Origins 4

Founding 4
Acquisition 4
Original Course Design 5
Original Layout 6
Construction 7
Temporary 9-Holes 7
Original Course Opening 7

Poster 8

The Early Years 9

Sustainers Liability Agreement: 10
Golf Course Changes 11

People 14

Charter Membership 14
Board of Directors 15
General Managers: 15
Course Superintendents 16
Golf Professionals 16
Celebrities 17

Buildings & Facilities 18

Pro-Shop / Restaurant 18
Maintenance 18
Cart shed 19
Swimming Pool 19
Tennis Court 19

Stories 20

"Pay your dues, please". 20
Recycled topsoil 20
Easy Hole 20
Longest Ace 20

Memorials 21

Course Record 22

Board Presidents 23

Newspaper Articles 24

Newsletters: 25

Origins:

Founding:
On November 30, 1949 an organizational meeting was held at the County Courthouse, the purpose of which was to determine if a golf club could be established in the Camdenton area. As a result, on January 23, 1950 the "Camdenton Golf Club" was established. An agreement was reached with the City of Camdenton to utilize space around the Camdenton Municipal Airport, and a 9 hole, sand green course was developed. Play began with a grand opening on June 18, 1950. Among the notable names involved in this early venture were C.C. Blair, John Blair Jr., Jack Dickerson, Ed Loughlin, Floy Hanks, Corbett Foster, Lee Farmer, Buford Foster, Flavel Butts, Carl Simons, GT Richards, Ezra Hopkins, Ray Barnes, and Walter Henry. Although they didn’t realize it at the time, these men and this vision were the beginning of what would later become Lake Valley Golf & Country Club.

Acquisition:
In 1965 golf was still being played on the sand greens course at the airport, but as true golfers usually do, the members dreamed of a better facility and an 18 hole layout. C.C. Blair had been elected President of the Camdenton Golf Club. The members didn’t know it at the time, but their future was about to take a dramatic turn.

At that same time Ed Loughlin was a sales representative for Blair Cedar & Novelty Company, of Camdenton, and was covering the northeast section of the U.S. It was while on a sales trip in Ellsworth, Maine, that Ed read a newspaper article about a new Farmers Home Administration (FHA) program that was available to assist communities of less that 5,000 population establish recreational programs. Among the possible uses it mentioned was for building golf courses. Ed carried that newspaper with him for the duration of this northeast sales trip, and upon his return to Camdenton showed it to C.C. This ultimately started the wheels turning toward the formation of Lake Valley Golf & Country Club.

In 1966 the membership (about 75 members) of the sand greens course adopted and approved the concept of creating a new golf course. The idea was to take advantage of the FHA financing plan to get the new course started. At the time there were two banks in town; Camden County Bank, and First National Bank. C.C. enlisted both bank presidents, Frank Sallee of Camden County Bank and Lee Farmer of First National, to help wade through the stack of government paperwork required to qualify for the ensuing FHA loan. This process took several months, as numerous government requirements had to be met in order to qualify. Finally, the application was submitted, and following an official visit by a representative from Washington, D.C., financing was approved in early 1967. Reportedly the government representative was making noises about denying the loan on the basis that there were no minorities in the club. After it was explained to him that there weren’t any minorities in all of Camden County in 1967 he relented and approved the financing.

Both local bankers proved to be very instrumental in securing the government loan for the club. Neither of the bankers really played golf, but both were supportive because of the positive impact they felt that the golf course and club could have on the Camdenton area. Keep in mind that in 1967 the lake area did not have the quantity of golf courses that it enjoys today. Even though the bankers were fierce competitors in the banking business, their high level of cooperation was typical of the spirit with which LVCC was founded.

The original loan request to the FHA was for $300,000. This amount was projected as the total cost for land acquisition, building the golf course, building the club house, and building the swimming pool. Ultimately, we had to borrow an additional $50,000 in order to complete construction and get the course opened. This brought our total FHA amount to $350,000. The $350,000 loaned for this project was one of the largest, if not the largest, loans made by the FHA for building a golf course.

An interesting side note on the property acquisition. The original agreement with Dr. Bruner was to buy 135 acres of his farm for $30,000. As negotiations continued, Dr. Bruner indicated that he wished to keep a well and barn that were within the chosen acreage (near #17 green). When the buyers didn’t want to give up that portion of the property, he asked to raise the selling price to $60,000. This, of course, caused the buyers to consider another location. During their preliminary search the committee had also looked at property in what is Empire Ranch, and decided to go back there and give it a second look. The property at Empire had been the committee’s second choice, primarily because it appeared to be rockier that the Bruner property and would have required more work to construct the golf course. Carl Von Ebenstein, who owned Empire Ranch, was apparently quite interested in the project and offered to sell 200 acres of Empire Ranch to the group for $30,000. Unfortunately, he died of a heart attack the very day the transaction was to be completed. Apparently Mr. Von Ebenstein was quite intent that the golf course would be built on his property. At that time Carl Eisenriech owned Empire Resort and was quite familiar with Von Ebenstein. He reports that Von Ebenstein was at his house on the night before the meeting was to take place. During discussions about the golf course, Von Ebenstein mentioned that he was "going to get that golf course here if I have to give them the property." So, but for a strange twist of fate, our golf course would be located across Highway 54 and who knows how history would have changed. If you aren’t familiar with the property, Empire Ranch is across Hwy 54 from LVCC on Lake Road 54-80, and is, at the time of this writing, being developed into a multi-million dollar, Tom Weiskopf designed golf course with fairway housing, known as Old Kinderhook Country Club.

In fairness to Dr. Bruner it should be noted that once the deal was done and construction on LVCC began, he became a significant contributor to the success of the club. Much of the topsoil that was brought in and used in the course construction came from other parts of Dr. Bruner’s farm, and he didn’t charge us for the taking.

It is also interesting to note that both of the properties considered, the Bruner farm and the property at Empire Ranch, were originally homesteaded by brothers Jim and Henry Laughlin. Jim homesteaded what became the Bruner farm in the 1860's, while Henry was homesteading at Empire Ranch. Do you suppose that either could envision that one day portions of both farms would be golf courses?

Original Course Design:
Mr. Floyd Farley of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma was commissioned to design the golf course. Retired to Arizona now, Mr. Farley designed over 100 courses during his career. According to the American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA) he designed and built his first course in Oklahoma City in 1932. He also won the Oklahoma PGA Championship in 1936 and 1942, and the Oklahoma Match Play Open in 1937, so he was apparently a pretty good golfer as well.

In 1966 he was President of the ASGCA, so he would have been just coming off his year as President in 1967 when he designed LVCC. While the majority of his courses were developed in Oklahoma, he also has courses in Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, and of course, Missouri. In fact, it appears that he also took advantage of the FHA program and designed several courses in Missouri that were participants. In addition to LVCC, he also designed courses for Ava G&CC, Cabool-Mountain Grove GC, Marceline CC, Pine Valley (Ft. Leonard Wood), Salem CC, Sedalia CC, and Willow Springs CC. He worked along side Horton Smith to design Twin Oaks CC in Springfield. His most notable course is probably Quail Creek in Oklahoma City. For several years Quail Creek was a regular stop on the PGA Tour.