Later this year, the Tahoe City Golf Course will celebrate its 100th anniversary. Constructed and designed by May Webb Dunn in 1917, it is considered the oldest golf course to be designed by a woman west of the Mississippi. For 40 of those 100 years, the Tahoe City Golf Course has been managed by a Bonino. It was Angelo from 1951 to 1974 and his son Bobbie from 1987 to 2004. Now, Bobbie has returned to manage the course once again for the Tahoe City Public Utility District.
In 1948, Carl and Elsie Bechdolt purchased the nine-hole Tahoe City Golf Course. It was originally built for the sumptuous Tahoe Tavern, Tahoe City’s prime attraction in the early years of the 20th Century. Angelo Bonino began managing the course in 1951. He met Christine Bechdolt, Carl and Elsie’s oldest child, most likely on the golf course. They married and eventually raised six Bonino children: Brent, Brian, Bobbie, Brad, Angela and Ann. From the beginning, the course was part of the kids’ lives.
“My mom went into labor with me on the 3rd green,” said Bobbie. “I was almost born on the golf course.” His dad was in the clubhouse from April to November. “All day, every day,” said Bobbie.
Bobbie began playing golf at an early age, while attending Tahoe Lake School, located next to the golf course. Bobbie said that he and his three brothers were always running around town, catching lizards and crawdads and building tunnels in the snow.
“It was a pretty cool town to grow up in. You could not get in trouble, everyone would look out for you,” said Bonino.
Bobbie was good at looking out for others, as well. According to Shirley Hale, when her family first moved to Tahoe in 1971, “Bobbie was the first kid to extend a hand of friendship to our son Mark and it meant a lot.”
At 13, Bonino’s life in Tahoe came to a temporary halt. His parents divorced and Angelo began raising his brood of six alone in South San Francisco. Soon after, Angelo got Bobbie and his brothers into the golf industry. At 15, Bobbie began working at Cypress Hills in Colma working for Fred Venturi, father of the great golfing legend Ken Venturi. He also played golf in high school, junior college and in college. And, all along the Boninos would come up every summer to play golf at the family course in Tahoe City.
In 1987, Bobbie’s aunt, Mindy Bechdolt Belding, asked him to run the golf course. He managed it from 1987 to 2004. His brothers Brent and Brad were also involved, each of them acting as superintendents of the course for more than 10 years. For the first few years as manager, Bob lived in Tahoe City, but after marrying he moved to Auburn and commuted to the lake to run the course. In 2004, he went into the construction business in Auburn.
In 2012, the Bechdolt Family sold the Tahoe City Golf Course to the Tahoe City Public Utility District.
Every year, the biggest event at the Tahoe City Golf Course is the Bill and Bill Tournament, which honors the memory of Bobbie’s uncles, Bill Bechdolt and Bill Conners, two long-time Tahoe City stalwarts who spent a great deal of their time on the course. This year’s tourney is on June 3.
Last June after attending the Two Bills event, Bob approached TCPUD Director Cindy Gustafson with a proposal to return to Tahoe to run the course.
“She kicked it around and thought it was a really good idea,” said Bonino. “Now the TCPUD can keep it as a community golf course and it’s an opportunity for me to continue the heritage of the course.”
Bonino owns a lot near the 5th tee, purchased by his father many decades ago, where he plans on building a home.
“This is my last move. It’s not work, it’s a really cool job. I don’t expect to be moving anywhere else.” said Bonino.
Many long-time golfers are happy to see him returning.
“He is one of the kindest people I know. He is really a nice guy. I’ve known him since he was 10 and I’ve never known him to be anything except even keeled,” said Ruth Schnabel, who in the early 1970s took her first golf lesson from Angelo Bonino. “I couldn’t be happier that he is coming back. It will be really good for the golf course and the community.”
Hale agrees: “He is a wonderful, wonderful person. With Bobbie in charge, the golf course will return to being a friendly place to play golf.
