50 minute read
1994-2002, The Oak Tree Gang, new
1994-2002
Let's build a course a day!
In this issue we look back at 20 years of golf in Oklahoma, with the most recent decade to be reviewed in our October Issue. Hope you have fun reminiscing or learning about these events for the first time.
August 1994, 1994 PGA Championship Preview Issue
• Tim Fleming, then an assistant at Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club, wins the South Central Section Match Play Championship at Hillcrest Country Club in Bartlesville. He is still winning them today, having just won his eighth title at Quail Creek Golf & Country Club in late June. A remarkable run of consistently great play for the former Oklahoma State All-American. • Andy Crabtree, a 17-year-old from Bixby, wins the OGA Junior. Crabtree is now the men’s golf coach at Oklahoma City University. • In one of the many stories previewing the 1994 PGA Championship at Southern Hills, we lamented the lack of young faces on the PGA Tour. Tom Lehman, breaking through in his early 30s to be one of the top players, seemed the new model. The average age of players making it through Qualifying School that year was 30. We wrote that we hoped Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods could help change that dynamic.
They certainly did that! And now the top 10 in the World Golf Rankings are mostly under 30. Times have changed dramatically.
September-October 1994
Amid our coverage of Nick Price’s runaway victory in the 1994 PGA Championship were these nuggets: • Four members of Oak Tree Golf Club (now Oak Tree National) led by furniture magnate Don Mathis and including oilmen Art Swanson, Ran Ricks and Walter Duncan, purchased the club from the Resolution Trust Corporation. Signature Properties purchased the 36hole Oak Tree Country Club and facilities for $20 million. • Lyndy Lindsey builds a par-3 course at an apartment complex in Fay-
etteville, Ark., his second course after Lost Springs Country Club in Rogers, Ark. Lindsey would go on to build numerous courses to supplement apartment complexes in Oklahoma, including one each in Broken Arrow, Owasso, Bixby, Stillwater, Moore and Norman. • Arnold Palmer concluded his run in the PGA Championship, the major he never won, with a 20-foot par putt on the 18th hole Friday, sending the crowd into delirium. • The local contingent left Southern Hills marveling at Price’s 11-under total and frustrated by their own play. Glen Day did the best, tying for 15th at 1-over. Bill Glasson tied for 19th, Gil Morgan 44th and Andrew Magee 47th. Bob Tway missed the cut. • Our Kansas correspondent Mal Elliott looked back over his long career covering golf in Kansas and Oklahoma and noted the most re-
markable family he had covered was the Stevens clan of Wichita, with 32 state and city championships. That legacy goes on today with former OSU golfer Sam Stevens on the Korn Ferry Tour working his way to the PGA Tour. • Greg Norman, frustrated with the conditions of the bent grass greens in August, advised Southern Hills to put in Bermuda greens. Greg is still full of advice today. • David Edwards won the Oklahoma Open, outdueling Chris Tidland and Rocky Walcher down the stretch. Pat McTigue, now at Meadowbrook Country Club, edged Tim Fleming to win the PGA South Central Section Club Pro Championship at Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club with rounds of 67-68. Joe Nick, then the state’s domiTim Fleming nant amateur along with Tim Graves, won the OGA Stroke Play Championship at The Greens in Oklahoma City by a stroke over Roger Brown of Arkansas City and Doug Ramey of Seminole. Sheila Dills of Tulsa won her second WOGA State Amateur. Dills went on to lead WOGA as president before a stint in the state legislature where among her final accomplishments were writing bills to start an Oklahoma Golf Trail and celebrate an annual Oklahoma Day of Golf.
Sheila Dills
• Lake Hefner North reopens after a complete renovation by architect Randy Heckenkemper and quickly becomes one of the top destinations for public golf in the state. • Tim Johnson, now the general manager at The Golf Club of Oklahoma, became the new head pro at Indian Hills Country Club and Resort in Fairfield Bay, Ark. • A $5-million renovation of the Jimmie Austin University of Oklahoma Course was announced, including a redesign by Bob Cupp and, for the first time, an irrigation system. Next year The Jimmie will begin a five-year run of holding a Korn Ferry Tour event, bringing top level professional golf to the state on a consistent basis. • Our favorite story of that issue, a profile on OSU coach Mike Holder through the eyes of his former players, included stories of wrestling matches with Tom Jones and others, trading elbows with Bob Tway on the basketball court and other tactics that would be unusual today, to say the least. But many of his players credited him with doing everything he asked of others, whether donating to Karsten Creek or pushing himself through 6:30 a.m. workouts. And of doing a good job of hiding a soft and compassionate side.
For as cold and flinty as he can seem at times, Holder can also be charming and the he can change from one to the next at a moment’s notice. One quote from Jones in the story captured that. “He doesn’t see the value in chitchat,” said Jones, now the general manager and COO at Oak Tree National who was then running Karsten Creek. “He’s not the type to stand around and talk about the weather. Instead, he’ll just stand there.”
• We profile OSU ex Brian Watts after he won five tournaments and $1.4 million on the Japanese Tour in 1994. • Our college spring preview features OSU seniors Alan Bratton and Chris Tidland, Michael Boyd at Tulsa, Jeff Lee with Oklahoma and Tag Ridings at Arkansas. Tag is still playing professionally, Bratton is the OSU coach, Tidland the head professional at Stillwater Country Club, and Boyd now in private business after a OSU golfer Chris Tidland long career as a PGA and Mike Holder. professional.
Happy 30th Anniversary Golf Oklahoma!
Alan Bratton
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• Cary Cozby takes a job as an assistant at Southern Hills Country Club, leaving Oak Tree National. • Tripp Davis is profiled as his new firm Tripp Davis & Associates takes off, with an impending contract to do a new nine at Roman Nose and to help Bob Cupp with his renovation of Jimmie Austin. He was already also doing lots of renovation work around the country, which continues to be the case today. • Jim Hays, who helped us start this magazine with a timely loan, wins the firstever event on the Ozark Professional Golf Tour. At age 49, Hays was preparing for a run at the Champi- Tripp Davis ons Tour. • More than 20 PGA Tour players, including Scott Simpson, Hal Sutton, Doug Tewell, David Edwards and Billy Mayfair, agree to play in the final edition of Fore Tulsa!, an annual fundraiser run by the Junior League of Tulsa. Since it’s inception in 1963 it had raised more than $1.7 million and participating players had included Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Billy Casper, Lee Trevino, Byron Nelson, Tom Watson, Ray Floyd, Tom Weiskopf, Tom Kite, Johnny Miller, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Tommy Bolt, Fred Couples, Payne Stewart, Ken Venturi and just about every other big name professional of the 1960s through the 1980s.
The tournament ended because pros were now asking $30,000 to $40,000 in appearance fees and the Junior League was unable to raise enough on top of the field costs to make it worthwhile. • The big feature that issue was on the program run by Steve Carson at Lincoln Park to help Douglass High School field a team and to help build minority golf participation at Lincoln Park. He kept up those efforts until retirement in 2021.
• Oklahoma City area golf professionals come together to raise money for the victims of the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. Dennis McKnight, an assistant at Earlywine Park, led the effort which raised over $46,000 for the relief effort. • Harbour Town Golf Links is rechristened Oak Tree Town after Bob Tway wins there, joining Doug Tewell and David Edwards as Oak Tree Gang members to have won on Hilton Head Island. • Tulsa coach Bill Brogden and Oral Roberts athletic director Mike Carter win the OGA FourBall, shooting rounds of 65-66 at Dornick Hills in Ardmore. Both are now retired but still active in promoting golf throughout the state. • In our feature on the NCAA Central Regional, junior Dan Rooney shot a final round 70 for Kansas. Rooney, of course, went on to found The Folds of Honor Foundation.
• OSU’s Alan Bratton won the NCAA Central regional just ahead of Craig Cozby of Oklahoma. • We caught up with Tom Fazio, in town for a renovation at The Golf Club of Oklahoma that would close the course for nine months. Of any similarities between The Golf Club and Karsten Creek, Fazio said: “If there’s a recognizable style, it’s because the sites are similar. If you look at the profile, both have a water-retention lake, both have rolling terrain with dense tree cover, both have a substantial amount of land without housing projects on either piece.” • Among the high school champs that spring were Frank Genzer of Jenks, Josh Whitehead of U.C. Ferguson and Mark Felder Midwest City Carl Albert, Matt Morgan of Cushing, Scott Sheperd of Stigler and Cody Freeman of Arnett. For the girls, 15-year-old Enid freshman Stacy Prammanasudh upended two-time state champion Stacy Rambin, a junior at Jenks.
JULY 1995 SEPTEMBER 1995
• Our cover story details the unique friendship between Alan Bratton and Chris Tidland not long after they took down Tiger Woods and Stanford and got ready to embark on their future golf careers. • Another unique group of golfers band together to help OKC bombing victims, this one including Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Dave Stockton, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Scott Verplank and many others, representing 396 tour victoArnold Palmer ries, including 194 on the PGA Tour and 202 on the Champions Tour. The event, called the Heartland of America Pro-Am, will help rebuild a childcare center in downtown Oklahoma City.
• Labron Harris, who built the OSU golf dynasty, died Aug. 14 at the age of 86 in Sun City, Ariz. Harris coached 27 AllAmericans, won 24 conference titles and one NCAA Championship (1963).
His successor, Mike Holder, remembered him as being tough as old horsehide. At 58, Harris whipped Holder easily in a wrestling match.
“He was tough,” Holder said. “He never made anyone do anything. He just set a good example. He was always out there practicing, working on his game. He was a great coach, but I know he most loved to compete.” • In the not-much-has-changed department, we wrote a feature on OSU’s Kevin Wentworth and OU’s Jeff Lee, two surethings coming out of college who had yet to break through on the mini-tours and become PGA Tour stars. Neither ever did and it remains a brutally tough game today no matter your collegiate accomplishment.
Labron Harris
Editor’s note: To preview the 1995 Tour Championship at Southern Hills, we switched from a tabloid format to a glossy magazine format. Greg Norman was on the cover, having led the money list that year with $1,567,359. Apparently judging by the events of the day, it wasn’t enough.
JANUARY 1996
Much unlike today, when far more courses close than open, here were the courses we detailed as under construction at the outset of 1996.
Battle Creek in Broken Arrow, River Bend in Chickasha, Flint Hills in Wichita, Stuttgart (Ark.) Country Club, Chickasha Point in Kingston, nine holes at Roman Nose State Park in Watonga, nine holes at Langley State Park near Grand Lake, The Woods in Coweta, Greystone Golf & Country Club in Cabot, Ark., Lin Lar Golf Course in Muskogee, Eagle Crest in Alma, Ark., Diamante Country Club in Hot Springs Village, Springdale (Ark.) Country Club, The Traditions in Edmond (where Dan Rooney got his start as a professional) and Beulah Land Plantation in Hot Springs (one that never came to fruition). In Oklahoma now, the only course under construction is The Battlefield, a new par-3 at Shangri-La Resort. It will be the first new course to open since The Patriot in 2010. Over 40 courses have closed in Oklahoma since the end of the golf boom, including of those mentioned above: River Bend, The Woods and The Traditions. Right now there is a good chance for the remaining courses to be successful, but anyone opening a new course will hopefully consider whether it is truly needed and its impact on everyone else in the market.
MARCH 1996
• Our cover story was on ShangriLa, then under the auspices of Club Corp., which completed a $1-million renovation. Rick Reed, who recently retired from The Oaks
Rick Reed
CC, was then the head professional and Marshall Smith taught there. That was one of Shangri La’s heydays in its history of peaks and valleys, but nothing to match the splendor of today.
www.LaFortuneParkGolf.com
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• Our cover story was on Jake Engel, who abused his body to play over 10,075 holes of golf in 1996, setting what was then the recognized record by Golf Digest for most holes played in a single year, most of it at Lincoln Park in Oklahoma City. Alas, it didn’t last long and the record now is 14,626 holes by Chris Adams at a course in Hawaii. Still it was a massive effort by Engel, who was only averaging 19.6 holes per day when we ran the story but stepped it up to nearly 30 a day the rest of the year in order to break the record.
We switched from tabloid to gloss. It was not an impressive debut. Corey Pavin was on the cover, why I can’t remember. The magazine was 24 pages with five pages or so of ads.
• A few stories of interest. D.W. Kang, who built Gleneagles Golf Course in Broken Arrow, told us stories about growing up in Seoul, South Korea.
“You fight all the time,” Kang said. “When you fight, you break your nose, break your teeth. No big deal. We don’t go to the doctor that much. The police come, but they just tell you not to fight.”
Kang, a grand master in Taekwondo, achieved Class A status as a PGA professional. He saw his Gleneagles course close, but Kang moved on to purchase Clary Fields in Sapulpa. That course closed as well, proving maybe that running a golf course wasn’t as much his thing as running Taekwondo centers. Now Kang can be found playing frequently with friends at Page Belcher in west Tulsa. And you should still avoid a fight.
• Course update: We detailed the beginnings of Gaillardia Country Club being built by Clay Bennett, son-in-law of publishing scion Edward Gaylord and president of OPUBCO Development Corp. Arthur Hills was the original architect, Landscapes Unlimited did the construction and a grandiose French Normandy style clubhouse was part of the plan. The course put in 419 Bermuda fairways, a hybrid Bermuda which looked great proved to be troublesome anytime there was a severe winter. It has all been replaced now and Gaillardia today is as well-conditioned as any course in the state.
Also, the city of Owasso dismissed the golf management firm of Golf Resources Inc., and decided to run Bailey Ranch itself, turning it over to head professional Warren Lehr. That worked out for both, as Lehr is now city manager and Bailey Ranch is renovated and one of the top public courses in the state. • Competition notes: OSU made it 50 consecutive years of NCAA Championship berths, but finished eighth as Tiger Woods won the individual crown and Arizona State the team title. Dax Johnston of Central Oklahoma won the individual title in the NCAA Division II National Championship. Tim Graves wrapped up the rivalry with Joe Nick that had dominated OGA golf for years by making a birdie putt on the 18th hole as he and Greg Engelbert won the OGA Four-Ball Championship over Nick and Gary Cowan. Fleming turned professional after the tournament.
High School champs included a stunning upset in Girls 5A as Edmond Santa Fe’s
MAY 1996
JUNE 1996
Joe Nick watches as Tim Graves putts for birdie to win the OGA Four-Ball title. Dax Johnston
Wendy Martin defeated defending champion Stacy Prammanasudh of Enid by a shot and two-time champ Stacy Rambin of Jenks by two shots.
Boys champions included Charleton Dechert of Enid, Billy Lowry of Ada, Kyle Cofer of Poteau, Tim Cochran of Atoka and Nick Hughes of Hennessey.
JULY 1996
• The USGA had recently announced it would come to Tulsa for the 2001 U.S. Open and we discussed the pursuit of the major championship with those most closely involved, including members Larry Houchin and Randy Olmstead, as well as general manager Nick Sidorakis and superintendent Bob Randquist. Also
playing big roles in landing what is still the last U.S. Open to be held at the course were W.K. (Bill) Warren Jr. Otis Winters, John Gaberino and Bob Berry. • The cover story was on Todd Graves and his new promotion of The Natural Golf Swing, the single plane swing used by Moe Norman of Canada to win hundreds of events. He and brother Tim are still teaching the single-plane swing today at their bases in Florida and Edmond and at camps and clinics around the country. They will soon be moving back onto the grounds of the former Coffee Creek Golf Course in Edmond.
Warren Spahn and Mickey Mantle were regulars at Shangri-La.
Nick Sidorakis
• Eagle Crest in Muskogee added nine holes. That was ambitious. The entire course is now closed. • U.C. Ferguson was inducted into the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, in an excellent profile on his life and legacy by John Rohde. • Our cover story detailed the renovation of Jimmie Austin by Bob Cupp. No one seemed truly pleased with the course until Tripp Davis did another renovation in 2016-17 that has positioned it as one of the top public courses in the state. • Joe Nick held on for a one-shot victory over Mike Hughett to win the OGA Stroke Play Championship, his ninth OGA title in the past eight years. Nick had nearly missed his tee time in the first round after being up with his wife Dee Dee, who was admitted to a hospital suffering from dehydration while seven months pregnant. He arrived at Lake Hefner North minutes before his tee time and two hours later was 5-under through 12 holes. He wore out, but hung on to win his fourth OGA Stroke Play Championship in his past five attempts. He also won the OGA Match Play in 1989, 1992 and 1993 and the Mid-Am in 1992. It was all about to go wrong, however.
• David Edwards won the rain-shortened Oklahoma Open after shooting a record 14-under in the first two rounds. He would have been paired in the final round with Bob Tway and Tulsa amateur Tag Ridings. • Sheila Dills, 29, earned a three-peat in the WOGA State Amateur Championship with a 5 and 4 victory over Megan Benn of Norman. Dills cried on the shoulder of now late husband and caddie Joey Dills before addressing the media. “He’s the greatest caddie and husband,” Joe Nick she said. “He knows how to read greens and he knows my game. It gave us two good minds out there.”
In 1993 U.C. Ferguson receives plaque from OKC Golf Commission chairman Leroy Richardson. David Edwards
We produced both a regular issue of South Central Golf and a special preview issue for the 1996 Tour Championship at Southern Hills. For that issue, I selected a photo of Tom Lehman for the cover and the current British Open champion backed me up by shooting 12-under to win easily.
For our regular issue of SCG, we had a course rendering of Chickasha Point on the cover, Randy Heckenkemper’s new creation at Lake Texoma. Also under construction at that time in addition to those mentioned in the June 1996 update was the beginning of construction of Patricia Island, a Tripp Davis design on Grand Lake. Also announced was the building of Golden Eagle Golf Course (currently Winter Creek) in Blanchard. There’s a course that has had its ups and downs over the years, but the design by Rocky Roquemore was always solid and entertaining.
Also in that issue we learned about Pheasant Run, an 18-hole public course in Enid that is still operating today. And
Deer Run in Broken Arrow completed its first full year and owner Wayne Koppage immediately started building a second 18. That land eventually became Emerald Falls, which also closed. Koppage went on to buy Eagle Creek in Muskogee, which became another victim of the big golf contraction of 2015-18.
Lin Lar, now called Cobblestone Creek after several ownership changes, is now the only public course open in Muskogee. It was just coming online in the spring of 1997.
NOVEMBER 1996
This issue was dedicated to 37-yearold Tom Lehman and his remarkable 12-under performance in the Tour Champion ship at Southern Hills, the last huge event at the club until the 2001 U.S. Open. Tulsa fans also got their first glimpse of Tiger Woods, who would rather quickly end Lehman’s short run as the No. 1 golfer in the world. But Lehman, when he was putting well, was really tough, as he showed that summer in running away with the British Open and finished second in the U.S. Open.
JANUARY 1997
Our cover story was on the world class golf photography of Mike Klemme of Enid. Oklahoma State signed Charles Howell and Boyd Summerhays, the two highest-ranked recruits Mike Holder had inked in the same
APRIL-MAY 1998
Course construction remained the hot topic as Gaillardia in OKC prepared to open. A Randy Heckenkemper design near Fayetteville called Stonebridge Meadows was featured.
One Maggie Kelt (now Roller) wrote her first instruction piece for the magazine. Her most recent one was in our June-July issue this summer. Maggie continues to do everything in her power to promote golf in Oklahoma.
JUNE-JULY 1998
Oklahoma City came in for high praise in this issue for the work done at Lake Hefner North, Trosper Park and Earlywine with Lincoln Park up next. Lake Hefner North accounted for 70,000 of the 130,000 rounds played in 1997 at Lake Hefner. Those numbers are stunning. Today 30,000 is regarded as a successful year.
In other course news, Jerry Slack was hired to design a new nine holes at Hillcrest Golf Course in Coffeyville, where the original nine was designed by Perry Maxwell. And Slack was also commissioned to add nine holes at Coffeyville Country Club to the nine designed by George Bell.
Bob Phelps, now the head rules official for the OGA, was hired as the head
professional for new course Crimson Creek in El Reno, which opened in July. It was designed by P.B. Dye, son of Pete Dye. Meadowbrook Country Club in Tulsa reopened after a renovation of all of its greens. It still has some of the best greens in the state. On the course, Stacy Prammanasudh won her third state championship for Enid. Tim Fleming knocked off Bob Ralston for his second SCS Match Play Championship title. Winning boys titles were Kyle Willman of Edmond North in 5A, Clint Colbert of Guthrie in 4A, Marty McCauley of Cushing in 3A, Bob Phelps Perry Maxwell and Blake Martin of Stigler in 2A. McCauley is now the head coach of the Oklahoma City University women’s golf team.
An LPGA Pro-Am featuring 26 top players is scheduled at Tulsa Country Club to help raise funds for the University of Tulsa to host the 1998 Bama Fall Preview and the 1999 NCAA Championship, both also at Tulsa Country Club. Seven former TU players are in the field and the event includes a special honor for Tulsa coach Dale McNamara, now in her 25th seaDale McNamara son and having led her team to 74 victories and four national championships.
Competition notes: Brian McGreevy edged Billy Lowry of Ada 3 and 1 to win the OGA State Amateur Championship at Twin Hills Country Club. McGreevy is the father of current PGA Tour golfer Max McGreevy. Brad Golden of Oklahoma City won the OGA Stroke Play Championship at Kickingbird by one shot over Kelsey Cline and Jay Morgan. Bob Randquist, 48, announced he was leaving his post as superintendent at Southern Hills Country Club to work at Boca Rio Golf Club in Boca Raton, Fla. Randquist is now the chief operating officer for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America in Lawrence, Kan. The Landmark name became promiBob Randquist nent again in golf circles. Jerry Barton formed Landmark National and developed courses including South Padre Island Golf Club and The Oaks Golf Club near Biloxi, Miss. Joe Walser and Ernie Vossler, Barton’s partners in the original Landmark Land Company, began developing new courses under the banner Landmark Golf. Barton hired former Landmark key players such as Joel Gann and Chris Cole and installed former Oak Tree pro Brent Goodger as director of golf at South Padre. Dan O’Kane wrote a terrific feature on Hank Kuehne, his difficulties with drinking and the effect it had on his brother Trip and the OSU program before Mike Holder helped Mike Holder and Trip Kuehne. him transfer to SMU. Ernie Vossler and Joe Walser
The golf course total continued to bloom in 1999. Scheduled to open that spring are the Owasso Golf & Athletic Club and Broken Arrow Golf & Athletic Club.
“We’re like the Wal-Mart of golf,” said Lindsey Construction marketing director Kevin Rogerson. “We provide a great product at a reasonable price. We target families who wouldn’t be able to afford an expensive country club and public course golfers who want a country club atmosphere.”
Also under construction that spring was Wolf Mountain in Poteau. A great setting if never a great course, Wolf Mountain still has maybe the best view of any course in
the state.
Andy McCormick purchases River Oaks Country Club and plans a major renovation including rerouting many of the holes to go in the opposite direction of their current layout. Patricia Island is reviewed, while it’s noted that Randy Heckenkemper is designing a nine-hole course to be called The Coves on Grand Lake, while Bland Pittman has a nine-hole addition to Idabel Country Club open and is designing Peoria Ridge in Miami.
Andy McCormick
JUNE-JULY 1999 AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 1999
A F5 tornado that destroyed much of Moore destroyed all structures and trees at the nine-hole Lakeside Golf Course in Moore, but miraculously missed doing heavy damage to other courses that were near its path of destruction.
Former Sooner great Andrew Ma- Andrew Magee gee called for the firing of OU golf coach Gregg Grost after the Sooners went four years without winning. Doug Martin, who captained the Sooners national championship in 1989, also expressed his concern about the direction the program was headed, while current Ping rep and former player Rick Bell said he supported Grost. “He’s finished,” Magee told John Rohde. “He’s got no chance of becoming a national contender.”
Grost, who began his OU career in 1986, was let go in 2000. He eventually became the chief executive officer for the Golf Coaches Association of America and in 2000 became the golf coach for Norman High School.
Competition notes: Jim Woodward, coming back from the PGA Tour, knocked off Tim Fleming in the finals of the Section Match Play Championship. Woodward also wrote his first instruction piece for the magazine in that issue, detailing why he switched from a draw to a fade.
The cover story detailed why Forest Ridge, under the commitment of owner Joe Robson, remained the gold standard of “upscale daily fee” courses for the state. One thing we did not delve into much was how upset Robson was when the city of Broken Arrow decided to get into the public golf business with the advent of Battle Creek. But the two have coexisted over the years despite some down times for golf and been successful.
Broken Arrow is actually quite a remarkable city for golf, with The Golf Club of Oklahoma, Cedar Ridge, The Club at Indian Springs and the Broken Arrow Golf & Athletic Club on the private side and Forest Ridge, Battle Creek and Lit’l Links on the public side. Emerald Falls was an upscale daily fee not far from Forest Ridge that closed.
As the millennium wound down, we named an Oklahoma All-Century Golf Team. The list included the top high school, collegiate and professional players for men and women and then an overall top 10.
For the men, Tracy Phillips and Jeff McMillian were 1-2 in high schools, Charlie Coe and Scott Verplank 1-2 in college, and
Gil Morgan and Bob Tway 1-2 for pros. For the women it was Stacy Prammanasudh and Patty McGraw 1-2 as prep golfers, Melissa McNamara and Kathy Baker 1-2 in college, and Nancy Lopez and Susie Berning 1-2 as professionals.
THE TOP 10 OVERALL:
1, tie between Charlie Coe and Nancy Lopez. 3, Gil Morgan, 4, Susie Maxwell Berning, 5, Bob Tway, 6, Scott Verplank, 7, Bob Dickson, 8, Kelly Robbins, 9, Orville Moody, 10, Dale Douglass. Competition notes: Randy Robinson of Edmond won the OGA State Amateur while Billy Brown of Stillwater took the OGA Stroke Play ChampionTracy Phillips ship. Bonnie Hanlin won her second consecutive WOGA State Amateur with a 2 and 1 victory over eight-time champion Patty Coatney.
The legendary U.C. Ferguson passed away on Sept. 26, 1999, at the age of 85. His impact was remembered by John Rohde talking with Mark Hayes, Jim Woodward and others. • Chickasaw Pointe, designed by Randy Heckenkemper, opened on the shores of Lake Texoma as the crown jewel in the Oklahoma State Park Golf Course system. We wondered in the article if the state would take better care of it than it had its other properties. After years of turmoil and legal challenges between the State Tourism Department, the Commissioners of Land Office and Pointe Vista Development, there is finally progress being made toward developing the area as a destination for both home ownership and as a resort destination. Meanwhile the course remains one of the best public venues in the state. • Also opening that summer was Sugar Creek Canyon in Hinton, a Mark Hayes design in which the back nine descended into Red Rock Canyon and featured some spectacular holes. It was a project of the Hinton Economic Development Authority. It survived the Great Recession but closed in 2015. • Branson Creek, a spectacular Tom Fazio layout in Branson, Mo., opened its first nine holes. Fazio told a meeting of the Branson Creek Golf Course LLC that it was possibly the best golf course that’s ever been built, quite a statement. As it turned out, Branson Creek was spectacular and despite the lack of a clubhouse it helped Branson stay a legitimate golf destination until Johnny Mor-
ris got going and built the Big Cedar empire which now includes Top of the Rock, Mountain Top, Payne’s Valley and Ozarks National. He bought Branson Creek, renamed it Buffalo Ridge Springs and had Fazio back for a restoration. It remains spectacular today. • Tripp Davis gets to work on a design of Clary Fields, which turned out to be a highly entertaining and scenic course built by United Golf in Sapulpa. Another victim of the golf course boom and bust cycle, Clary Fields closed in October of 2015. Owner D.W. Kang said at the time that the course did fewer than 10,000 rounds in 2014 and never really recovered from the recession of 2007-08. • We reviewed Peoria Ridge, scheduled for a mid-November opening in Miami. Designed by Bland Pittman, the course hired superintendent Milton Hale, a smart move as he is still there today and has maintained a high standard for this entertaining and challenging course through the years. • Also, a $2.8-million renovation was completed at Lincoln Park West including all new greens, and a new course called Valley View was announced in northwest Arkansas (it later closed). • The USGA’s Judy Bell was instrumental in bringing the world’s best golfers to her favorite course, Prairie Dunes, as a contract was announced that the 2002 U.S. Women’s Open would be held there.
APRIL-MAY 2000
Chickasaw Pointe
The legendary U.C. Ferguson passed away on Sept. 26, 1999, at the age of 85. His impact was remembered by John Rohde talking with Mark Hayes, Jim Woodward and others. • Chickasaw Pointe, designed by Randy Heckenkemper, opened on the shores of Lake Texoma as the crown jewel in the Oklahoma State Park Golf Course system. We wondered in the article if the state would take better care of it than it had its other properties. After years of turmoil and legal challenges between the State Tourism Department, the Commissioners of Land Office and Pointe Vista Development, there is finally progress being made toward developing the area as a destination for both home ownership and as a resort destination. Meanwhile the course remains one of the best public venues in the state. • Also opening that summer was Sugar Creek Canyon in Hinton, a Mark Hayes design in which the back nine descended into Red Rock Canyon and featured some spectacular holes. It was a project of the Hinton Economic Development Authority. It survived the Great Recession but closed in 2015. • Branson Creek, a spectacular Tom Fazio layout in Branson, Mo., opened its first nine holes. Fazio told a meeting of the Branson Creek Golf Course LLC that it was possibly the best golf course that’s ever been built, quite a statement. As it turned out, Branson Creek was spectacular and despite the lack of a clubhouse it helped Branson stay a legitimate golf destination until Johnny Morris got going and built the Big Cedar empire which now includes Top of the Rock, Mountain Top, Payne’s Valley and Ozarks National. He bought Branson Creek, renamed it Buffalo Ridge Springs and had Fazio back for a restoration. It remains spectacular today. • Tripp Davis gets to work on a design of Clary Fields, which turned out to be a highly entertaining and scenic course built by United Golf in Sapulpa. Another victim of the golf course boom and bust cycle, Clary Fields closed in October of 2015. Owner D.W. Kang said at the time that the course did fewer than 10,000 rounds in 2014 and never really recovered from the recession of 2007-08. • We reviewed Peoria Ridge, scheduled for a mid-November opening in Miami. Designed by Bland Pittman, the course hired superintendent Milton Hale, a smart move as he is still there today and has maintained a high standard for this entertaining and challenging course through the years. • Also, a $2.8-million renovation was completed at Lincoln Park West including all new greens, and a new course called Valley View was announced in northwest Arkansas (it later closed). • The USGA’s Judy Bell was instrumental in bringing the world’s best golfers to her favorite course, Prairie Dunes, as a contract was announced that the 2002 U.S. Women’s Open would be held there.
Sugar Creek Canyon
• A bill to create an authority to run the state parks golf courses fails when a senator adds $6 million to build a new Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course in his district. • Tiger Woods comes to Oklahoma City for a clinic at the James E. Stewart Golf Course. • The relentless building of golf courses throughout the state begins to take its toll. LaFortune Park rounds dropped some 25,000 rounds annually from 1989 to 1999. The addition of 216 holes to the greater Tulsa golf market hurt play at Page Belcher particularly. Superintendent Gary Burr complained in the article that his staff had dropped to 13 full-time and four part-time employees and his budget cut four years consecutively. That may have seemed bad then, but it’s more than double what the current Page Belcher superintendent tries to make do with. Burr grassed in eight bunkers at Stone Creek to lower maintenance costs that year. Steve Colvard and Brad Gidley, two members of a committee that met regularly with the Tulsa Park Board, said the city needed to step up or risk having the courses degrade beyond the point of return. Sound familiar?
“It’s a quality of life issue,” Colvard said. “You can’t put an elephant in a zoo and not feed it. If golf is worth the city’s effort, then it has to be treated like every other city entity such as the zoo and the river parks and the picnic areas and the swimming pools. We have to subsidize it. Not eternally, but you have to put the money back in and bring the quality back up.” • A new event on the LPGA Tour, the Williams Championship, is announced for a three-year run at Tulsa Country Club, starting in 2001. • Colbert Hills, designed by Jim Colbert, opens in Manhattan, Kan., to be the home course for Kansas State. “We have 14 holes designed by God and we did the other four.” Colbert said. • Charles Howell won the individual title and Oklahoma State its ninth team title in the NCAA Championship at Grand National in Opelika, Ala., one of the courses on the Robert Trent Jones Trail. Howell shot a record 23-under (67-66-63-69) and went bogey free over the final 50 holes.
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2000
• Isabella opens in Hot Springs Village. Designed by Tom Clark, who also designed most of the now nine courses in the village and earlier that year had opened Big Creek Golf & Country Club in Mountain Home, Isabella gave Hot Springs Village a brand new bolder, wider look. Combined later with Granada, it helped turn the village into one of the top and most affordable golf destinations in the southwest. • Tim Thelan of Pasadena, Texas, won the 33rd PGA Club Pro Championship at Oak Tree National, winning a playoff after shooting 1-over for 72 holes. • Ann Pitts retired as women’s golf coach at Oklahoma State after 24 years, 57 team victories and 21 national championship appearances. She also won a sexual discrimination case against her employer in 1994 and wasn’t afraid to ruffle feathers when needed. She went on to help found the Oklahoma Women’s Golf Hall of Fame and is now retired and living close to Shangri-La Resort.
“I enjoyed working for the advancement of women’s sports and women’s golf,” Pitts said. “I wanted to do all that I could to make things better for the female athletes because I cared about it. I wanted to be a part of it and do what I could.” • Vanderbilt coach Jim Ragan was named to succeed Gregg Grost as golf coach at OU. Amy Weeks was named the new women’s coach at OSU, while Mike McGraw became associate head coach of the OSU men’s and women’s teams. • Kansas golf pro Rick Nuckolls was demoted and ultimately resigned his post leading the state parks golf courses as the state promoted agronomist Tommy Grisham to Nickolls’ former post. • Jeff Combe, head pro at Tulsa Country Club, completed a grand slam of South Central Section majors by winning the SCS Club Pro Championship at Oakwood Country Club in Enid, defeating defending champion Pat McTigue in a playoff. Jim Woodward, then head pro at Quail Creek Country Club, defeated Mark Fuller 5 and 4 to win the section match play championship at The Golf Club of Oklahoma.
Mike Hughett and Gary Cowan shared the OGA Stroke Play Championship when rain washed out the final round at Indian Springs Country Club in Broken Arrow.
The fallout from the resignation of Rick Nuckolls as director of golf for Oklahoma Tourism continued as six of the head professionals in the state park system resigned or were fired. In just a few months, the state went from nearly passing a bill that would have made the system more stable than it had ever been to all- out chaos. • South Central Golf visited Tripp Davis’ delightful design The Tribute in north Texas with near-replica holes from St. Andrews, Royal Troon, Prestwick, Muirfield, Turnberry and Carnoustie, Moray Golf Club and Machrihanish. • Old Kinderhook at Lake of the Ozarks opens, giving the region another excelAnn Pitts Turner lent destination. It has proven to be among the most popular courses in the resort region for 22 years now. • Plans are announced for Big Sugar Golf Club in Pea Ridge, Ark. To be de-
OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2000
Tripp Davis
signed by Jerry Slack, it’s a wonderful site but woefully underfunded during construction, a battle superintendent Steve Wilcoxen fought to overcome until he retired. • A group of concerned citizens, in conjunction with new Park Board member Dale McNamara and Park Board chairman Walt Helmerich, works to create a non-profit corporation to oversee Tulsa’s public courses. Golfers have complained that the bunkers are routinely left unattended, green collars and roughs are weed infested and the bent grass greens are damaged by heat stress.
Competition notes: Tripp Davis can still play as well as design courses. He won the OGA State Amateur at Quail Creek Country Club with a 5 and 3 victory over Kelsey Cline of Yukon.
Mike Hughett of Owasso won the OGA Mid-Amateur in a playoff with Rick Ruffin. Hughett won the OGA Mid-Amateur this summer, 22 years later, in a playoff with Harley Abrams and Austin Schmidt.
John Bizik shot a final-round 64 to win the Oklahoma Open by a shot over Barry Conser.
The U.S. Open at Southern Hills is the headliner, but also coming to Oklahoma this year are the NCAA Central Regional May 17-19 at Karsten Creek, the Williams LPGA Championship Sept. 3-9 at Tulsa Country Club and the PGA Senior Tour Championship Oct. 25-28 at Gaillardia. The state begins to be regarded as one of the better host sites for tournaments. • Much like Angus Valley Farm, another ambitious golf project is announced that will never come to fruition. The Gauntlet was to be a Jack Nicklaus designed course in the Osage Hills northwest of Tulsa. It was contingent on selling lots in advance and though many commitments were made the developers apparently didn’t have enough to pull it off. • Courses are still being built as fast a developers can finance them. Randy Heckekemper completes work on Stonebridge in Verdigris, later called Scissortail. The property was mediocre for golf although the course was fun enough, but it didn’t draw strong enough play from Verdigris
and Claremore and Tulsa was already oversaturated. It closed in 2016. Tripp Davis does a largescale restoration of Muskogee Golf Club, including rebuilding all 18 greens. Meanwhile, Mark Hayes was outlining a plan to rebuild all 18 greens at Twin Hills along with renovations at Stillwater CC, Oakwood CC in Enid and Earlywine in
Oklahoma City.
Plans are announced for Meadowbrook Golf
Club, which would later become Rose
Creek, an Arthur
Hills layout North
Oklahoma City.
2001 U.S. OPEN SPECIAL ISSUE
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JUNE-JULY 2001
Oklahoma golf was rocked in May with the passing of longtime former OGA Director Bill Barrett on May 8 at age 79 and amateur golf legend Charlie Coe on May 17 at age 77.
Len Casteel, head professional at Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club, said Coe’s ability was on a level with Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, but his dedication to the game was not the same. He was a businessman who preferred to remain an amateur and spend more time with his family. He won two U.S. Amateurs, finished second at The Masters, captained the Walker Cup and America’s Cup teams more than once and won both the Western Amateur and TransMississippi titles.
Barrett was a retired druggist when he took over the OGA and began recruiting a team of dedicated volunteers and running tournaments expertly. He was kind as they come but no-nonsense when he needed to be. His 11-year run at the helm elevated the OGA in the eyes of golfers in state
and beyond. • Our subhead on our story on the 101st U.S. Open won by Retief Goosen was “USGA may make rapid return after Southern Hills, Tulsa stand tall in 10st U.S. Open.”
That was the Open won by Retief Goosen in a playoff over Mark Brooks and featured missed short putts on 18 by Goosen, Brooks and Stewart Cink.
Well we blew that headline. The USGA did come back in 2009 for the U.S. Amateur but has never rewarded Southern Hills with another U.S. Open. Now there is talk about the U.S. Open returning after the successful 2022 PGA Champion ship at Southern Hills. My advice would be to sign up for another PGA Championship as soon as possible, but don’t wait. Remember we would not have had any major until 2030 if not for the actions of the former president.
Bill Barrett
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2001
Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb and Se Ri Pak are among the LPGA stars to commit to the first Williams LPGA Championship. The tournament had close ties to TU and honored Dale and Melissa McNamara. All indications at that time were that the tournament would be in for a long run at TCC with Williams as sponsor. • Jerry Jones retired as director of golf at LaFortune Park and South Lakes after 40 years in the business. He wisely turned his company over to his top assistant Pat McCrate, who is still running both courses and developing golfers of the future today. • Mike Hughett won the OGA State Amateur Championship with a 3 and 2 victory over Adam Wing of Broken Arrow. In the morning semifinal, Hughett birdied 17 and 18 at Tulsa Country Club to force extra holes against Stephen Rist, then won on the 23rd hole. He one-putted eight of the last 10 greens in a 3 and 2 victory over Derek Freeman in the quarterfinals.
Jim Woodward won the Section Club Pro Championship in dominant fashion, shooting consecutive rounds of 66 at Hillcrest Country Club in Bartlesville to win by eight shots over Mike Hammond.
Mike McQuain of Shawnee Country Club edged Pat McTigue of Tulsa 2 and 1 in the Section Match Play Championship at Golf Club of Oklahoma.
Jerry Jones Mike Hughett Jim Woodward
OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2001
Scott Verplank’s Ryder Cup debut was postponed as the Ryder Cup was moved to the following September after the terrorist attack on 9-11.
Mal Elliott wrote a great piece on Oklahoma Golf Hall of Famer Pattie Blanton, who won championships from 1931 to 1956 and apparently enjoyed herself while doing it. She won four Oklahoma amateurs, four in Kansas, two in Colorado and also won the TransMiss and the Mexican Amateur.
Competition notes: Future U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover won The Oklahoma Open. Craig Walker edged Tim Fleming and Jim Woodward to win the SCS Championship at Texarkana Country Club.
APRIL-MAY 2002
A good historical issue, we looked back to Babe Didrikson Zaharias’ win in the 1950 U.S. Women’s Open at Rolling Hills in Wichita to preview the 2002 event at Prairie Dunes in Hutchinson, Kan. We also reviewed the two to be held in Oklahoma, including Donna Caponi winning in 1970 at Muskogee Golf Club and Jan Stephenson in 1983 at Cedar Ridge CC.
South Central Golf announced its first website. Times were changing fast.
Major renovations were announced for Tulsa courses LaFortune Park and Stone Creek, both to get new greens designed by Randy Heckenkemper.
Silverado Golf Couse in Durant actually opened in 2001 but we first wrote about the new course in this issue. Also opening was Nashoba Valley Golf Course in the Kiamichi Mountains in southeast Oklahoma. Both have since vanished from the Oklahoma golf landscape.
Cobblestone Creek, a nine-hole par-3 course designed by Tripp Davis, opened in Norman. Also in Norman Westwood Park launched a major renovation and The Trails closed in on reopening its front nine greens after a rebuild.
In Tulsa, it was announced that Tee Town Golf Ranch would reopen in a new location after losing the original location to the building of the Creek Turnpike. The new location on 30 acres in Broken Arrow broke ground with plans to be operational by the spring of 2023, operated by Tracy Phillips, Holley Hair and Jason Hair. Richard Buchanan moved from Jimmie Austin to be the new head professional at Belmar Golf Club, which planned a May 5 opening.
We went to Arkansas to visit Jack Fleck, then 80, who jumped over his fence to greet us and regale us with tales of his U.S. Open victory 47 years earlier over Ben Hogan at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. Fleck was publishing a memoir about his life, with much of it devoted to that famous upset.
We profiled Sean “The Beast” Fister after his second world long drive title. He later became a good friend and a fixture at our golf expos in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.
Jack Fleck JUNE-JULY 2002
The PGA of America announced it would return to Southern Hills for the 2007 PGA Championship. • Gleneagles Golf Course in Broken Arrow was plowed under to devote additional land to housing. • We featured Stacy Prammanasudh as she got ready to embark on her LPGA career after one of the finest junior and collegiate careers by any Oklahoman. • In advance of the U.S. Women’s Open at Prairie Dunes, our Kansas correspondent Mal Elliott released a book on Prairie Dunes, where he delved into whether son Press Maxwell’s contributions to the second nine were what father Perry intended.
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2002
Holley Hair becomes the new head coach at Tulsa, replacing Melissa McNamara who resigned to take the post at Arizona State.
Courses:
John Tyson pushed architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. into designing one of the hardest courses ever seen in America for his private club in Johnson not far from the Tyson Foods headquarters in Fayetteville.
Later renamed The Blessings, Jones Jr. delivered. The course was rated 155, the highest USGA slope allowed, from every tee box when it opened.
“We’re going to make this a true examination of the best players’ games,” Tyson said. “They’ll have to use all 14 clubs in a round. They’ll have to think on every shot. It will be a shot maker’s course and a thinker’s course.”
Problem is, most people thought they would rather go to the dentist than play The Blessings. It was softened considerably over time and membership slowly grew, particularly after it became the home of the Arkansas Razorbacks. It has hosted numerous elite college events, including the NCAA Championship in 2019. But it remains as challenging as it is beautiful. Tyson got his wish. • It’s amazing looking back how many projects that were announced never took off. In this issue we did a big story on Cross Timbers Resort at Skiatook Lake, that was to include a Randy Heckenkemper golf course. Not a spoonful of dirt was ever moved and one wonders if the planners were just angling for access to lots or had any intent to build a golf course. • We looked back at the U.S. Women’s Open at Prairie Dunes, what a great event and a wonderful champion in Juli Inkster, who at age 42 held off Annika Sorenstam down the stretch. It was 22 years after Inkster won the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Prairie Dunes.
• Jenk Jones Jr. took our readers on a geographical tour of Oklahoma courses, from Woodward to Guthrie, Pawhuska, Guymon, Broken Bow and ending in Lone Wolf. • Jay Upchurch looked back at the revelry of the Burneyville events hosted by Opie and Waco Turner from 1961-64. • John Rohde writes that the Oak Tree Gang has basically dwindled to four, with Scott Verplank, Doug Tewell, Bob Tway and Gil Morgan.
Competition: Mitch Cohlmia, at age 17, won the OGA State Amateur Championship with a 3 and 1 victory over Ted Neville, then a collegian at Penn State. Rick Bell won the OGA Stroke Play Championship with a closing 68 at Muskogee Golf Club. Eric Mueller won the OGA Senior Match Play and Stroke Play titles.
Waco and Opie Turner (seated) pass out the cash in Burneyville.
OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2002
The Fore-State Golf Expo announced it would be held Feb. 2123 at the Clear Channel building in Tulsa. That was the first of more than 30 golf expos our company put on in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Springdale, Ark., Little Rock and even one in Omaha, Neb.
They were a lot of work, but a lot of fun. When we signed a contract to help the Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame in 2014, that was basically it for having the time and energy for golf expos. And that decision was cemented when I lost my partner Stephen Hillman to a liver illness a few years back. But what memories!
Due to tough economic times, Williams announced it was looking for partners to help sponsor its LPGA event in Tulsa. The company was in the midst of dramatic layoffs and selling off major components. Annika Sorenstam shot 11-under to win the second championship at TCC. • Mark Hayes did a redesign of the greens at Oak Tree National, lessening the severity of the slopes. The changes were not popular with some members who wanted Dye’s original contours restored when Tripp Davis did another redesign much later. This year the greens are being converted from bent grass to Bermuda. Depending on the firmness and time of year, they could be all anyone can handle when they reopen this fall. • One of the most curious projects in Oklahoma history gets underway when Dee Greninger leaves Gaillardia and announces he has been hired to design Indian Ridge Country Club in Blanchard. More on this to come. • A new project that is still with us is announced as Rick and Barbara Braught discuss plans for The Territory just west of Duncan. It was their dream to bring world class golf to southwestern Oklahoma, they did it and everyone who plays The Territory to this day owes them a debt of gratitude, because it was from the heart and still only barely makes sense economically.
Randy Heckenkemper ranks The Territory with his finest work and that sentiment seems to be pretty much universal around the state. • Tim and Todd Graves conclude their search for an Oklahoma home base by opening the Graves Natural Golf School next to the driving range at Coffee Creek Golf Course in Edmond. It was there until Coffee Creek closed upon which they moved to Rose Creek. But the brothers may eventually move it back to Coffee Creek even though there are no plans to reopen the golf course itself. • Tulsa junior Chris Noel won the Oklahoma Open by a shot over Jason Wood and Mitch McQuain. Jim Woodward won the Section Championship by four shots over Tim Fleming at Wichita Country Club.
Mark Hayes worked on many courses in Oklahoma.
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