Hilton Hotels buys golf course in Atlantic City suburb

Thursday, Oct. 9, 1997 | 9:48 a.m.

The purchase price wasn't divulged.

The 100-year-old bayside golf club, whose 18-hole course gives a view of Atlantic City across a salt marsh, will help Hilton market its casino properties to gamblers looking for something different, said Wallace Barr, president and chief operating officer of Bally's Park Place Casino Hotel.

No other Atlantic City casino has its own golf course.

"In Las Vegas, it's been established that golf is important for high rollers and gamblers," said Prudential casino industry analyst Joseph Coccimiglio. "Golf and gambling have always had a good correlation. It makes sense."

Hilton, which owns Park Place and the Atlantic City Hilton, will allow guests of the two properties to use the club but does not plan to rename it or alter the course substantially, Barr said.

The company is considering adding a health spa and building private cottages along the fairways, but those plans are not final yet, Barr said.

Built in 1897 by Atlantic City hotel owners, the privately-owned club is located about 5 miles southwest of Atlantic City. It was bought in 1943 by a syndicate that included golfer Sonny Fraser and Frank S. Farley, a powerful GOP leader, according to author William Kelly, who wrote "Birth of the Birdie: 100 Years of Golf at Atlantic City Country Club," a club history published this year.

Two years later, it was sold to Fraser's older brother, Leo Fraser, whose family is selling it to Hilton.

The country club hosted the U.S. Amateur in 1901 and the U.S. Women's Open in 1948, 1965 and 1975.

Its claim to fame as "birth of the birdie" dates to the early 1900s, when a golfer named Abner Smith hit a shot that landed next to the hole, allowing him to finish in one-under-par.

"It was a bird of a shot," said someone in the group. On subsequent holes, the group bet double-or-nothing on holes where one of the members shot one-under-par.

"Visitors who learned of the local 'birdie' tradition spread it around the world and the term would become universal in its meaning and usage," according to Kelly's book.

Club President Jim Fraser - Leo's son - said the family had examined every possibility for holding on to the property, including raising fees.

"Privately owned private clubs like this are like dinosaurs, and we all know what happened to dinosaurs," Fraser said Thursday at a news conference Thursday.

Barr, echoing an often-heard sentiment, said the Atlantic City casino market is stagnant and needs to attract people who stay longer than a few hours. Offering such amenities is one way to increase stays, he said.

"There's a slowness in the market. To allow Atlantic City to grow further, we have to become a resort destination. It has to be more than just gaming, more than just restaurants, more than just a place to stay," Barr said.

He said the 100 full-time employees would stay on through the sale, which is expected to close in January, and that memberships would be honored through 1998.