Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2016 - 21

The Heffelfingers are far from the only Ferndale connection
to early Minnesota golf. Ferndale resident Alonzo T. Rand-the
practice course finished in front of his house, according to the
1899 Courant story-was president of Town & Country Club
in St. Paul, Minnesota's first golf course. He also was a founding
governor of Minikahda.
Charles Cranston Bovey, mentioned in The Courant story as
a Ferndale course regular, was the son-in-law of Judge Martin
Buren Koon, who on July 15, 1899, struck the first shot ever
at the Minikahda Club. Ferndale's Frederick B. Wells, also noted
as a Ferndale golf regular, was integral in the forming of
nearby Woodhill Country Club in 1915, as were the Bovey and
Heffelfinger families. At least a half-dozen Ferndale residents
were connected to early Minnesota golf courses, as well as to
the Minneapolis Park Board, whose members helped establish
the first public courses in Minneapolis, starting with Glenwood
(later renamed Theodore Wirth, see sidebar) in 1916.
And a non-Ferndale resident was as notable as any. Further
quoting from The Courant article: " Mr. William Watson, keeper
of the greens for the Minikahda Club, visits the Ferndale course
one or two days a week to give instruction. "
William Watson was a Scotsman who grew up near St. Andrews
and moved to Minneapolis in late 1898, hired for $2,500
by Koon and other Minneapolis businessmen to design the new
Minikahda Club course. Watson also designed the Ferndale
practice course, according to Watson historian Dennis " Marty "
Joy II, gave instructions at the Bryn
Mawr club and twice redesigned that
layout. His other design credits in Minnesota
(most of them since redesigned) include Interlachen
(1909), Winona Country Club (1917) and Ridgeview Country
Club in Duluth (1921). In all, Watson designed more than 100
courses, most of them in California.
Watson's Ferndale creation was short-lived. The owners of
the three properties on which it existed had to endure flying
gutta-percha for a matter of mere months. On May 2, 1900, the
Minneapolis Tribune reported this: " The Ferndale links, which
were used last season by the cottagers of the vicinity, have been
given up. They were not of the best, and occupied so much private
property in their course that they could not have been put
in condition without heavy expenditures. "
The Ferndale gang packed up their hickory shafts and reconnoitered,
or dispersed. They played golf and even " grew
the game " -a term that wouldn't be in vogue until a century
later-at other venues. Some joined the Lafayette Club, five
miles to the west in Minnetonka Beach, which opened in 1900
(F.H. Peavey was the club's first president). The imprints that
the Heffelfingers and other Ferndale families left on Minikahda
remain to this day. And, ultimately, Tot left us with a legacy
that will culminate on Oct. 2 with the awarding of former seed
merchant Samuel Ryder's trophy to Hazeltine National's Team
of the Week.
Joe Bissen is the author of Fore! Gone. Minnesota's Lost Golf
Courses 1897-1999. foregonegolf.com MG
was Minnesota's first public golf course.
Now, 100 years later, the Glenwood
course, across the western boundary of
Minneapolis in Golden Valley and since
renamed Theodore Wirth Golf Club, is
marking its centennial anniversary.
The Glenwood course officially would
open on June 2, 1916, the Minneapolis
Morning Tribune reported. As a ninehole
course with sand greens and clay
tees, Glenwood met with raging success.
On Sept. 6, Wirth reported back to the
parks board that since the course had
opened, attendance was 6,150. He
recommended, and the board agreed,
that the course should remain open
until Nov. 1, with an additional $600 of
operating expense covered via the 1915
Playground Tax.
A figure from the next season was
even more impressive. In September
1917, the Tribune cited a report which
said 38,000 people had " visited " the
course that season and reported that a
Glenwood club committee had recomwww.mngolf.org
THEODORE
WIRTH CLUBHOUSE
mended expansion of the course.
In 1919, nine more holes were added-
and a 15-cent greens fee imposed.
In 1938, the course was renamed for
Wirth, the estimable former park board
superintendent. A par-3 layout was
added in the 1960s.
In chronological terms, Columbia was
less than a half-step behind Glenwood/
Wirth. The Northeast Minneapolis
course was the city's second city-owned
layout, established in 1919. Armour
opened in 1925; it is now known as
Gross National Golf Club, named for
Francis A. Gross, who incidentally had
sat on the Standing Committee on Playgrounds
that helped establish Glenwood
and who served 30 years (1906-35)
on the Minneapolis Park Board. After
that came two more Minneapolis munis:
Meadowbrook (1926) and Hiawatha
(1934). -J.B.
Summer 2016 MINNESOTAGOLFER
19
PHOTO BY W.P. RYAN
http://www.foregonegolf.com http://www.mngolf.org
Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2016

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