Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2020 - 19

course is named after him.
Many other outstanding players from the early years of
Minnesota golf were either partially or wholly public links
players, and several won multiple state championships. Brokl,
Al Clasen, Ade Fordham, Joe Coria and John Lakotas were just
a few of these standout players.
Minnesota Golf Becomes Nationally Known
After mid-1927, discontent around state public golf association
interests abated but did not disappear. In November
1927, Columbia Golf Club-the club, not the sand greens golf
course-dissolved, with the Minneapolis Tribune reporting that
most members would move to Armour " because of the more
pleasant playing facilities, " or in other words, grass greens and
" regulation " length. In 1929, the men's club at Phalen dissolved,
with membership protesting the course's sand greens. Some
moved to the grass greens course at St. Paul's Highland Park,
which had opened the year before.
Regardless of local tumult, public golf in Minnesota had
gained a solid reputation in national circles by the late 1920s-
enough so that the national public links association awarded its
1931 championship to Keller, which had opened in 1929 as a
grass greens, 18-hole course just up the road from Phalen.
(See related story.)
The '29 public links came amid a remarkable six-year period
for golf in Minnesota. In that time, the state played host to
the 1927 U.S. Amateur at Minikahda (won by Jones), the 1930
U.S. Open at Interlachen (Jones again), the inaugural PGA
Tour St. Paul Open at Keller in 1930 ( " Lighthorse " Harry
Cooper), the 1931 publinks at Keller (Charles Ferrera) and
the 1932 PGA Championship at Keller (Olin Dutra). To
boot, Johnston won the 1929 U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach.
By the early 1930s, public links golf in Minnesota had largely
found tranquility, despite challenges posed to the sport by the
Great Depression. Sand greens at Twin Cities courses eventually
went the way of the horseless carriage. By 1933, there were
10 member clubs in the state association-new members that
year were Galls (now Manitou Ridge) in White Bear Lake and
Riverview (now Mendakota and private) in Mendota Heights.
The 1937 state publinks at Hiawatha was expected to draw a
record fi eld of 125 entrants, the Minneapolis Tribune reported
in June. Nineteen clubs were association members, including
Nemadji of Superior, Wis.
The 1940s marked a relatively static period for public golf,
Retracing History: Keller Golf Course
One of the fi rst and brightest stars of Minnesota public golf
was not a person, but rather a plot of rolling land-Keller Golf
Course.
Owned and operated by Ramsey County, Keller opened for
play on May 29, 1929 in Maplewood-just north of Phalen Park
and the city of St. Paul. It was designed not by a famed architect
but rather by county engineer Paul Coates, who meticulously
studied and visited renowned courses before going to
work on Keller. Upon completion, he proved that he would not
need a course architect's mulligan.
Keller was an instant hit. It joined the state public links
association during its month of completion. By 1930, it
was host to a PGA Tour tournament, the St. Paul Open
(later St. Paul Open Invitational). The tournament
would run through 1965, boasting a roll call of
winners that included Sam Snead, Jimmy Demaret,
Cary Middlecoff and Raymond Floyd. In 1932 (and
1954), the PGA Championship was held at the course
with the funky par-3 fourth hole fronted by an oak tree.
In August 1931, the nation's top public links players gathered
at Keller for their national championship.
What sort of players participated in a national publinks?
" The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, " wrote Paul
Mickelson of the Associated Press the day before the event.
Those seven words of purple prose are probably best forgotten.
" Virtually every section of America is represented in the
[...] struggle, which has attracted 186 of the best marksmen
of the public fairways. The Jims, Joes, Toms, Petes and Oles,
mngolf.org
whose fi nances
preclude membership
in the private clubs, were on
deck on the eve of the fi ve-day
battle. "
Tournament play bore Mickelson out. San Francisco fi sh
salesman Arthur Sato, a Japanese native who shot an evenpar
72, emerged as the leader of the fi rst round. The next
day's leader was Dave Mitchell, a popcorn machine inspector
from Indianapolis. The eventual match-play fi nalists were
Charles Ferrera, a " bronzed San Francisco steel worker, " to
use the words of the Associated Press, and 15-yearold
high school student Joey Nichols of Long Beach,
Calif. Ferrera, using superior iron play, prevailed over
Nichols 5 and 4 in the championship match.
Keller and tournament organizers were extolled
in post-match coverage by Minneapolis Tribune golf
writer Chandler Forman. " Members of the public links
section of the U.S.G.A. [...] were profuse in their praise of
the conduct of the tournament at Keller, " Forman wrote. He
also wrote that Washington journalist Jim Preston " declared
that (Keller) is in a class by itself from the standpoint of golf
holes and condition-and Mr. Preston has seen most of the fee
courses over the country this side of the Pacifi c coast. "
Forman's fi nal shout-out was to Tom Hastings, president of
the Minnesota Public Links Golf Association. This seemed fi tting-it
was the same Tom Hastings who had helped steer the
MPGA through its often-turbulent times of the 1920s.
Summer 2020 MINNESOTAGOLFER
19
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Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2020

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