History

David L. Johnson

farmer; president, Ocean City Golf Club · active 1923–1929

In the spring of 1923 David L. Johnson "rearranged his farm on the Bay" at Ocean City and made arrangements with the Maryland Country Club to open an extensive golf links and tennis courts "in easy access of the city and open to visitors at a moderate charge." From mid-June the Washington Evening Star's resort advertising carried a standing notice for the "Ocean City Golf Course. New Nine-Hole Course," and the resort's own banner began selling golf and tennis for the first time. By 1929 he is PRESIDENT of the club, not merely the man whose farm it sits on: on 5 July 1929 "David Johnson, president of the Ocean City Golf Club" told a Washington reporter the course was in excellent shape and that "the golfing here goes on for the whole year," and in November he advertised as "David L. Johnson, Ocean City Golf Club" for a tenant for the hundred-acre golf club farm.

In the record (4)

  1. 1923

    Ocean City gets a golf course: a new nine holes and tennis courts laid out on David L. Johnson's bayside farm.

    The Board of Trade's May report: "David L. Johnson has rearranged his farm on the Bay, and has made arrangements with the Maryland Country Club to open an extensive golf links and tennis courts in easy access of the city and open to visitors at a moderate charge." From mid-June the Washington Evening Star's resort block carried its own standing advertisement — "Ocean City Golf Course. New Nine-Hole Course." — and the Breakers advertised "golf and tennis privileges" while the Plimhimmon simply listed "Golf" among its amenities.

    This is the year golf arrives at Ocean City, and it arrives on a farm.

    Plimhimmon Hotel / Plim PlazaMaryland Country ClubBoard of Trade of Ocean City

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

  2. 1924 · 1924-10-29

    David L. Johnson sells ten tuberculin-tested milch cows 'at the Ocean City, Md., Golf Course.'

    A public-sale notice in the Milford Chronicle for 17 and 24 October 1924: '10 HEAD FINE Milch Cows, All Tuberculin Tested, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 1924. DAVID L. JOHNSON, Ocean City, Md., Golf Course.' In 1923 Johnson 'rearranged his farm on the Bay' and made arrangements with the Maryland Country Club to open golf links and tennis courts. A year later the links are advertised in Washington every week of the season — 'New Nine-Hole Course. New Tea Room attached' — and the farm is still selling its dairy herd off the same ground. In September and again in November Johnson also took out warrants from the Land Office of Maryland for vacant land in Isle of Wight Bay, three miles south-west of the Isle of Wight Life Saving Station and a quarter of a mile west of the beach north of Ocean City, 'surrounded by the waters of Isle of Wight Bay.'

    Maryland Country ClubOcean City Golf and Country Club

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

  3. 1929

    'The golfing here goes on for the whole year' — David L. Johnson, president of the Ocean City Golf Club, July 1929.

    'OCEAN CITY, Md., July 5 — The golf course here, which has been very popular with visitors to this city during the past, is in excellent shape, and should prove more alluring than ever before, David Johnson, president of the Ocean City Golf Club, declared today. The golfing here goes on for the whole year and, due to the fine climate, the greens and fairways are always in good shape.' In November the same man advertised in a Virginia weekly for a tenant for '100 acres exceptionally good land. House, barn and outbuildings on the golf club farm. Apply to David L. Johnson, Ocean City Golf Club, Ocean City, Md.'

    The farmer who rearranged his bayside farm in 1923 so that nine holes could be laid out on it is president of the golf club six years later, and still farming the rest of it. And the club's selling point is that the course never closes — which is a resort claiming its season is longer than a season.

    Source · checked 2026-08-06

  4. 1937 · 1937-11-27

    The Ocean City golf course was to be ploughed up for corn, potatoes and tomatoes because the resort's visitors would not play

    'John S. Whaley ... plans to convert the whole Ocean City Golf Course into fields of corn, potatoes and tomatoes by next spring,' the Salisbury Times reported on 27 November 1937, citing 'lack of interest in golf among Ocean City's annual 25,000 visitors.' The Ocean City Golf Club had been organised in the 1920s under David L. Johnson; a decade later the ground was worth more in truck crops. The same season had put a hundred and twenty-five thousand people in the town on a single day, taken a million pounds of fish out of the ocean and counted $112,000 of building — and could not fill a golf course.

    Source · checked 2026-08-11