EDMOND GOLF
Art Proctor, Mike McGraw, Bobby Small, Greg McCain and Larry Fryer at KickingBird Golf Club.
Golf Central, USA
by ken macleod
T
How Edmond became the center of the golf universe
he year was 1971, Edmond was a small bedroom community of about 18,000 north of Oklahoma City and known for anything but golf. Its first golf course, a tree-lined municipal course called Kickingbird, was just set to open. Now this bustling city of nearly 90,000 is home to seven courses, has produced 48 high school team championships, has more Champions Tour, PGA Tour and aspiring pros at one course than just about any club in the U.S., has the only junior golf hall of fame of which we’re aware, has hosted numerous USGA and PGA championships and is generally recognized as one of the best golf communities in the country.
How did this happen? It all started at Kickingbird back in 1971. The way head pro Art Proctor ran the course in the early days might horrify parents and draw a quick visit from the district attorney today, but he was laying the groundwork for Edmond to blossom into one of the great golf centers in the Southwest. Proctor, one of the state’s best players, teachers and all-around golf gurus, had a willing workforce of kids as young as age 11 up through high school, all paid for by free golf and range balls. Steven Steele,
who now runs the Edmond Junior Golf Hall of Fame founded by Mike McGraw, remembers getting dropped off at 5 a.m. daily in the summer at age 12 and before 6 a.m. he was on the back patio with a microphone serving as the starter for the always packed tee sheet. When he was 13, Steele graduated to scrubbing the grill where some of the state’s best cheeseburgers are cooked, a task he did for 365 consecutive days, a record he is proud of to this day. He also saw his forearms swell from 8-to-14 inches around and his driving distance increase by 70 yards in one summer. While Proctor was grooming a swarm of dedicated young golf nuts, he had also basically saved the Oklahoma Open from
Mike McGraw gets tossed into the pond at Oak Tree Country Club by his Edmond North team. Mike was the Assistant Coach at Edmond Memorial. The young man holding McGraw around his upper body is current Karsten Creek General Manager, Rob Land. McGraw was the first coach at Edmond North, the school opened in the fall of 1993. The 1994 team, his first, won the Class 4A title, there was a Class 5A that year. 24
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