1958--70 Ball Spotters

 

Esty shops sell these.

Starting in late 1950's, several junior golfers were asked to be "ball spotters" for various tournaments from spring until fall. "Ball spotters," teens with good eyes and agility were needed to work the creek and trees on holes #2 and #3. Occasionally, a "ball spotter" might be stationed on the dogleg on hole #9 or along with creek between holes #4 and #5.   

In my memory, I thought working outside in all kinds of weather was the best job ever.  

Sandy Stephenson and I became ball spotters for the men's tournaments in the late 1950's. When Sandy's family moved in the early '60's my new partner became C.Ann Richards. Our job was to sit in the shaded corner of the creek that ran through hole # 2 and watch where golf balls landed, then jump, run and put a towel down where the ball landed, if we could find it. When we couldn't find the ball, we assisted in the search as if our lives depended on it. If the ball landed in the water or rocks we did our best to retrieve the ball.

The creek zig-zagged through a wooded area creating hazards for players on holes #2 and #3.  Hole #2 was a wicked dogleg right that crossed the creek in the fairway, so that men and women alike needed to fly over the water to the landing zone that opened up for the dogleg. Like all nine hole courses MGCC had two tee boxes one red and one white to define each nine holes. One tee box held two sets of tee markers, one for the women in the forward position and one for the men toward the back of the tee box. (By the mid-sixties a woman's forward red tee box was built on the left side of the hole before the creek.)  

When the men played the white forward tees they tried to cut the dogleg, and most of them failed. Our job was to find the balls and put a marker down. The fence on the left side of the hole stood as an out-of-bounds maker, so doom often marked a player who could not hit a long straight ball. The red tees (placed back as far as possible from the creek) paid off as well, because some men couldn't hit the ball across the creek, and balls that didn't fly straight either went out of bounds on the left or into the creek or trees on the right.

Our eyes were young and bodies agile. As errant golf balls bounced off rocks, struck trees and bounced sideways, we ran though the wooded area, spotted balls in tall grass, under limbs and leaves, in the rocks surrounding the creek and in the water.  Snakes were never a concern. We wore "lake shoes" so the rocks in the creek did not hurt our feet. We showed no fear as we stuck our hands in the clear waters or between rocks because the men rewarded us with cash for our efforts. The men were not stingy with tips for finding their lost balls--any where from a quarter to fifty-cents, or better yet silver dollars. Sometimes they even handed over dollar bills and didn't ask for change. A few men  gave us money even when we couldn't find a ball, we could at least tell them where it crossed the creek.

My sister, Jonya and Suzy Wickham, were the next generation of "ball spotters" and Jonya recalls vividly the weather conditions under which we worked. In the spring we worked in the light rain, if lightning was not present. Those could be cold and windy days for us. The sweltering heat of July and August tournaments were sometimes exhausting. The most important tournament became the Invitational in September. That event  paid off financially. I think the men often felt sorry for us being out in the heat. 

 

We arrived with sack lunches and a thermos of Kool-aid (that often tasted like coffee) to hold us for the day. We could run over to hole #3 to drink out of the water fountain. Fresh water from the ground piped up through a round cement container filled with sand. It was quite tall for youngsters, who often had to pull a bench over to stand on, so we could reach the handle and turn on the water. From time to time someones' mother would walk down and check on us. 

We were reliable respectable young girls and boys, who learned more about life through our country club jobs than sitting home reading a book. 

 

The words read "Stolen from Johnie Stapp"

Range balls were often found in the creeks, as members did not want to lose a ball that might have cost $.75 -- $1.00.

*Now, as a more Senior golfer, I understand why "ball spotters" were so important. 

1950-1999 Ball, Golf Ball, Rubber Core Ball By Waters AdminMay 23, 2018

Object Name: Ball (B 181) , Golf Other Name: Ball, rubber—core Date: 1971 Description: This is a commemorative, Spalding golf ball in dimple pattern. It is painted white with blue, tan and black markings and features a person in a space suit hitting a golf ball. It was made to mark the first golf ball used in space. Maker: A.G. Spalding & Bros.,…

Golf Ball History--Archives This site contains some unique descriptions and pictures of a variety of old golf balls.

In the 1960's Titleist sold three different balls in the pro shop (red labeled, black labeled, and black with red numbers). It cost $1.25 each or a sleeve of three for $3.50. The Club Special was the cheapest ball at 50 cents. There was also Dunlap, Acushnet golf balls, and Hogan. The Spalding golf ball, Wilson Staff, and Top-Flight were very popular and usually sold at Miami Sales and other downtown stores.

**If you were a ball spotter and have a story to tell please post it under comments, or send it to me.   

Letty Stapp Watt, historian, The Golf Pro's Daughter

6-6-66 A Game to Remember

 

The Golf Game to Remember

Ponca City Country Club

Quite often my life lessons occurred as much off the course as on. On Saturday, June 4, 1966 I took a bus ride from Miami to Tulsa with a two hour layover before going on to Blackwell, Ok to meet my guest family. I learned how to rent a locker at the Bus Station to store my golf clubs and suitcase, while I ventured forth in the big city, alone, looking for a restaurant. I may have broken a few social norms when I seated myself in a fine dining room in a bustling department store, a few heads turned and I smiled.

On a Sunday morning June 5, Janice and Vicki Bell and I played our practice round at Ponca City CC in preparation for qualifying for the 1966 Women’s Oklahoma Golf Association State Amateur Championship, and my first adult tournament.  I had taken copious notes on how to traverse the trees, hazards, and bunkers that I’d be facing.  With my guest family, the Jack Bell family, I rode back to their home in Blackwell, Oklahoma for the evening.

While the family took their son, Rocky,  to a ball game I stayed at their home.  Not being one to sit, I grabbed my pitching wedge and shag balls and walked over to the school yard across the street to practice.  My practicing on the school playground was distinctly disturbed by the turbulent murky green boiling clouds building in the Southwest.  Thunder roared in the distance and the hair on my arms felt the static in the air. My history and fascination with weather reminded me that Blackwell had once been nearly wiped off the map in the ‘50’s by a tornado.  I knew enough about clouds and weather to realize that this storm was nasty, and moving toward me.

 After gathering my shag balls, I headed inside and awaited my family.  In the kitchen I opened a coke bottle on the cabinet top and began to pour it into a glass when I saw the tornado out the west facing window.  It was a flat horizon with acres of farm land and fences that I faced.  In the distance the tornado touched down tearing a barn into shreds before my very eyes.  The sirens rang and the coke I was pouring found it’s way to the counter top not the glass.  I noticed my hand was shaking.

I ran to the bedroom grabbed my precious notes along with my golf clubs, and hide in the hall closet. The storm raged outside and I shivered by myself inside.  After minutes passed there was a banging at the front door and my heart thought I was being lifted in oblivion.  Voices yelled, ”Letty, where are you?” Voices of Vicki and her mother, Corky Bell, flooded the tiny closet space and I saw light and friends.  I crawled out that day only to have them put me in the car to drive to safety. More tornadoes were forming in the sky and the Bank in Blackwell had a basement. I held my notes closely (the golf clubs abandoned in the closet), only to realize that Jack Bell liked to chase tornadoes. 

With extra coaching from his wife, Corky, we made our way back to the bank and settled down in the basement for the evening.  In time, we all walked out of the bank to dark but clearer skies, and discovered that all was well.  No one had been hurt and the only damage was to several barns and trees on the west side of town.

There must have been electricity in the air the next day as I qualified with a low round of 76 on June 6, 1966.  I didn’t win medalist honors, but I didn’t need to.  I had lived through a tornado by myself, and played one of my best rounds ever the next day.  I thought I could conquer the world.

The next day an "old lady" of about 50 beat me on the 17th hole and sent me into Consolation flight. I do not remember the outcome because I remained on cloud 9 having played the best game of my life on June 6, 1966.  

That same summer I shot my first par round on the front nine at the Miami Country club. At that time Hattie Wall and I were the only two women to have shot par. A few years later my sister, Jonya, also shot par 36 on the front nine. ( I believe we called them the White Tees. They were the farthest ones back from the creek on hole #2.) When the club burned in 1984 everyone lost everything inside the building. Of all of the memories the only thing I wished to have back was that tiny wall trophy that showed Hattie Wall, Letty Stapp, Jonya Stapp as having shot a par round of golf on the difficult nine hole golf course.

The memory of walking off hole #9 with Ron Robinson as my playing partner remains strong, because I made that last putt for a par round, instead of three putting!

 

 

Curiosity led me to reread the story of the 1955 Blackwell, Ok and Udall, Ks tornado outbreak.  Tornado description:  The tornado continued north and moved through the east side of Blackwell causing complete destruction in much of the east side of town. Nineteen people were killed in Blackwell as well as one person to the northeast of Blackwell. The tornado passed east of Braman, then turned to the north-northwest and dissipated to the southeast of South Haven, Kansas as shown in tornado track map for north central Oklahoma and south central Kansas. As this storm passed to the east of Braman, another tornado developed about 4 miles north of Peckham that moved into Kansas and eventually killed 80 people in and near Udall, KS. Both the Blackwell tornado and Udall, KS tornado were rated F5, although the Udall tornado produced minimal damage in Oklahoma.

1966 Dickie Neel's Story From a Friend's Point of View

 1966 Dickie Neel's Story From Dick Lillard's Point of View

 

Some thoughts about my best friend Dick Neel. Dick was one of the finest men that I have ever met.  Dick had so many friends and I never knew a man, woman or child that did not like Dick Neel.  I moved to Miami and May 1963 and I met Dick that fall playing in a pickup basketball game, Dick, not being very tall was still good at that game as he was in all athletic endeavors. In that first meeting he found out that I liked golf, he said he played a “little” himself and we met a few days later to play our first round, of so many I cannot count, together at Miami Golf and Country Club.  Yes, he played a “little”! I was 24 at the time and Dick was 21, he was certainly the one best players I had played with or been around.  He was never one to brag about his accomplishments on the golf course even though there had been many before that time and many to come after as well.

I later found out that Dick along with his friend Bob Hill (an exceptional person and an exceptional golfer as well) had won the two-man high school state championship for Miami High School when they were seniors. It turned out that athletic state championship was the first state championship of any kind won by Miami High School.  Dick attributed his skills on the golf course to lessons learned from his father, brother and Miami Golf and Country Club Pro Johnny Stapp.  One of his proudest moments was being named the golf pro at Miami Golf and Country Club.

 

Thank you to Dickie Neel's family for sharing the photograph albums with me.

Dick and I played some winter golf that same year and, in the spring of 1964, Dick began to play “the circuit” of Invitational’s held by the country clubs in the four-state area. I had no idea that this occurred but it was a wonderful way to spend a weekend if you loved to play golf and if you love to have a great time. Dick won many of these tournaments that were usually just Saturday and Sunday events. I think Twin Hills country club in Joplin Missouri was a three-day event. He would usually sell the merchandise he won, that was an additional source of income at that time.  Another source was taking more than a few dollars gambling on golf games.

Dick won the Hickory Hills tournament in Springfield at least twice.  I know he won the Baxter Springs tournament two or three times and our local Miami Golf and Country Club Invitational.  He also won tournaments in northwest Arkansas as well as others here in Oklahoma. I believe it was 1966 or 1967 he talked me into playing the Baxter Springs invitational.  When my round was over in something like B Flight, I rushed to watch the conclusion of Championship Flight because I knew Dick was close to the top. Championship Flight ended in a tie between Dick and another gentleman forcing a sudden death playoff.  Dick asked me the caddy for him for the playoff.  His drive on number one was perfect, it ended up about 15 yards short of the green. The other gentleman was farther away and his next shot ended up about 20 feet from the pin. Dick pulled out a putter, I was a little shocked but he explained that the ground was smooth from his ball to the green and that the greens were mounded and he thought this was his best chance to get the ball close. He stroked the putt from off the green and it ran up the slope to within about 12 inches from the hole. The other gentleman missed his put.  Dick for a birdie for the win.  I shall never forget that day because Dick’s winning prize was a new set of Titleist irons.  He gave them to me. He knew my set was old and a mixed match.  He knew I could not afford them.  He had such a big heart.

I was in Dick’s wedding in 1966 and he was in mine in 1967. We played golf together almost every summer weekend until his death in 1994. He loved the game so much; I was always impressed that he never lost his temper he just tried to hit the next shot better.  In the early 1970s my golf game had improved. My uncle was a member at the Oaks Country Club in Tulsa and he invited Dick and me to play with him. I remember it well because I parred the first four holes and was four down because Dick had birdied them all.  I think he shot 67 and it was the first time he had seen the course.  Another very important golf story with Dick that shows his character and the kind of man he was happened years later when he and I were playing against two other gentlemen. We were up quite a bit and they pressed on the 18^th hole.  Our drives were both good and as we sat in the cart together, he said quietly they cannot afford to lose this amount.  I asked what he wanted to do and he said I’m going to miss the next shot on purpose, he did, we broke even for the day and our opponents were elated to have tied and they never knew how kind Dick Neel was to them that day. It was a teaching moment for me and another view into his soul.

It is been 28 years; I miss him and I shall never forget the kindness he showed to me. He was a fine golfer but an even better person. 

 

*This is part 1 of Dickie's story in golf. Part 2 will follow in the 1970's after Dickie earned his PGA card. 

Yours Truly,

Dick Lillard

(shared with Letty Stapp Watt 2023)

 

 

1966 Summer Fun at Miami's Country Club

 

Throughout the summer months the Miami News Record has been celebrating Miami's colorful history. In August of 1966 Ed Craig produced a one page spread of pictures he had taken at the Miami Country Club.