BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A month after the devastating fire that burned down the Oakland Hills Country Club, new evidence shows the fire appears to have started from construction workers using a propane torch against a wall.
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— A month after the devastating fire that burned down the Oakland Hills Country Club, new evidence shows the fire appears to have started from construction workers using a propane torch against a wall.
No one was hurt in the fire, whose cause was under investigation, according to fire officials. The clubhouse contained a rich collection of golf memorabilia, and it was unclear how much of that was saved, though firefighters and club staff members were able to recover some.
Bogey Hills CC was founded by Charles H. “Doc” Walters, an optometrist, and his wife Doris (who came up with the club name, after asking her husband what his usual golf score was) in 1962, on the site of an older golf course that had been closed since World War II and that dated back to a Wayne Clark design in the early 1900s.
Even as the debris from the fire was still being cleared away, Angel Walters Likens, Bogey Hills’ President and General Manager, was planning and spreading the word about a new clubhouse that would be the centerpiece of a new chapter in the club’s history.
The design and functionality of the rooms found throughout the new Bogey Hills clubhouse have caught the attention of representatives of more established and traditional clubs in the St. Louis area who have toured it after it opened to get a first-hand look at its features and amenities.
While clubhouse fires are not the common occurrence they were 100 years ago, when they happen today the consequences can be far more devastating, and the recovery process far more complicated. So it’s no surprise that many other club managers have been eager to learn all they can from how Bogey Hills bounced back so quickly from its fire.