Des Moines Golf and Country Club History

by John Zeller 1999

GRASPING AT THE SHADOWS - EARLY GOLF IN IOWA

The results of chasing after rumors of early Hawkeye golf prove as credible as sightings of the Lock Ness Monster. The possibilities are endless; every year in January the local Scotsmen rummaged up a tartan plaid and bagpipe to pipe in the haggis on Bobby Burns' birthday. So no telling how many could, come springtime, put their hands on a clutch of "mashies and "spoons, " and an old treasured gutta-percha ball to knock around the old cow

pasture. Events so fleetingfall between the illusory ripple and an elusive serpentine tail on the distant waters of history.

But one tale that has remained afloat long enough to examine is one told by Thomas Andrew Bell who claimed the honor of introducing golf to America in 1883 at Burlington, Iowa. The account appears in "Fifty Years of American Golf," by HB. Martin (1936). It contends that "Andy" Bell attended the University of Edinburgh in 1881, returned with golf clubs and balls and two years later set up a small four-hole course on his father's estate where he and his friends pioneered the Scottish pastime on American soil. He even threw in the names of his golfing buddies as further evidence.

Bell's story, if true, is quite fantastic. He would have beaten by five years the establishment of the St. Andrew's Golf Course of Yonkers, New York - the first permanent golf club in the u.s. - and the Chicago Golf Club, by nine.

Checking the newspapers of Burlington for 1882-1884 reveal nothing of Andy Bell leaving for Scotland, attending a university or playing golf. Burlington City Directories in those years list him as working for his father's wholesale grocery business. Bell's story doesn't seem to ring true. A quick check for a wedding announcement in 1886 brings Andy. a. k. a. "Dude," into sharperfocus.

Four days before the marriage, Bell was arrested on charges of "seduction" and "lewdness. " Bell's father had the $4, 000 to bail him out of jail, but probably not the $50, 000 damages in the girl's father's civil suit. A private hearing was held as a bailiff blocked the door to onlookers and newspapermen, whose papers reported the next day that Andy Bell and Alice Naudain were happily married. Happily, until two months later when the Post reported that Bell "has deserted his young wife and fled the town. " It furthered, without any mention of golf.'

"As the fellow never had any object in life other than to ruin trusting young girls who were not capable of understanding what a monster he was, there is little trouble in predicting what his end will be. Some irate father will blow his brains out with a shot-gun one of these days, and the sooner the better. "

The Gazette was pained to report that the abandoned wife, upon being refused assistance from Bell's parents, attempted suicide with' a pistol (Only aflesh wound). In the editor's judgement, Bell deserved "to be dragged through the townfeetfirst by ajackass - providing one of these animals will submit to such an insult. "

Somehow the scandal was hushed up; Bell departedfor Chicago. where years later he claims to have been a golf pro at the River Forest Club. He reappears back in Burlington around

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1925 for a last round of golf with old friends, and regaled them with the Andrew Bell golf legend, which was repeated in his 1932 Burlington Hawkeye obituary.

What is the truth? A likely possibility is that Bell learned golf in Chicago in 1892, bought some clubs and returned home in 1893, when he played some golfwith old friends. As the years passed, the time. of the game was moved back ten years (other accounts of golf in Alton in 1887 and Boone in 1889 may also be a mistake of a decade). A trip to Scotland was invented with wonderful gifts of golf clubs from famous Scottish players thrown in for good measure.

Would loyal friends dispute such a great yarn with their little city taking center stage? Was Bell a champion golfer, liar or both?

In Scottish law, there is a middle ground between "Guilty" and "Not Guilty. " On Mr.

Thomas Andrew "Dude" Bell, the jury finds a verdict of "Not Proven. "

1892: FAIRFIELD, IOWA

Dr. James Frederick Clark of Fairfield was visiting Chicago in 1892 where he spied some mysterious golf clubs in the window of a store on State Street. He bought one and upon returning home enlisted a rag-tag golf contingent that marched out to Lampson's pasture for the first verifiable round of golf west of the Mississippi.

The Kahgahgee Golf Club of Fairfield was organized May 16, 1892 .. Property of the club consisted of one driver, three golf balls, and seven empty tomato cans (the holes). Lampson's pasture was a free, unimproved stretch of prairie grass and wildflowers. They shared its use with field botany classes, children and cows. (One cow snatched up a ball and carried it over to the hole, where it dropped it, resulting in a four-under bogey - an excellent score.)

The first club was a small band of 20 that played with a casual, carefree spirit. In the winter, they used a red-painted ball and at night a phosphorescent one. Much time was spent in the proper organization of search parties for lost balls in the tall grass. A constitution was written 1896, instructing members in theproper spirit of golf as practiced by the Kahgahgee Golf Club.

"The chief object in life of each member of this club shall be to beat the record, to engender envious misery in others, and to discuss the exploits and wonders of the game with any benighted mortal who, at the moment, may be available. "

The following year, 1897, golf club siblings in Des Moines and Washington, Iowa, were born. The Des Moines Golf and Country Club even incorporated with the county! Some of the original members lamented the Fairfield Club becoming like all the other golf clubs springing up across the country. On October 1, 1900, The Kahgahgree Golf Club purchased an old log cabin to be used as a golf house. wrote articles of incorporation, and even bought a lawn mo wer. The infant Golf Club of Iowa was going to have to grow up to play with the bigger kids.

BIG COUNTRY CLUB PLANS 1897

On June 4, 1897, the Register reported that four of Des Moines' elite businessmen had an ambitious plan to create to "country club" for Des Moines.

The plans were termed "elaborate, " and indeed they were. One hundred select members would erect a "country resort" where all the privileges of a club house and athletic grounds can

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be enjoyed. " The Register enthused, "It is looked forward to as one of the new, swell social features of the season. " Their plans were expensive. The club envisioned was two stories high, with parlor and dining rooms, billiard rooms, a bowling alley, sleeping apartments, etc. " The grounds would include tennis courts, golf grounds and a bicycle track.

The club was to be located about five miles out in the country, beyond the range of everyday folks on the street cars. In fact, the whole point of this "new departure" was its exclusivity, that it would be beyond the means of most folks. "No one but members will be permitted to enjoy its benefits. "

The fathers of these young men were town pioneers that arrived in Des Moines as young go-getters who carved out fortunes, built mansions and retired to be the leaders of a democratic generation of founding fathers. The children of these pioneer businessmen were raised in some elegance, often tutored in private versus public schools, sought exclusive contact with the better sort of people. Public parks and other amusements that sprouted up in the 1890s were just too public for their taste.

F. C. Hubbell and the other three were confident that Des Moines society could afford the considerable expenditure of money to bring a metropolitan air to the city. They acknowledged that conservative insurance town Des Moines had been "always a little slow about such matters." But just as soon as they found the right location, they would sign up membersfrom Des Moines' "400, " and the elegant country club would take off.

But by summer's end, it appeared that the big plans for the giant club house were being set aside for a little golf club with a strong case of Scottish frugality.

1897 - ARTHUR C. WHITWORTH, THE SEED OF GOLF, BLOWS INTO TOWN

The big "Liverpool and Des Moines" pork packing house on the Southeast Bottoms could cover the low-lying business district with quite a stench. So it's understandable that aristocratic Englishman Arthur E. Whitworth, who represented company President W S. Ellsworth interests here, might do so at a safe suburban distance, armed with a quiver of imported golf sticks.

Whitworth resided comfortably at the Iliad Hotel (Shops Bldg.) with considerable time on his hands. Nat Guernsey learned that Whitworth knew a little about golf and promptly promoted him to be Des Moines' golf expert. (Some accounts referred to Whitworth as "Frank", others as the son of the company president. Dickinson, years later, calls him "Ellsworth," and others remember him as a member of the Des Moines Cycling Club.) Within a year, Whitworth was gone, but not before cheerfully drilling the first platoon of Des Moines golfers.

GOLF AND COUNTRY CLUB FORMED

On Tuesday evening, Sept. 28, 1897, a group of a dozen would-be golfers met at the downtown sporting goods store of WP. Chase & Co. to discuss organizing the first Des Moines golf club.

The meeting was called by la-wyer Nat Guernsey, who would later be honored with the title, "Father of golf in Des Moines. " Guernsey was cautious where Hubbell was bold. Des Moines had not been ready for F. C. Hubbell's big country club plans. The downtown Des Moines Club had recently failed, and the businessmen who hadbeen sued over the debts owed by the club were reluctant to get burned again. Nat Guernsey was adamant that the new golf club would not incur even a nickel of debt (especially as the club's first president, when he was

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expected to pay its bills out of pocket and plead for reimbursement later.}

Guernsey's "go slow approach" appealed to prospective members of the Scottish extract.

Lumberman Robert Fuller, one of the wealthiest men in the city and proud of his Scottish blood, remarked later, after being told to try a new golf ball after a miserable success with an old battered one, that he "wished to be rich enough to have a new ball every day. "

That first night, Guernsey wanted to form committees to study all the issues of finance, membership and location, and have them report back to the group at a future date. At this point, the Register reported that the rest of the group, which was hot to start golfing, applied "reverse English" to Guernsey's tentative approach. Harry Polk announced that his father had a 40 acre spot conveniently at the end of the Ingersoll car line that he would allow them to use in exchange for paying the $150 a year in taxes. The new, still-unformed club told young Polk and Arthur

Whitworth to proceed forthwith to put the grounds in order. They ordered golf clubs for all the members, an extra set for the club and all other necessary golf paraphernalia to be sent special delivery before Saturday when Whitworth would conduct the first golf school to the 55 new members.

At 20 'clock, 55 perspective golfers (twenty of them women) assembled at Polk's pasture at the end of the car line. Excitement ran high among the local "400, " the social set of the town. Many had encountered the new Scottish game while vacationing at summer resorts in the east, and the embarrassment of not knowing the game had become a social hindrance. The Register reported their painful admission to others that "golf hasn't broken out in Des Moines. "

Most Des Moines businessmen, however, unlike Guernsey, who had rowed at Yale, failed to see the advantages of fresh air and exercise over cigars, cards and liquor. Polk and Whitworth's youthful enthusiasm was falling on deaf ears with men who thought of girth and business prowess as inseparable. So Guernsey stopped by their downtown offices with his handsome carriage, team of horses and driver and whisked them out to the club grounds. There he coaxed them out, providing a club conveniently at hand to take a swing at the ball. If it looked like they had any interest in chasing after it. Guernsey had the coachman bounce the carriage over the cow pasture in hot pursuit. (The first and most elegant golf cart in Des Moines history.)

The course at the end of the Ingersoll car line was then way out in the country. The Des Moines Streetcar Company extended its line out there in 1894 to accommodate the public in reaching Greenwood,the first city park. Two years later, Waveland Park was obtained and the University car line was extended there. Between the two parks, there was a plan for a boulevard (Polk), but in 1897 that was just a dream. The street car men and the real estate developers (often the same) saw the crowds arriving on the trolley cars as prospective property owners in the new elegant suburban neighborhoods that they felt sure would follow.

What the first group of golfers found as they stepped off the street car was an expanse of easy terrain with few trees or other obstacles. That first year, the club set up a haphazard 18 hole course with no clearly defined fairways. So just about anywhere one hit the ball turned out to be a playable lie. The play must have been rather amusingfrom a modern point of view. Players cris-crossed the links, chasing after wild shots, while the caddies huffed and puffed to keep up with the players, who thought "fast play" was a sign of a good golfer.

The only obstacle that remained was Polk's herd of dairy coyvs that roamed about at will.

Cows and golfwere immediately deemed a completely unacceptable mixture. The Register reported a revolt against paying Mr. Polk by the members who had showed up for the first day of golf Charles Pinkney vowed "Millions for golf, not a cent for tribute. " The paper intoned that the entire future of golf in Des Moines hung in the balance, "unless a modus vivendi is arranged

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by which the cows shall be banished, the record of golf in Des Moines may never require the service of an historian. " Disaster was averted when a compromise was reached that Polk would pasture aflock of more easily herded sheep; which would also do a superior job of lawn mowing, anyway. (Perhaps the paper was too gentile to discuss the added incompatibility of cow pies and ladies wearing patent leather shoes and petticoats.)

With the initial difficulties worked out, an organizational meeting was held on Oct. 7, 1897, to ratify the articles of incorporation drawn up by F.e. Hubbell, N. T. Guernsey and Craig T. Wright (filed with Polk County Oct. 11, 1897). The name of the new club was to be "the Golf and Country Club. " The business of the new enterprise was described in article 11 as to: "encourage the playing of the ancient and royal game of golf and to encourage other athletic sports, and to afford to its members facilities for the participation in and the enjoyment of said game and sports and to acquire and maintain suitable grounds therefore in or near the City of Des Moines, and to erect and maintain upon such grounds a clubhouse for the entertainment of its members and guests in connection therein. "

The new club elected its first officials.

President - N. T. Guernsey

Vice President - George Gilbert Secretary - Carey R. Cheshire Treasurer - Frank P. Flynn Captain - Arthur E. Whitworth

Directors: OH Perkins, E.G. Pratt, WS. Statler, r.c. Hubbell, W W Witmer, Arthur Reynolds, WE. Cless, Frederick Field, Craig L. Wright, N. T. Guernsey, J G. Berryhill, and John R. Clarkson.

Witnesses who affixed their signatures to the document included seven society ladies who were there to ensure that the big dream of the elegant country club was kept in mind by the new golf en thusiasts. They included Mrs. A.G. Maish, Miss Adelia White, Mrs. W P. Chase, Cora Chase, Miss M. Robertson, Della Marquardt and Florence Elbert.

Over the last 102 years, the Golf and Country Club has rewritten its charter at least three times and added "Des Moines" to the title. Yet the club has never disbanded, the assets have never been sold off, nor have the proceeds have ever been divided up by the members. The present day Des Moines Golf and Country Club - after wars, economic depression, relocations and clubhouse fires - is still a direct linear descendant through an unbroken line of succession back to Oct. 7, 1897, and a group of golfing men and country club women who pioneered in writing the first incorporation papers for a golf and country club in the state of Iowa.

1898: FIRST FULL SEASON

The Golf and Country Club's 1898 season opened April 2 with a dance for its 70 members at Flynn Hall. The grounds were opened May 1 with a polo exhibition by the "Lincoln Hussars. " On the sixth of September, the young club hosted its first golf tournament. It was match play with eight entries. The first day leaders were George W Baker, Raymond Windsor, HH Polk and George Gilbert. On the Labor Day final, Raymond Windsor beat George Gilbert to win the prize of a dozen new golf balls and the honor of being the city's first golf champion. The Leader enthused: "The tournament was an entire success in that it created a greater interest

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in the game and afforded the members an opportunity to meet in general competition. There were also a number of visitors on the grounds each day who were very much interested in following the plays and noting the progress of the game. Those who played the game where enthusiastic over it. "

However, the big unreported news of the year was that a young civil engineer, Warren Dickinson, just played his first round of golf Dickinson was a noted athlete, a star football player at Pennsylvania Military College and later for the local YMCA team. He won the 1892 city tennis championship and was a formidable three-cushion billiards player. Guernsey recruited him into the local golf camp by convincing Col. Pratt, Dickinson's boss at the gas company, to give him the afternoon off to knock a gutta-percha golf ball around Mr. Polk's sheep pasture. The conversion was complete. within three years he was the new club's star player, and the most tireless promoter of the game of golf in Iowa.

1899: FIRST CLUB HOUSE

Englishman Arthur Whitworth moved to Chicago, and Dickinson stepped in to shape up the club. He moved the grounds to a 40-acre section of the original course, shortened it from a disordered 18 holes to a modern 9 hole course with fairways, trees, bunkers and a few traps. Members kicked up a fuss, but Dickinson stood his ground, saying the new challenges sharpened their game and they could then play on challenging courses anywhere. To keep the grounds in shape, the club hired their first employee, greens keeper John P. Westgreen (a local Swede who, after leaving Des Moines in 1907, later designed the Interlachen course in Minneapolis and the Westborough Country Club in St. Louis.)

The 1899 golf season opened with the exciting news that the club would erect its first club house. It sat near the corner of Ingersoll Avenue and Polk Boulevard. (Just back of 412 Polk Blvd.) The architects, Nourse & Rasmussen, produced plansfor a charming little building 36feet by 62feet in size with 12-foot verandas on two sides. Their plans included an "old fashioned fire place, " hardwood floors for dancing, dressing rooms for men and women, a kitchen and dining room, and three living rooms all for a contact price of $1,390.

The club house was dedicated on Saturday, Sept. 10, 1899. The day was ideal for golf and the links were covered with "gay-clad players. " The exercises began at 4: 30. The first two events were a long-drive contest for the men, and a speed contest for the women -a timed event, strokes not counted. Following these and other contests a supper of sandwiches, coffee, lemonade and ice tea was served at the club house. Each lady member agreed to present one cup and saucer to the club for permanent use. Members and guests numbered about two hundred. The interior of the club house was decorated with golf sticks, tennis rackets, flags and flowers.

" Ex-president Guernsey reviewed the history of the club and praised efforts of president Field in raising the sum of$1.500fromfifty members in a single day, allowing the club to finish the new club house without incurring a dime of debt. Club income was running twice expenses and membership had climbed to the limit imposed by the club's bylaws of one hundred and twentyfive. Two silver medals. the Guernsey Medal to the best gentleman golfer, and the Field Medal, to the best woman golfer, were awarded.

The Monday following the openingfestivitiesfor the building saw thefirst intercity golf tournament played in Des Moines. The Marshalltown Golf Club sent a formidable quartet which defeated the Des Moines Golf and Country Club team of Rawson, Dickinson, Windsor and Finkbine.

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November zs: was the final day for golf that year. The last Field and Guernsey medals of the season were up for grabs, along with a hot lunch served at the club house for 25 cents. The members must have felt content that after the success of the 1899 country club season, the future of their club seemed bright.

1900: FIRST IOWA GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP

The first Iowa Golf Association Championship was held on the grounds of the Des Moines Golf and Country Club at Ingersoll Avenue and Polk Boulevard between Tuesday, Aug. 28, and Friday, August 31, 1900.

The preliminary round started at 9 0 'clock Tuesday morning. The organizers were disappointed that the teams from Marshalltown, Sioux City, Burlington and Davenport failed to show up at tee time. However, thefirst day fielded a respectable 21 players from six Iowa towns:

Des Moines, 10 players; Iowa City, 4; Primghar, 3; LeMars, 2; and Cedar Rapids and Keokuk each with one.

The first day's leader was J.R. Windsor of Des Moines but on Wednesday the 2CJh, Dr.

John R. Watson, the lone player from Keokuk, fresh from posting an 87 in Quincy, Ill., took charge. He set a new Des Moines amateur record of 40 strokes in nine holes. The old record was 41 by Warren Dickinson and the Des Moines professional record was held by club pro "burley Scotch-man" Jack Martin Watson (who was imported from the east) of 36 and 38 strokes played in two consecutive rounds.

That evening, the golfers repaired to the offices of J.R. Windsor in the Youngerman Block north of the Polk County Courthouse, for the first statewide meeting of Iowa golfers. Amongst great enthusiasm, they adopted a constitution, ratified bylaws and elected officials for the new born Iowa Golf Association. Clarence W Eastman, Professor of German at the University of Iowa, was elected its first president. All ten towns attending were represented with either club officers or with members on its board of directors. ES. Windsor of Des Moines was elected treasurer.

Final play resumed Wednesday for the individual amateur championship. After "a highly contested match, " Dr. Maxwell defended his lead against Warren Dickinson of Des Moines to claim the trophy from the one-day-old Iowa Golf Association. Des Moines Golf and Country Club president George F. Henry presented the cup to Dr. Maxwell, who gave a short acceptance speech.

That day three more players arrived from Keokuk to assist Dr. Maxwell in pursuit of the state team championship. Primghar picked up one player from LeMars to field afour-player team. Meanwhile a special sleeping car of the Milwaukee and St. Paul RR rolled into town with the squad from Dubuque rested and ready to play.

When play began on the first day, the Iowa City and Sioux City teams felt outclassed and dropped out, not being able to keep up with the "fast play. " After 36 holes on Friday, the Des Moines Golf and Country Club had demolished the field. Its team total was 775 strokes against second place Primghar-LeMars ' 852. Dubuque was third with 863 and the Keokuk boys, not withstanding excellent play by Dr. Maxwell, finished last with an 880.

The first state golf tournament in Des Moines was a giant boost for the Des Moines Golf and Country Club and for golf in general in Iowa. It was also exciting for the smaller towns to be in the same league as the big cities. The 0 'Brian County Bell boasted that the tournament in Des Moines had been a great free advertising for Primghar, "Queen of the Prairie, " and that

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people were hunting maps for their town where "gentlemen played about as swift golf as any town in the state. " As for the Des Moines Golf and Country Club, the Bell reported that "the boys speak loudly of the fine grounds and splendid treatment, and say they learned many new points. "

1901: COMPETITION EMERGES

The 1901 golf season opened with the big news that the Des Moines Park Commission had voted to make Waveland Park into the third free public golf course in the United States. The City paid Warren Dickinson $300 to layout an 18-hole course. That July, the Waveland Field Club was organized with Dickinson as its first president. (He also stayed on as a DMGCC member). As the new Waveland Club began work on a clubhouse and tennis grounds, early golfers. used to converted cow pastures, thrilled to the novelty of a hilly, wooded golf course. Later, when word arrived from Davenport of the first-rate clubhouse of the Tri-City Golf Club, picturesquely set on an island in the middle of the Mississippi, Golf and Country Club members were ready to abandon the "go-slow" approach for good and really invest in maintaining DMGCC as the premier golf and country club in Iowa. Many proposals for new grounds and clubhouses were put forward in the next three years. In the meantime, success in competition protected the club's honor.

The Des Moines Golf and Country Club stayed competitive by making the second Iowa State Golf Championship final, played on their own course, an all-club affair with young Robert Finkbine defeatingfellow club member Warren Dickinson for the trophy. Defending champion Dr. Maxwell won the Solace Cup for third place and Mr. Boardman of Marshalltown, the fourth place finisher, received as consolation "a handsome leather golf bag, which Mrs. Boardman immediately claimed as her own. "

1902: NOT THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN

The 1902 golfseason opened March Bl" with the weekly Saturday night tea enjoyed at the clubhouse on a new screened-in westside veranda. With a new, larger kitchen, the club's reliance on picnic lunches was over. After the tea, the tables were cleared out and dancing was enjoyed - Music provided by the Des Moines Mandolin Club.

The Waveland Field Club came out of hibernation confident and ready to challenge the Country Club. The park commissioners were finishing a new 90 x 40 foot open air pavilion on the grounds as the club proudly unfurled its new 9 x 6 foot red bunting banner proclaiming "WAVELAND" in big white letters. On June 13th, the country club players arrived at Waveland to challenge the upstarts in the first intra-city golf rivalry in Des Moines. The country club prevailed but only by a small margin.

The new pretty three-story clubhouse built on the grounds of the Burlington golf Club on Sunnyside, site of the 1902 Iowa Golf Championship, was another shock to the pride of the Des Moines club. Club players responded by beating ten other Iowa golf clubs in the team contest and by club player Warren Dickinson, president of the Iowa Golf Association, picking up his first individual state trophy.

Three Des Moines women golfers, Miss Maud Hatch, Mrs. J. L. Wright, and Mrs. w.o.

Finkbine challenged for the lady's cup, which was won by local Burlington girl Ruth Crapo, who played a "cool, steady game" through the driving rain. At the awards dinner, Warren Dickinson

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accepted the association trophy saying he hoped to see everybody all again in the state meet next year at the Des Moines Golf and Country Club "where we shall try to give you the same kind treatment that you have given us - that is, all but the rain. "

1903: DES MOINES - IOWA'S GOLF CAPITAL

In the third year of the century, Des Moines really led the way in golf. The city opened a nine-hole course on at Grandview Park on the East Side, giving Des Moines three golf courses. Thomas 0 'Neill, who was made golf pro at both city clubs challenged country club pro J.M. Watson to the first professional golf contest in Des Moines. The dual tournament was played on both courses with prize money put up by the members of both clubs, the winner to take three quarters and the loser, one quarter. Watson successfully defended the country Club's honor.

The City championship played at the Country Club a week later boiled over in controversy. The Waveland Club, stung by its two losses, was incensed when a caddy for the country club was observed spying on the qualifying round counting their strokes, thus implying that they might be cheating. They demanded their entry fees returned - one dollar- but were refused. Things had simmered down for the finals next week on the country club links, where Waveland players won their club 's first championship. But the Country Club was like a duck to water as they hosted the rain-soaked state tournament in August. Warren Dickinson captured his second individual victory, J. C. Cummins won the handicap event and the Des Moines Golf and Country Club the team championship.

1904 - UPSTARTSAND UPHEAVAL, THE DOWNSIDE OF FAME

The season opened to the shocking news that the Waveland Field Club was folding its tent. The members had plans to regroup as a stock company to raise money to buy three acres of land east of the park to build a nicer, more private club house where social functions could rival those held at the Country Club. (Didn't happen) The one-year-old Des Moines Tennis and Outing Club which maintained tennis grounds at the Des Moines College was being enticed to pool resources to build a string of new clay courts off Polk Boulevard. (Present day city courts). Warren Dickinson led the campaign to raise money and recruit new members. From today's

vantage point Dickinson's roving club loyalties seems odd, yet his local preeminence on the links afforded him the status to be, as the Register reported in 1904, "unique nationally" in being an officer of one golf club and the star player for yet another.

While Dickinson was busy representing the Golf and Country Club abroad at the major tournaments that summer'(The Western at Exmoor Links in Chicago, the Iowa State Tournament in Dubuque and the Trans-Mississippi at the Minikahda club in Minneapolis} two young brothers, players for the Waveland Club, were engaged in trying to dethrone local golf king Dickinson. "Bun" Guinand took the honors of the Highland Trophy at Iowa Falls while older brother B.F. "Bood' Guinand was barely nudged out by Dickinson at the city championship held on the Waveland links.

Meanwhile, Des Moines Parks Commissioner Sidney Foster, was storming the privileged bastions of the u.s. G.A. at their annual meeting in Chicago. Foster, the master mind of the Waveland public course was the sole western golfer in attendance, representing the TransMississippi Golf Association and the interests of the three hundred "Allied" club memberships.

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The "Allied" golf clubs' $1 dues allowed them entry into u.s. G.A. tournaments but that's where their rights ended. They were the undemocratically disenfranchised golfing masses. The thirty aristocratic eastern "Associate "clubs paid a whopping $10 each which afforded them voting rights and the privilege to dictate to the majority the rules of Golf as practiced in the United

. States. Whether Foster spoke also to the western golf interests of the Des Moines Golf and Country Club is unclear, as the DMGCC was one of only two golf clubs west of the Mississippi to be one of the exclusive members of the thirty "Associates"!

Insurrection against the established golf order spilled over to the Iowa Golf Association

Championship held at the Rabbit Hollow Golf Links at Dubuque in July. The "three Des Moines clubs sent a regiment of thirty-four players with the expectation of returning triumphant with the individual and team trophies along with the 1905 tournament at Waveland. That next season they anticipated forty-nine holes of golf available in town; forty more than any Iowa competitor. The Des Moines squad arrived with a swagger demanding the state contest every other year, boldly declaring the Capital city the center of golf in Iowa. Looking around the new Rabbit Hollow club house, superior to anything in Des Moines, should have been a hint that Dubuque wasn't intending to take a back seat.

"The interior of the club building is suitably finished in soft green hues and the main assembly hall is encircled by a sixteen -foot piazza and "wide French windows running to the floor through the entire hall and porches, into one large room. " - (They even had a ladies' locker room with shower baths - a first for Iowa.)

The eighth hole at Rabbit Hollow was only 220 yards but it carried the ominous name "Troubles" which is exactly the spot in which the Des Moines squad found itself The greens were long rough and uneven. The caddies were grumbling, plotting a strike, and a "spirit of antagonism towards everything emanating from Des Moines" permeated the galleries.

"Especially was this spirit in evidence during the contest for the championship between Dickinson and Ferguson, and every time the latter did anything that was above the level of mediocrity, he was given the glad hand, while the only time Dickinson received any moral support was when the Des Moines golfers present started something the same line"

Cordiality still prevailed among the players; the winner, twenty-year-old Henry H Ferguson of Cedar Rapids was praised - "his game was simply unbeatable", and runner up Dickinson was reelected association president. But the debate at the annual meeting over the site of the 1905 contest was "cut and dried" with Burlington the winner over Waveland which had been promised it for not challenging Dubuque for the 1904 tourney. After Waveland's Sidney Foster had 10 defend himself at the business meeting that followed, the Des Moines golfers left knowing "how to take care of their business in the future. "

GLAMOROUS NEW GROUNDS - 1904 -1906

At the annual DMGCC meeting on Oct. 2, 1903 outgoing president Warren Dickinson announced the clubs big plans. First, the present golf links would be returned to Mr. Polk who

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wanted to develop it into a residential neighborhood directly north of the new and hugely popular Ingersoll (Amusement) Park. They would be leasing ninety-eight wooded acres for twenty years from the Gilcrest family. The land lay directly northwest of the original course and abutted the Waveland golf links to the North. The combined forty holes of golf would, they hoped, give Des Moines a advantage in attractingfuture Trans-Mississippi Golf Tournaments.

Dickinson envisioned a lengthy course designed to accommodate the long drives made possible by the new rubber-cored Haskell golf ball. In December Tom Bendelow, the golf expert from A. J. Spaulding &co. (Makers of the new ball) arrived to layout the new 18-hole professional golf course. Bendelow sketched out a plan to layout a 6,962 yard links through a large stand of native timber. That January they advertisedfor college men to "replenish their pocketbooks", by clearing away underbrush and dynamiting hundreds of old growth trees firmly rooted in the path of Bendelows long straight fairways.

The Register reported that Bendelow " is considered one of the best golf-course experts in the country. " Since Bendelow had already laid out three hundred and sixty clubs the town thrilled to his expert opinion that "the contours of the Des Moines course ... are better than any other grounds that have been laid out for several years. " And that only two courses, the Myopia outside Boston, and Fox Hills on Staten Island equal the Des Moines Golf and Country Club's new course, laid out in topography offering such rich "possibilities". " When I came here had no idea of laying out the course I did".

, One glance at the newspaper's map of his brain child with all the long straight parallel

east-west fairways hints that Bendelow didn't take such loving attention to setting as he claimed. George Peper's portrayal of Bendelow in TIle Story of Golf suggests he was a kind of Prof Harold T Hill from The Music Man whose glowing pater makes Des Moines sound suspiciously like "River City".

"As an adjunct to Varden's 1900 tour. Spaulding had dispatched a chap named Tom Bendelow across America to serve as an architect to anyone who wanted a course. Bendelow had no particular knowledge or training - he was a type setter for the New York Herald - but he had an authentic Scottish accent and he worked cheap, just twenty-five dollars per design. He also worked quickly perpetrating more than six hundred courses in thirty-odd years. However with the exception of the u.s. Open course at Medinah Country Club in Chicago, most of his work was mediocre. Indeed his modus operandi was referred derisively as 'eighteen holes on a Sunday afternoon'. "But all this is hindsight. At the time the club were thrilled with the plans and determined enough to invest $15,000 to carve out civilized golf greens out of rough Iowa timber.

1905:

The Hyperion Club, which had been started as a social organization in 1900, went in for outdoor sports in a big way in 1905. They bought the three acres of land between Polk Boulevard and the city course, which the Waveland Club had considered buying in 1904. TIley announced their intentions to enroll 100 new members, bringing the total membership to two hundred members, equal to the size of the Des Moines Golf and Country Club. The club recruited most of the star players from the Waveland Golf Club, sending a team to the state tournament that year where they secured the honor of hosting the 1906 Iowa Golf Association Tournament the next July at their new $7,000 clubhouse.

The Des Moines Golf and Country Club's reputation wasyet again defended by the golf

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of Warren Dickinson. In July, Dickinson won for the second time the Trans-Mississippi Tournament held at Glen Echo in St. Louis. The big news back at the club was the great golf scores posted by Gov. Albert B. Cummins. The other novelty was the plans of club members Nat Guernsey, R.H. Finkbine, T. G. Berryhill and Charles Denman to pile into three "Peerless" touring cars and drive all the way to Burlington to play in the Iowa Golf Tournament. (Arrived at 2 a.m. in the morning).

Dickinson took the trainfrom St. Louis, where he had been slugging through 18- and 36- hole golf every day for a week in "the blistering sun. " The Burlington Hawkeye reported that his entry was a "wonderful feat of endurance. " He certainly looked up the task as seen by the reporter - "Mr. Dickinson not only looks but acts the part of the ideal golfiac, Medium in height and weight, with a splendid carriage and aface as brown as an Indian, he is the picture of rugged outdoor health. "

Talk was rife of suspending the women's conference due to the lack of interest. The Burlington Club's women wouldn't hear of such a dreadful thing and recruited eight ladies for the contest. Ex-Burlington resident, Mrs. Grace Garrett Durant of Lake Forest, Illinois, put up the trophy she named the Crab Tree Cup. Ruth Crapo won for a second time.

Dickinson's arrival helped the Des Moines Golf and Country Club team win the championship yet again. When the favorite, Dr. Maxwell of ... was eliminated, the final ended up as a replay of the previous year in Dubuque - Dickinson versus Ferguson. In the end, Henry H. Ferguson of Cedar Rapids defended his crown. The contest was fiercely contended and Ferguson's caddy, the stoic veteran caddy for the Burlington links, Col. Herbert Reichman, burst into tears at Ferguson's victory .

. Everything at Burlington was top notch, with dinners and dances every night. At the awards dinner, Ferguson was presented with a cut glass punch bowl and a dozen glasses along with a gold medal. The Des Moines women in attendance returned home in the automobiles to report on the profusion of asters, nasturtiums and gladiolas that decorated the pretty Burlington club house and inspired big, new plans of their own for the upcoming season.

A GIANT CLUB HOUSE

Play on the new golf course excited the men, but the club women were brimming with anticipation for the new glamorous three-story country club mansion rising up on the eastern edge of the grounds at 49'h and Harwood Drive. They could hardly wait to adorn its walls with draped American flags and the club's olive green ensign monogrammed with the crimson

"G. C. C. "

Local architect H. H. Rawson of the finn of Rawson and Rasmussen, had sketched out plans along the lines referred to by the newspapers as "English Homestead" or " English Colonial". Either way it was, at ninety by fifty feet and with a $20, 000 price tag, way beyond any club house ever seen in Iowa. The plans promised the fulfillment of their dream of a permanent resort for high society ladies in Des Moines.- "The established club center has done more to create and maintain the entente cordiale among women than anything else in their modern activities. "

The club moved its headquarters into the new, nearly finished building in December at the end of the 1905 season. Warm weather lingered around long enough for some golfers on the new course to use the new locker rooms and get a peek upstairs as the workmen were putting in finishing touches. The Register reported - "visiting golfers have pronounced it superior to any

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club house of Chicago, not excluding the beautiful new home of the Owensia Club at Lake Forest". (The fate of the abandoned 1899 club house is uncertain. Whether it was altered to another use by the club, torn down, or moved and converted into a family residence is unknown.) Progress was also being made by the Women's Reception Committee, chaired by Mrs. Will Chase, which was in high gear making arrangements for a June gala officially opening the new country club house and grounds.

Saturday, June gth was almost as warm and breezy as the "big puff" given to the club house opening in the local society column of the Mail & Times that morning.

Probably no single event in the social history of the city has had such a broad significance as the opening of the Golf and Country Club, for it brings together in a common interest, the fashionable, the athletic, or his opposite, the devotee of the hammock and a steamer chair, the epicurean, the artistic, or just the plain lover of organized life out of doors, in a united effort to blend the city's social activities into one harmonious whole during the brief period of the summer solstice when haste and worry are given a vacation - even if they do not always take it. It is the spirit of the Golf and Country club which most commands itself to enthusiastic approbation, yet one cannot lose sight of the splendid view its elevation commands, open to an invigorating breeze on all sides which may be lazily enjoyed either from its broad verandas or on the links, as on feels most disposed. Then there is the large screened porch where picnic suppers, luncheons, or even formal dinners may be served without the concomitant ants, flies and other pests of forest life. A group of four bedrooms offers alluring invitation to some congenial couples who wish to make no note of time during a week's sojourn, for in order to accommodate more it was necessary to cut down to one week the length of one person's residence. The celebration today, from two to eleven, will give fine opportunity for the young and old festive and demure, members and. invited guests to realize its possibilities for carrying out the most varied tastes of the gregarious animal. There will be speeches a flag raising, golf, a buffet luncheon, music and dancing and best of all, an informal abandon and privilege to enjoy one's self exactly as he pleases. "

Athletic events at two 0 'clock kicked off the celebrations. The golfing men and women assembled on the green and formally opened the course. Club President J. M. Watson presented Captain Miller with a driver of his awn make. As the caddies were lined up, the ball was teed and Miller drove it over 250 yards and out of view. Then the caddies ran off in pursuit of the prize of finding the first ball. Next was a driving contest into the teeth of a steady northwestern gale. The women abandoned their putting contest in favor of holding on to their hats. The archers prevailed (if not too accurately) and the mens putting and approach were deemed fair contests against each other and not the wind.

After three hours of wind sweep field contests the six hundred and fifty members and guests assembled on the west lawn near the new 75 foot flag pole. The Finkbines donated the mast and presented the club with a large American flag which was hoisted amidst "hearty cheers". The 1 ph Cavalry Regimental Band from Fort Des Moines accompanied the singing of "America" and "The Star Spangled Banner". Then after a long windy speech extolling the flag and patriotism by ex-governor Frank Jackson, the ceremonies were immortalized by photographer Bandholtz and everyone moved around to the spacious south lawn in front of the broad steps leading to the inviting veranda.

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Masters of Ceremonies George F. Henry introduced the first club president N. T.

Guernsey who laid out the history of the club in a speech entitled - "We Built Better Than We Knew: The Past and Present of the Des Moines Golf and Country Club ". A solo was presented by Mr. Stewart, then it was back to speeches, one by the Des Moines Register & Leader's Harvey Ingham "Golf, its Spirit and its Discipline" followed by "Our Golf Club, a Playground for Young and Old" by Lafayette Young, Editor of the Des Moines Capitol. Finally after one last number from the band the crowd was released up the stairs to feast upon a buffet luncheon and also the many beautiful sights found within the new club house.

The spacious twenty-foot verandas were set out with a host of intimate tables decorated with red roses and red-shaded candlesticks while ample bouquets of June roses delighted the senses. Club Members peeked into the first floor clubrooms and delighted at the "quiet elegance" of "Antique oak" trim and the reddish-brown tones of "Old leather" wall treatments. The Mail & Times judged that along with the Mission Style oak rockers with leather upholstery that "simplicity had prevailed", and that the decorating firm of William A. French & Co. from St. Paul had succeed in avoiding the "glaring and gaudy", or any "offending display' and that everything was "in perfect harmony with the country club idea ",

The milling throng admired the first floor dining rooms "richly frescoed in a scenic effect, giving the impression of being in a great forest, and done in a rather impressionistic style. " The ladies' parlor was done "in shades of slate blue with stenciled floral decorations" and with wall hangings of a " bright colored chintz pattern, while the male dominated smoking room was a straight forward red.

While the men checked out the basement locker room complete with hot showers and a bowling alley, the women converged at the central stairway to make the rounds of upper floors. They admired the four large bedrooms on the second floor where the family could rusticate for an entire week leaving the cares of the world behind. Instead of making that long train trip east one could sojourn at the summer resort in your own back yard. Two bedrooms and the ladies' parlor and the billiard room all opened onto a south side balcony. Each room was sponsored by different local groups; lawyers, public utilities, lumbermen, or insurance agents, which competed in the individual room furnishings. The third floor was a virtual hotel which was surmounted by a long roof-top observation walk that afforded verdant views in all directions.

Music and dancing along with summery breezes and congratulatory cigar smoke lent an atmosphere of warm hospitality. The club had much to be proud in 1906. It had expanded nearly to its limit of 250 members .and had raised $40,000 to build the finest club house in Iowa, furnished in a first-class style complete with sporting grounds for tennis, archery, tennis and golf. Around eleven 0 'clock events wound down. The DMGCC members and their guests

strolled out looking forward to an enviable future:

"From now on the Country club will contribute much to the gaiety of the summer. Many people will go there to entertain at dinner, luncheon, cards, and dancing, thus discarding the wor!)' of planning of social affairs in their own home."

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