More Happy Trails - Memories, Montana-Style

By: Jeff Shelley


[Note: Here's another of my final installments on Cybergolf.]

Writing about golf for the damn-near three decades has involved many serendipitous encounters. Here are a few from my frequent forays in the Big Sky State.

• Approaching the little red starter's shack at Plains Golf Course and hearing AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" being played full blast. Looked into the open window and there was an 80-year-old man taking a nap.

• After deciding not to disturb the AC/DC fan, walking up the straight-uphill first hole and commiserating with and helping a retired Seattle firefighter turned greens crew member who had gotten his ancient Massey-Ferguson fairway mower stuck on the steep grassy incline.

• At Meadow Lake Resort in Columbia Falls, being kindly asked by the pro shop to finish play by 4:00 pm to make way for an Emmylou Harris concert on the 16th fairway. At 6:00 sharp the kegs were rolled onto the beautiful greensward, hundreds of hippies started materializing from nearby woods, and the band played joyously for three hours.

• The mascot Divot at King Ranch Golf Course in Frenchtown. It was like a pet dog, except she was a baby deer.

• Meeting recent World Golf Hall of Fame inductee, two-time major champion and Aussie-cum-Montanan David Graham at Iron Horse in Whitefish Lake. Graham was gracious as he stopped to chat while en route to the driving range wearing sweat pants and a big smile.

• One of Graham's Aussie pals, Bruce Crampton, introduced him to Montana after both retired from professional golf. Crampton set up shop at Eagle Bend in Bigfork at the northeast corner of Flathead Lake. Jack and Jackie Nicklaus have had a big influence here. After moving into the neighborhood the wonderfully crabby Crampton placed a "Crampton's Suggestion Box" along with a giant plastic crocodile in the middle of a lake on the golf course.

• Oversexed elk beating the hell out of their heads on the trees at Glacier View Golf Club.

• The bell at Whitefish Lake Golf Club that golfers clang after getting past an unsafe over-the-hill fairway zone and the wonderful steaks served in its Works Progress Administration-built clubhouse.

• Twice playing the Bill Robinson-designed Crystal Lakes in Fortine, which has a 5,000-foot-long runway where Arnold Palmer has occasionally landed his private jet. Now an ultra-private course played only by the owner and his friends, Crystal Lakes has perhaps the most remarkable par-5 in the Northwest: a 550-yard beauty with a tee in the middle of a giant lake that's accessed by a 100-foot-long bridge.

• And my favorite Montana memory: Getting an invite from my old Billings roommate Mike to his 13-acre farmstead off Nine Mile Road west of Missoula. Every day we teed balls off Mike's porch to parts unknown. One day we went up a mountain and tried to hit 3,000-yard drives. A mutual friend, Ron from Chicago, hit the only tree within miles and the ball caromed back and stopped at his feet. Ron calmly picked the ball up and hit it again as the rest of us howled unmercifully. We also played private Missoula CC and, needing more ammunition for Mike's place, I drove a cart and scooped up dozens of range balls - only to look up and see surprised restaurant patrons watching. I made an abrupt U-turn and threw the balls out the door in a great show of something.

Editorial director Jeff Shelley's last day at Cybergolf is July 31.