June 18th, 2015
Turn of the century – earliest days of the Grinnell Country Clubs with
gravel roads and no housing north of Merrill Park, truly a “country”
club – Courtesy of Archives – Drake Library: Grinnell,Iowa
I am restricting the discussion in this section of the Grinnell Country Club to the 1950’s when I spent time there as a member of the high school golf team from 1953-1957. My dad, Ave Adkins, was a member and stock holder – maybe everyone that joined in those days became a stock holder? “The club” has been considered by some in town as elitist and supported only by the college and “North enders”, but truth was that the club house facilities and the course itself were modest and the fees to belong were reasonable. Membership attracted people who liked to play the game of golf and have some family social life and the country club was the only course in town until 1963 when Oakland Acres opened for business. There have been disputes among members through the years regarding the club’s image and objectives, but in a town of 8,000 or 9,000, such an enterprise could not survive if it became too exclusive and highfalutin.
According to the Grinnell Country Club website, Grinnell Golf and Country Club was formed by 21 charter members on October 2, 1899. In 1910, they built a one room club house, which featured screened in porches and a fireplace to warm the interior. The swimming pool was built in 1956 with additional remodeling to the club house occurring in 1963 and 1971 and course improvements coming in 1990. The Country Club pool was always “private property”, but it didn’t stop Grinnell youngsters, non-members, from scaling the fences for many a midnight swim. The location of the dirt road, now 16th Avenue, which abutted number 3 fairway and green, gave locals, most likely non-golfers, an opportunity to yell “Fore” to golfers from their car or pick-up window. Also, the two ponds on the course on the first hole and the ninth hole were used for hunting, fishing, ice skating and retrieving lost balls.
Number 9 had two steep hills and was ideal for sledding in the winter time, as was the hill on number 8 fairway. This was the hole – number 8- in which Pete Elliott, Bud Wilkinson’s assistant coach at national football powerhouse Oklahoma at the time, and Bud himself became a part of Grinnell golfing lore. Bud was in town with his wife, Mary, and two boys, Pat and Jay, to visit Mary’s sister, Helen Ruth Ransom, mother of Mary and Jack Ransom, and Pete accompanied them. Pete Elliott hit his tee shot on 8 which ended up on top of the hill just east of number 9 tee. Wilkinson, not to be outdone by an assistant coach, followed with a tee shot which stopped rolling nearly side-by-side with Elliott’s shot. Those two hits were the talk of the club for the rest of the season and became legendary. The hole played about 330 yards, so the tee shot by Elliott and Wilkinson covered at least 300 yards, all carry. Consider that the landing spot was a steep uphill grade against the natural direction of the ball, that the clubs and the ball were 1950’s models, not the super-charged, user friendly, over-sized driver and not the hopped up golf ball of 2012. With today’s equipment and the super-tight wound golf balls, both Sooner coaches would have easily driven number 8 green. As a skinny 14 year old, I recall admiring the raw strength which the two Oklahoma coaches exuded, especially in their sinewy, muscular forearms and large, powerful hands and feared that no amount of weight lifting or other training on my part could produce that type of athletic power for my own purposes. Both were former All- Big Ten football players, and at that time, 1952, Wilkinson at 36 years was 10 years senior to Elliott, but I was aware that both stuck to a daily personal workout regimen of running and calisthenics which kept them is prime condition as adults.
Another familiar sporting personality who used to frequent the Country Club while visiting his brother, Marty O’Connor, was Frank “Bucky O’Connor, who guided his Hawkeyes to two NCAA basketball Final Fours in 1955 and 1956. The families of the two O’Connor brothers would spend the 4th of July week-ends in Grinnell when Marty and Bucky never missed a chance to play the local links. When Bucky was tragically killed in an auto accident in the spring of 1958, his successor as Iowa’s coach and a former player on the Final 4 teams, Sharm Schuereman, would fill Bucky’s golf date in Grinnell on July 4.
In addition to the occasional celebrity showing up for golf, as in the case of Bud Wilkinson, Pete Elliot and Bucky O’Connor, the Country Club also offered hunting opportunities. There were no houses on the west side of number 1 pond in the 1940’s and 1950’s and early morning duck hunters used to park on the dirt road north of number 2 hole (16th Avenue) to sneak up on the pond along the fence row looking for a Mallard or Canadian Goose. In that same area, the cornfield just west of number 2 green was known to provide an occasional shot at a pheasant or rabbit.
The Izaac Walton League held trap shoots (clay pigeons) on the Country Club property on an occasional Sunday morning in the early autumn before the opening of pheasant season and college students used to take advantage of the close proximity to the campus for their evening “blanket parties” on the darkened golf course grass. The blanket parties attracted local high school students to the golf course to “bushwhack” (spy on) the college couples enjoying each other’s company. One night there were a dozen or so GHS students set to bushwhack a college couple, when the guy on the blanket jumped up and started to chase them. No one stuck around and the bushwhack ended prematurely. The word around the high school the next day was that the male college student in pursuit was recognized in the moonlight as a formidable Grinnell college athlete, a football player and wrestler, who appeared more than willing to take on the young crowd of would be voyeurs.
I started playing golf in 1953, my freshman year in high school and went out for the golf team under the instruction of Frank James, probably the best male golfer ever to come out of Grinnell. (Sherry Wheeler lived in Grinnell a couple of years in the middle fifties and went on to play successfully on the LPGA circuit and Jennie Arseneault, from the Arseneault basketball family at Grinnell College, won the Iowa Women’s Amateur Championship several times and is a top player at the University of Virginia with a pro career in her plans.) My golfing achievements were few outside of memories of some good rounds at the Country Club course. My best was a one under par 35 played in a non-competitive situation. In those days, the course was a par 36. I played in several dual meets and the district tournaments as a sophomore, junior and senior. Each team fielded six players, but only five of the six scores counted in determining the team winner. If I shot 43 or better in those dual meets, I was happy and my score usually counted. I used the golf course for pre-season cross country training for basketball – the hills and autumn leaves were a great setting for conditioning.
When I think of the Country Club in those days, I recall the names of Snap James, Frank and Sue’s dad; Marty O’Connor, Mike and Johnny’s dad, and Chuck DeLong, father of Chod, Dave, Ann and Tim – these three par golfers were partners in DeLong and Sons jacket factory. Snap did the books, Marty did the shipping and Chuck was the product designer and sales manager. Other prominent adult golfers at the time were Dick Ulrich, the former Grinnell College football star and once a member of the Chicago Bears of the NFL; Jack Bierman, an attorney who played collegiately at L.S.U.; Ned Postels, former University of Iowa basketball player, and Frank Walker, an easy swinging golfer from Marshalltown. Looking back, the guys I just mentioned were very good high school and college athletes in other sports and most picked up golf as an adult activity. Jack Bierman was the exception as he concentrated on golf full time and played in a high level of collegiate competition and Frank Walker also called golf his main sport. Claude Ahrens, the local entrepreneur and philanthropist, was another regular at the club and kept things interesting with his strong opinions and unique golf swing. These guys were role models who encouraged young golfers and were always there to give good advice. They played as often as their work allowed and usually posted scores in the mid or high thirties for nine holes.
John Emmerton, who smoked and chewed on a cigar while playing, was the club pro in those days. Larry Crawford from Tama was John’s successor, coming to Grinnell in 1956, and became the club professional for 30 years. He coached the Grinnell College golf team for 9 years and was inducted into the Iowa Golf Hall of Fame in 1997. Larry was the founder of the very popular Pee Wee Golf Tournament and was known to mentor many aspiring young golfers in the Grinnell area and beyond. Larry was a mild-mannered, easy going bachelor with a grooved, natural golf swing. He was known for his strong iron game. I recall picking up the Peach Sports Section of the Des Moines Register one summer Sunday morning in the early sixties to read that Larry Crawford was in contention for the championship of the Iowa Masters Tournament being played at the Iowa State University course in Ames. I jumped in the car and headed for Ames to see Larry in action in his final round. I caught up with him on the 3rd hole and he greeted me in his usual pleasant manner. There was no other gallery there, so I followed Larry the rest of the round, even though he fell short of winning the tournament. (See more on Larry Crawford, in the chapter which follows on Grinnell College Athletics – part C. Trip to Grinnell.)
When Frank James turned 15, he was challenging all of the men as the club’s best player and won the club championship a couple of times while still in high school and was the winner 5 times in all, thus retiring the club trophy. He was a good athlete and a member of the high school football and basketball teams. He was also a very good diver and swam like a fish. In the spring, Snap saw to it that Frank got off to a good start on the high school season as they went to Arkansas or some other southern destination so that Frank could get in 36 holes a day before the snow melted in Iowa, although we did play some high school matches in snow flurries in April and early May. In the summer time, Frank worked at the jacket factory in the mornings, then at noon he headed to the golf course to practice for a couple of hours before playing 18 holes. After evening supper, he would return to the course and practice his putting for a couple of hours. The Grinnell course was eventually too short and easy for Frank as he could drive a couple of the par 4’s and he improved his game by playing in the top amateur tournaments at longer, tougher 18-hole layouts. Claude Ahrens and Paul used to travel to Tulsa for their spring golf which benefited Paul’s game for high school competition.
Frank was co-medalist at the 1957 IHSAA Championship Tournament with Jack Rule and Grinnell finished third in the state with a team of Frank, Paul Ahrens, Lowell Hockett, Dave Palmer and Fritz Brock. Frank went to the University of Iowa where he became the Hawkeyes’ number one player in his senior year and later won the 1963 All U.S. Army Match Play Tournament defeating the 1969 U.S. National Open Champion, Orville Moody, in the final match. Below is a paragraph from an online article by Shannon K. Winning which Frank provided at my request regarding the Moody match in 1963:
“Suneagles (New Jersey) was also the site of the 1963 All Army Golf Trials, which was won by Lt. Frank James, while Sergeant Orville Moody came in second. Orville Moody subsequently turned pro in 1967 and won the U.S. Open Championship in 1969.”
Frank said that after the tournament he and Moody were flown out to the U.S.S. Lexington and they gave an exhibition hitting balls on the deck of the famous aircraft carrier, now docked as a popular historical museum in Corpus Christi, Texas. James then went on the PGA professional tour in 1964 and played in tournaments with his old high school rival, Jack Rule of Waterloo.
Paul Ahrens became club champion at the Grinnell Country Club. Lowell Hockett, who was later a school principal, and Dave Palmer, Phi Beta Kappa at Grinnell and vice-president at Des Moines Area Community College, bolstered the Grinnell College golf program with their commitment to the game and their steady play. Other GHS golf team members from that era were Chod DeLong ’54, who played sporadically because of his commitment to college entrance exams; Dick Norris ‘57, a fighter pilot in Viet Nam and later a commercial pilot for Continental; Bob Clapp ’57, a Wyoming community college drama professor; and Phil Badger ’56.
Dave DeLong, two years ahead of James and Ahrens in school, had the most natural ability of the all the GHS players. He had a perfect golf swing and power to burn. However, Frank would beat Dave regularly because of a difference in temperament. Frank was patient and under control, Dave was impatient often slinging his badly bent putter into the nearest tree after missing a short one. Dave eventually tired of playing golf and participated for several years in some very competitive, high-level tennis matches on the college’s 10th Avenue courts with Ron Parmley, a former GHS coach and ex-Cornell College basketball player. Dave graduated from Grinnell College in 1955, where he played basketball for John Pfitsch, then joined the U.S. Navy. He returned to Grinnell to head up Stadiums Unlimited, a stadium seating company featuring an aluminum product and later on sold for Musco Lighting of Oskaloosa.
The high school and the college teams both used the country club for their practice rounds and home matches. There was, at times, a little tension between the college players and the high school players. I recall one of the Pioneer golfers saying something about playing “smash mouth” with one of us. He immediately acquired the nick name “Smash Mouth”. Like – “there’s Smash Mouth over there on number 5, etc.” After graduating from Grinnell, this aggressive young man eventually served time for catching the blame for some financial irregularities at a bank where he worked in Northwest Iowa. Another feisty Pioneer, team mate of Smash Mouth, had a hair-trigger temper and one day on number 9, a short hole with a pond between the tee and green, miss hit his tee shot into the pond. He was enraged and subsequently threw each of his clubs, one by one, along with his bag and cart into the pond. He swore at each item as he chucked it into the water. Blankety-blank driver, followed by a splash. Blankety-blank 3 wood, splash, etc., etc. He then stomped off the course headed back south past Patty Peak’s family home, down the gravel road the 3 blocks to the campus mumbling as he went. The angry young golfer must have settled down back in the dorm because he returned to the scene of his tirade and was noticed that evening in the pond in a pair of shorts, remorsefully retrieving his equipment, item by item.
Another Grinnell College student, John Black, who we knew as a lawyer in Des Moines in the 1990’s, took his final exam on the number 9 green at the Grinnell Country Club. John related to me the story, and Edd Bowers confirmed it. John had avoided going to required physical education classes and the week before he was to graduate received a letter from the administration saying that he would not receive a diploma until he had satisfied that requirement. Edd Bowers was teaching the golf class that John had not attended during the entire semester. John took the matter to Edd, who listened to John’s story about graduation. Edd decided that he and John would play a round of golf at the Country Club, which would be a part of the physical education requirement, and talk further about the diploma. Edd was an accomplished golfer and John was far below average, but, nevertheless, they played the 9 holes together. When they reached number 9 green, John had a 3 foot putt to finish the round. At that point Edd told his student: “Ok, you make that putt. You graduate. You miss, you don’t.” John did a double take, but Edd insisted: “That’s the deal, John. It’s up to you and that putt.” John took several deep breathes to steady himself, carefully lined up the putt and somehow – miraculously- knocked it in. John rejoiced as the ball clunked into the steel cup and Edd congratulated him. I don’t know what Edd would have said had John missed, but I imagine he would have created another similar test to see that the aspiring lawyer was in the graduation line. John graduated in 1963, earned a degree from the University of Chicago Law School and then practiced his profession in Des Moines for 25 years before retiring to Florida, then to Arizona.
When Geneva and I moved to Australia in 1984, we shipped our golf clubs from Des Moines to Hobart thinking we might have a chance to play some rounds on one of Tasmania’s golf courses. However, coaching the Hobart Devils in the NBL was more than full time work and we never took the clubs out of their boxes. When we returned to Des Moines in 1989, we had the clubs shipped back in their original packing crates from Australia. I had not touched a golf club in over 20 years, but decided to take advantage of a beautiful Iowa spring day in 2008 and play nine holes with John Hemminger, Des Moines attorney, at Oakland Acres just west of Grinnell.
In the past, I was usually able to pick up the clubs and hit the ball with some authority even after long layoffs from the game. However, on this occasion, I was struggling to make good contact with nearly every shot. I was playing terrible golf. On number four, I lined up my tee shot, swung the club and stepped right out of my golf shoes. The shoes had been stored in the trans-Pacific golf bag and the glue which secured the sole of the shoes had apparently dried up outliving its usefulness. I found myself standing on the tee in my sox with the soles of the shoes exactly where they had been placed in lining up the shot. I told John at the time that I thought this was “a sign” and that my golfing days had officially ended with that memorable event. I trudged back to the parking lot in my sox and waited for John to finish his round. I have been tempted to once again “ruin a nice walk in nature” with a game of golf, as the saying goes, but haven’t picked up a club since that day of losing the shoes.
The Grinnell Country Club has been a recreational and social asset to the town for over 100 years and was the only golfing facility available until Oakland Acres was designed by Cliff Thompson and opened in 1963. The Country Club attracts families for golf, swimming and social events and is a hangout for retired guys and others who play pitch and poker year round and golf in the warm months and like to have a few drinks at the CC Bar. Oakland Acres is a hilly 18 hole layout as opposed to the shorter, flatter 9-hole Grinnell Country Club. Both courses serve their purpose as sporting and social facilities and give area golfers a choice as to where they play their favorite game.
Dave Adkins Grinnell Ramblings and More 