Club Times: November/December 2023

CONTINUING TO CELEBRATE OUR RICH HERITAGE A Letter From the Heritage Co mittee

We would like to encourage all of our members and their families to become involved in our rich heritage. This can be done by listening to our 75 th year history book, accessing the QR codes either in the club or through our website and participating in our special events. If you would like to retain a piece of AAC history, please visit our Sargent Golf Shop and our “Riverside Collection” display where you can purchase a one of a kind keepsake made from the trees on our Riverside course. We have commissioned the Moulthrop Family to create beautiful bowls from the Water Oak that was on #1 Riverside. The Moulthrop Wood Artisans are world-renowned and have their pieces in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They also created bowls from the Eisenhower Tree at Augusta National. There are also bag tags, ball markers and handcrafted artisan pens made from the trees on our Riverside Course. These items would be unique Christmas gifts for the member who loves this Club and would cherish a piece of its history. In addition, please consider a recurring contribution to the Heritage Foundation so that we can all continue to experience and celebrate our great club. Donations can be made by check to the Atlanta Athletic Club Heritage Foundation or through your monthly bill. Please contact Margaret Almand (mma@aac1.org) if you would like to contribute to the Foundation.

The celebration of our 125th anniversary has served as a great opportunity to introduce or remind our extended AAC family about so many different and extraordinary people and events that have contributed to our rich history. It really is incredible to consider that our membership has included the leading families of Atlanta (Woodruffs, Candlers,

Nunns and many others) along with our world-class athletes – a number of which are members today. And, that we have hosted some of the greatest sporting competitions in the world in golf and tennis. Over the last few years, our Heritage Committee has made great strides in reviving our focus on our history and making it much more accessible to our members and guests. And, we have taken steps externally to assure that several members of our club receive the appropriate recognition for their incredible achievements. More specifically: • The book chronicling our first 75 years of history has now been recorded and can be accessed on Spotify, Apple, and Amazon. • QR codes have been installed adjacent to some of our more important displays to provide everyone the opportunity to understand its significance as part of our history. • Significant efforts have been made to have Alexa Stirling inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, Nat Thornton into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame for his many tennis championships and Jim Huber into the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame. They are all very deserving of this recognition. Over the last year, we have also formed and announced the Atlanta Athletic Club Heritage Foundation, a 501(C)3 organization to help us raise funds to acquire memorabilia that will help us better tell and celebrate our history. Our initial goal is to obtain replicas of the trophies for each of the major amateur and professional championships we have hosted. Our first two acquisitions are the Robert Cox trophy for the US Women’s Amateur we hosted in 1950 and the Ryder Cup hosted in 1963. And, consistent with our goal, we were able to bring these events to life with outstanding celebrations with former champions and participants as we unveiled these new displays. We hope to make these special events a regular part of our annual programming.

Tim Bentsen Heritage Committee Chair & Past President

Pictured: The Riverside Collection