The Rock & Roll Fifties

The fifties were the early years of the baby boom and of a new type of music called Rock & Roll.  Women’s golf in western PA also experienced a boom and "rocked".  The decade marked the beginnings of some WGAWP tournaments that are still being played today and the beginnings of course rating and a uniform handicapping system.

The fifties saw the dawning of the Tag Hill (1953), the Monroe (1959), the Barnes Cup (1954), the Seniors (1954), the Mary Kuhn Delegates (1956), the Lehman as a Better Ball of Partners (1958), and the Pat Hinkle/Ginny Lancaster Junior event (1957).  These tournaments or a derivative of them are still played today.

In addition, the organization started a President’s Trophy in 1956, a Vice President Trophy in 1957, a Class “C” Championship in 1954, and a Championship Mixed Foursome in 1953.  The President’s Trophy was a mixed event for low handicaps and the Vice President’s Trophy was a mixed event for higher handicaps.  None of these tournaments have survived. 

In the fifties several women’s national tournaments were held at WGAWP clubs.  Allegheny hosted the US Women’s Amateur in 1954.  Over 30 members of the WGAWP participated in the tournament.  Churchill Valley hosted the Women’s Professional Championship in 1957 and hosted a women's professional invitational tournament in 1956.

The fifties saw the introduction of our current handicapping system that has as a basis a course rating system.  The WGAWP adopted the new USGA system in 1954 and formed a Course Rating Committee.  The Committee rated four courses in 1955.  However, handicapping continued to be an issue for several years as clubs had to adopt the system and be rated.

In the fifties, the organization began imposing a handicap requirement for membership.  In the early 1950's, a handicap qualification was established as 30 if using scores from your home course and 35 if using scores from different courses.  In 1958 the qualification was reduced to 25 for your home course and 30 if using scores from different courses.  In 1959, the qualification was a handicap of 25 using scores from any USGA rated course.

The number of clubs participating in the organization remained steady throughout the decade with always around 40 clubs, though the makeup of the member clubs changed year-to-year.

To Read more about the WGAWP in the 1950's click the link below:

Clubs joining in the 1950's:

• Beaver Valley
• Green Oaks
• Grove City
• Ligonier

In today's dollars:

Mrs. Harton Semple (Phyllis) is an obvious choice for WGAWP Player of the 1950's decade.  But that doesn't mean she didn't have some stiff competition.  Phyllis dominated the Championship in the mid-fifties winning four of five years between 1954 and 1958.  In the early part of the decade, Jane Martin and Mrs. William Boggs continued to win championships and other tournaments.  At the end of the decade, a young lady, a 17 year old teenager, Diana Hoke, the granddaughter of Bobby Cruickshank (legendary Pro at Chartiers) defeated Phyllis for the Championship on Phyllis' home course, Allegheny. 

Here is a partial list of Phyllis' golf accomplishments in the 1950's:

• Semifinalist in 1953 Championship at South Hills
• Won championship in 1954 at Longue Vue
• Won Championship in 1955 at Edgewood
• Runner up in Championship in 1956 at Chartiers
• Won Championship in 1957 at Fox Chapel
• Won Championship in 1958 at Edgewood
• Runner Up in Championship in 1959 at Allegheny
• Won Lehman (Handicapped Match Play) in 1954

With this impressive resume in the 1950's, Phyllis Semple is the WGAWP Player of the decade.

• January 25, 1950 January heat records were shattered when the temperature went to 76.
• September 29, 1950 At a height of 550 feet, the U.S. Steel-Mellon Building is topped out in a flag-raising ceremony. Thirty-five feet shorter than the Gulf Building, it was the city's second-tallest skyscraper.
• November 24, 1950 Auto, bus, and trolley traffic was brought to a standstill by a 30.5-inch snowfall -- heaviest in the city’s history. Newspapers failed to publish; most stores were closed; schools were closed.
• April 16, 1951 Design of a giant lighted fountain, shooting a brilliant column of water 100 feet into the air, was approved by the Point Park committee as an appropriate decoration for the tip of Point Park.
• May 31, 1952 The new Greater Pittsburgh Airport  was dedicated, and more than 100,000 persons went to Moon Township over the holiday weekend to inspect the 1600-acre air terminal.
• January 15, 1953 Grading and seeding started at the Point Park in time for greenness in the spring.
• March 26, 1953 Dr. Jonas E. Salk, 38-year-old University of Pittsburgh researcher and professor, reported success of a new polio vaccine tried on 90 human beings; the vaccine was developed by him and his staff at Pitt.
• June 5, 1953 the Squirrel Hill Tunnel open, the most costly single project ever undertaken by the State Highways Department.
• November 23, 1953 A ceremony was held at Gateway Center to inscribe into history "November 23, 1753," as the date on which George Washington first envisioned the Point as a natural site. Pittsburgh thus memorialized its distinction of being "the only city in the United States to have had its location chosen by the first president."
• February 24, 1954 The attention of parents around the world was on Arsenal Elementary school in Lawrenceville, where Dr. Jonas E. Salk began his polio vaccine tests on a large-scale basis. In the gymnasium of that school 137 youngsters, first of 5000 Pittsburgh school volunteers, were given injections of the new serum.
• April 1, 1954 Station WQED, the world’s first community-sponsored educational noncommercial television station, went on the air.
• April 5, 1954, Fred Rogers aired his first show on WQED “The Childrens Corner” introducing Daniel Tiger, Lady Elaine Fairchilde and King Friday.
• August 28, 1954, Arnold Palmer wins the 1954 U.S. Amateur at the Country Club of Detroit, earning invitations to the following year’s Masters Tournament and U.S. Open.
• June 1955 Arnold Palmer wins his first professional career victory at the Canadian Open in his rookie season
• August 30, 1955 H. J. Heinz Company announced plans for immediate construction of one of the world’s most advanced food research centers at a cost of $3,000,000.
• October 18, 1955 Mellon Square Park -- the most spectacular in the city’s expanding park system -- formally became a possession of the citizens of Pittsburgh.
• May 8, 1956 United States Steel Corporation formally opened its newly built Research Center covering 142 acres in Monroeville.
• June 11, 1956 Hilton Hotels Corporation announced that it would build a hotel next to Point State Park.
• July 16, 1956 The last canvas tent performance of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows was given at Heidelberg Raceways, marking the end of an era of entertainment.
• July 25, 1957 Television City, Incorporated, was granted authority by the Federal Communications Commission to operate a Pittsburgh television station on Channel 4.
• August 28, 1957 Drilling began on the Fort Pitt Tunnels.
• September 1, 1957 Pittsburgh’s Channel 4, WIIC, began broadcasting as the nation’s newest and most powerful VHF television station.
• December 18, 1957 Westinghouse was awarded a Navy contract for nuclear power plant components for the world’s first atomic-powered aircraft carrier.
• April 6, 1958, Arnold Palmer wins his first Master Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club.
• July 1958, President Eisenhower meets Arnold Palmer for first time at Laurel Valley Golf Club.
• September 9, 1958 Chancellor Edward H. Litchfield of the University of Pittsburgh unveiled a huge long-range, multimillion-dollar campus development plan, which would require eviction of the Pittsburgh Pirates from Forbes Field.
• November 27, 1958 Thousands assembled in Point State Park, at the very spot where Fort Duquesne once stood, to begin the city’s bicentennial celebration. It was two hundred years before that the French abandoned Fort Duquesne (1758) and General Forbes’ army took possession of the area.
• November 28, 1958 Sale of Forbes Field to University of Pittsburgh is approved; the Pirates will stay on for five years, until new Northside stadium is built. In reality, the Pirates stayed on not for five but for twelve years, until 1970 when the new stadium opened.
• January 31, 1959 In a trade that will later be credited with making the Pittsburgh Pirates pennant winners in 1960, the baseball team obtains Harvey Haddix, Don Hoak, and Smoky Burgess from the Cincinnati Reds.
• June 4, 1959 Alcoma Golf Club suffers considerable fire damage.
• June 19, 1959 Fort Pitt Bridge, vital link in Penn-Lincoln Parkway, is opened.
• July 1, 1959 Four members of Pittsburgh Pirates picked for All-Star Game: Smoky Burgess, Dick Groat, Elroy Face and Bill Mazeroski.
• July 7, 1959 Pittsburgh hosts All-Star Game (National League wins 5-4; Vice President Richard M. Nixon throws out first ball).
• September 29, 1959 Dr. Jonas Salk gets a March of Dimes grant of $413,439 to continue his study at the University of Pittsburgh of viruses and cells.

• In 1950 the Korean War begins when North Korea invades South Korea. 
• In 1950 the Diner’s Club begins issuing the first credit cards.
• In 1951 “I Love Lucy” premiers on the CBS network. 
• In 1952 Elizabeth II becomes the Queen of England after her father George VI dies.
• In 1952 Puerto Rico is named as a self-governing commonwealth of the US.
• In 1953 the first James Bond novel, “Casino Royale”, is published by British author Ian Fleming.
• In 1954 the US Supreme Court rules that racial segregation is unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education.
• In 1954 frozen TV dinners are introduced by Swanson
• In 1955 Rosa Parks is arrested in Alabama after she refuses to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. 
• In 1955 the McDonald’s chain of restaurants is started by Ray Kroc.
• In 1956 American Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco.
• In 1957 the USSR successfully launches Sputnik I - the very first artificial satellite.
• In 1958 the popular children’s toy the Hula Hoop is created by Wham-O
• In 1958 NASA (National Aeronautics & Space Administration) is created.
• In 1959 the Cuban revolution ends and Fidel Castro comes into power.