At this wonderful old club in San Antonio, spooky, twisted live oaks dominate a hilly landscape. But no one and nothing but birds and squirrels observed Oak Hills’s beauty during a long, almost fatal shutdown from the early Thirties until after World War II. The club went out of business, in other words, like so many others, a victim of the Great Depression.
The giant hole in the middle of Oak Hills’s history presented a challenge. Since it had ceased to function for over a decade, hardly a scrap of paper survived from the club’s early days. We compensated by making an entertaining (we think) and informative study of the lives and motivations of the founders, and of the immortal architect of the golf course, A. W. Tillinghast. We also looked carefully at the crazy, contradictory decade in which Oak Hills was founded. Prohibition was the law of the land in the Twenties, but everyone seemed to be drinking, not least at Oak Hill. We discovered that San Antonio and the golf and social clubs within the city got some portion of their alcohol from pack trains of tequila-carrying mules walking up from Mexico. The mules came to know the way so well they didn’t need a driver.
The club revived during the giddy, optimistic years following WW II, ushering in an era that was fun and relatively easy to write about, when the club tied its identity to its annual PGA tour event—the Texas Open.
"Oak Hills’ centennial book, Preserving Greatness, is incredible. Job well done!"
Director of Membership and Communications, Oak Hills Country Club
