Six years after the 1889 Johnstown Flood, five ambitious youngsters laid out the first golf course in Johnstown. Comparable to other courses that sprouted up on open fields and parks throughout the country, it was rudimentary built on an expanse of land high above the city of Johnstown. In April 1903, a formal organization was established under the name of Johnstown Country Club. Cambria Steel helped underwrite the development of the club. The club limited membership to one hundred of the community’s elite. But the company’s largess came at a price. The club was, not once but twice, relocated by the steel company. A new course and clubhouse was built again 1908. Eleven years later the club, now known as Cambria Country Club, would again be informed that there land would be needed for development. The club went to the steel company looking for assistance in finding a permanent location to end its nomadic existence. A 132-acre parcel of land called Cambria Farms was considered ideal for the clubs purposes. At the time the property was used to grow grain for the mules that worked in the company’s coal mines. It was considered ideal for a course and offered expansive views of the surrounding Allegheny Mountains. With an established home, the Board adopted a new charter and a new name, Sunnehanna Country Club. Sunnehanna was the Native American name of the river which ran through the city of Johnstown. Now called the Stonycreek River, the Indian word meant slow moving stream.

The club hired Albert Tillinghast in early 1921. In early April, the local paper reported Tillinghast was walking the grounds and placing stakes in preparation for building the course. On June ___, 1921, Tillie would formally meet with the entire membership for the first time and go over his plan and listen to the memberships for input.

Tillinghasts’s construction foreman, Robert Honeyman, supervised the building of the course. Tillie reported to the entire Board in November of 1921, the Grounds Committee reported that seventeen greens, fifty-five greenside bunkers and eight fairway bunkers were completed.. I a letter to John Ogden, head of the Johnstown operations of Cambria Steel his satisfaction with the progress on the course.

In spite of his efforts, Tillinghast would not see the project to completion. The clubs Board would turn the final details of the course construction over to J.H. McGovern who was overseeing building the clubhouse. The golf course came in under budget but did not make the hoped for July 4, 1923 opening instead opening on September 8, 1923 with only sixteen holes available for play

The decision to change construction supervisors would have unforeseen consequences. From its inception the course was plagued by poor turf. Three years after opening, Sunnehanna looked 75 miles to its west for solutions to the problem. Emil Loeffler, the nationally known superintendent at Oakmont Country Club, was retained to provide a comprehensive review of the course. Loeffler and his predecessor as superintendent at Oakmont, John McGrath, had formed a partnership that gave clubs maintenance advice with specific recommendations tailored for there courses. The evaluations were comprehensive and included hole-by-hole recommendations, specific fertilizers to use as well as various strains of grasses for fairways, bunker faces, tees and greens. Loeffleq?s services were used annually for the next six years. In 1933, the club ended the annual evaluation. Sunnehanna felt it could no longer afford the cost of his annual review; $50.

With the onset of the Depression, Sunnehanna Country Club struggled financially. Like many clubs throughout the country, the club had assumed a mountain of debt to complete the clubhouse, swimming pool, bowling alleys and bridal bath that circled the clubs grounds. Sunnehanna persevered and by the mid-1930’s the club was financially secure enough to upgrade its facilities. The first new amenities were a caddie house and a massive new putting green, which was designed and its construction supervised by Burton Musser. With the overwhelmingly positive response from the members, the clubs Board turned its attention to its most important asset; the golf course.

William Flynn, who had done no meaningful work in four years, was hired to review the course and make recommendations for improvements and a corresponding cost estimate. He visited the course late on September 24, 1936 and promptly responded to the clubs interest the following day with a letter addressed to the club with the terms of employment.

The proposal to redesign the golf course was discussed at the annual Club meeting in October 1936. After the meeting, the board announced to the membership, We hope to report considerable progress within a very short time; a modern 1937 golf course is the objective.??

The estimate for the plan was $32,749. Much of the proposal focused on narrowing the entrances to many of Sunnehanna’s greens, which were generally square and open in the front, with either new bunkers, mounds or both in concert with each other. Flynn made no major changes in Tillinghast’s original routing of the course. This could be attributed to the clubs space limitations. On its perimeter, the course abutted a city owned park and the local airport that ran along another boundary.

Work began in the middle of 1938 and three holes were completed in there entirety with alterations to six other greens. The following year the rest of the plan was halted by Club president Wilson Slick. Slick, who is largely credited with keeping Sunnehanna financially viable during the Depression, and the Board refused to raise dues to finance the rest of the project electing to focus its attention on the clubhouse. As a result of the Boards decision a number of green committee members resigned in protest.