Long-gone Olympic View produced state's top talent

Even after the course closed, 15-year-old Don Bies continued to walk the fairways that tumbled on a ridge above Puget Sound, his heart heavier than his golf bag, unwilling to let go even as the once-trimmed fairway grass eventually nipped at his knees.

The Ballard boys were saying goodbye to their course, a blue-collar golf club that in one astonishing decade produced some of the best junior golfers in this state's history.

They caddied, they worked in the pro shop, they made Ballard High School perennial city champions, they putted at midnight by a light on the corner of the clubhouse, and four of them qualified for the U.S. Amateur Championship in 1952 at nearby Seattle Golf Club.

But as good as they were, they couldn't stop progress.

Fifty years ago this month, Olympic View Golf Club gave way to a housing development — Olympic Manor — its members unable to raise the $300,000 necessary to keep the developers at bay.

Small lots sold for $3,700 each. Memories were not for sale, not of the renowned Walter Hagen, once owning the course record at Olympic View, of Byron Nelson playing — and losing — an exhibition there, of Jerry Fehr — Rick's Dad — carving out the final course record of 62.

Of kids loving golf so much that on Mondays — caddies' day — they would pack two lunches, their clubs and play 72 holes.

Fehr stood this week with Bies, Don Russell and Bob Lorentzen in the middle of 90th Street, where Olympic View's first tee once overlooked the Sound.

"It's the first time I've been on this spot since the course closed," Fehr said. "I wonder how our lives would have changed if we hadn't been allowed to make a few bucks caddying here. I wonder if we would have played golf at all."

Founded in the mid 1920s as Olympic Golf Club, the course was located off Holman Road, between 95th and 85th Streets and 15th and 24th Avenues.

Harry Givan, the great Seattle golfer of his time, played there in the '30s. In the midst of the Great Depression, the club filed for bankruptcy and was purchased by C.D. Stimson and renamed Olympic View.

When Stimson died, the land was sold after the club tried — and failed — to enlist 300 owners at $1,000 each.

Today, where the clubhouse sat, a '50s home overlooking the Sound is up for sale at $469,000.

"How much do I want to cry," said Lorentzen, a retired attorney, as he looked out where the course was.

But the boys played on, Olympic View golfers forever, even as Bies, the youngest and the best of them, won on the PGA Tour and seven times on the Senior Tour.

They often played for the Putnam Cup in Sequim, where Putnam had retired after helping build Sunland Golf Course there. Putnam died in 1996 at age 90.

But his proteges were everywhere. Fehr played college golf at Yale, Paul Johanson, Russell and Lorentzen played for the Huskies. Dale Lingenbrink won the state junior, the city junior and the city prep championship. Bill Row was the low amateur in the Pendleton Open. Glenn Sheriff, at 19, defeated Jack Westland to win the PNGA championship.

In 1952, with the U.S. Amateur at nearby Seattle Golf Club, four Olympic View golfers qualified for the championship. Bies, who was 14, just missed.

Lingenbrink lost in the first round, but Fehr won two matches before losing to Bob Rosburg. Bob Ihlanfeldt beat Harold Weston and lost to Gene Littler. Johanson won three matches and lost to Al Mengert.

"I'm not sure I know of a better junior membership at a golf course in terms of quality players," Bies said. "Ten guys shot in the 70s. If we didn't shoot in the low 70s it was a bad day."

In the decade before the club closed, Olympic View golfers would win seven of 10 state junior titles and Ballard won five city titles.

The kids were charged $5.40 a month for a junior membership at Olympic View, and their parents didn't have to be members. Some never saw their sons play, content they stayed out of trouble and made a few dollars caddying or finding golf balls.

"It was a poor man's private club," said Russell, who organizes the reunions. "Working people belonged to Olympic View, which to us, as kids, meant they were working and we could play golf."

Sixteen of the Olympic View golfers gathered for a dinner earlier in the month at the Seattle Golf Club to appreciate the 50-year passing of the club and some of their members: Ihlanfeldt, Bill Rowe, Sheriff, Conway and Wally Riehl.

Bies, 65, gives ample credit not only to his life in golf to the club, but his ability to play the game. There was no driving range at Olympic View, no yardage markers. Indeed, the only irrigation came from hoses that were dragged around to water tees, greens and landing areas.

"You learned to play by feel," Bies said. "You visualized every shot. It didn't matter how many yards the shot was. You asked yourself what it looked like."

The course measured 6,141 yards. The first hole was a 455-yard par 4.

"But the ball would roll forever," Fehr said.

So do the memories of those who played there.

Blaine Newnham: 206-464-2364 or bnewnham@seattletimes.com