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In 1942, Marvin Leonard decided to sell Colonial Country Club to membership. It was essential to original vision.
“Colonial can be a much bigger civic asset under the ownership and management of membership,” Leonard said.
By turning over ownership and management to the membership, Leonard likely saw Colonial not just as a private club but as an institution with the potential to serve the broader Fort Worth community through major events — like the U.S. Open and the PGA Tour — charitable initiatives, economic impact, and social connectivity.
Colonial has been exactly that institution, a civic treasure whose tentacles reach across all of the city.
The PGA Tour’s Charles Schwab Challenge alone has an annual financial footprint in the tens of millions, including a $5.5 million economic impact. This year’s event is also expected to eclipse the record $20 million the club’s philanthropic arm, Birdies for Charity, divvied out to various nonprofits in the city.
“It has a financial impact on the city,” says Marty Leonard, daughter of the club’s founder. “It brings in a lot of money, not just to Colonial, and of course that means then that the charities get more. It’s just unique, and, of course, back in those early days before there were so many other golf courses, Colonial was ranked right up [among the best] golf courses in the country.
Marvin Leonard in 1958 built Shady Oaks Country Club, purchasing 1,200 acres out of the estate of Amon Carter, who died in 1955. The two men, Marty Leonard reminds, had discussed a club there. Leonard almost picked California for his next golf masterpiece.
“I’d go with my dad to look at beautiful countrysides in California … in that northern part of California,” Marty Leonard says. “Not long after that, Jenkins Garrett, daddy’s lawyer and right-hand man, called him and said that Mr. Carter had provided some way to give Marvin the opportunity to buy the property. Of course, it took him about two minutes to do that.”
The granddaddy of ’em all is River Crest, opened in 1911 by a group of cattlemen, cotton merchants, railway executives, and bankers, among others.
All three have had a significant impact on the city, particularly when it comes to its image. The clubs are symbolic of the Western grit, wealth, and elegance — often understated — that permeate for more than 100 years. They are also representative of some of the city’s defining personalities, like, for example, Carter and Ben Hogan. The clubs have also humanized these civic giants, through lore and myth.
The city clubs are also those same kinds of institutions. Many of the city’s most consequential and historic events occurred at these places. For example, hammering out the agreement for Dallas Fort Worth International Airport or bringing the Washington Senators to North Texas.
The Fort Worth Club’s roster is a who’s who. Amon Carter was the club’s president for more than 20 years, from 1919 to the 1940s or even maybe the 1950s. Carter and Sid Richardson used the place to court Eisenhower to run for president in 1952. Charles Lindbergh, Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, Bob Hope, and Gen. Douglas MacArthur were among the many others.
The club founded in 1885 is celebrating 100 years on Seventh Street in 2026.
“Fort Worth is a friendly town to get acclimated in,” says Walter Littlejohn, the longtime general manager of the Fort Worth Club. “I hear that all the time from people who move here: ‘It’s easy to get acclimated here.’ You don’t see that everywhere.”
“I’ll tell you the thing about Fort Worth that I’ve always liked, and Mayor [Bob] Bolen said this 40 years ago, Fort Worth probably has more volunteers who support the city than any other city in the country.”
A lot of that — as well as all the other stuff with public consequences — begins through the networking that goes on in the private clubs.
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