Editors note: This is the second of two articles on the Sinking Valley Country Club. Part one was published in Saturday\u2019s edition of The Daily Herald.
\nTyrone community leaders, volunteers and others saw a goal which stretched more than a decade come true when Sinking Valley golf course opened in the early 60s.
\nLong-time community leader Harry Sickler recently detailed events which led to the opening of the course after a railroad-owned course fell into disrepair during World War II. The community acquired land by buying the Beck farm and the course was built with goal and a motto of \u201coff the tee in \u201863.\u201d
\nSickler said a contractor from Philadelphia was hired to do the greens and the tees but all the rest of the work was done by volunteers. Scout groups were used and members of the Tyrone Jaycees were given the task of getting the number six hole ready.
\nSickler spoke about the direction the club\u2019s members wanted to go, in terms of the club\u2019s image.
\n\u201cWe knew it was going to be a golf course and not a country club,\u201d said Sickler.
\nHe said the old barn on the farm became a clubhouse. The club\u2019s members also sold off some of the acreage of the farm to pay off some of the debt it had incurred.
\nSickler explained the club members decided to expand the course a couple of years later with the course becoming 18 holes. He said the back nine was contracted out and was completed in the mid-1960s.
\nSickler said club members had made \u201ca continuous effort of putting whatever we had to back into the golf course.\u201d
\nHe said they didn\u2019t worry about having \u201cfancy clubhouses or a swimming pool or anything of that nature.\u201d
\nSickler said membership grew from an original 160 who had donated $100 each to get the course of the ground to a membership of more than 450. He said at one point there was a waiting list for members. Now, club membership stands at around 350.
\nSickler said about half of the original 160 members weren\u2019t really golfers or had never played golf but were just interested in doing something for the community.
\nNoting some highlights for the course, Sickler said, over the years, Sinking Valley hosted the Bull Pen Open and former Pitt Panther football coach Foge Fazio had been a guest speaker at many of the banquets.
\nHe said membership is good and gave an assessment of the club\u2019s finances.
\n\u201cWe are putting money in the right places,\u201d said Sickler.
\nHe summed up his view of the course by saying, \u201cIt\u2019s just an outstanding golf course, it\u2019s not a country club.\u201d
\nSinking Valley Country Club is located off Skelp Mountain Road, at the first stop sign, turn right on to Golf Course Rd. At the next sign, stop except for right turns then bear right and follow Golf Course Road for approximately two to three miles. The course is on the right side of the road.
\nSinking Valley\u2019s phone number is 684-0662.
\nMore information can be found about Sinking Valley on the Internet at www.golfable.com\/golfcourses\/courses\/Altoona_PA_Sinking_Valley_Country_Club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Editors note: This is the second of two articles on the Sinking Valley Country Club. Part one was published in Saturday\u2019s edition of The Daily Herald. Tyrone community leaders, volunteers and others saw a goal which stretched more than a decade come true when Sinking Valley golf course opened in the early 60s. Long-time community […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42827\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}