Kansas...Help Finding Course Architect!!!

[Evan Fleisher]

During our recent trip to Kansas, my business partner and I played golf at a course in Great Bend called the Club at StoneRidge, formerly known as the Golden Belt Country Club.

The staff there had very little info about the course, only that the original 9 was built in the 1930's, and the new 9 was built in 1980...they had no idea who built either nine.

Anyone have any better info than this?  Course was nothing special...really small greens and that ol' Kansas wind were it's only defenses.

Thanks for the feedback, gang!

[Chris_Clouser]

Golfcourse.com says Richard Watson did the back nine in the early 80s (1981 I think).

Maxwell did a lot of work in the mid-30s in Kansas at Prairie Dunes, Arkansas City, McPherson and Topeka.  It could be this was another course that he laid out.  Just laying out nine holes was his MO during his run through the state.  So that could possibly be the person, but others like Floyd Farley or someone else could have done the work as well.

Did the club have any information on an actual year the course opened or if they originally had sand greens?

By the way, whose idea was it to get rid of a great name like Golden Belt Country Club for some run of the mill thing like Stoneridge.  Do they know how many of those there are?

[Evan Fleisher]

Golfcourse.com says Richard Watson did the back nine in the early 80s (1981 I think).

Maxwell did a lot of work in the mid-30s in Kansas at Prairie Dunes, Arkansas City, McPherson and Topeka.  It could be this was another course that he laid out.  Just laying out nine holes was his MO during his run through the state.  So that could possibly be the person, but others like Floyd Farley or someone else could have done the work as well.

Did the club have any information on an actual year the course opened or if they originally had sand greens?

By the way, whose idea was it to get rid of a great name like Golden Belt Country Club for some run of the mill thing like Stoneridge.  Do they know how many of those there are?

Thanks for the feedback!!!  I had looked it up at GolfCourse.Com, but did not see anything.  The course had little to no history available (for whatever reason), so I don't know anything about the original 9 back in the 30's.  The guy did say that the 1981 nine was built by an archie from Nebraska...is Richard Watson from NE?

[Jeff_Brauer]

Dick Watson is from Lincoln, or was. He is probably retired now.  He started with Henry and Lawrence Hughes and was better known as a builder than designer.  However, there were many small town courses that didn't want to pay for an architect, and he was happy to provide a design as part of his service.

He may be best known in the business for training Bill Kubly, who took that work ethic and knowledge to build one of the biggest golf contracting companies going.

Dick's company built the Pioneer Park renovation for us in Lincoln, as well as the Cross Timbers Course in Azle, tx.  I recall that with his background in small town, practical courses, he was very conservative, and almost refused to build a redan for me, because he thought no water should drain on a green.

[Evan Fleisher]

Great info Jeff...thanks!

Quick update. When I got home last night and checked my lifetime courses played list I saw that I had actually played another Dick Watson course before!  It is called Glynn's Creek and is about 60 miles South of Dubuque towards the Quad Cities, a fun course that I have not played in several years. Should get down there and check it out again.