The club has been part of the Linn, Mo. community for more than a half-century, but golf course conditions lapsed while it was without a grounds superintendent, prompting the State Technical College of Missouri to work with Mid America Bank so it could acquire the club. Improvements are now planned for throughout the property and students from the school’s Commercial Turf and Grounds program will get hands-on experience in maintaining the nine-hole course and facilities. “We want to be the standout [course] in mid-Missouri,” said a school Vice President.
For more than a half century, Osage Country Club has been a staple in the Linn, Mo. community, reported KRCG CBS 13 of New Bloomfield, Mo.
“With buddies we’d drive out here, get a cart and pretend we knew what we were doing,” Mid America Bank’s Steve Brune told KRGC. “Golf out in the country, sometimes you don’t think that mixes, but this course has been here 50 years.”
Recently, however, Osage CC was without a superintendent and it became difficult to keep up with the maintenance of the nine-hole course. That’s when the State Technical College of Missouri in Linn, with the help of Mid America Bank, stepped in to acquire the club and inject it with new life, KRGC reported.
“For a small community to have a golf course is a great thing,” Shannon Grus, a Vice President of the college, told KRGC. “But to have an outstanding golf course is where we want to take it, and not only for the Linn community, but for the greater community. We want to be the standout in mid-Missouri.”
“They can take their resources and put it directly into the clubhouse, to projects and planning,” Brune added. “It was an easy decision. It was just the right thing to do.”
This investment not only benefits the community but also the students in State Tech’s Commercial Turf and Grounds program, who will get an opportunity to help take care of the facility, KRGC reported.
“I think having a golf course will be a great opportunity to work on a real-life operating course,” said Joe Miloro, who is now the club’s Superintendent. “It will be a game-changer for the program.”
Minor improvements to the fairways and the greens have already been made, KRGC reported, but State Tech has an even more ambitious plan as it hopes to keep the country club alive for another half-century going forward.
“Maybe you’re not a golfer, and it is a sports-bar type of atmosphere, or you want to take part in the pool, or want to play some cornhole,” Grus said. “We don’t really have something like that in mid-Missouri. So that is why we’re saying we really want to be a draw for the area, and really put Linn on the map.”
Linn, with a population of just under 1,500, is located about 20 miles east of the Missouri state capital of Jefferson City and about an hour from Columbia, where the University of Missouri is located.
The State Technical College of Missouri was founded as Linn Technical Junior College in 1961. For the 2018-19 school year, the college saw its highest enrollment in its history, with 1,483 students.
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