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Perry Maxwell Genius Architect, Lasting Legacy by Chris Clouser Hillcrest Country Club in Bartlesville

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Perry Maxwell Genius Architect, Lasting Legacy by Chris Clouser Hillcrest Country Club in Bartlesville OKLAHOMA GOLF HALL OF FAME Perry Maxwell Genius architect, lasting legacy Hillcrest Country Club in Bartlesville BY CHRIS CLOUSER Perry Maxwell is one of the greatest consumption. golfing figures in the history of Oklahoma. Maxwell toured the south- What would surprise so many is that he ern United States and decided was not a native Sooner, but a transplant that Ardmore, Oklahoma, was from Kentucky. the place for him and his wife, Maxwell was born and raised near Ray Woods. He soon found the town of Princeton in southwestern employment with the Ard- Kentucky. After graduation from high more National Bank. Maxwell school, he moved to find a better locale quickly rose up the ladder and to help with his afflictions of eczema and began to network with those who became the first group of oil tycoons. The Maxwells became a cen- Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club terpiece of the Ardmore social scene with their four children, Perry’s place of prominence at the bank, and their involvement in community activities. He was also a prominent tennis player and state champion. His wife eventually asked that he undertake an activity that was less stressful on the body and recommended golf, the sport that was beginning to sweep the nation with popularity from Francis Ouimet’s victory in the Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa. U.S. Open. It was shortly after this that Maxwell first became aware of Macdonald Maxwell purchased an old dairy farm while reading an article about the course north of town. in Scribner’s Magazine. Upon visiting Maxwell’s affinity for golf took hold with him, Maxwell quickly took to the but he lacked any nearby courses to play. template designed golf course that was With so much land at his use, he decided based on classic holes found in Scotland to build his own private four-hole golf and England. The concept would stick course. After the course was completed, with Maxwell as he would come back and other investors asked Maxwell to add build several renditions of these holes on holes and in 1914 he began what would his home course in Ardmore. become the Dornick Hills Country Club. Another lesson that Maxwell took Soon after taking up his newfound hob- from Macdonald was to find a man that by, Maxwell decided that he should could help put his ideas into the ground. learn how to build a golf course. Macdonald relied on an engineer named He thought no finer teacher could Seth Raynor. Maxwell would lean on be found than Charles Blair someone within his family. Brother-in-law 2015 Inductee Macdonald, the builder of the Dean Woods was a civil engineer who National Golf Links of America moved from the copper mines of Arizona in Southampton, New York. to help Maxwell start his own golf course 44 •••••• www.golfoklahoma.org OKLAHOMA COURSES OKLAHOMA GOLF HALL OF FAME Perry Maxwell Oklahoma Courses • Dornick Hills Golf & CC, • Cushing CC, Cushing, 1929 Ardmore, 1913–23 • Ponca City CC (redesign), • Twin Hills Golf & CC, Ponca City, 1929 Oklahoma City, 1920–23 • Brookside Golf Course, • Duncan Golf & CC, Duncan, 1921 Oklahoma City, 1934 • Buffalo Hills GC, Pawhuska, 1922 • Mohawk Park (Woodbine) Golf • Shawnee CC, Shawnee, 1923 Course, Tulsa, 1934 • Bristow GC, Bristow, 1923 • Oak Hills Golf & CC, Ada, 1935 • Indian Hills CC, Catoosa, 1924 • Southern Hills CC, Tulsa, 1935–36 • Muskogee CC (redesign), • Blackwell Municipal Golf Course, Muskogee, 1924 Blackwell, 1939 • Kennedy Golf Course (NLE), • Oakwood Country Club, Enid, Tulsa, 1925 1947–48 • Highland Park GC (NLE), • Lawton CC, Lawton, 1948 Tulsa, 1925 • University of Oklahoma Golf • Edgemere GC, Oklahoma City, Course, Norman, 1950 1925 • Lake Hefner (North) Golf Course, • Riverside CC, Tishomingo, 1925 Oklahoma City, 1951 • Hillcrest CC, Bartlesville, 1926 • Lincoln Park Golf Course (East course), Oklahoma City, 1926 • Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club, Oklahoma City, 1927 construction business. Early in his career, Maxwell determined that he needed to find the perfect grass to use at Dornick Hills and scoured the southern United States. He settled on a strain of Bermuda that was heat resistant. Maxwell would become the foremost expert on the use of the grass and would sit on the USGA Green Section. While touring courses across the United States, Maxwell was obviously influenced by other designers, primarily Donald Ross of Pinehurst, North Carolina. Maxwell soon adopted a couple of traits from Ross designs, primarily using high points of golf courses as often as possible for tee and green locations. In the early 1920s, Maxwell enhanced his knowledge by going to England and Scotland to study the great links courses such as St. Andrews, Hoylake, and North Berwick. He took his lessons on how those great courses used the lay of the land to shape the holes. While on this trip, Maxwell also made the acquaintance of Dr. Alister Mackenzie, a meeting that would prove fruitful just a CLASSEN CURVE: 5860 N. CLASSEN CURVE | EDMOND: 1205 N.W. 178TH ST. The famous eighth hole at Prairie Dunes in Hutchinson, Kan. TULSA: 9110 S. YALE AVE. WWW.EHSRG.COM/UPPER-CRUSTwww.golfoklahoma.org •••••• 45 OKLAHOMA GOLF HALL OF FAME few years later. Once Maxwell returned, Dornick, featured many attributes that Hillcrest Country Club in Bartlesville, the he incorporated the knowledge he had Maxwell had learned from his study of Muskogee Country Club, and Oakwood gained from Macdonald, Ross, Mackenzie the golf courses in the southern United in Enid. All of them share in the great and other designers and began building States and during his study tour of British legacy of one of the most undervalued golf courses that incorporated specific traits links courses and avoided the template personalities in golf’s history. But Max- that are acutely Maxwellian in nature. style that he used at Dornick. well has begun to receive his due in some Perhaps the best known traits of Max- After Twin Hills, Maxwell formed a circles during the past decade. well’s golf courses were his green designs. partnership with Mackenzie. The two Maxwell’s career was undervalued He became famous for undulating surfaces men worked on several courses, includ- due to a lack of understanding about his that had humps within them. These were ing the University of Michigan Golf impact. Many people assumed that he had mockingly referred to as “Maxwell Rolls”, Course and the Crystal Downs Country designed a small number of courses and a play on words with the names of two Club in Frankfort, Michigan. Another of was an understudy to Mackenzie for his well-known automobile manufacturers. their combined efforts was the Nichols entire career. Most are shocked to hear But his putting surfaces had more than Hills Country Club, now known as the that he worked on 82 original designs and rolls. They featured slope and spines, Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club dozens of renovation projects throughout angles and strategy, and other facets that (OCGCC). This project was intended to his career with only a handful of those made them enjoyable with every round. be a 36-hole layout. involving Mackenzie. Maxwell became known for this feature Maxwell secured the contract and laid Others also failed to recognize that and was hired by several clubs to redesign out nearly the entire complex. Mackenzie Maxwell’s philosophy of being a minimal- greens for their course over his career. visited the course a couple of times and ist was not only about less movement of But Maxwell was most prominent in provided his input. OCGCC received dirt, but also about budgets for the design Oklahoma. He built 40 courses across the instant recognition. It has been reduced to and lower maintenance costs once the state. His first effort at Dornick Hill took 18 holes, but has hosted several regional course was completed. That philosophy nearly 10 years to complete and featured events and the 1951 U.S. Amateur. The speaks louder today than at any other time the state’s first grass greens. The course course lacks the elevation changes of Twin as courses look for ways to squeeze every was immediately labeled as Oklahoma’s Hills and Dornick, but it features some of penny in a highly competitive market- best and began hosting regional and state the best use of land movement in Max- place. tournaments. It was a stop on the national well’s career. All of this is accompanied by a recent golf tour for a brief time in the 1950s and These three courses would have been rise in understanding about his work as has since hosted many prominent colle- a great trio for any designer to hang their nationally known architects such as Tripp giate events, including the annual Max- hat on, but Maxwell topped them all with Davis or Keith Foster or the team of Bill well tournament that drew several of the the completion of Southern Hills in Tulsa Coore and Ben Crenshaw restore or touch NCAA’s top teams. in the mid-1930s. The course has hosted up some of the classic Maxwell designs, Soon after Dornick Hills’ completion, many important events including seven including the Old Town Club in Winston- Maxwell took on his next major contract major championships. It has become the Salem, North Carolina, or Hillcrest, or for the course that would become Twin face of Oklahoma golf for the world. even bring back some of that beauty at Hills in Oklahoma City. Twin Hills was The routing and design of the course is Southern Hills. The golf world is finally an ambitious project over some rough considered the pinnacle of Maxwell’s realizing that the impact of Perry Maxwell terrain.
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