During these stressful times, I hope some of these early stories below about the Mandan Country Club can bring a smile to your face.

I was just 21 years old and was hired as the Head Pro at the Mandan Country Club — a cute little nine-hole golf course along the Heart River. The Mandan Park Board built me a bedroom in the basement of the Pro Shop, and I figured I had the world by the tail.

The State Industrial School was just across the river and, every now and then, one of the youngsters would make a break for it. I remember one Sunday morning, a dripping wet youngster was sprinting for his freedom across the No. 1 fairway, and Walt Albrecht went into action and tackled him on the fairway.

The golf shop had bars on the windows and soon found out that they had to due to the number of nighttime burglaries.

Every morning I was greeted by two of the sweetest ladies I have ever met: Wanda Froelich and Irish Stish. They would always bring me baked goods and hugs and smiles. They loved to golf, and they both played like the wind. A few mornings, they had to bang on my basement window because I had worked so hard the night before that I overslept.

One morning they came screeching into the pro shop. They had gone to use the bathroom on the course and came across a big old guy that had passed out there the night before. He was harmless. But, after that, they were really careful about the bathrooms.

A few mornings, I was awakened by some Mandan legends: George Kary, Marshall Just, Chris Boehm, Ralph Thomas, Dennis Mongeon, Jack Johnson, John Maher and Hoot Harr. Most of them are gone now, but they were good friends.

One of my first big golf events was the Annual Elks Golf Tournament. Back in those days, we cut two holes in all the greens. In regular play, when a group would leave the green, they would put the flag in the other cup. This would slow down the wear on the cups as we did not have the staff to change cups on a regular basis.

Well, during a golf tournament, all the competitors have to play to the same hole location. So, I would put a wooden plug with artificial turf in the same shape as a cup in one of the cut holes.

The sun was just coming up, and I headed on the course to put the plugs in each hole. Well, some youngsters in the neighborhood thought it was kind of funny to fill the holes with you know what, and then they took the flagstick and jammed it in both holes. I cleaned one cup and stuck the plug in the other.

By the end of the day, my local young informants had their names, and the guilty parties had to do some extra chores for their punishment.

I came down with Mononucleosis and was pretty sick. The neighbors who did not golf heard that I was feeling ill and would bring me opium tee every morning. I never did have the courage to drink it and would pour it down the sink as soon as they left. They brought it every morning for me for quite a while. It was the thought that counted.

Highway 6 cuts right through the golf course and, once in a while, we would find a car on the course in the morning after they failed to stay on the road after a night of drinking.

Another day, Billy Cook and Rich Carrier were playing golf and one of them hit the ball off the toe. I cannot remember who hit who, but I had to call the ambulance. The one that got hit had a mouthful of sunflower seeds, and that softened the blow, so no teeth were lost.

Another day, a young boy had just paid a green fee, and one of his buddies hit him in the head with a club (by accident) on the first tee. While we waited for an ambulance, I was holding the boy’s hand and he looked up at me and said, “Mr. Kottsick, will I get my money back?”

He was OK, and that was the best part of the story.

Another time the Heart River was quite low, and we were not supposed to water. Well, we figured at night no one would notice. The paper two days later had a picture of the sprinklers running on our fairways. Busted.

Finally, I would like to share a story I also shared with the President of PING. I was in Phoenix about four years ago for a fitting school, and I shared with him how when my first set of PINGs arrived in my golf shop in 1974. I looked at them and commented, “Look at these ugly irons. This company will never make it.”

In 2020, I’m pretty sure they are the most successful golf company in the world. He just laughed and shook my hand.

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