Tulsa Country Club General Brochure.Pdf
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COMBINING TRADITION, PRESTIGE AND HOSPITALITY FOR OVER 100 HUNDRED YEARS An early view of Tulsa Country Club, whose course originally doubled as a dairy pasture and had been used to hold cattle awaiting shipment on the Frisco Railroad. Founded more than a century ago, Tulsa Country From T-Town Club features elegant amenities, a championship- to Tee-Town|quality golf course and a By Anne Brockman dedicated membership ore than a century ago, when golf course, elegant and casual dining High Ball and Outward Bound. These Tulsa was nothing more than options, an array of sports activities and clever and quirky labels became legend- Ma 10,000-plus-population a history that tells the story of Tulsa, ary among golfers of the era, who also town finding its way in the oil-boom Tulsa Country Club has helped make had to contend with hazards such as craze, Tulsa Country Club was founded Tulsa T(ee)-Town. Kennedy’s dairy cows. to provide citizens and guests with big- The club has hosted numerous A fire in 1916 destroyed the log cabin city charms in the beautiful Osage Hills national tournaments on its greens and where members gathered. A new club- landscape. has seen greats such as Byron Nelson, house opened the following year. Now known for its spectacular down- Sam Snead, Miller Barber and Bill town views, a nationally recognized Mehlhorn tee off. GROWTH AND CHANGE For more than 100 years, members The 1920s brought considerable have been making Tulsa Country Club’s change to the club. Renowned golf 150-plus acres their second home — and course architect A.W. Tillinghast was why wouldn’t they? With family activi- hired to design a new 18-hole course, ties, social events, sports tournaments, with grass greens replacing sand greens. swimming, dining and more, Tulsa The addition of a swimming pool Country Club strives to provide an in 1935 and a dining room and cock- atmosphere of casual elegance for all its tail lounge a decade later, extended the members and guests. club’s services to golfers’ families. A new THE EARLY YEARS clubhouse was built in 1968 on North In 1908, Tulsa Country Club was Union Avenue to accommodate the club’s founded on land leased from the growth. Kennedy family for a yearly fee of $4 an Tulsa Country Club course architect acre. GREENS IN NEED A.W. Tillinghast, right, looks over A nine-hole golf course was built with In 1988, the golf course underwent plans with a foreman, circa 1920. holes named Profanity Creek, Climax, a renovation headed by Tulsan Jay 2 TULSA COUNTRY CLUB A view of the Tulsa Country Club golf course after noted architect Rees Jones undertook the $6 Rees Jones restored and enhanced the classic A.W. Tillinghast layout. million project, which included the installation of a new irrigation system and pump house, to produce myriad updates, including: • Building 18 new greens to USGA specifications • Rebuilding greenside complexes and bunker surrounds • Planting new and, in some cases, relocating trees to improve shot variety • Creating strategic fairway bunkering at all the par 4s and 5s – 41 new bunkers in all • Regrading the fairways to improve surface drainage • Replacing the majority of the cart paths • Enlarging and redefining all ponds, including a new 1.5-acre irrigation pond. • Replacing all bridges, subterranean drainage pipes and other infrastructure. Rees Jones: “The Open Doctor” Jones was nicknamed the “The Open Doctor” for his redesign work at seven U.S. Open host courses as well as six PGA Championships, four Ryder Cups, two Walker Cups, one President’s Cup and the Morrish, resulting in greater recogni- enhancing the clubhouse and hired Tom PGA’s Tour Championship. tion and prestige for Tulsa and club Hoch, one of the most respected club- Jones has been listed every year to Golf m-embers. Morrish’s work brought house designers in the country, for the Digest’s Top 5 Golf Course Architects list notoriety to the club, with the U.S. Golf renovation. Hoch put in place a plan to since its inception. Association hailing the work as “one of allow for the clubhouse to be renovated Jones has designed or redesigned the the best jobs ever.” while staying within the footprint of the following renowned golf courses: existing facility. The first phase of the • Baltusrol, Springfield, NJ MASTERING THE FIELD renovation is complete. Two more phases • Bethpage State Park (Black), Approaching its centennial, Tulsa will follow. Farmingdale, NY Country Club underwent a thorough • Cog Hill #4-Dubsdread, Lemont, IL review process to create a master plan • Congressional Country Club (Blue), that would improve the clubhouse, swim- Bethesda, MD ming pool and golf course. In 2007, a • East Lake Golf Club, Atlanta, GA new resort-style pool complex was com- • Hazeltine National Golf Club, Chaska, pleted, followed by pool locker rooms and MN a café a year later. • Medinah Country Club (Course Three), Acclaimed golf course architect Rees Medinah, IL Jones signed on to rejuvenate the club’s • Oakland Hills Country Club (South course. This project created new green Course), Bloomfield Hills, MI complexes, tees, bunkers and fairways; • Pinehurst Country Club (Nos. 2 and 7), state-of-the-art irrigation; additional Pinehurst, NC ponds and water features; and enhance- • The Country Club, Brookline, Mass. ments to the overall design of the Professional golfer Byron Nelson at TCC • Torrey Pines Golf Course (South Tillinghast course. in 1945. Nelson played two exhibitions Course), La Jolla, Calif. After finalizing the course redesign at the club during World War II. plans, the club’s board set its eyes on • Waldorf Astoria Golf Club, Orlando, Fla. TULSA COUNTRY CLUB 3 A Tulsa Country Club golf event in the 1940s. Tulsa Country Club’s greens evolve to meet tournament and member needs. The course of history | By Randy Krehbiel olf was just becoming a truly was started in 1908, on land leased from Association was formed at TCC in 1909, national game in 1919 when Dr. Samuel Grant Kennedy, a pioneer and the first state championship was held Gtwo of the sport’s leading per- physician who had given up medicine there a year later. sonalities visited Tulsa. One was Charles to concentrate on oil and real estate. Tillinghast’s visit a decade later “Chick” Evans, winner of the 1916 Located in the very southeast corner of indicated how much Tulsa had U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open. Largely the old Osage Reservation, now Osage changed. A big share of the oil that forgotten now, Evans remains the only County, the club was actually located on fueled the Allied armies and navies of player — the Great Immortal, Bobby the allotment of Kennedy’s wife, Agnes, World War I had come through Tulsa, Jones, being the other — to win both daughter of a French-Osage trader. and it had made the city rich. The golf tournaments in the same year, and he did This was actually the second Tulsa course that was patched together it with just seven hickory-shaft clubs in Country Club. An earlier version, willy-nilly a decade earlier would no his bag. Evans would play in every U.S. opened in 1905 on 80 acres near where longer do. The best in the business Amateur from 1907 to 1962, winning Hillcrest Medical Center now stands, had to be brought in. Some of the most again in 1920, and was inducted into the had included a clubhouse, nine-hole famous names in golf have played World Golf Hall of Fame in 1975. golf course, tennis courts and a shooting Tillinghast’s course. Evans’ companion, however, was an range. According to the October 1905 It has endured Oklahoma summers, even bigger name in golf. Albert Warren Sturm’s Statehood Magazine, the shoot- blizzards, ice storms and floods. Like Tillinghast — generally known as A.W. ing range was the most popular feature. all of us, it has suffered a fair number or, more often, “Tillie” — was a mid- “Marksmen were in the majority,” the of indignities. In 2010, the club mem- dling golfer at best but an imaginative magazine reported. “A few had played bership decided to bring Tillinghast’s and prolific designer of golf courses. lawn tennis or read of golf.” genius back to life. In July 2011, mem- Strong willed, alternately surly and By late 1906, the first Tulsa Country bers cut the ribbon on a Rees Jones charming, and prone to alcoholic binges, Club was out of business, its leased redesign that evokes the day, long ago, Tillinghast could turn a raw piece of land course subdivided and sold off in resi- when two of golf ’s early giants walked into an artist’s canvas. He would design dential lots. the hills and streams of Tulsa Country or redesign more than 250 courses in his The second Tulsa Country Club’s Club. lifetime, including Baltusrol, Bethpage, course seems to have been built more or Winged Foot, Ridgewood and Cedar less by committee, although most of the EDITOR’S NOTE: Randy Krehbiel is the Crest. work was at the direction of William author of “Breaking 100: Tulsa Country Tillinghast was brought to Tulsa to Nichols, a “true Scotsman” and, to per- Club’s First Century of Good Times and redesign the Tulsa Country Club (TCC) haps damn him with faint praise, the best Good Friends.” course northwest of downtown. TCC golfer in the state. The Oklahoma Golf 4 TULSA COUNTRY CLUB A foursome tees off during the early days of Tulsa Country Club. Timeline Tulsa Country Club (TCC) Oklahoman Dick Grout A new $1 million TCC celebrates its 1908 is formed in March on 1927 edges out Gene Sarazen 1968 clubhouse opens on the 2008 centennial.