BUFFALO TWP — Run a business and raise a family.

Harold and Margie Waldron wanted the best of both worlds. They found it in golf.

And Buffalo Golf Course has prospered as the fruit of their endeavors.

"We were looking for a way to have a family business that could be taken care of while I stayed home and raised the kids." Mrs. Waldron said. "And we both liked golf."

So they bought Fore Acres, a nine-hole executive golf course in the Plum area, in the early 1960s and operated it for five years.

"We were little at the time and Mom sold greens fees through an open window, right in the home," their son, Ken, said.

A car dealership eventually developed interest in the property and made the Waldrons an offer "we just couldn't turn down," Mrs. Waldron said.

So the family searched for another piece of land to build a golf course. They found a dairy farm and constructed the Buffalo Golf Course on 126 acres of land.

Ken Waldfron, 43, runs the business now, with help from his sister, Maggie. Their father died in 2003, but their mother, turning 81, remains involved and plays golf three times a week.

The course's first nine holes opened in 1967. The other nine were completed a year later.

"The final section of Route 28 was supposed to be through here in 1969, but it actually didn't happen until 1985," Ken Waldron said. "We struggled for a while because of that.

"My parents bought this land, designed and built the course themselves. They designed the holes by positioning pipe cleaners on a map.

"For years, this business was run by family. Three or four people did everything. I don't know what child labor laws were, but I was cutting greens at age 13," he said.

Buffalo Golf Course has roughly 25 employees today. The clubhouse was built in 1992 — five years after the Waldrons lost their home on the course grounds in 1987.

"The house got struck by lightning in May of that year," Maggie Waldron said. "Some golfers on the course at the time helped carry furniture out of there."

As usual, the Waldrons carried on. The family had a new home built nearby, where Mrs. Waldron lives today.

She plays in the Buffalo Gals golf league and is at least 15 years older than every other league member.

"I shot a 90 recently at age 80," she said. "I'm pretty proud of that. When I play nine holes, I walk. When I play 18, I ride."

The Freeport and Valley high school golf teams use Buffalo as their home course. One of Maggie Waldron's sons, Steven, golfs for Freeport.

Maggie works in the pro shop, along with other general duties.

"We've had great times here," she said.

If the course has a signature hole, Ken said it'd be the No. 7, a par-3 built into the woods.

"That was Dad's favorite hole," he said.

Whether Buffalo Golf Course gets passed down to the next generation of Waldrons remains to be seen. Ken has three children and so does Maggie.

"I'm also a black belt in taekwondo. My daughter's involved in that, too," Ken said. "Our kids will be encouraged to continue their education and pursue their own interests.

"That's the way we were raised."