(Photo by Rich Sanders/Great Falls Tribune)
The picturesque town of 3,100 near the Canadian border once tried to put itself on the map by hosting a heavyweight boxing title bout with Jack Dempsey. Now it’s restoring an 18-hole championship course once considered to be one of the state’s best. A new clubhouse and event gazebos that can collectively host as many as 700 people will also be touted, as part of promoting Shelby and its abundant wildlife (including grizzlies) as a unique golf destination.
Almost 100 years ago, tiny Shelby, Mont. tried to put itself in the national spotlight by hosting a heavyweight championship boxing match on July 4, 1923 between Jack Dempsey, the title holder and one of the country’s most revered athletes, and little-known Tommy Gibbons. Oil had just been discovered in Shelby and the thought was the fight could help draw attention to the northern Montana town near the Canadian border, to turn it into an economic and tourist center.
The fight didn’t change Shelby’s fortunes, however, and today it remains a town of just 3,100 people. But it is home to the Marias Valley Golf Course, an 18-hole championship course once considered to be one of the top five in the state, according to the Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune. While the course lost that status in recent years, the Tribune reported, the club’s management team is striving to put it back on the map through a variety of changes and improvements that will include:
- A new 7,200-sq. ft. clubhouse that expected to open by the end of June.
- A reconfigured 17th hole, with one “stinking” pond transformed into two ponds that can be drained and refreshed, with new sod growing around them.
- New golf carts and upgraded mowing equipment.
- Event gazebos featuring locally made barn doors that can be kept open or slide into place to cut down the wind if needed.
- A newly paved parking lot with new signs to welcome golfers and other visitors.
The course rehabilitation also has included the removal of 500 trees, mostly dead cottonwoods felled after a 2017 microburst storm wreaked havoc, the Tribune reported. New trees will be added to help define holes, and for new landscaping around the clubhouse.
While the course remains a work in progress, people are responding to the changes that are underway—and half-price memberships have helped revive interest as well, the Tribune reported. This year, Marias Valley has 50 new members, for a total of 340, to get back to a sustainable base.
For Course Superintendent Scott Lennemann, the Tribune reported, the central directive for the improvements he is overseeing is “water, water, water.”
That effort advanced with the installation of a new, state-of-the-art irrigation system, which Lennemann will be able to control from anywhere via his phone as soon as a new fiber-optics line arrives, the Tribune reported. The new irrigation system replaces two systems, one that was 50 years old and one that was 25.
“The irrigation system was key,” Lennemann told the Tribune. Previously, when a sprinkler broke, the management company operating the course replaced it with a sprinkler head off the driving range. That took the driving range down to 25 sprinklers, and weeds and dead grass took over the range. “It was horrible,” Lennemann said.
The driving range now has 106 sprinklers, and it and the course are watered with three wells that produce water with extremely high alkaline content, the Tribune reported. The new system pumps 2,200 gallons a minute and can water the whole course in eight hours. But the high salt content is tricky to manage, and can kill the grass it’s meant to nourish.
“We consider ourselves stewards of the environment,” Lennemann said of the Marias Valley management team. “We’re judicious users of water.”
Previously, the Tribune reported, Lennemann managed a course in Las Vegas where the water budget was $2 million. Every drop was accounted for, and he has pledged to be just as careful at Marias Valley.
“People from Shelby take a lot of pride in the golf course, and it wasn’t to the standards they had,” he said.
A native of Belgrade, Mont. with 30 years in the industry, Lennemann and his wife had become empty nesters, and she can work remotely, the Tribune reported, so they jumped on the chance to move to Shelby. He’d never seen the golf course before, but he’d heard about it.
“The locals are extremely friendly,” he told the Tribune. “They know I’m an outsider, and they know why I’m here. They want the course to be as best as can be. They know what it used to be.”
Shelby golfers feel a sense of ownership about Marias Valley and help police behavior to contribute to course upkeep, he noted.
An added challenge has come this year from a former oxbow of the Marias River that flows along the course and is usually dry by late spring, the Tribune reported, But this year it had seven feet of water and soon after Memorial Day, sections of the course flooded.
“Mother Nature is my best friend—or worst enemy, and I blame her for everything that goes wrong,” Lennemann joked. “With the right tools, I could grow grass on the moon.”
But keeping the grass green and manicured throughout the Marias Valley course is a real challenge, the Tribune reported. Hole No. 1, at the highest point of the course, is windswept, while Hole No. 12 is shaded, sheltered and right along the river.
“There are all these microclimates on the course,” Lennemann said. “It’s not like one lawn.”
Last year, with the irrigation system in dire need of repair, the course fell behind on watering and had to fight all summer to catch up, Lennemann told the Tribune. “We’ve [since] made tremendous strides,” he said.
With more than 50 years of golfing in Shelby under his belt, course owner Steve “Curly” Williamson is behind the changes at course, with guidance from the golf course board and lots of community input, the Tribune reported.
Marias Valley’s first nine holes were laid out in the 1960s, with another 9 holes added in 1995, after Williamson and a group of friends reshaped the course. “We spent months and months trying to figure this out over the winter, how the nine would coexist with the other nine and intermingle on the holes. And then we put it to the test the next spring and got to work,” he told the Tribune. “It’s kind of remarkable, for four or five guys sitting in a bar.”
Clubhouse manager Larry Steinhoff also told the Tribune that the course has come a long way, and he would know—he’s been golfing there since he was a child.
“The personality of the course and the people, the hospitality has changed,” Steinhoff said. “Everything about the course has changed, and it’s only going to get better.”
After operating out of a temporary trailer, Steinhoff will soon have a new facility that will include a new TrackMan Golf Simulator, meeting room, bar and shaded patio, the Tribune reported. Timber support beams from the old clubhouse are being repurposed for bar tops. It’s going to be fancy, and “people will want to hang out here,” Lennemann said.
Between the new clubhouse and the gazebo, Steinhoff said, Marias Valley will be able to host as many 700 people for an event, the Tribune reported. “What it’s going to do for the community is tremendous,” he said.
Standing along the golf course’s 10th hole, Steinhoff pointed out to the Tribune how he couldn’t hear any traffic, just the river and birds. That’s what makes the course a hidden oasis, he noted; many people, even those in the area, have no idea what’s down the road into the river valley not far from Interstate 15.
The Marias Valley staff now aims to welcome those who felt driven away under the club’s previous management, Lennemann told the Tribune. “If we don’t have golfers out here, I don’t have a job,” he said. “We greet them with a smile, and we’re happy for everyone who drives out here.”
The staff’s new positive attitudes are a reflection of their feeling that the course is going in the right direction, he said. All told, the golf course has 16 employees, including seasonal workers.
“A golf course takes a lot of money,” Lennemann said. “I’ve been given a lot of the tools to combat problems here.”
For at least 10 years, the Tribune reported, Merlyn and Cindy Howg of Coaldale, Alberta, have headed south to golf in Shelby. They take advantage of stay-and-play packages with local hotels. “To me, that’s what Shelby is, a golf destination,” Merlyn said.
Locals welcome them “like family” for tournaments they golf in, the Howgs said as they were enjoying one of Marias Valley’s new golf carts. With the new clubhouse, “it’s going to be awesome,” Cindy said.
Golfer Michael Martin expressed optimism about Marias Valley’s direction, too, as he readied for league play with daughter Skyler, 18, the Tribune reported.
“It’s going to help the community, bringing people to town and hopefully all the golfers enjoy it,” Martin said. He hopes to see more special events and non-golf events held at the course, where he’s golfed for about 45 years or so.
“We are swinging up, and that’s what we want to sustain for the next many years,” he added about the course. “It’s a great golf experience for a reasonable price. Nowadays, it’s tough to find a hobby worth the money you spend.”
In a cart decorated with flames, Danelle Burns and Wade Welker paused on Hole No. 10 as they warmed up for the mixed league. They come out to Marias Valley twice a week, the Tribune reported.
“I love it here. It’s a great course,” Burns said. “This is my happy place. It’s totally different scenery [on No. 10] than on the top of the hill.”
Added Welker: “People said this used to be the best course in the state. It’s had its ups and downs. If you’re hitting off dirt clumps and weeds, it makes it tougher and unenjoyable.”
The pair told the Tribune that they recently saw a newborn fawn on the course. They’ve also spotted bobcats and kittens, grizzlies, a mountain lion and coyotes. The course also used to have a turkey population.
While Burns said he was sorry to see the brush go as the course was cleaned up, Lennemann said not to worry—the bobcats are still around.
The course has always been wonderful for wildlife watching, the Tribune reported. Last year, Lennemann said, the staff determined that eight grizzlies followed the river through the course. Signs warn golfers they’re in bear country, and Lennemann keeps his local contact from the state’s Fish, Wildlife and Parks agency on speed dial, the Tribune reported.
One time, he told the Tribune, a bear pulled up a sprinkler on the 16th hole, just to play with it. So even as the course becomes more manicured, Marias Valley always promises to remain one wild place.
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