet the needs of a few holes didn't matter. So it was that, in the early summer of 1925, larrimac had an 18 hole course!!! It was completely daffy, like the founder who conceived it. It went over rocks and through trees, with the 18th tee on the site of the old Minnes cottage, and the 18th green on the site of the old Deruchie cottage. One had to be balmy to play the course, but it was fun while it lasted. Very soon the old course of nine holes was reverted to.

Club competitions were initiated for the first time in 1925 and the first Club Championship held. I have in my possession the Club Championship "Trophy" of 1925, a little silver cup the size of an egg cup, the very first trophy, and, at that time, all our meagre funds would permit buying. I hope to have certain repairs made to it, and, if acceptable to the club I will send it along for the Club "Museum".

In a pre-season meeting in 1927 Larrimac got organized for the first time on something approaching an official basis. An ol original and much loved member, Fred Burpee, was elected president, other officials elected and committees formed. The feeling was that Larrimac was on the way. Additional land and a much lengthened course was taken into play for the first time. This was before the development of the holes across the highway. They came into being eight years later bringing into play the complete course as it stands now.

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On August 23, 1970, Larry MeCooey, 73, the founder of the Larrimac Golf Club, named in his honour, visited the club and went around 18 holes in 79 without any evidence of fatigue. A colonel in the second world war, McCoooey said he started visiting the Gatineau area just after the first world war.

Gordon Wilson, who died in June, 1961, was the counsellor and friend of cottagers in the Kirk's Ferry area, and a guiding figure in the development and preservation of the Larrimac Golf Course. He was a builder and craftsman who could make do with very little equipment, and he transmitted to the summer residents some of his affection for the community he knew so well, its people, its soil, and its story. In the days of "operation on a shoestring" the club was happy to have Mr. Wilson use two horses for club work in the summer and for anything he wanted in the winter. When one of the horses died Mr. Wilson insisted that it was his horse and not the club's horse that had expired.

Players were charmed, along with cottagers, when a farmer across the river went on periodic bouts and played a mouthorgan and sang melodiously all day within easy earshot of the club members as they played.

The Gatineau River in those days was shallow and rocky. One year, during a very dry spell, people could cross the river on foot near Lacharity's, stepping from rock to rock.

Since the only road was down by the river, the course was able to extend much further to the west. Probabbly the 5th tee was on the other side of the present # 11 highway.

The Second Larrimac Course 1928----1937

The expropriated Lambe Cottage was obtained from the Gatineau Power Company, moved to a position near the present 5th tee, and established as the clubhouse.

When the new clubhouse was finished in the fall of 1948 the Labour Day prizegiving was held outside, while the ladies prepared refreshments inside. The following year the course was renumbered to start at the clubhouse, as it does now in 1974. Entertainments were planned for each Saturday night through July and August, and ... ?

Larrimac junior division was formed in 1937
under the leadership of Mrs. John E. Read.