He was a 7-year-old boy when his father first took him on his first golf outing at Wheeling Park.
Now, 53 years later, Danny Ackerman not only is the general manager of the park’s Bloch Memorial nine-hole course but also for the Wheeling Park Commission’s additional four courses. He was hired by Billy Casper Golf as the GM of The Virtues Golf Club in Nashport, Ohio, but when given the opportunity to return to his hometown, Ackerman came home to Wheeling.
“I really never thought I would leave the (Virtues Golf Club) because I really loved it there, but then a new owner hired the Billy Casper Golf to manage the course,” Ackerman explained. “Soon after that, the company got the contract here at Oglebay, and my regional manager called me and told me he wanted to discuss whether or not I would consider coming home.
“It just seemed like the right thing to do at that time in my life,” he said. “I didn’t have many chances to come home during my career, and my kids hadn’t spent much time with their grandparents. I thought it would be a neat to finish out my career where I started golfing when I was a 6-year-old.”
Oh Captain, My Captain
Danny’s father, Tom Ackerman, was the head basketball coach at West Liberty University for 11 seasons and was a stellar athlete at the school as well. Not only was Tom named to the all-conference hoops squad three times, but he also was a member of the Hilltoppers’ golf and baseball teams, too.
So, yes, Danny played those three sports, but it was the baseball diamond that attracted him the most. That is, until the day he wanted to play the game and there was no one else available.
“I grew up playing basketball, baseball, and golf, and when I was younger baseball was my best sport,” Ackerman said. “What I didn’t like about baseball was that you always needed other people to play the game. In basketball, you could go and shoot all you want, and with golf, you can always practice chipping and putting. We did play sandlot baseball, but I enjoyed practicing, and that was difficult without other people.”
So golf became his game and following his graduation from Wheeling Park High, he served as the captain of West Virginia University’s golf team.
“So, golf for me was a sport that allowed me to practice,” he continued. “Plus, I’ve always loved the game of golf and loved playing with my father and his friends. But, at first, I thought I wanted to go into teaching after getting my Master’s, but then someone asked me if I was interested in getting into the golf business. I decided to try it at Pinehurst, and I loved it. That’s how it came to be for me.
“I stayed at Pinehurst for 12 years working in the shop and teaching advanced schools, and then I became the golf pro for the resorts No. 6 course,” Ackerman said. “I left there in the late 1990s for Quail Hollow Country Club, where I was the director of golf and the general manager for my last two years. After that, I went to Longaberger Golf Club, and then I came home to Oglebay. I am very lucky to have had the career I’ve had.”
Something For Everyone
Oglebay and Wheeling Park offer something of a five-step staircase when it comes to the game of golf, and that is something Ackerman has not seen during his professional and personal travels. Beginners often begin learning the game on the Par-3 course along Oglebay Drive, and then they progress to Wheeling Park’s 9-hole track.
And then there is the Crispin Golf Course, an 18-hole course that surrounds Oglebay’s Pine Room, public pool, and the park’s tennis center. The Speidel Golf Club features the Trent Jones Course that opened in 1970 and hosted LPGA events for 11 years, and the Arnold Palmer Course opened in 2000 and is the park’s newest track.
“As much as any place I’ve ever been, the courses we have at Oglebay and Wheeling Park offer local golfers various levels of difficulty. You can get started on the Par 3 course, graduate to Wheeling Park, and then to Crispin,” Ackerman said. “And then, as you continue to improve, you can move up to the Trent Jones and the Arnold Palmer courses.
“Then, as you get a little older, you can graduate back down to Crispin, and after that, you can go back to Wheeling Park,” he said. “The parks offer anything you want when you are developing young golfers and introducing the game to senior golfers. We have great diversity here at the parks.”
The Crispin Course, the oldest on the Oglebay grounds, has proved the most popular since Ackerman returned to the Upper Ohio Valley four years ago.
“Crispin is the course most people do play, but without a doubt the people of Wheeling consider all of our courses at Oglebay and Wheeling Park their home courses,” Ackerman said. “Our men’s golf club here at Oglebay is approaching 300 members, and it’s grown each year since I returned home, and the amount of outings we schedule each year is very impressive to me. Every golfer in our Wheeling community plays these courses for charities, to do business, to spend time with friends, and for a lot more reasons.
“It is very rare for a city like Wheeling to have parks like Oglebay and Wheeling Park,” he added. “What we have here in Wheeling is very unique, and that was another one of the reasons why it was an easy decision to come home when I did.”
