Small Town Courses of Midwest on PBS now

[Tyler Kearns]

Flipping through the channels, noticed this program on PBS (started 7 central time, and lasted for 1.5 hrs.), thought it may be of interest to some in the group.

TK

[Jim_Kennedy]

TK,
I don't think it was on my local PBS.  Was "Small Town, etc." the name of the show, I'd like to see if I can find it.

Thanks

[Tyler Kearns]

Jim,

The title of the piece was "Golfing Gems: The Best Small Town Courses".

TK

[Chris_Clouser]

I just looked on the PBS website and they don't have this program listed.  Perhaps it was a locally televised show only.  I would love to see it though.  We had a show on our local station a couple years ago that talked about the history of golf in Hamilton County of Indiana.

[John Mayhugh]

Looks like it was just a local market show.  Thanks anyway for the heads-up.  Plenty of rebroadcasts scheduled (if you have Prairie 2).

Golfing Gems: Best Small Town Courses
Wednesday, March 10, 7:00pm
2 (PRAIRIE PUBLIC)
Local small-town golf courses in North Dakota and Manitoba are explored.

[Jason Hines]

Would be interesting if we could watch this show online, sometimes local stations will post the full episodes. 

I find this topic fascinating, 15 years ago when I lived in Nebraska, we never paid any attention to these courses.  I guess the older I get, the more I see the true character of what these courses have to offer with respect to the community and tradition.  Most people on this board would scoff at the playing conditions and the architectural merit.  Mainly because most were design by the person that loaned his tractor to plow up the prairie to begin with……

[Tony Weiler]

I caught it last night, and I'm in ND.  Had a few small town courses profiles, but I didn't see the whole show.  I did see two ND courses. 

[Garland Bayley]

Isn't Prairie Public Broadcasting the North Dakota Public Broadcasting system? Probably hasn't gotten very wide distribution.

[RJ_Daley]

The Director of that film sounds like our kind of GCA.com sort of guy! 

http://fargofilmmaking.wikia.com/wiki/Matt_Olien

Go here and find the schedule of next viewings.  It will be played multiple times if you are living in a little house on the prairie and get public TV there.

Olien is probably is a golf nut like us, and has film making talent.  I'm going to try and contact him through the Prairie TV website.  As many of you know, I"ve been harping on the notion that a Ken Burns like documentary on GCA like he did on history of Baseball or Jazz would be a spectacular winner.  I still think that if another prairie sort of golf course construction comes along, a collaboration could be made with one of the draft horses show clubs where historical reinacters could film some interesting sequences of pan and scrapper operations.  And, guys like Doak could fill in very interesting commentary on how this all evolved.  Maybe George Bahto could still remember how to work the scrappers behind a mule! 

At least it looks like there is one artsy fartsy film guy that has some interest in documentaries in the field of the quaint and humble side of golf.

[Garland Bayley]

Can anyone list some of the courses he highlighted?

[Tony Weiler]

Garland, I only caught two.  Medicine Hole, in Killdeer a Jim Engh design.  They call it the 9 hole Hawktree.  Also, Oakes, a 9 holer and Olien's hometown.  Also the hometown of Mike Podolak, our most decorated golfer!

Here's some info on Prairie Public.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prairie_Public_Television

[RJ_Daley]

Garland, I'd also be interested to see which courses.  Given they are probably prairie courses in that area, we probably haven't heard of many of the.  

I would hope that a course like recently discussed "Canyon Springs" in Twin Falls ID would be the sort of subject matter that gave the show some interest, given how much small town community Dave McCollum has involved in his operation.  

Red Mike Links of N.D. somewhat near Williston could be another.  Of course, can you say "Wild Horse"?  

If anyone figures out how to view this show on-line, please let us know.  

I have sent that invite to contact me/us to the public TV show 'contact us' mail, requesting Olien give us a reply.

I didn't post the link above, but here is the schedule.  Type in Small town golf courses" in the search bar.  It is airing several times for next week or so.

http://www.prairiepublic.org/television/tv-schedule/

[RJ_Daley]

I already heard back from Mr. Olien.  He is a casual golfer who had interest in the small town aspects of the golf community out there.  He has some very good players in his family, but is only casually interested in play himself.  It sounds like his exploration into the subject matter was something of a one-off focus and not so much about architecture or historical aspects.  I hope he'll look in on our forum from time to time, as he sounds like a fellow that has the potential to "catch the bug" and talent to examine GCA from a filmography perspective. 

He advises that if you'd like a copy DVD of his project you can "call our receptionist at 1-800-359-6900".