WELLMAN

Ask anyone who has been around the Wellman Golf Club for a significant number of years, and they will all tell you the same thing: the course used to be configured differently. The holes were in different places, there was no clubhouse, and tournaments were won based on stroke play, not best shot.

But it has always had sand greens, a fact that today makes it retro-cool and ultra rare.

Paul Miller, who is in his 90s, doesn’t even like sand greens that much, but he has been enjoying play at the Wellman Golf Club for the past 75 years or so. He doesn’t have a closet full of tournament trophies, preferring to come out for “just a good time,” but he does have an important claim to fame: “I’ve never been hit by a golf ball,” he says. “A lot of guys couldn’t say that.”

You know what have been hit with golf balls on the Wellman course? Birds.

“When a golfer gets a birdie, that isn’t unusual, but when the birdie has feathers, that is something,” began an August 1937 story in The Wellman Advance. “Helmut Starke from Chicago executed a red-headed woodpecker on hold No. 2 on the Wellman course Saturday morning.

“Mr. Starke made his fatal stroke as he drove off No. 2 tee. His ball sailed high into a willow tree and he saw an object fall to the ground and discovered that it was a red-headed woodpecker,” the story continued. “The ball was never discovered.”

Miller can identify with that.

“I hit a ball into the bush on No. 6 and a dove fell out dead,” he recalls.

A century ago there may have been a lot more wildlife on the Wellman golf course than there is now. The course was officially established in 1928 on a local pasture.

“A satisfactory site for a 9-hole course has already been secured on the Weidlein field where the football field formerly was located, and those who are familiar with the sport deem it an ideal place for golf links,” a Wellman Advance story reported.

Doug Ulin, 75, knows all about that history. Ask him about animals, and he remembers rabbits. A lot of rabbits. A lot of rabbits that made a good meal.

“When I was a kid, there wasn’t a lot of people who complained about that stuff. I mean, you didn’t shoot at the houses, of course, right?” he says. “If you were shooting rabbits, you shot at the ground anyway.”

Ulin, who is a competitive golfer with a closet full of trophies, remembers Milton Wehrle sending his dog into the otherwise impassable brambles, and the dog would retrieve the considerable number of lost golf balls that players couldn’t.

The Wellman Golf Club, a “wholesome and up-to-date recreation. . . another proof that Wellman is ‘The Biggest Little Town in Iowa’,” has indeed undergone a lot of change in the last century.

In 1935, the new Highway 22 was extended east through Wellman, cutting off No. 2 and No. 9 greens. The DOT paid the club $200 in damages, and club members rebuilt the two greens further north, shortening No. 9 in the process.

Although talk of building a clubhouse was reported in 1941, construction actually began in 1952. A Wellman Advance story in August of that year reported, “The building which is 20’x40’ is located at the northeast corner of the golf course. The inside of the building is being refinished in a rustic manner with a cement floor.”

In December 2005, a water pipe burst in the clubhouse kitchen wall, and water ran for three weeks, pumping 142,000 gallons, ruining the carpet, windowsills, doors, and one wall. The Welllman City Council kindly waived the $312 in sewer charges.

Club members held a lot of chicken picnics and meetings at the Gobble Inn. They also hosted some novel tournaments.

In June 1937, a tournament was held in which only one club could be used for the nine holes.

“Some of the players are a little red in the face because they shot a better score with one club than they usually do with all clubs,” the Wellman Advance reported.

In August 1976, club members turned out for Goofy Golf: “Each hole had an obstacle to overcome. Some of the handicaps were teeing off from a high stool, while wearing an innertube, with a baseball hat, using a plastic gallon jug as a tee, while standing with one foot in a bucket, heavy iron driver and an equally large sized putter. Two old cars placed near the greens had to be played over,” the Wellman Advance reported.

“Scores for the Goofy Golf were forgotten in the attempt to just get a good drive from one of the tees.”

That must have been bit of fun, because the Couple’s League held a “Fun Night” in August 1982 in a similar vein.

“Fourteen couples took part and immediately upon arriving had to draw numbers for partners. Instructions for each hole found some weird play and not much professional golf. Golfers had to left hand drive, drive with a paper cup for a tee, sometimes with a putter or while sitting on a chair and once while blindfolded,” said the Wellman Advance story. “A host of trouble balls were given to golfers who had problems and nearly everyone there received one for bad luck due to the rules of the day.”

Maintaining the grounds has always been a task for club members.

In April 1946, John Bissey used the activity to get in shape: “[Bissey], dieting to get back his girlish figure after having let it soar above the 200 pound mark, has been losing some of the excess avoirdupois working on the course with [Albert “Prince” Yoder] at odd hours,” the Wellman Advance reported. “When they get through with the work they have started the course will be improved a great deal. They have put up ball washers at different points on the course. They are also working on yardage and par signs.”

Meanwhile, Glen Smith had been “putting in a considerable amount of time piloting the mower and poisoning the rodents that are burrowing on the course.”

The grounds have also been a place for beloved golfers to be memorialized. In October 1992, Daniel H. Doyle’s wife Ann contributed trees, bushes and shrubs to the Wellman Golf Course, paid for in part by memorial gifts from his family and friends.

“I think this is a fitting tribute to Dan. He loved golf a great deal, and he also loved the outdoors. He would be pleased to know that Wellman golfers will benefit from the new plantings for many years to come,” Ann said at the time.

Whatever your engagement with the Wellman Golf Club, whatever your memories, there are sure to be more to come.

Happy Birthday, Wellman Golf Club.