March 31, 2016 update: Blog reader Jake Murray knew the person fishing for golf balls in the photo below. Jake relays the following:
I knew the man in the picture retrieving a golf ball from the water on the 3rd hole. He was well known to the golfers and kids like myself who were retrieving golf balls for tips, usually a nickel or a dime, from the water on the 4th and 5th holes. He was known to everyone as “Kingie”. I first crossed paths with him in the mid 1950s. He wasn’t too happy about the competition! He would enter and leave the course from the service road that led from the vehicle bridge on the 5th hole to State Road. He always carried a large bag full of golf balls that were for sale along with his trusty bamboo pole ball retriever. He probably had a few hundred golf balls in the bag. A decent golf ball could fetch a quarter, especially if it was a Titleist. He would set up shop at the spring on the 5th hole. The spring was at the edge of the fairway on the south side of the creek not far from the vehicle bridge. He would sit on the little retaining wall and clean the golf balls in the spring water. I can’t ever remember seeing a golfer with their own ball retriever (maybe they weren’t invented yet). Eventually I moved on to the 6th hole. I had it all to myself. No Kingie and no other competition. On a good day I could make $1.00 in tips retrieving balls from the water and a little more if I sold a few balls.
