Womens Golf Association of Western Pennsylvania

The 2014 WGAWP Championship will be contested at Valley Brook Country Club during the week of July 14 through July 18.  Current champion, Kristen Obush, is looking to defend her title and win her third chanpionship in four years.

A few changes will be implemented to the tournament format this season. The low sixteen scores from the Bobby Cruikshank Memorial Tournament will qualify for the Championship flight. Ties for the sixteenth position in the Championship flight will be determined by a match of cards (new)  Seeding in the Championship flight will, again, be based upon those qualifying scores.

The  number of flights, competitiors any byes in match play will be announced before Monday's qualifying round begins.  If the number of competitiors in the qualifying round exceeds the number of match play positions, players will be disqualified/eliminated based on their qualifying round scores.  Ties for elimination will be settled through a match of cards per the WGAWP tiebreak policy. (new)

Registration for the WGAWP Championship closes on July 2.

A little history on the beginnings of the Valley Brook Country Club:

The origin of Valley Brook Country Club started at the Mt. Lebanon Municipal Golf Course. Prior to World War II, a group of Mt. Lebanon residents who frequently played on the Municipal course formed a group called the “Mt. Lebanon Golf Club.” Note the name is Mt. Lebanon Golf Club and not Mt. Lebanon Country Club.

The Mt. Lebanon Golf Club organized golf events and parties at the Municipal course that was an 18-hole golf course prior to World War II. After WWII, when housing was scarce, the Mt. Lebanon Township Commissioners sold the back nine holes of the Municipal golf course to developers. That land is now part of the Sunset Hills residential section of Mt. Lebanon. The Mt. Lebanon Golf Club members were not satisfied to play on the Municipal course, which only had nine holes. Therefore, they searched the area and found the property on McMurray Road that is now Rolling Hills Country Club.

The Mt. Lebanon Golf Club members constructed an 18-hole golf course on the McMurray Road property shortly after World War II. They originally used the old farmhouse (which is situated where the present Rolling Hills clubhouse is located) as a temporary clubhouse. That old farmhouse was intended to be temporary because the members intended to build a new clubhouse on the property behind the present double tee that serves as the ninth and eighteenth tees; the main entrance road to the proposed new clubhouse would have come in from Center Church Road.

Mr. H.A.P. “Hap” Langstaff was the first President of othe Club and extremely instrumental in organizing the original group that purchased the McMurray Road property and constructed the original Mt. Lebanon Golf Club golf course. However, as time went by, the Mt. Lebanon Golf Club improved the old farmhouse and added several additions to it. Also, the swimming pool was constructed between the clubhouse and the Pro Shop.

In the early 1960’s the Mt. Lebanon Golf Club members decided it was time to build the new clubhouse on the area behind the ninth and eighteenth tees. Some members mentioned it would cost as much to build the new clubhouse behind those two tees as it would to build the new clubhouse at another location where the Club could construct a new 27-hole golf course.

The Club really needed 27 holes because play at Mt. Lebanon Golf Course was very heavy. In the early 1960’s a committee was formed for the purpose of finding a suitable site for the new clubhouse and a 27-hole golf course. One of our long time members, The present land was put together from two farms and a piece of land that was owned by the Consolidation Coal Company.

That land was acquired by the Club and construction of the new 27-hole golf course and clubhouse was started in 1966 and completed in the spring of 1968. During the course of construction the Club asked the members to submit names for the new Club. The Club selected the name Valley Brook Country Club and abandoned the name Mt. Lebanon Golf Club.