Our History

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Wildwood Golf Club has a rich and colorful history that spans over 100 years. We as a club value our history and find it important to showcase it. 
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Wildwood Country Club 1927-1940

Wildwood Golf Club is located 12 miles due north of downtown Pittsburgh.  Until 1927, the rolling countryside had been owned by the Herr family, who had farmed the land since the 1840’s.  In fact, some of the Herr family is still buried in the Herr Chapel Cemetery that sits near the 12th tee.  In 1927, the Herr family sold 169 acres to a group led by George Wittmer and his brother-in-law,  Dr. W.B. Ray, who planned to build the first 18-hole golf course in Pittsburgh’s fast-growing North Hills, which they called Wildwood Country Club.  Emil “Dutch” Loeffler, the head pro and golf superintendent at Oakmont Country Club, was hired to design and build the course, one of over 20 courses that Loeffler designed in his long career.  Between its first-class golf course, beautiful stone clubhouse (which is still in use today) and other amenities, Wildwood Country Club was an immediate success, such that by the summer of 1930 it had over 350 members.   

​Dapper Dan Open

 In  August 1939, the club hosted the inaugural Dapper Dan Golf Tournament, which offered $10,000 in prize money.  It drew Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Gene Sarazen and most of the other top professional golfers of the day, as it had the largest purse of any tournament that year.  The winner, Ralph Guldahl, took home the $2,500 first prize, which was almost double the amount he earned for winning the Masters earlier that year.  Guldahl bested Gene Sarazen and Denny Shute in an 18-hole Monday playoff, which remains the only three-way playoff in PGA history where all three participants had won at least three major championships.

​Unfortunately, WWII started the following month and, although the club had successfully navigated its way through the Great Depression, the sacrifices required by the war effort, especially gas rationing, proved to be too much.  The club disbanded and the property was sold multiple times during the early 1940’s. 

​The Boy Scouts & Pitt-Wildwood 1944-1960

​In 1944, a wealthy Pittsburgh industrialist, John W. Hubbard, bought the property and donated it to the Boy Scouts of America.  It was renamed the Hubbard Boy Scout Reservation and was used by the Boy Scouts for over a decade, until they sold the property to the University of Pittsburgh in November 1956.  The University renovated the golf course and clubhouse and used the facility for golf, tennis, swimming and a variety of social and school functions.  The school also built athletic practice fields for football, baseball and softball – in fact, the varsity football practice field included the area that is now the 13th green.  Ultimately, however, and despite its lofty ambitions, “Pitt Wildwood” was simply too far from the University’s main campus in Oakland, such that in June 1960 the property was sold for $535,000 to Stone Lodge, Inc., a group of North Hills residents led by Ray Strothman.

​Wildwood Golf Club 1960-Present

Stone Lodge’s goal was to create a new private golf club that would once again make use of the Wildwood name – and on July 1,1960 the newly-created Wildwood Golf Club opened its doors.  By the end of 1960, the Club had 187 members and grew steadily from there, such that by 1971 the Club had 435 members, 300 of whom were golf members.  Too large for its then-current environs, the Club embarked on a significant expansion and renovation project in 1971 – among other improvements, the ballroom was significantly expanded, the main entrance was relocated from the left side of the building to today’s front entrance (the original “carriage” entrance was enclosed and turned into a private dining room – the Tea Room), the pro shop was relocated to a new 2-story building and the old pro shop became the 19th Hole.  And over the past 50+ years, the club has continued to grow and evolve, as seen most recently in our upgraded pool and cabana area, the addition of paddle and pickleball courts, and the completion of the golf course’s new irrigation system and upgraded practice facilities.  Our current membership is profoundly grateful for the foresight and vision shown by those original members back in 1960, the last of whom, Joe Bender, passed away in 2024 at the age of 101.