History
The Wausau Country Club was organized on July 15, 1899, with a charter membership of 30 men. L. A. Pradt and John D. Ross have been credited with bringing the sport to the Wausau area, although Neal Brown is listed as the first president and F. E. Bump as the first secretary of the Club. The original 9 hole course was laid out north of McIndoe Street and east of Seventh Avenue, where Wausau East High School now stands. The golf course was spread over 60 acres.
Map of the area north of McIndoe Street where the first course was located in 1899.
It was in September 1908 when the Wausau Country Club was organized and incorporated with 40 members. A site of over 60 acres, just four miles south of the City of Wausau, was purchased from the Marathon Paper Mill Company. The nine holes measured 3,250 yards and played to a par 37. The clubhouse was built in 1910.
From the mid 1940's on it became apparent that the ownership of the Club should be modified. Many of the original stockholders of the Wausau Country Club were showing limited interest in the Club. In some cases, when a stockholder dies, the stock he held was not inventoried as an asset in his estate on the theory it had no value. There was a rising need for funds to further develop the property and this need eventually led to the birth of Wausau Country Club Inc. The Wausau Country Club was a Wisconsin corporation organized for profit. The new corporation, the Wausau Country Club Inc. was organized as a non profit, tax exempt corporation. A trust was created and the Wisconsin Valley Trust Company was named the trustee to receive and hold the stock of the Wausau Country Club.
A fire in the clubhouse on June 6th, 1950, of undetermined origin, destroyed much of the bar and dining room and the second floor living quarters of the manager and his wife. The loss was covered by insurance, but the members were urged to make a voluntary contribution of $25.00 or $50.00 to help upgrade the repairs and reconditioning of the building. Eventually the Club was returned to a usable condition and the remainder of the season completed.
In May of 1959, a special meeting of the membership was called by President Bill Morse, to explain a proposed program of expansion…specifically, actions needed to begin construction of a second nine holes. It was noted that if the Board of Directors voted to go ahead with the program, the membership could be playing on an 18 hole golf course by July 1960! Golf course architect Paul Coates of St. Paul, MN had been hired, along with E. L. Packard of La Grange, IL, to prepare the plans for the second nine holes.
After successfully expanding the Club to 18 holes in 1960, the Club was not done with their vision. A vision of clubhouse renovation and reversing the front nine (currently the back nine) where #1 would be #9 and so on would commence. The two projects were completed in early summer of 1965.
The Wausau Country Club has been blessed to have longevity of key staff members. The Golf professional side of longevity started with Bud Werring from 1940-1950; Willie Stepanik from 1951-1967; Tom Dunn from 1968-1969; Al Yates from 1970-1997; Jason LaRue from 1998-2003; Doug Cheever from 2004-2019; Doyle Harris from 2019-2020; Aaron Kelm from 2021-2022. Trevor Lloyd took over in 2023 and is our current Head Golf Professional.
Grounds Superintendents are few in numbers as this department defined the term longevity. In 1949, the listed Superintendent was Walt Stepanik who retired in 1988. Randly Slavik took over in 1988 and remained the Superintendent until he retired in 2020. Aaron Hansen took over in 2020 and is our current Superintendent.
The Wausau Country Club has been visited by various notable athletes, including George Bayer, Joe Louis, Willie Mays, professional golfers Johnny Miller and Andy North, country music artist Charlie Pride and NFL hall of fame star (and Wausau Native) Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch. U.S. Women's champion Patty Berg played the course in 1938.