Buffalo Golf Course owner is still golfing at 95. A women’s league honored her playing career
SAXONBURG — At age 95, Marge Waldron continues to golf in leagues on a regular basis.
While still playing in the Buffalo Gals league at Buffalo Golf Course — a course she designed with her husband, Harold, more than 50 years ago and still owns today — she decided to leave the Grasshopper’s league at Saxon this year after nine seasons.
“She also comes out and plays in the morning Buffalo Niners league when she feels up to it,” Grasshopper’s member Annette Gratzmiller said. “Playing in three leagues was a little much, so she’s not playing in our league this year.”
But the Grasshopper’s league wouldn’t let her leave quietly.
The 24-golfer circuit held a farewell luncheon for Waldron on Monday at the Saxon pavilion.
“It’s the people I meet,” Waldron said of her favorite thing about golf. “This day is very emotional for me. There’s so much love in this league.”
A 1947 Mars graduate, Waldron went to the University of Pittsburgh to study chemistry. While in college, a friend of hers took her to a pitch-and-putt par 3 golf course to try her hand at golf.
“I took to it right away,” Waldron said.
She graduated from Pitt with a chemistry degree in 1951, one of few women to enter that field in that era. She wound up working for Koppers, acquiring patents for the company in 1959 and 1964.
Waldron said a science teacher she had in high school, “Mr. Gregory,” got her interested in chemistry. She did research in the field for years after graduating from college.
“That woman is fearless,” Grasshopper’s golfer Joan Mellon said. “She’s not the biggest person. She’s not a loud person. But she’s a very smart person. She entered a field women just didn’t go into at that time, determined to get her education.
“She pushed herself and got it. Anytime I’m looking for a hero, it’s Marge Waldron.”
Waldron and her husband designed and opened a a 9-hole, par 3 golf course called “Fore Acres” in Monroeville in 1958. Cost to play that course was 75 cents when it first opened.
They sold the course in 1967 and bought the land in Freeport, where they designed the Buffalo Golf Course. That course celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018.
“My husband made a topographical map of the land when we designed the (Buffalo) course,” Waldron recalled. “I used pipe cleaners on that map to measure out 100 yards, 400 yards. ... That’s how we put it together.”
The couple have three children. Two of them — Maggie and Ken — are actively involved in the day to day operation of the golf course. Laura is their other daughter. Waldron has eight grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
As for her golf, Waldron is averaging 60 per nine holes these days. She said her best day on the course occurred when she was 80 — shooting 90 for 18 holes.
“She is fun to be around,” Grasshopper’s golfer Mary Ellen Hughes said. “She’s quiet and even though she’s been golfing for so many years, she is never critical of anyone’s game. She’s a good chipper and putter and never gets discouraged.
“I can see where she could be an inspiration to other women in the leagues she plays in.”
She’s been one to Mellon.
“I haven’t been playing golf very long, and I have the reputation of being wild with my swing,” Mellon said, smiling. “I’m never sure where the ball is going to go. I can see where other women would be hesitant to play with me, but Marge was always willing. I’ve always appreciated that.”
“She’s done things in life that boggle my mind,” Gratzmiller said of Waldron. “She scores better than I do in golf, but won’t offer advice unless I ask for it. She just wants everyone to come out and enjoy themselves.”
That was certainly the case during Monday’s luncheon.
“This is wonderful,” Waldron said. “Absolutely wonderful.”
