Blake Ellis/The Independent

The Kingswell Glen Golf Course has a lot of history. Club member Ian Parker found that out when he compiled the names of all the club champions recently.

“I thought it would be a good idea if I built these club championship boards,” said Parker. The boards now hang on the wall of the clubhouse, featuring as many of the names that are known.

Instead of an unveiling of these new boards, Parker hosted an evening on Saturday at Kingswell Glen Golf Club May 2 where the history of the club could be explored.

“I get these bright ideas than I get a little too in deep,” said Parker.

Just like Petrolia, Kingswell Glen Golf and Country Club is tied to the oil industry.

Jacob Lewis Englehart was one of the founders of Imperial Oil. He married Charlotte in 1891 and they honeymooned in Scotland where they were introduced to golf. Englehart was also in England where he was negotiating the formation of a new oil company where he would have travelled to London.

Englehart was inspired by Wimbledon Commons and the London Scottish Golf Club, said Parker. The Wimbledon Commons was where the wealthy and elite played while the London Scottish Golf Club had ex-military personnel, who were mostly from the Scottish regiments, who were rougher around the edges.

Parker thought the description of the London Scottish Club was like what Kingswell Glen Golf Course became.

“Its kind of the way I remember this course being where there was a bit of the blue collar community,” said Parker.

“We didn’t need anything special as long as we had some tee markers and a flag. Everyone just went out there and we were happy to have a cold beer after. It is still that way.”

Englehart came back to Petrolia and built a six hole golf course on the grounds of his mansion, which would later become the Charlotte Eleanor Englehart Hospital. The first hole was just outside of the front door of the mansion.

After three years of construction, the golf course opened in 1895.

Parker said there is a bit of a misnomer within the golf club that Kingswell is the oldest golf club in Canada. That distinction belongs to the Royal Montreal Golf Club in 1873. This was followed by the Royal Quebec in 1874, Niagara on the Lake in 1881 and one in Victoria, British Columbia in 1893.

What did make Kingswell Glen Golf Club unique was its original six holes were built in a Victorian style golf course, instead of those inspiring by the Scottish designs.

“It is not less than, it is just different,” said Parker. “It should be celebrated, giving a sense of pride to the club.”

Charlotte died in 1908 at the age of 45. In her will, she deeded the mansion and the surrounding property, which included the golf course to the creation of a hospital that would later be the Charlotte Eleanor Englehart Hospital.

By 1911, Jacob Englehart was no longer living in Petrolia, giving up the property early which led to the establishment of the hospital.

“That kind of leaves a 10 year period that is dark,” said Parker, between 1911 and into the early 1920s.

The golf course was bequeathed to the Town of Petrolia in 1922, becoming a public golf course under the name the Glenview Golf and Country Club. A club house was built in 1923 and the course expanded to nine holes.

In 1964, there was plans for a new club.

The old members of the club at the time, wanted Tony’s Restaurant to run the place, but they lost out.
Construction began in spring of 1966 with it being completed in 1967. The golf course had 18 holes by 2001 and later came under new ownership being named the Kingswell Glen Golf Club.

Today, the club is owned by GolfNorth.