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KOTTSICK: Sand greens, simpler times

With all the things going on in the world, it might help a little bit to reflect on some of the good old days — the days of the sand green golf courses.

I’m pretty sure that many golfers of today have never seen one or even had the task of playing on a sand green golf course.

One of the first sand green golf courses I played was actually in Minot. It was the Washington Golf Course and was situated right on the ground that Jim Hill and Minot High are located, and was affectionately called the “goat pasture.”

The golf course in the winter had a sliding hill, a ski hill and a rope tow. The furthest green to the west was right about the location of the Minot Public School’s bus barn.

Sand greens were a challenge to play. The greens were quite small compared to today’s grass green sizes. The sand was held in place by the North Dakota wind and by putting used oil on the sand greens.

After a few holes, your hands were a little oily.

I played the old Velva sand green golf course, and each hole had a round pipe welded to a rod. There was a stand beside each green that held the sweeping tool to stand it upright. When you got on the putting surface, you would move your ball and run a path from your ball to past the cup with the bar.

There was a sleeve in the cup to pull out after you had made your path so the hole would not fill up with sand after dragging the green. It would be nice and smooth. Pull the sleeve out and putt.

The average tour green speed is about 13-14 feet. I would guess the sand greens would stimp about 3-5 feet depending on the amount of oil on the green.

They were quite flat, so you never had to worry a lot about the break. The fairways weren’t watered so, during the summer heat, the ball would roll a country mile.

There are a couple of local champions from the glory days of sand greens.

Chuck Ruppert, former Pro at the Minot Country Club, won the State High School Championship at Mohall in 1968 and the State Sand Green Championship at Parshall in 1977.

Chuck Kranz, assistant principal at MHS Central Campus, was the State High School medalist in 1985, 1986 and 1987. Underwood was also the state team champions those years, and it still stands as the only state championships for Underwood.

Kranz told me that the old sand green course stood the test of time for over 50 years until it was sold for the coal underneath.

There was actually a State Sand Green Organization and a State High School Sand Green Committee.

There were several courses in the Minot area that were sand greens until they converted to grass or artificial turf. Crosby, Powers Lake, Portal, New Town, Lansford, Mohall, Westhope, Garrison, Velva, Riverdale, Sherwood and Rolette all had sand greens. And I’m sure a few more that I have missed.

If you ever feel like trying the sand green experience, there still are some opportunities. Leeds and Berthold have sand greens. While I believe Lansford, Parshall, Riverdale and Rolette have all converted to artificial greens.

In closing, I keep thinking of a quote by the Great Ben Hogan, “The most important shot in golf is the next one.”

I think with all that is happening in our world, how we handle our next decisions are going to be the most important. Stay safe and healthy.

This is the opinion of Steve Kottsick. He is the Director of Golf for the Souris Valley Golf Course in Minot.

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