Last week while out west I happened to play the Holyoke Golf Club nine-hole course and am looking for information related to the architectural origins. The greens are quite small, but not unsophisticated by any means, and the general routing was rather sound. My first impression was that it was perhaps designed by locals, but then came across a news clipping today that indicates some pretty significant names were associated with an earlier effort.
Here's what I know. Golf was played in Phillips County since around 1919 with a course about 2 miles west of Holyoke. In 1929 the club leased 129 acres from a woman landowner named Cora Shafer that included today's course location and it seems the course was open by 1930. In 1943 one F.B. Kelly, owner and editor of the Holyoke Enterprise purchased the land for the club outright and by 1948 the course fell under municipal ownership, which continues to this day.
The following article is from 1922 and it seems the club was looking to Donald Ross (and by proxy, Henry Hughes) to build them an 18 hole course. It seems unlikely that they would have made such a significant investment on leased land at the time but stranger things have happened. in any case, I'm hopeful that others of our crack research team here might be able to contribute additional information. Thanks in advance for any information.
