History Of Wilkshire Golf Club... Wilkshire Hills Course Is Shaping Up for Golfers - The Canton Repository - 06/26/69 BOLIVAR-The people of southern Stark County finally are going to have a public golf course, even thought it won't lie within the county. Articles of incorporation have been filed in Columbus with Secretary of State Ted W. Brown for Wilkshire Hills Golf, Inc., an 18-hole course just a mile east of here and within easy access of Canton golfers via Interstate 77. Canton is 10 miles north. J. Melvin Easterday of 5804 Hills and Dales NW, a nurseryman who is concerned with industrial and residential planting and planning, is owner of the course located just east of the Tuscarawas River in Tuscarawas County. The rolling golf course is halfway between Canton and Dover. The village of Zoar is only three miles east on Ohio Route 212 and Interstate 77 is visible just a half mile to the west. THE 2,700-A C R E Wilkshire Hills Community, which extends to the Zoar corporation limits, is named for Roger Wilkin of North Canton, developer and builder. Rog Win, Inc. had options on the land, and 140 acres were sold to Easterday for the golf layout. Easterday's son, John, is with his father in the project. Wilkin said Easterday "has the equipment to put in the course, and he has been doing it for others." "I have been doing this 25 years, and I decided to do it for myself," said Easterday. "I love golf. I helped put in Tam O'Shanter, and I put in the last nine holes at Elms." Wilkin received the options four years ago, and excavation for the greens was started late last August. All excavation has been completed, but the topography was not altered. All fairways have been seeded. A rain last week delayed the seeding of the greens and tees. Easterday and Harry Burkhart of Cleveland, who has designed for the Cleveland Recreation Board, were architects. Because there is a lake to build, plus a green next to the lake, the back nine will not be ready until late next season. The front nine, however, should be open next spring or summer. Sand traps will be at the greens and the greens will be at least 5,000 square feet each and of various shapes. Easterday said the fairways will have few traps. The will be watered. "WE REMOVED a couple trees," said the owner, "and we will grow extra trees for future use. We will plant almost every kind of tree-oak, maple, locust, sycamore, ash, hawthorn, flowering crab and evergreens." Merion and common Kentucky blue grasses are used on the fairways, with Penn cross bent on the greens. A practice green and practice tee will be constructed. On the practice tee, the player will hit toward a wooded area, making it easy to follow the shot. Work on a clubhouse, with Colonial-type architecture, will begin in December or January. The clubhouse, with a snack bar and pro shop, will be constructed about 300 feet from new Ohio Route 212. A parking lot will be between the highway and the building. "We will have golf carts, and we probably will offer season memberships and cater to league play in the evenings," Easterday said. "There are no immediate plans for a head professional, but a nine-hole pitch-and-putt course between the 18-hole course and the highway is in the future plans." When completed, it will be a par 36-36-72, 6,355-yard course with two par-fives and two par-threes and each side. Doglegs will be Nos. 1, 3, 6, 7, 10, 13, 17 and 18. The lake will be a hazard on par-5, No 13, and par-3 No 14.

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