TAUNTON — It’s never too late to go back.
In the mid 1940s, young Rehoboth resident Les Bennett was a regular at Segregansett Country Club in Taunton. He was a caddy, sometimes hauling two bags at a time, and collected golf balls from the wooded perimeter of the course to sell to golfers. But in that time, and in all the years since, Bennett didn’t and hadn’t played a single hole at Segregansett.
On Aug. 9, more than 70 years since his last stop at the club, Bennett and his 44-year-old son Troy Bennett hit the links at Segregansett for the first time.
Temperatures were in the high 90s, with nowhere to hide from the sun, but the pair completed the 18-course. After, they were treated to lunch in the Segregansett clubhouse.
Bennett said the course has changed dramatically over the years. In his day as a caddy it was a nine-hole course. He said the current front nine was all new to him, but memories and scenes from the old days came into focus around the 12th hole.
“It was nine holes and I guess they added on later on. But I moved away from the area when I got older and went to the Air Force, so I’d never played there and I always wanted to,” Bennett said. “Every time I went by there I’d say I want to play there someday. My son always said we’ll set something up and see if we can play there.
“So he set it up for us and it was fun, it was a good day. We just got in to the clubhouse and sat down to have lunch, and boy it down poured. We just beat the rain, but it was a nice day and it’s a nice course.”
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A golf bag on each shoulder
Bennett found his way to Segregansett Country Club in about 1944 or 1945 at age 10, and despite the protests of management found he could make good money unearthing lost golf balls in the woods surrounding the course and returning them to the Segregansett golfers who put them there&mldr ; for a small fee. Not long after, he caught on with the caddy game and regularly hauled two golf bags at a time, one on each shoulder.
Bennett lived on Brook Street in Rehoboth at the time, and recalls riding his bike, his dog Smokey on his tail, from Brook Street to Route 118 and on to the intersection of Route 44. He’d stash his bike, and Smokey, who was always waiting upon return, behind a “variety store” on the corner.
“Smokey, he was my dog, and he used to follow me when I rode my bike and he followed me to where there used to be variety where 118 crossed 44 and I’d put my bicycle behind the store. They knew I had it there and the dog was there, too. He’d lay there, and when I came back he’d still be there. And I’d ride the bike back home.”
From the corner store Bennett hitchhiked to the course.
“Those days you could thumb a ride and the people didn’t bother you,” he said. “So I thumbed up to the golf course, and if it was an afterschool affair I’d just walk in the woods and find golf balls and sell them to the players. I was about 10, maybe 11 years old then.
“I made money doing it. And I had 15 brothers and sisters, we lived in Rehoboth and we didn’t have much money. So I’d go home and my mother would send me to the store to buy supper and I’d bring it home. It was made me feel good and it helped a lot.”
Caddies were not official club employees, but welcome, and Bennett says it was just a matter of finding a golfer or two who wanted someone to carry their clubs. Caddies worked for tips.
“I started caddying on weekends there and carrying two bags. It was only nine holes then, no carts, but the people were very good to you. I don’t know whatever started me going in the beginning but it was a way to make some money and that’s what I did.”
It wasn’t long before the family moved on to another town in the area, and that was that.
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Then, 76 years later…
“Segregansett has made a great course that can compete with any course around here, I think, and they have some nice courses around here. It’s a wonderful course, and the people… I can’t say enough good things about them. They were very nice,” Bennett said.
The property is much bigger today than in the 1940s, and Bennett said for the most part the course has completely transformed from his remaining memories from the place he used to work. But there were some familiar sights.
“It was when I crossed the street going to the 12th… in my mind I could see, and I said to my son, around this corner there was a stone house up on the hill. And I said that’s where I used to come in off of 44 and go through the woods so nobody saw me coming to pick up golf balls, and that’s how I left.
“I recognized quite a bit on that side, but they changed it a lot. The holes are longer, I could never caddy there today, that’s a long course.”
Today, the Bennetts get out to golf about once a week.
Les started golfing in the 1960s, not until after eight years in the United States Air Force.
He made a living in the printing industry for many years and was a foreman at the Ad-A-Day Company in Weir Village in Taunton, which made calendars.
His other hobby is collecting, repairing and re-homing old wind-up Victrola-style record players. He says the interest started at an estate sale where he stumbled into and came home with his first Victrola.
“I fooled around with it, it didn’t work and I found out the springs were gone in it. So I repaired the springs and got it playing and it was nice. I gave it to my daughter and then next thing I know I started looking for them.
“And a lot of people had them in the olden days. They had him in their living rooms, and then when electricity came around they put them in the cellar and left them cellar.”
He says most people want the RCA Victor models, known by the company’s signature dog looking into the Victrola horn scene used in ads.
But Bennett is also the founder of Sonora brand Victrolas.
“It’s advertised as ‘clear as a bell,'” he said. “They sound crystal clear. If you got a good needle it plays beautifully, and there’s no wire, no speaker, no nothing.”
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Worth the wait
All around, Bennett said it was a great day and that he looks forward to returning for another round.
“My son said he would like to play here again. He likes a challenge. On that course you can’t just hit the ball as far as you can hit it and just to go get it and hit it again. You gotta lay up on some holes, because there are brooks and hazards and stuff. And he likes that stuff. So he said we will have to play there again sometime.
“I never was a great golfer, but I everybody says I shoot pretty good for my age, so I say, oh yeah. I shot my age one day on a course around here. I shot an 87, so that was about my best.”
Taunton Daily Gazette staff writer Jon Haglof can be reached at [email protected]. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Taunton Daily Gazette today.