This article appears in the June 2004 issue of Pacific Northwest Golfer, the house paper of the PNGA. It is not yet updated to their website. It includes a map of the course, which I'm unable to reproduce. Article by Paul Ramsdell, PNGA Media.
"Renowned Northwest golf course architect Arthur Vernon Macan regarded it as his best design. It played host to the US Amateur Championship, won by Johnny Goodman, the last amateut to win the US Open. Three Oregon Amateurs have been played there, two PNGA Amateurs. Today it no longer exists, buried 50 years ago underneath concrete at Portland International Airport.
The story of Alderwood Country Club is just one of many hundreds of stories that go along with the many hundreds of lost golf courses in the Northwest. The number of lost courses in the Northwest numbers more than 200 as determined by the research painstakingly and lovingly done by Michael Riste, the PNGA's official historian and one of the founders of the British Columbia Golf Museum in Vancouver.
"We'll never know how many were actually built until we've read every local newspaper, and that hasn't happened yet," said Riske. That's how Riske uncovers most of the lost courses, by checking old newspaper accounts in towns across the Northwest.
For Alderwood, though, extensive research wasn't needed for it's discovery because it was such a prominent course in its short life.
Macan, out of Victoria, BC, built some of the finest courses in the Northwest and along the Pacific Coast, including the California Golf Club in San Francisco, Columbia Edgewater, Fircrest, Inglewood, Royal Colwood, Marine Drive and Hillcrest to name only a few.
While trying to sell himself for any new job, however, Macan would use Alderwood as the best example of his work.
"He always used it at the top of the list as the course he would be best known by when he was bidding on a job," Riste said.
The course was conceived in November of 1923. When the site with 1,000 foot of frontage on the Columbia RIver, just west of Lemon and Government Islands, was chosen, interest grew. After a little more than a month into the planning, 200 members had signed up. By January 1924, 315 members wanted to be part of the action.
Macan has this to say in the local paper, about the 168-acre site at Alderwood, "the waterways and canals lend a sporting touch," he said, adding that the sandy loam soil was perfect for a golf course.
"The little bit that I've talked to people about Alderwood they always say the greens were incredible", Riste said, echoing a common tribute to Macan courses.
The course opened in July of 1925 and was soon the site of the Oregon Amateur in 1929. The biggest tribute, though, came a few years later when it was selected to hold the first US Amateur in the Northwest in 1937.
For the US Amateur, Aldwerwood played at 6,601 yards as a par-72, and the layout impressed Joseph C Dey, the executive secretary of the USGA. "I like the course very much" Dey told a local newspaper. "Of course, there are not many bunkers on this course as on some Eastern courses, but the natural hazards make up for the absence of the traps. The contour of the ground makes it an interesting course to play."
And a difficult one as well. Francis Ouimet could manage just an 85 in qualifying and quicklt withdrew. Californian Roger Kelly was the medalist with a 2-under 142, but he was promptly beaten in the first round of match play as famed sportswriter Grantland Rice was there to capture the festivities for the week.
Goodman, who won the US Open in 1933, took top honors at the US Amateur in 1937. He did it with a dramatic 1-up victory in the semifinals over the Northwest favorite Bud Ward of Olympia. In the final, Goodman beat Ray Billows of New York 2-up.
Not even Goodman could conquer the 449-yard par-4 second hole at Alderwood. There was just one birdie on the hole all week, and the hole was later included in a national sport's magazine's All-American golf course, and was the only hole west of the Mississippi mentioned.
The best players aalways seemed to rise to the top at Alderwood. That happened in the 1932 PNGA when H. Chandler Egan won. Bruce Cudd won the 1953 Oregon Amateur shortly before the course was abandoned for the expanding airport.
From his research, Riste said he wouldn't be suprised if the Northwest has more lost courses than other regions. Riste tells an amazing story of Samuel Hill, a railroad man and entrepenuer.
"He also had one other incredible vision. He started the Pacific Coast Automobile Association, started it in 1920. His vusion was this, to build a paved road from San Diego to Fairbanks, Alaska, and to have a golf course a one day drive apart. Well, when you study these lost courses in BC, Washington and Oregon, and you follow (I-5)...he was pretty darn successful. There are more kost courses along that roadway than you can think of."
Now lost courses are under houses, malls, schools, even Husky Stadium (Seattle). "It was a matter of economics, the land just got too valuable,? Riste said. Memories of some of these lost courses are too valuable to ever forget.
End article.
Today's Oregonian reports the Hillsboro Elks are selling Orenco, a nine hole course for $15 million for a housing development. They bought the course in 1969 for $3 million.
Here is the card for Alderwood.
Hole Yards Par Hole Yards Par
1 501 5 10 380 4
2 449 4 11 182 3
3 125 3 12 449 4
4 510 5 13 389 4
5 387 4 14 169 3
6 559 5 15 510 5
7 351 4 16 207 3
8 312 4 17 401 4
9 159 3 18 561 5
3353 37 3248 35
A slough was crossed on seven holes and sided three others.
The Columbia River was not in play. The mentioned second hole was a dogleg left crossing the slough which then was a lateral hazard on the left. The corner of the dogleg appears to be 200-219. The 559 sixth was a 90 degree dogler right, OB right the entire length, with the dogleg again at about 200 yards.