The Second Decade: Oklahoma completes a course building spree and begins to weather the downturn, junior golf takes off.

2003-2012

Oklahoma golf boom peaks, Tiger tales, more . . . by ken macleod

The second decade. Due to the nature of covering 2.5 states, we had evolved to where much of our coverage was travel and destination related that would appeal to readers throughout Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas. We’re

APRIL-MAY 2003

Cherokee Hills in its current form begins to take shape. The course, previously Rolling Hills, then Spunky Creek, then Indian Hills, had been rolled over by three tornados, then had given up significant land to the building of what would New holes at Cherokee Hills eventually become the Hard Rock Casino.

But with the help of the Cherokees purchasing 55 new acres of wooded land, architect Tripp Davis was able to keep the course not going to recap all the travel adventures here but just try to concentrate on what we covered in and around Oklahoma. The pace of course construction remained brisk in 2003. As you will see, it would eventually go just as fast the other direction.

at 18 holes, when originally plans were to consolidate it to nine. And so the course that began in 1924 as a Perry Maxwell design survived, with as much Maxwell intact as Davis could manage.

“The whole intent was to use as much of the existing course as we cold to keep the feel of Maxwell in there,” Davis said. “The real genius of Maxwell’s courses was in the routings.”

JUNE-JULY 2003

Our cover story was on the golf developments ongoing in Blanchard. Winter Creek opened for play and remains open today after several ownership and management changes.

Indian Ridge in Blanchard was plowing ahead. Dee Greninger was the architect, Landscapes Unlimited the course builder, Paul Kruger the course owner providing the funds. Lots were being sold, an equestrian center, fitness center and 30,000 square foot clubhouse planned.

Keep reading.

Elsewhere, the amazing Alotian Club began to

Mike Holder

take shape near Little Rock, Rose Creek, a Tom Fazio design being built with unlimited expense by Warren Stephens.

Dan Snider, once an OU assistant and a wellrespected teacher, was named to run the place. • John Rohde took a stab at the paradox that is Mike Holder in trying to determine how someone can be so direct and blunt and also such a charmer when it comes to fund raising.

John Q. Hammons stepped in to sponsor the 2003 LPGA event in Tulsa after financially strapped oil giant Williams pulled out. The third event at Tulsa Country Club was popular with the players, as 92 of the top 100 on the LPGA Tour had committed to play in the event. Stacy Prammanasudh of Enid, currently tearing up the Future’s Tour, received a sponsor’s exemption.

OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2003

Rose Creek opened to solid reviews in Oklahoma City, owned by The Melrose Company and managed at the time by Troon Golf. Cody Lack, who was running a different Troon facility in Prescott, Ariz., returned to his home state to be the head professional.

We published another story on the Indian Ridge course in Blanchard, this time veteran golf photogra pher Mike Klemme was blown away by what he saw as nine holes were basically complete and the others far along. Stay tuned.

Karrie Webb ran away with the John Q. Hammons Hotel Classic at Tulsa Country Club. The tournament soon after announced that it would move to Cedar Ridge for the 2024 event. Cedar Ridge Director of Golf Buddy Phillips hoped the move would showcase one of the state’s top courses, which had been overlooked recently in the national golf rankings.

Our cover story for this issue was a photographic trip around the world with Enid’s Mike Klemme, showing us some of the exotic courses he had shot from Kenya to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and beyond. What a remarkable career!

The First Tee Program of Oklahoma City is growing leaps and bounds, with its home base at the James E. Stewart Course and satellite programs at six other facilities.

After being the head professional at Karsten Creek since it opened in 1994, Tom Jones resigned. He would soon wind up being the new general manager at The Blessings, which had recently opened in northwest Arkansas. Jones has the distinction of successfully representing two highly driven and ultra successful men in Mike Holder at Karsten Creek and John Tyson at The Blessings and it couldn’t have been easy but he did it exceptionally well. Now he runs Oak Tree National in Edmond, where owner Everett Dobson is equally successful but certainly not as mercurial.

Shangri-La Resort was being sold off piecemeal by Highgate Holdings of Dallas. Some 100 rooms associated with the resort were demolished to make way for home sites and only 26 rooms in the main lodge remained open for booking.

Other massive projects in the section moved on. The Territory in Duncan was near completion, Granada was under way in Hot Springs Village, The Alotian was taking shape in Little Rock and Cottonwood Hills, designed by Nick Faldo, was being built in Hutchinson, Kan. on land similar to that found at Prairie Dunes. One project was stalled, however. Indian Ridge in Blanchard had ceased operations, lawsuits were being filed and neither owner Paul Kruger nor architect Dee Greninger was answering their phones. Paul Hahn, construction superintendent for contractor Landscapes Unlimited, said his company was sitting back and waiting to see if things would ever proceed. Work had begun on the course but roads, sewers, water lines and utilities.

Although it looked like it would have been fantastic, the course was never completed and the development stalled as well. • As the golf course boom continued to wind up, the player boom was over. Our story examining the golf economy had Golfweek’s Brad Klein calling for the closure of 500 courses

nationally, a number that horrified some in the industry at that time but proved to be very conservative. The PGA of America introduced Play Golf America in the hope of driving rounds, but it was becoming slowly apparent that far too many courses had been built since the late 1980s than there was a demand for nationally and in Oklahoma. • Dan O’Kane wrote a wonderful story on Southern Hills shop manager George Matson retiring after 55 years of service. Matson and George Matson Southern Hills GM Bill Dorman had a longrunning war of practical jokes that included goats, pigs, geese, potatoes, gas siphoning and more lunacy. One of the best jokes played on Matson was when Roy Damn Mercer (Brent Douglas of KMOD) called and threatened to whip his ass if he couldn’t bring a load of hillbillies out to play that afternoon. Google it. • Stan Ball was recognized for his work at Jimmie Austin in growing the junior program from 52 players in 1997 to 192 in 2003.

Saint Francis Hospital Ranked #1 in Oklahoma.

Saint Francis Hospital is honored to be recognized as the #1 Hospital in Oklahoma by U.S. News & World Report, with ten high-performing areas of clinical care.

Thank you to our physicians, nurses, employees and volunteers for your continued dedication to serving patients and making the mission of Saint Francis Health System a reality.

This award is a reflection of our commitment to providing excellence in patient care and dedication to our mission to extend the presence and healing ministry of Christ in all we do.

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2004

• Tom Kite completes an extensive renovation at Gaillardia with work done on each hole and one that included removing some areas in which native grasses had been overrun by tall weeds. There were 13 bunkers removed, some angles changed and the par-5 18th became a tough par-4.

“Aesthetically, the golf course improved immensely,” said then head pro Jim Woodward. “In terms of difficulty, well I don’t know. It’s too young to know that. But it does look a lot better.”

It still does! • Jay Upchurch wrote a great feature on former Sooner Todd Hamilton’s dream year capped by his July victory in the British Open. You hear today about pros not wanting to be away from home. Hamilton was a 38-year-old PGA Tour rookie when he won, having spent most of 10 years in Asia. He won 10 times around the world and four times in Japan in 2003. His former Sooner teammates such as Andrew Magee, Tripp Davis, Doug Martin, Grant Waite and Craig Perks all expressed how incredibly proud they were of Todd. “To hang in there that long on the Japanese Tour is extremely difficult, if only for the fact that you are playing in a foreign land where you don’t even speak the same language,” Magee said. “Todd has literally worked himself to the top. It’s a pretty incredible story.” • Ryan Chapman was named the director of the Oklahoma State Park Golf Courses and the state began making improvements to many, including cart paths at Roman Nose, an irrigation system at Fountainhead and a new clubhouse at Lake Murray. Today Fountainhead is owned by the Creek Nation. Lake Murray got a brand new lodge in 2017 and Roman Nose is one of the crown jewels of the state park system. Chapman went to work for the group that purchased Chickasaw Pointe and has been overseeing both the marina and golf course for years. Momentum is now building for long awaited development of Chickasha Pointe into a destination with public and private housing options. • Cherokee Hills in Catoosa celebrated

its grand opening, with the hotel and casino set for few months later. Tripp Davis said he was given free rein to emulate the famed Maxwell rolls as he redid the greens. The course is under 6,700 yards but plays much longer as a par-70 and still has a reputation today for being one of the more challenging in the area. Warm up before you tee off, getting through the opening stretch is the key to a good round. PGA pro Pat McTigue, who reviewed the course for us, wrote “Don’t expect to master Cherokee Hills in a single outing. You’ll be learning the best angles to approach various pin positions for years.” • We also reviewed The Territory, open since late June near Duncan. Owner Rick Braught said his shared goal with architect Randy Heckenkemper was to create one of the best courses in the Southwest of the United States, not just southwest Oklahoma. They succeeded. • Southern Hills announced it would be closing to core out and redo all of its greens and also kill all fairway grass and resod with U3 Bermuda for a more dense, consistent playing surface. • Belmar owner Steve Bell brings on a Tom Kite partnership that includes Toby Keith, Barry Switzer, restaurant mogul Hal Smith and real estate investor Hunter Miller. Days later the group announces plans facility expansion and numerous improvements to the course.

Ryan Chapman

OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2004

• Our cover story was on our first look inside the gates of the magnificent Alotian Club near Little Rock. Warren Stephens, CEO of Stephens Inc and son of former Augusta National chairman Jack Stephens paid for the stunning Tom Fazio design. No expense was spared, membership was limited and the price of a membership was never disclosed. It was basically a matter of if you have to ask, you don’t belong here.

“The beauty, drama, excitement and variety we have here are remarkable,” Fazio said. “On almost every hole, you stand there and say ‘How can it be any better than this?’ Until you get to the next hole.”

The Alotian has hosted many significant amateur events but is mainly the preserve and enjoyed by its membership. We don’t know how many there are, but on the day we were invited by head professional Dan Snider to play we may have seen one other group on the course. Let’s just say it’s never going to get worn out. • Another big, bold and beautiful course came on board in Arkansas with the opening of Granada, the ninth and to this day final course at Hot Springs Village. Combined with Isabella, it gave the Village two beautiful modern courses to go with the older crew of conquistadores. • John Rohde gathered a group of Oak Tree pros and other notables to quiz them on what was wrong with the U.S. side in the Ryder Cup. This was after the nine point shellacking under the leadership of Hal Sutton, who disastrously paired Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in two early matches.

OSU coach Mike Holder probably said it best.

“We’re good. But we better accept the fact that we’re not necessarily that much better than everybody else.”

Holder was stating what was obvious to everyone except the odds makers and television announcers. Take away Tiger, who never played that well in the Ryder Cup, and Europe probably had the stronger team and should have been favored. • It was announced that Oak Tree National would host the 2006 Senior PGA Championship, a last chance perhaps for the Oak Tree Gang to win on home turf.

APRIL-MAY 2005

• Buddy Hamilton, 57, the 1995 OGA state amateur champion, passed away after a battle with cancer. He was also a fourtime club champion at The Golf Club of Oklahoma. • The USGA announced that the 2006 U.S. Senior Open would be held at Prairie Dunes, meaning both the Senior PGA (Oak Tree) and Senior Open would be in the vicinity.

JUNE-JULY 2005

• The Oklahoma Women’s Golf Hall of Fame announced its inaugural class of Susie Maxwell Berning, Jarita Askins, Mabel Hotz and Jackie Riggs Hutchinson. They were inducted in a classy ceremony at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Berning, who won the U.S. Women’s Open three times and eight other LPGA Tour events, said she probably never would have played golf but for the insistence and tutelage of former Lincoln Park pro U.C. Ferguson. • We took a hard look at the state of play in Oklahoma, where the course glut combined with a slow economy and the fizzling out of the somewhat mythical “Tiger Effect” meant that courses that once averaged 50,000 rounds were making due on half of that and all the new courses were fighting to get over 20,000 rounds. And revenue was down even more, as a buyer’s market set in. Courses that opened charging $75 per round in 1990 and hoping for more down the road were now charging $40 or less.

What the National Golf Foundation and other groups were learning was that the core golfers were now core spectators at soccer games, swim meets, baseball games and other youth sports. Where once dad routinely headed to the course or club on weekends, he was now going to kids games year round, with 75-game baseball seasons, soccer seasons that were basically 12 months, etc. Youth sports didn’t kill golf but they changed it considerably and it took a long time for operators to realize they had to adapt.

Susie Maxwell Berning

Jackie Riggs Hutchinson Mabel Hotz Jarita Askins

4.5 Star Ranking by Golf Digest Beautiful Clubhouse Meticulously Maintained Golf Course

GPS Golf Carts Premier Service Upscale Restaurant & Bar

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER, 2005

• Jerry Cozby, head pro at Hillcrest Country Club in Bartlesville, was informed he would be inducted into the PGA Golf Professional Hall of Fame in September. He was named the PGA Professional of the Year in 1985.

John Rohde wrote an entertaining column about slow play after Rory Sabbatini left Ben Crane endlessly pondering his next shot and went right up to the 17th green during the final round of the Booz Allen Classic. Crane was deeply religious and said he often asked the Lord for guidance during a round. “I think the Lord is telling Ben to speed up through Rory,” Oak Tree pro Willie Wood kidded. “We’re all spoken to in different ways. That’s God speaking to Ben through Rory right there.”

In other words, while we’re young. • A stacked field including Annika Sorenstam and Paula Creamer was expected for the John Q. Hammons Hotel Classic in mid September at Cedar Ridge Country Club, the fifth year in a row for Tulsa to host an LPGA Tour event. • Tracy Phillips sold his interest in Tee Town Golf Ranch to his partners and returned to Cedar Ridge to be the new director of instruction, where his father Buddy Phillips was the longtime head professional. • Kevin Tway, son of Oak Tree Gang member Bob Tway, wins the 2006 U.S. Junior at Longmeadow (Mass.) Country Club. Kevin, now a PGA Tour veteran, had former OSU All-American E.J. Pfister as his caddie, helping calm his

nerves. Bob Tway, meanwhile was flitting from tree to tree, trying to remain as unobtrusive as possible. • The new course boom has slowed but not stopped. Sand Creek Station is announced in Newton, Kan., and turns out to be one of the better public courses in the state. • This writer and friend and architect Randy Heckenkemper went on a tour to see and play The Blessings and The Territory. After The Blessings totally destroyed us, we asked GM Tom Jones how he was faring finding members who wanted that beat down on a daily basis. He admitted that was a huge challenge, but the scenery and Jerry Cozby course conditions were spectacular. The Territory was as good as advertised. It was fighting a water shortage issue in its early years that was eventually resolved but it was then and remains one of the best courses in the state.

Annika Sorenstam Kevin Tway

OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2005

• The Commissioners of Land Office (CLO) closed a deal to purchase the lodge, golf course and Chickasaw Pointe at Lake Texoma, with the next step being to sell it to a developer who would bid on the land to develop public and private facilities and turn the area into a first-class resort that all Oklahomans can enjoy.

The Rodney Dangerfield line from Caddyshack seems appropriate here. “Well, we’re waiting.” It’s now 17 years later and there are still no hotel or resort facilities. The lodge is long gone and so is the original state park course. After years of delays, studies, lawsuits and more that it would take a book to explain, there is progress being made. Be sure to read the next issue of Golf Oklahoma for a full update. • Mike Holder jumped into his new role as athletic director at Oklahoma State on Sept. 16,. Mike McGraw was named the new men’s golf head coach. McGraw had served seven years as an assistant to Holder before taking over the women’s program in 2004. • We featured Ron Streck of Tulsa, known as The Milestone Man for having been the first golfer to play a metal wood on the PGA Tour and the first to win on all three tours when he won on the PGA Tour, Nationwide Tour and Champions Tour.

• Annika Sorenstam shot a 1-over 73 in the final round, good enough for a 1-sroke victory over 19-year-old Paula Creamer and her third victory in five years in the event, held for the second time at Cedar Ridge Country Club in Tulsa.

Mike McGraw

Mike Holder

APRIL-MAY 2006

• Architect Floyd Farley, a 2021 inductee into the Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame, passed away in Sedona, Ariz., at the age of 98. He had a huge impact on golf in Oklahoma, with some of his more notable layouts being Quail Creek Country Club in Oklahoma City, Kickingbird Golf Course in Edmond, LaFortune Park Golf Course in Tulsa, Adams Golf Course in Bartlesville and the Pecan Valley course at Mohawk Park in Tulsa, among dozens of others.

Also passing away that winter was Don Sechrest, who designed or redesigned many significant courses in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri. His Stone Creek design at Page Belcher in Tulsa was voted runnerup in the Best New Public Course category by Golf Digest in 1987. • The state announced that a Connecticut-based firm Gagne Development had purchased 750 acres of land from the Commissioners of Land Office for $14.5 million. The firm announced that it would be building a new 120-room lodge, a smaller hotel, cabins, condos and lakeside housing. Well, none of that ever happened. Keep reading. • Our course spotlight was on Meadowlake in Enid, where 41-yearold former Tulsa golfer Darryl Court was named head professional and set out to make some improvements and pay off some debt. On his first Beat The Pro Day, Court posted a tidy 64, leading many course regulars to wonder whom the heck they had hired. • Lance Allen moved from Clary Fields to replace Sam Meredith as the head professional at Forest Ridge, where he remained a fixture until owner Joe Robson hired Troon Management in 2021. Allen is now running Twin Hills Golf & Country Club in Joplin.

• Much of the issue was devoted to previewing the Senior PGA Championship coming up shortly at Oak Tree National. Owner Don Mathis had made sure the course was in excellent condition, including overseeding the fairways with rye grass rather than taking a chance of a late greenup for the Bermuda. The PGA of America sold all 18 corporate chalets it had to offer well in advance. Now all that remained was for the Oak Tree Gang to sharpen its spurs on the home course. • The Women’s Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame announced its second class and it was an illustrious one. Dale McNamara, Patty Coatney, Dena Dills Nowotny, Patti Blanton and Carol Collins. Between McNamara with seven and Coatney with a record nine, those two alone won 16 WOGA State Amateur Championships. Collins, a rules expert who could crush a drive, won the Oakwood Club Championship 23 times. Blanton won eight state titles, four in Oklahoma and four in Kansas.

Dale McNamara Patty Coatney

JUNE-JULY 2006

• Holley Hair resigned after four years as the women’s golf coach at Tulsa to work full time at Tee Town Golf Ranch. • The proposal from Gagne Development to build a $350 million resort at Lake Texoma fell apart. Back to the drawing board. • The legendary Joe Walser was the guest of honor at a reunion of Landmark folks during the Senior PGA Championship at Oak Tree National, which was won by Jay Haas. • The Greens Country Club was purchased by a group led by David Box of Box Entertainment. • Oklahoma State redshirt freshman Jonathan Moore won the individual crown and Holley Hair helped lead the Cowboys to the team title at the NCAA Championship.

August-September 2006

• WinStar Golf Course opened in Thackerville to be an amenity for WinStar Casino. Designed mostly by Steve Wolfard of D.A. Weibring’s Golf Resource firm, it was the first 18 of what eventually became a 36-hole facility with a world class practice center. The genial Mike Hammond was hired to be the first head professional. • Also opening that summer was Stonebridge Golf Course in Catoosa. Designed by Randy Heckenkemper, it was a fun course that opened at a bad time in the local golf market, considering nearly 300 holes had been added in the Tulsa area since 1990.

OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2006

• We examine the unusual golf situation in Blanchard, which many investors apparently pegged as the new Edmond. Three major projects involving housing had begun but only one – Winter Creek – was still open.

The other two, Indian Ridge and Four Lakes, were in various stages of semi-development as we went to press. Indian Ridge, after basically having nine holes ready to play, had shut the gates. For this story, those refusing to comment included owner Paul Kruger, architect Dee Greninger, Blanchard City Manager Bill Edwards and Blanchard Mayor Tom Sacchieri. In hindsight, we’re sure all were hopeful the issues would be resolved and project would go forward, but it just didn’t happen and nature eventually swallowed up what had been built.

Down the road, Four Lakes was once an unassuming ninehole public course serving the town, but it was shut down for a rebuild into an 18-hole upscale daily fee. Owners hired respected section pro Richard Buchanan, lots were sold and an opening seemed imminent. It too never happened.

Winter Creek, meanwhile, fell into receivership with a bank for many years as it searched for the right ownership group to make it a success. Now on its second ownership group since the bank, we’re not certain how the housing is going but it remains a very entertaining golf course. • Jim Woodward resigned his post as head pro at Gaillardia Country Club to make a run at PGA Senior Tour qualifying school. Jim Kane also attempted to earn a card. • Cristie Kerr shot a 10-birdie, no bogey 61 in the second round of the John Q. Hammons Hotel Classic at Cedar Ridge, helping her blunt Annika Sorenstam’s bid for a third consecutive title. That round also led to an emergency meeting between infuriated Cedar Ridge officials and the LPGA Tour set-up crew. Cedar Ridge was not then and never has been about scores of 61 and the short setup with pins in the middle of greens led to a mem-

ber backlash. Comments were publicly gracious but privately the LPGA and Octagon, the tournament managers, were informed to allow Cedar Ridge to be Cedar Ridge going forward. No one threatened to shoot anything near a 61 in the remaining years of the event. It was also announced that SemGroup would take over as title sponsor for John Q Hammons and that a new LPGA event would also begin in Northwest Arkansas in 2007 sponsored by WalMart. • Dennis Bowman, Dennis Bowman head professional and superintendent at Pryor Creek Golf Course, signed a lease/purchase agreement to buy Cobblestone Creek GC in Muskogee. • Dave Bryan, head pro at Southern Hills Country Club, predicts Tiger Woods will win the 2007 PGA Championship at Southern Hills. No shock there, except Bryan had said prior to the 2001 U.S. Open that Woods didn’t have the patience to play and win at Southern Hills. “I think he has now acquired the patience and the thought process to win here,” Bryan said. “His concentration, along with his strength, ability and work ethic are unsurpassed.”

Russ Myers gets Southern Hills ready for PGA. Jared Wooten, left and his father Mike, being a great superintendent runs in the family.

APRIL-MAY 2007

A proposal by owner Peter Boylan to rebrand Shangri-La as The Peninsula and invest in a major rebuild was waiting on a proposal for tax credits before the Oklahoma Legislature. The lawmakers were also being asked to help with the Pointe Vista Resort project at the opposite end of the state at Lake Texoma. Having strong resorts at both places was considered a key to the state success as a tourist destination. As you will see, 15 years later we are halfway there. • The Links at Stillwater expanded to 18 holes, making Stillwater’s golf market even more overbuilt with five 18-hole courses in Lakeside, Stillwater Country Club, Karsten Creek and Cimarron Trails in Perkins. • Stacy Prammanasudh, one of the greatest golfers ever to come up through the state junior ranks, graces the cover. The SemGroup Championship has moved to the spring to get away from the PGA Championship in August and we’re always hopeful that Stacy P will contend. She was coming in to the event having won the Fields Open in Hawaii and finishing third at the MasterCard Classic. She had also taken her first golf lessons, seeing Bill Harmon.

“Playing at home is definitely one of the toughest weeks,” Stacy P said. “I do put pressure on myself. Everyone is expecting you to play great and it’s tough.” • We featured the father-son superintendent duo of Mike Wooten at Cedar Ridge and Jared Wooten at Stillwater Country Club. Mike has since retired but Jared is still going strong in Stillwater and each year seems to make even greater strides at a course that has weathered about everything Mother Nature can conjure. • A devastating ice storm destroyed or damaged most of the trees at some of the state’s northeast courses over the winter, including Cherokee Grove, Pryor Creek and and McAlester CC.

JUNE-JULY 2007

• Our man in Texas Art Stricklin was on the scene as an emotional Scott Verplank wins the Bryon Nelson Invitational, fulfilling a childhood dream and honoring Nelson, whom he deeply respected. • We check in with Michael Boyd in the midst of his rookie year on the PGA Tour. • A renovation by Hekenkemper and Jones Plan of the Bristow Country Club has the members excited. Perry Maxwell did the routing in 1923 but sand greens were installed, so the designer and builder could cut loose without worrying about destroying any of Maxwell’s handiwork. • Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor proposes closing 27 of the city’s 72 holes – nine at Page Belcher and 18 at Mohawk Park – to save on the subsidies the city was outlaying for maintenance. After a backlash from golfers, it was decided to put together a task force and keep the courses open through October. Course operator George Glenn said rounds at the two 36-hole facilities had fallen from a high of 160,000 to under 100,000. He advocated for the two courses to be run and managed by Tulsa County, which operates LaFortune Park and South Lakes in Jenks. What eventually happened was the city put the courses out for bid and Billy Casper Golf was hired. The company was successful in eliminating most of the subsidies the city was paying on the maintenance side but not in reversing the decline in conditions as the city took an out-of-sight, out-ofmind mindset for the next 10 years. • Mi Hyn Kim, all 5-feet-1 of her, won the SemGroup Championship at Cedar Ridge at 3-under par (the Cristie Kerr effect!) Kim then donated $100,000 to a relief fund for victims of an F5 tornado that had wiped out Greensburg, Kan. • Oklahoma City University won the men’s and women’s NAIA titles, It was the sixth in seven years for the men coached by Kyle Blaser and third consecutive for the women coached by Sara Mobley.

Scott Verplank after winning the Byron Nelson.

2007 PGA PREVIEW SPECIAL ISSUE

Just like our 2001 U.S. Open preview, the 64-page PGA Championship was a lot about Southern Hills but even more about one Eldrick Tiger Woods. My favorite story from both issues combined remains the piece by my former Tulsa Tribune sports editor Mike Sowell in which he conjures up a field worthy of Tiger’s attention. In this match play event, he details Tiger’s victories over Napoleon Bonaparte, Alexander The Great, Julius Caesar, Bobby Fischer and Thomas Edison before reaching the finals against Franklin Delanor Roosevelt. The FDR Slam – winning the 1932 election over Herbert Hoover, 1936 over Alf Landon and 1940 over Wendell Wilkie, then leading the U.S. to the “championship” of World War II – was deemed just great enough to edge Woods for the title.

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2007

Muscles bulging everywhere, Woods leaves his driver in the bag and carves up Southern Hills to win the PGA Championship over Woody Austin and Ernie Els. It was his 13th major championship. • Warren Lehr returned from a stint at Paa-Ko Ridge Golf Course near Albuquerque to take over the park department and oversee Bailey Ranch Golf Course in Owasso. Lehr is now the city manager and has supported Bailey Ranch ever since his return. • Carl Higgins, nephew of long-time Tulsa pro and instructor Jack Higgins, helps clear a new nine holes at Okmulgee Country Club, which had been a nine-hole course since opening in 1920. The course was later purchased by the Creek Nation and all 18 holes were closed. • Our first story on The Patriot in Owasso after a conversation at the PGA Championship with Robert Trent Jones II. Jones is brimming over with excitement about the Owasso site. Developers Pete

Kourtis, David Charney and Greg Simmons are teaming up with Folds of Honor Foundation founder Dan Rooney to create the course and foundation headquarters and what would become the Stone Canyon development. • Cedar Ridge opens the Buddy Phillips Training Center, run by the legendary pro’s son Tracy Phillips. • Jimmie Tramel writes an adieu to Adair, when Osage Creek, a pleasant country course where the dress code was please wear them, shut its doors that summer. The regulars shuttled off to Pryor Creek or Grand Cherokee in Langley, and some just quit. “You could go from daylight to dark out there,” rued regular Tom Linihan, superintendent of Adair Schools. “There weren’t any PGA pros out there. Nobody took themselves so seriously that you Adieu to Osage Creek in Adair, couldn’t just go out there one of the first to close. and have a good time.”

APRIL-MAY, 2008

Our cover story was on Alsie Hyden, longtime PGA professional at Lake Hefner in Oklahoma City and named the first man to be inducted into the Women’s Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame for a lifetime of treating women golfers with respect and dignity. Joining Hyden in that class were long-time OSU women’s coach Ann Pitts Turner, four time WOGA state amateur winner and seven-time finalist Linda Melton Morse and three-time state amateur winner and three-time LPGA Tour winner Betsy Cullen. • Cedar Ridge lost 166 trees to a December 10 ice storm and then contracted to have another damaged trees trimmed or removed prior to that spring’s SemGroup LPGA Championship. What that meant to the competitors is mostly thicker rough where the light would reach. • John Rohde profiled the next OSU phenom, freshman Rickie Fowler of California. In the fall he had finished as team medalist in his first six events and won in his second.

“Rickie has very, very big thoughts and very big dreams,” said OSU coach Mike McGraw. “He just thinks he can do a lot of things and I’m not going to limit him.”

The next Oklahoma State superstar Rickie Fowler was lighting up the NCAA.

JUNE-JULY 2008

• On the cover, key players at The Patriot in Owasso, architect Robert Trent Jones II, developer David Charney, Bill Kubly of Landscapes Unlimited and Dan Rooney of the Folds of Honor Foundation. Hopes at that time were for a July 2009 opening, but no one was anticipating the challenges Mother Nature would hurl their way. • A company owned by Lynn Blevins purchased Stonebridge Golf Course in Verdigris from Spirit Bank, changed the name to Scissortail and immediately began making plans to improve the course which had been on a starvation maintenance diet while in receivership. • Murder Rock Golf Course opened in Branson. The course was actually designed by Chris Cole and Jeff Potts of Landmark Development, but John Daly was paid to have his name associated with it and his first “PR” appearance is still legendary. He pulled his RV into the parking lot, got out in jeans shoeless and shirtless and with cigarette dangling from his mouth conducted interviews and played with local media. Google it.

Murder Rock was actually an entertaining and fun course. The land was later purchased by Johnny Morris and part of it is now part of Ozark National and the rest part of Tiger Woods’ Payne’s Valley. • Tulsa Country Club became one of the first courses in Oklahoma to celebrate its centennial and Tulsa World writer Randy

Krehbiel, who had written a book on the club history, wrote a fascinating summary of the many notable events at the club. The OGA was formed at TCC. The first Oklahoma Open and first State Amateur were held on the A.W. Tillinghast design. Gene Sarazen, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Patty Berg, Joanne Carner and Nancy Lopez are jus a few of the greats that played there. • Businessmen Ed Evans and Everett Dobson purchased Oak Tree Golf Club from Don Mathis and announced a series of planned improvements, including bringing original architect Pete Dye back for a thorough review. General manager A.G. Meyers reported that the USGA had been in for a visit, a call that started the process of the club hosting the U.S. Senior Open in 2014. Mal Elliot • Paula Creamer won the SemGroup Championship at Cedar Ridge, winning a two-hole playoff against 47-year-old fan favorite Juli Inkster, one of the classiest players in LPGA history. • Mal Elliiott, our Kansas correEverett Dobson spondent since we started the magazine, was inducted into the Kansas Golf Hall of Fame. One of his favorite stories was when he was sports editor of the Tulsa Tribune in 1961, he was looking to hire a golf writer. Wally Wallis, veteran golf writer for The Oklahoman, told him not to bother. “Don’t hire anyone,” Wallis said. “The golf beat is the best beat on the paper and you ought to cover it yourself.” Mal did, and we agree.

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2008

Our cover story was a fun one, on the guitar hero PGA pros in the section including Mark Galloway of Trosper Park, Scott Smelser of Coffee Creek, Sam Meredith of Muskogee Country Club and Andy Schaben of Wild Horse Canyon. We hired Galloway to play at many of our golf expos and he is still an in demand musician in clubs around Oklahoma City. • Billy Casper visited Mohawk Park for a putting clinic and to host a tournament. The company that bears his name, Billy Casper Golf, was selected to be the management company by the city of Tulsa for its courses Page Belcher and Mohawk Park. • The Tulsa LPGA event was seeking a new title sponsor after SemGroup filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after losing about $2.4 billion in hedging on oil futures over the past two years. It did not find one and the LPGA continued with the event in northwest Arkansas, which is still going strong today. • Both rounds and revenue were up significantly at the City of Tulsa courses in the first year of management under Billy Casper Golf. A bigger plus from the viewpoint of the City of Tulsa was that it no longer had to subsidize the maintenance budget which it had been doing up to $1 million annually. Turf grass conditions

were solid for the most part. • Tommy Bolt, winner of the 1958 U.S. Open at Southern Hills and a native of Haworth, Okla., passed away at age 92. “Terrible” Tommy was

Tommy Bolt mostly a media creation, as Arkansas State Golf Association Executive Director Jay Fox wrote:

“Tommy Bolt was one of the nicest guys you would ever meet. . . Since the media dubbed him with this reputation, Bolt liked to have fun with it. He said in Golf Digest that the driver goes the shortest distance when you throw it. The putter goes the farthest, followed by the sand wedge.”

Bolt was induced into the Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame posthumously in 2016.

APRIL-MAY 2009

A renovation of Oak Tree National to add bite to its bark neared conclusion, with head pro Steve Kimmel estimating that the average member would see his score soar by three or four shots a round.

“I think they want you to cry,” Gil Morgan said.

“The objective was to separate at a major championship level those who are playing well from those who are scraping it around,” said architect Tripp Davis, who worked on the renovation along with input from players like Scott Verplank and Bob Tway.

The club also added a new high-tech teaching center at the back of the driving range. E.J. Pfister and Jim Woodward would both teach from it. • Across the street at Oak Tree Country Club, greens were expanded back to their original size during a spring renovation. The course also was cleaning up from a Feb. 11 tornado that destroyed homes around the course and 70 mph straight-line winds in March that did extensive damage to trees.

Head professional, the late Mark Fuller, was in the cart barn when the tornado passed by.

“You could see the ceiling tiles raise up and your ears were popping,” he said. “It was probably no more than 50 yards away.” • David Bryan, son of long-time Southern Hills professional Dave Bryan, was named the first head professional at The Patriot in Owasso. His first task was to lure Southern Hills assistant superintendent Jeremy Dobson to be the new superintendent. Dobson did a magnificent job until tragically losing his life in an auto accident in 2021. • Golf certainly did not escape the recession of 2007-08 triggered by the collapse of the housing market. Many courses that were built only to sell houses were the first to go and the long march to balance supply and demand was just beginning. Public courses were starting to see increased numbers as members fled country clubs, not wanting to be tied to a monthly payment when times were so uncertain. We looked at the latest trends with several experts.

JUNE-JULY 2009

On the cover, we wrote about Branson reaching a new level as a golf destination with the opening of the Payne Stewart Golf Club. Little did we know what was to come. • Rose Creek in Edmond was purchased by Tour 18 out of Houston with the obligatory announcement about course improvements and an increased maintenance budget. The course would go on to alternate between being an upscale daily fee and a private club for most of the next 12 years. A new owner ship group is taking the course back private this spring. • We featured the nine-hole Buffalo Hills Golf Course in Pawhuska, one of Perry Maxwell’s earliest routings. Unfortunately it closed later that year, only to be reopened for a short time in 2014. One wonders if it could make it now with the golf boom that began in 2020 plus the revival of Pawhuska led by the Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond. • A third nine holes is planned at Winstar Casino and Resort in Thackerville, along with a new hotel tower with 400 rooms.

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2009

• We were honored to chronicle Jerry Cozby’s 41-year career at Hillcrest Country Club with jerry and wife Karole on our cover. Right up to the day he retired, Jerry was “still working like he was 20 and broke,” said eldest son Cary, now the head professional at Southern Hills. Jerry sent 15 assistants on to be head professionals and his work ethic and straight shooting rubbed off on all. Just in Tulsa now Cary is at Southern Hills, former assistant Dave Bryan runs Cedar Ridge and former assistant Tim Johnson is GM at The Golf Club of Oklahoma.

“I learned more from Jerry in two years than I have before or since,” Johnson said. “He’s meant everything to my career.” • A large package in this issue previewed the 2009 U.S. Amateur coming up at Southern Hills Country Club, with a look back at Scott Verplank’s victory in the 1984 Amateur at Oak Tree Golf Club. • In the OGA State Amateur at The Territory, Colton Staggs defeated Robert Streb in the finals 4 and 2. Staggs was red hot in the finals, playing what OGA Executive Director Mark Felder called one of the best rounds he’s witnessed.

OCTOBERDECEMBER 2009

• ByeongHun An won the U.S. Amateur at Southern Hills. Combined with the U.S. Public Links earlier that summer at Jimmie Austin in Norman and the announcement that the 2014 U.S. Senior Open would be at Oak Tree, all that remained was for the USGA to announce that the U.S. Open would be returning at some point to Southern Hills. • Oklahoma State golfers Rickie Fowler, Peter Uihlein and Morgan Hoffman went a combined 10-0-1 to lead the U.S. side to a 16.5 to 9.5 rout in the Walker Cup. • Tripp Davis and good friend Justin Leonard teamed up to design Old American in north Texas, set for a May opening.

APRIL-MAY 2010 (LAST YEAR FOR SOUTH CENTRAL GOLF)

• Mark Felder is named the new executive director of the Oklahoma Golf Association, replacing Steve Eckroat. Felder had been the tournament director since 2002. Morri Rose is added to the OGA staff to run the Oklahoma Junior Golf Tour. • New clubhouses open at LaFortune Park in Tulsa, Oakwood Country Club in Enid and Lake Murray Golf Course in Ardmore. As the new course wave settles and begins to reverse, courses begin investing in improvements to their facilities in a competitive market. • In that vein, Forest Ridge in Tulsa begins a renovation of all of its green complexes and bunkers. • Meadowbrook Country Club lost its par-5 first hole to a street widening project, but fortunately had plenty of room to build a new starting hole just to the south of the original. •Tulsa Country Club announced it had hired Tom Hoch to renovate its clubhouse and Rees Jones to restore the golf course, bringing back more flavor of the original A.W. Tillinghast design. • A feature on Mike McGraw found him seemingly on top of the world in Stillwater, with Mike Holder saying that “he has got the golf program to achieve at a level that has never been seen by a golf program.” With Rickie Fowler, Peter Uihlein, Kevin Tway and Morgan Hoffmann moving through, the Cowboys were incredibly talented but found winning the match play portion of the NCAA Championship to be a hurdle. McGraw was fired by Holder three years later. He is now the head coach at Baylor. • Pat Grant, Janice Gibson, Beth Stone and Joan Blumenthal comprise the 2010 class of the Oklahoma Women’s Golf Hall of Fame. Gibson, who played nine years on the LPGA Tour, is the director of the First Tee of Tulsa headquartered at Mohawk Park, where she has made a positive impact on the lives of thousands of young people, golfers and non-golfers alike. She is a treasure.

Mark Felder Janice Gibson

JUNE-JULY 2010

After overcoming many challenges, including monsoons that washed newly sodded fairways into canyons and destroyed bridges, The Patriot in Owasso opened to rave reviews. The course was designed technically by Robert Trent Jones II but his staff member Jay Blasi was the one who did the heavy lifting. The design was the opposite of what Jones’s legendary father Robert Trent jones Sr. would have come up with, as it worked to help the golfer with banks and slopes that kept a ball that was a bit off line in play. It could still be plenty penal as it wound its way from the valleys through the canyons to wooded uplands. Jones II called it a symphony that reached a crescendo on the 18th hole, with the second shot needing to carry a deep canyon. The Patriot also marked the end of the new course boom in Oklahoma. Since it opened in 2010 only a new nine at Winstar Resort has been added, while more than 40 courses statewide have closed.

The Patriot

AUGUST-SEPT. 2010

• Longtime Kansas correspondent Mal Elliott passed away at age 80. Mal was a huge help to the magazine, writing a column in nearly every issue since our debut in 1993. A long-time newspaperman in Kansas and Oklahoma, he had a vast store of knowledge and loved to talk and write about golf. He wrote four books on golf in his retirement.

During his days as sports editor of the Wichita Eagle, he had a profound effect on columnist Bob Lutz.

“Mal was obstinate, there’s just no way around it,” Lutz wrote. “There’s no one who went into a debate with Mal and came out a winner, even if that person was right. There was right and there was Mal. As time went on it became a charming feature, the way a pit bull can be charming.” • Jeremy Callison of Claremore shot a 56 at Broken Arrow Golf & Athletic Club, surely the low round shot in Oklahoma or maybe anywhere until Rhein Gibson did him one better by shooting 55 at River Oaks in Oklahoma City in 2012, a feat later matched by Alexander Hughes at South Lakes in Jenks in 2020. • Bo Van Pelt, now 35, was on a seasonlong birdie binge on the PGA Tour. Through late July he had made 292 to lead the tour and had pocketed over $2 million in 20 starts. • Some courses were still recovering from one of the worst winters for turf damage in Oklahoma history. Scissortail in Verdigris lost over 60 percent of its fairways while courses throughout the state were forced to spend a good portion of their summer sodding affected areas that did not regrow.

Bo Van Pelt

OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2010

• Brad Dalke, a 5-foot-8, 170-pound 12-year-old from Hobart, gives a non-binding verbal commitment to the University of Oklahoma. • Dan Rooney of the Folds of Honor gave an emotional speech to the 2010 Ryder Cup team prior to the matches at Celtic Manor Resort in Newport Wales, then spent the week inside the ropes as gust of the U.S. team. Europe eked out a 14.5 to 13.5 win to retain the Cup. • The Patriot proved far tougher than advertised for its first OGA event, as golfers average 85.86 shots and six-hour rounds in the OGA Mid-Amateur. Mike Alsup won at age 54 by shooting rounds of 73-69. • After a one-two punch of severe winter kill followed by broiling temperatures that melted its greens, Boiling Springs in Woodward closed until further notice while it began a search for a new course operator. • Forest Ridge in Broken Arrow reopened with the new Tyee bent grass on its greens. • Many Oklahoma courses are converting to Bermuda greens, including Firelake in Shawnee (2008), Western Hills Resort, Page Belcher, Mohawk Park, Chickasaw Pointe in Kingston and Winstar Golf Course in Thackerville. Since that time dozens more have converted including this summer Oak Tree National in Edmond. • Wally Uihlein, chairman and CEO of Acushnet, came to Tulsa to watch son Peter play for OSU at the Ping/Golfweek Preview at Karsten Creek, giving us a chance to catch up with him on the state of the industry. He was not optimistic at that time about golf in the U.S., saying restrictions on equipment companies

combined with the damage done to the game in 2007-08 had made holding on to the number of golfers remaining crucial for the next few years until the industry could being to rebound.

Peter Uihlein

APRIL-MAY 2011 (FIRST ISSUE OF GOLF OKLAHOMA!)

• An extensive Q&A with former Oklahoma State golfer and Tulsa resident Bo Van Pelt by Jimmie Tramel is our cover story as we transition from South Central Golf to Golf Oklahoma. At this point our focus is on the state, but also transitioning to even more features and stories of a timeless nature as most of our tournament and breaking news coverage is now a daily staple at www.golfoklahoma.org and on our social media channels. By this year we are averaging more than 600 stories about golf in Oklahoma on the website the vast majority of which are not duplicated in the magazine as we work to make the two sources complement instead of compete with each other. The full magazine is also sent out in digital form to all of our email subscribers each month and available to read at the website as well. • Paul Ridings retired after 23 years as the head pro at South Lakes in Jenks. He joked that golf courses have “gone soft” b y clos i n g three days a year. His son Tag Ridings is still on the professional tours today and Paul is his biggest fan. Ridings worked for two stalwart professionals in Jerry Jones and later Pat McCrate and South Lakes was one of the state’s busiest public facilities every year of his tenure. • The Patriot in Owasso debuted at No. 48 on the Golfweek Top 100 Modern Course List (1960 and later.) • Oklahoma golf historian Del Lemon wrote a great feature on eccentric oilman Waco Turner bringing the world’s best golfers to tiny Burneyville, population 85 or less for the Waco Turner Open. He persuaded Byron Nelson to come one year by giving him a horse. PGA Tour rookie Jack Nicklaus came and tied for third in 1962, five weeks before winning the U.S. Open at Oakmont for his first professional victory. Between vaudeville acts, bowls of fresh seafood on ice, plenty of booze, late night card game and prize money doled out in fistfuls, sounds like all had a rollicking good time.

Charlie Coe, right, joins Waco and Opie Turner for celebration. Abraham Ancer, a transfer from Odessa Junior College, has the Sooners back in the Top 25.

JUNE-JULY 2011

Ageless wonder Gil Morgan graced our second cover in a profile by John Rohde. At this point, Morgan, now 64, had recently shot his age in a tournament in March. He had accumulated 25 Champions Tour victories to go with his seven PGA Tour wins and over $50 million in combined career earnings and his swing remained a thing of beauty. And he remained one of the nicest, most humble guys you could meet. • Clay Henry penned a nice profile on Marshall Smith, still teaching daily at Peoria Ridge in Miami at the age of 85. Smith had a simple philosophy and was able to help so many without deep swing analysis. “I tell my students to lay their head back on the pillow and stay there” Smith said. “You keep your head back, you keep your weight back. It’s like all of the sports. The head weights a lot. It gets down or forward, everything is ruined. The swing doesn’t have to be long. It doesn’t require great effort. You just have to keep the weight back. I don’t want any dancing. The right foot might come up at the end, but it’s not forced up.” • Despite excellent play from freshman Talor Gooch, the favored Cowboys lost the

NCAA Championship at Karsten Creek with a lineup that featured Kevin Tway, Morgan Hoffman and Peter Uihlein. Led by Patrick Reed, Augusta State knocked them off in the semifinals and went on to win its second consecutive championship with a finals victory over Georgia. “I like winning. I don’t like losing, Marshall Smith on the range at so that’s pretty Peoria Ridge which is dedicated much the gist of to him. it” OSU coach Mike McGraw said after. “But in golf you lose a lot and in life you lose a lot, you just deal with it and hopefully you learn a good lesson about yourself.” • Oklahoma Christian won the NAIA Gil Morgan national title as Oscar Stark was medalist at TPC Deere Run in Silva, Ill.

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2011

• Cameron Meyers defeated Meadowbrook member Nick Lees on his home course 2 up to win the OGA State Amateur championship. • Brian Davis was named the new executive director of the South Central Section of the PGA of America (Oklahoma, Arkansas, southern Kansas.) He remains in that position today. • Mike Hughett won his 14th OGA championship with a victory in the Senior State Amateur at Gaillardia. After which he remarked that the victory was very important to him because “once you hit the senior division, your window of opportunity is very brief and I’m glad I was able to pull this one out.” This summer Hughett won his 25th OGA championship, winning the

Mid-Am at the age of 63. Not that brief Mike! • In a Q&A with Chris Tidland, then playing professional golf and now the head pro at Stillwater Country Club, we ask what he remembers about the final hour of OSU”s

Brian Davis comeback to knock off Stanford and Tiger Woods in a playoff at the Scarlet Course at Ohio State. “I remember it like it was yesterday,” Tidland said. “All the little details, what we ate, the movies we went to, how great Coach Holder was that week in keeping us all loose and focused. It was very special for Alan (Bratton) and I. We were about to become the first class to go through and not win a national championship. Then Alan birdies the last three holes of regulation and the playoff hole. To birdie the last four holes of your college career, that’s pretty amazing to see your Rees Jones at Tulsa Country Club best friend do that.”

Cameron Meyers Chris Tidland

OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2011

• Our cover story is a great profile by John Rohde on Duffy Martin, builder and owner of his golf empire in Guthrie. Martin, now 95 is still sharp, funny and full of wit. He works out 45 minutes every morning and night and starts every morning with oatmeal and raisons. A few Martin gems: – “People would rather hit ‘em than hunt ‘em. Life’s too short to hunt for golf balls.” – “Anybody can get married. Staying married, that’s the hard part.” – You don’t stop playing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop playing.”

– It seems like I’ve been a hustlin’ and a scufflin’ all my life, and I like that.”

On how his wife Juanita caught his eye.

“Here come these two young dollies. I thought, ‘That brunette is American can-made, but she’s got Swiss movements and the backfield’s in motion.’

Duffy passed away in April of 2015 at age 98. The courses at Cedar Valley remain, as does the nine-foot statue of Duffy • A story looks back at the dynasty that almost was, as Bill Brogden assembled a team that should have won the 1981 NCAA Championship with Bill Glasson, Joey Rassett, Jim Kane and Bryan Norton. Stanford won the title by two shots. The internal dynamics on that team were fascinating, with every player challenging the others each day to get better.

“Every day Joey challenged Bill and every day he beat him,” Brogden said. “It’s just part of what made Billy work harder.”

“Glasson came in that second year and said let’s just beat the hell out of everybody,” Kane said.

Duffy Martin relaxes on the patio at Cedar Valley, part of his Guthrie golf empire.

APRIL-MAY 2012

• Shangri-La opens the Legends Nine, which used to be the back nine of the Blue Course. Membership has grown from 84 to over 640 since Eddy Clark took ownership and began to pour money into improvements. And Clark was just getting started. A spectacular new par-3 course called The Battlefield is set to open next spring, meaning he’s been building continually for 12 years. It now has to be regarded as one of the finest resorts in the nation. • A successful Play Golf America Day was held at LaFortune Park, reflecting the PGA of America’s recognition that it had to become more active everywhere at growing the game. It almost makes you sick to hear the expression Growing The Game used by various tours for the enrichment of players. Grassroots efforts like this are what have always grown the game, not how much money a professional is paid. • The Oklahoma Women’s Golf Hall of

Fame inducts legendary Lincoln Park professional U.C. Ferguson of Lincoln Park, it’s second male inductee, along with LeeAnn Hammack Fairlie, Jeannie Thompson Rogers and Lucy Beeler. Ferguson was instrumental in helping get Susie Maxwell Berning get started but she wasn’t the only one. Fairlie has been and remains a stalwart in competitive golf in Oklahoma for decades and is still winning titles today. Beeler, who had nine career aces at this writing, won the State Amateur in 1967. Rogers was the most enigmatic, having won the TransMiss and three consecutive WOGA Juniors by age 17, then giving up the game entirely for three years. She came back to win the 1965 State Amateur after a thrilling semifinal match against Dale Fleming (McNamara), winOklahoma golf legends U.C. Ferguson ning with a birdie on with Susie Maxwell Berning. the first extra hole. She pretty much quit again until deciding to play in 1968, where she reached the finals again only to lose this time to McNamara.

JUNE-JULY 2012

Rhein Gibson shoots a 55 at River Oaks in Oklahoma City and is besieged by reporters across the globe, including many from his native Australia. This spring the round of 16-under that included 12 birdies and two eagles was recreated, sort of, by Rick Reilly in his new book So Help Me Golf, Why We Love the Game. Reilly went to River Oaks to try to see how many mulligans he would need to shoot 55. He was joined by Gibson and Ryan Munson, who was also on hand the day the 55 was shot. Reilly managed to do it with “just” 59 mulligans. • David Bryan replaced legendary Buddy Phillips as the new head professional at Cedar Ridge Country Club. Phillips retired after 40 years at Cedar Ridge,

Rhein Gibson having taken the job

as the club’s second head professional in 1972. Bryan came over from The Patriot, where Chris Jarrett was promoted to general manager and head professional. • Oak Tree and Landmark co-founder Joe Walser Jr. passed away at age 79 in Dallas. Walser, Ernie Vossler and financier Jerry Barton had teamed up to form Unique Golf Concepts in 1971. They teamed with architect Pete Dye to develop not only Oak Tree Golf Club and Oak Tree Country Club, but many of the nation’s top golf resorts in Palm Springs and elsewhere. The Oak Tree logo was ubiquitous on the PGA Tour and was a sign of quality to golf fans across the country.

“Joe was an industry giant and we were blessed to have him as part of our lives,” said Hugh Edgmon, who ran Oak Tree properties in Edmond for Walser and Vossler. “Joe and Pat were family. He was a second father to me.” • Our cover story detailed the commitment of owner Rick Braught, pro Tim Johnson and superintendent Brad Babek to overcoming the challenges inherent in starting and funding a world class golf course like The Territory in a part of the state unused to that level of course. • We took a look at the innovative new junior pro-

grams, including free golf, being instituted by Michael Henderson at Lakeside Golf Course in Stillwater. • The back nine of Hillcrest Country Club in Bartlesville reopened after an extensive renovation by architect Tripp Davis. • Toby Keith tells us why he decided to buy Belmar Golf Club, the improvements he’s made and about David Bryan his own game. “The last thing I really wanted to do was own a golf course,” Keith said. “But this is very close to my house and it would take an hour or more to go play Oak Tree or Gaillardia. I just kind of saved it. They were heading to becoming a strictly $30 daily-fee course and it wasn’t in the best of shape. It was heading to a bad situation. The previous owners had swallowed the dog and Joe Walser Jr. with architect choked on the tail. We’ve made a Pete Dye, left. lot of improvements.”

Toby Keith

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2012

Our cover story is on the massive changes ongoing at Shangri-La. Two nines are open, a third is under construction, the new clubhouse and restaurant is spectacular, a new hotel and conference center has been announced as well as improvements to the marina.

And as we have learned, so much more to come. • We go back in time with “The Godfather” as Cedar Ridge’s Buddy Phillips reflects on his 40-year career. Phillips was a sartorial splendor in his day, figuring he could be his own best advertisement for the new shirt or pant line. Many other section pros who have worked for him, such as Rick Reed at The Oaks and Rob Yanovitch at ShangriLa, are eager to sing his praises. • A new $1.7 million clubhouse for the First Tee of Oklahoma City opens at James E. Stewart Golf Course. The facility includes a 5,100 square-foot learning center, a three-hole course, a short-game area and a 12,000 square-foot putting green. • In a week’s time, former TU golfer Stephen Carney won the OGA State Amateur at Southern Hills Country Club then won a qualifier for the U.S. Amateur at Cedar Ridge by shooting rounds of 69-67. He did all this walking in 100-degree weather.

On the flip side, Carney is also known as the man who returned the beautiful OGA championship trophy in need of repair after allowing it to fall down a flight of steps. • Our celebrity profile this month is a long Q&A with Associated Press writer Doug Ferguson. He dishes on his relationship with Tiger, the second best player on the planet (Rory), the best interview (Geoff Ogilvy), the funniest (Paul Goydos) and whether the U.S. Open will ever return to Southern Hills (unlikely.)

Legendary Cedar Ridge Country Club head professional Buddy Phillips inspired many who worked for him. OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2012

• Willie Wood ended a victory drought of over 16 years by winning the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open on the Champions Tour, securing his playing privileges for the next few seasons.

The reaction at Oak Tree, across the tour and from friends around the world, was instan taneous and overwhelming.

“It’s one of the more popular victories in all my years on tour,” said fellow Oak Tree member Bob Tway.

It was a triumphant return for Wood, who has overcome the death of his first wife Holly to cancer in 1989, two divorces, shoulder surgery and more. • A preview of the college season finds Oklahoma and Oklahoma State on different trajectories. The Sooners are starting to gain traction under Ryan Hybl and have qualified for two consecutive NCAA Championships. The Cowboys did the unthinkable in the spring and had their streak of 65 consecutive NCAA appearances snapped.