Page 57 - Flathead Beacon // 3.23.16

SPORTS
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A lmost exactly 57 years later, Marlin Hanson remembers his 10th birth-
day with vivid fondness.
It was the spring of 1959 — March 25 — and golf season was right around the corner. By hitting double dig- its in age, young Hanson was no longer relegated to hitting balls in the driving range and putting on the practice greens
as he had done since he was 6.
Now, per clubhouse rules, he could o -
cially play the famed Kalispell Municipal Golf Course on Bu alo Hill.
“I would come up here at 8 in the morning and not leave until dark, play- ing or caddying seven days a week,” Han- son recalls.
At this historic golf course tucked in the hills above downtown Kalispell, Han- son developed his love of the sport along- side generations of other local players.
Six decades later, Hanson will cele- brate yet another birthday on the fair- ways and greens that have become inex- tricably tied to his hometown’s identity and the history of the sport in Montana.
Hanson, a longtime PGA professional at what is now known as Bu alo Hill Golf Club, is welcoming the rst golfers of the year to play the Cameron Nine and Championship 18, which both opened last week.
For Hanson and fellow PGA profes- sional Dave Broeder, who also grew up playing at Bu alo Hill and has worked at the course for decades, the dawn of a new season marks an exciting time of year; a tradition deeply rooted in this valley lives on.
Few golf courses in Montana have quite the history as Bu alo Hill, one of the oldest courses in the state.
In 1915, according to historical records, a group of residents cut the rst sand greens and fairways out of bu alo grass near the present-day wastewater treatment plant and city airport on the south end of Kalis- pell. Three years later, as more people became interested in the game, land was purchased in the hills above downtown for a new nine holes, at the present-day site of Bu alo Hill. A professional from Spokane named Mr. Watson traveled to Kalispell to lay out the new course with the help of Flathead County Commissioner Henry Good, who spearheaded the project along with other stockholders, including John
Arnold Palmer hits out of the sand at Bu alo Hill Golf Club while caddie Dave Broeder watches. COURTESY PHOTO
Lister, W.B. McDonald, local judge T. A. McDonald, Dr. Bugbee, Dr. F.B. Ross and Dr. W. Q. Conway.
Along with the nine holes, a one-room clubhouse was constructed on-site, and this is where the group of players used handmade wooden clubs and crude hard rubber balls to play golf.
By 1922, the sport was gaining traction as a viable activity and William Goringe of Spokane was hired as the rst pro at the upstart course. The group ponied up his monthly salary of $30 and Goringe lived in a tent near the Stillwater River in the present-day Lawrence Park area during the season, helping train new and old players.
In the 1930s, the Conrad family sold land that was previously used as a bu alo pasture for the development of another nine-hold course that became the pres- ent-day Cameron Nine.
The new course was completed over a two-year span in August 1939 thanks to the e orts of local residents, the City of Kalispell and the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal agency that put unemployed people to work for pub- lic projects during the Great Depression.
Along with the new course, the clubhouse was assembled that still stands today. The WPA also built the original nine-hole course and clubhouse in Polson and the original course in White sh that evolved into White sh Lake Golf Course.
“I might say at the beginning that Kalispell has one of the nest golf courses in the Northwest,” Good told the Associ- ated Press at the time.
The new course was dedicated Aug. 30, 1939 as the Kalispell Municipal Golf Course. The city agreed
to maintain it through
the parks department
and hold the land as a
golf course for the city.
From there the sport truly blossomed.
In 1964, the original nine was replaced with a new nine-hole course that cost $40,000. The membership spiked to over 600.
Within a decade, the
game was so popular
that the idea emerged
to expand to 27 holes.
Fundraising began
throughout the community as the cost of the project hit $640,000.
By the summer of 1978, the Champion- ship 18 was unveiled. For the grand open- ing, a familiar face arrived in Kalispell to tee o on the new course.
Arnold Palmer, the famous PGA pro- fessional widely considered one of the greatest players in history, came to Kalis- pell to play on Aug. 11, 1978.
The event drew nationwide attention as media from across the Paci c North- west turned out.
“Today is a momentous occasion for Kalispell, the Flathead Valley and
Montana,” Montana Gov. Thomas Judge said in a statement.
Broeder, who started playing at the course when he was 13 and later earned a job cleaning clubs and picking up range balls, was a standout young golfer who earned the opportunity to caddy for Palmer that day. He had just graduated high school and placed second in the club championship. The winner, Dave Morberg, earned the chance to play in the round with Palmer, club president Larry Simp-
son, club pro and man- ager Skip Koprivica and Mac McLendon, another PGA Tour player.
“It was exciting. There was a nice gallery of a couple thousand people watching that day,” Broeder recalls.
Broeder remembers the experiences fondly and from there his life- time love of the sport took o . He eventually worked at the course, similar Hanson, con- ducting day-to-day duties for Carlos “Pop”
Vaughn, a local xture at the course who ran the driving range and caddying pro- gram. They were both paid $1 a day to pick up balls by hand on the range.
Broeder, 56, is now the head profes- sional at Bu alo Hill, a role he has held since 1992.
“It was a pretty cool childhood grow- ing up here,” he said.
“It’s just not your everyday course. It’s a real unique experience. I think that’s why people like coming back to play, you just don’t nd courses like this anywhere.”
dtabish@ atheadbeacon.com
COURTESY BUFFALO HILL GOLF CLUB
Golfers in the 1920s in Kalispell. COURTESY BUFFALO HILL GOLF CLUB
MARCH 23, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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