Golf Facts

The Club at Old Kinderhook is one of many golf courses in the Lake area that was once farmland.

In 1994 Lake of the Ozarks hosted the National PGA Professional Championship. A three-person sudden death playoff decided the champion. Sammy Rachels (pictured) took home a $32,000 first-place check.

AL GRIFFIN PHOTO

PHOTO PROVIDED BY PAUL LEAHY

Did you know?

THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT GOLF AT LAKE OF THE OZARKS

Story by PAUL LEAHY

Most of our readers know there are multiple great golf courses that dot the landscape of Lake of the Ozarks, but did you know there are facts and obscure tidbits about our favorite courses?

Golf has been part of the Lake of the Ozarks since 1934 with the opening of nine holes in Eldon. Seventy years later the final golf course was opened in 2004, the Golf Club at Deer Chase. Three courses have closed over the years, Bay View Golf Club, Dogwood Hills Golf Course, and Sycamore Creek Golf Club. The Lake is still home to 243 golf holes, encompassing 13 different facilities. Just shy of 300,000 rounds are played annually with approximately 70 percent of those rounds coming from visitors spending time at the Lake. The economic impact golf has had on the region is unquestioned and the Lake area would be a totally different place without its golf facilities.

There are 15 PGA of America member professionals and many more PGA apprentices working at the Lake’s courses. Combined experience of these members is in excess of 225 years. We are blessed to have so many experienced professionals providing us with excellent instruction and unique golfing experiences.

Did you know that two airplanes have used fairways at golf courses to land their planes? A plane had to make an emergency landing on the finishing hole at Dogwood Hills when it was on approach to the Grand Glaize Airport. Another plane had engine trouble and made an emergency landing on the Sycamore Creek Golf Course. In both instances the pilots, passengers and golfers were uninjured and the pilot even managed to miss all the hatchery ponds scattered

throughout Sycamore Creek. A cement truck however was not as fortunate as it turned over onto the Sycamore Creek Golf Course and ended up in one of the hatchery ponds, causing quite the traffic jam as well as another obstacle for golfers to traverse.

Did you know that two courses offered snow skiing? The Oaks Golf Course at Margaritaville was once a very popular ski destination for winter visitors. Manmade snow was produced, the clubhouse was home to the Maverick Night Club and skiers could keep warm by the double fireplace overlooking the slopes. Its last days of skiing were in 1982, two years after the opening of the course. Remnants can still be found at the Oaks, as the building still resembles a ski chalet, the fireplaces are still in place today and parts of the ski lift can be seen when you cross the dam from the tee box on hole No. 8 as you proceed to the green. The Cove Course at the Lodge of Four Seasons also offered snow skiing. Instead of downhill skiing it was home to cross country skiing. It also went the way of the Dodo Bird around 1980.

Farmland played a huge part of the golf landscape at the Lake of the Ozarks, as no less than six of the courses can date their beginnings back to farming. Rolling Hills Country Club was going to be built on some hilly, rocky land south of Versailles when JC Garrison was making milk deliveries and found the new location, where the course is today. It was a working dairy farm when the land was purchased for the course. The Arrowhead Development on State Hwy. KK was once the site of the Dogwood Hills Golf Resort and before that it was the Turkey Bend Poultry Farm, which housed White Faced cattle, Broiler Hens and a minnow hatchery. Bear Creek Valley was also farmland. The farm that is now holes 8-15 was owned by a gentlemen that was in the color guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery when President Truman spoke. The additional land was 250 acres of Oak and Hickory trees that were harvested and grown there. Lake Valley Country Club and The Club at Old Kinderhook were both farmland before transforming into their current forms. The Empire Ranch is now the Club at Old Kinderhook but was hours away from becoming the site of Lake Valley Country Club. During negotiations with the owner of the Empire Ranch, he suddenly passed away, and another piece of farmland was selected by Lake Valley members across the street which has housed the club since 1969. More than 30 years later the Empire Ranch became the Club at Old Kinderhook.

In 1994 Lake of the Ozarks was host to the largest professional golf tournament in the country, the National PGA Professional Championship. More than 300 PGA of America club professionals came from all across the country in October to compete over four days at the Oaks Golf Course at Margaritaville, The Cove Golf Course at the Lodge of Four Seasons and the newly-opened North Port National Golf Club now the Osage National Golf Resort. Heavy rains put a damper on the event as many rounds were delayed by the elements. Even with the inclement weather a course record was recorded at the Oaks by eventual runner-up Ron McDougal who shot 65 in the second round which still stands today. The most interesting part, however, is that it took three days to complete. He was able to play one hole on Friday, 16 holes on Saturday and finished with a birdie on 18 on Sunday morning before completing his third round at the Cove that afternoon because of the delays. Another course record was recorded at North Port National (Osage National) by Eddie Teresa and Phil Bland who both recorded rounds of five under par 67. The final round was scheduled for Sunday but was delayed and the tournament concluded on Monday, for the first time in the tournament’s history, at the Oaks Course once the field was reduced to the low 72 players. A three-person sudden death play-off decided the champion which was Sammy Rachels. He took home the $32,000 first-place check. Local PGA Professional Kent Dinsdale, currently at Oak Meadow Country Club in Rolla, carded a final round 72 to finish tied for 19th and qualified to play in the 1995 PGA Championship played at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla. In 1994, the low 25 players earned an exemption into the following years PGA Championship alongside the best of the best on the PGA Tour. The courses at the Lake showed their teeth as the winning score was a cumulative one under par and was the highest winning score at the time. North Port National proved to be the toughest test with a cumulative scoring average of 76.01 compared to 75.98 at the Oaks and 75.17 at the Cove Course. The toughest hole of the week to par was understandably the Par-4 18th hole at the Oaks which played to a stroke average of 4.61.

From farms, to skiing, to hatcheries, golf at the Lake has evolved over a span of 85 years and is now one of the most popular Midwest golfing destinations. We should be proud that all these fine courses are right in our backyard!

The Oaks Golf Course at Margaritaville was once a very popular ski destination for winter visitors. It closed in 1982 but the current building still resembles a ski chalet.