It is a rare golf or country club that can point to a community-service organization as its origin. Cavaliers is such a club.

In September, 1957, five men-Alfred J. Vilone, Sr., Daniel A. Matassino, Joseph L. Errigo, James Julian, and Charles Petrillo-met at the Hotel Rodney, in Wilmington, to lay the groundwork for an organization that came to be called the Cavaliers of Delaware. Its purpose was to render broad community service to the people of the state- helping the needy, providing scholarships for worthy students, minimizing juvenile delinquency.

The membership grew so rapidly that it was soon decided to add.social and recreational activities to the base of civic and charitable endeavors. Exactly one year after the meeting at the Hotel Rodney, the Cavaliers purchased a 153-acre tract of farmland on Churchman Road, in New Castle County. A groundbreaking ceremony for the Cavaliers Country Club was held on January 5, 1959, with Delaware's Governor Caleb J. Boggs turning over the first spadeful of earth (and well-nigh frozen earth it was as the temperature hovered at 15 while some 200 chilled clubmembers looked on). Alfred J. Vilone, Sr., first president of the new club, estimated that the clubhouse would be completed by July and the golf course by the end of May, 1960.

A commemorative book published in September, 1960, pays tribute to Vilone's energy and vision: "The Cavaliers [Country Club] was his 'brain child' He drove himself to the limit. He set the pace and pointed the way. He lost track of time. He worked day and night, holidays and weekends. When others faltered in their work, he took it up and finished it. He had only one goal in mind over the past two years and that was the successful completion of the Cavaliers Country Club. Everything else, including his personal business, was secondary."

As at Indian Valley, many members contributed heavily-in time, labor, and materials-to building the new club. A number of them even put interest-free loans at the club's disposal.

The firm of Murray and Roberts, Rockville, Maryland, was selected to design and build the course. The holes are routed over pleasantly rolling terrain-no steep ups and downs, but no dull flattish stretches either. Against a par of 71, the course measures 6,536 yards from the championship tees, 6,200 from the regular tees. Ladies' yardage is 5,729. Par is 72. Four ponds and a lake are the most prominent hazards. The layout is not heavily bunkered, but boundaries are a factor from time to time. It's important to make your figures on the first nine, because the second nine contains three of the finest and most rigorous holes on the course: #12, 367 yards steadily uphill and playing close to 400 yards, very tight driving because of the boundary left and the trees right; #13, 563 yards, restricted driving because of the dogleg and afford a shot at the green; #17, 384 yards, out of bounds on the left forcing the tee shot right and setting up a difficult second to the closely bunkered green. The slope of 121 suggests that Cavaliers might be less testing than it actually is.