Old Missoula

Missoula’s Second Golf Club Ready For Season

Course Along River West of Business District

It may be the “Missoula Amateur Athletic club,” and it may not. That will be decided at next Friday’s meeting, when a formal title will be selected for Missoula’s second golf club. The course of the organization lies near the 1100 block on Toole avenue and runs along the Missoula river also, it is exceedingly “sporty” and one must “have something” to make a good score on it.

The club had its birth about a year ago and there is great activity just now, preparing the course for the coming season, replacing the bunkers that some thoughtless neighbor moved away to fill his yard, cleaning off the fairways and polishing up the greens.

President F. Irvin Merritt announced last evening that some new members are expected this season and generally the outlook is promising. The club also has a tennis court and intends to sponsor other outdoor sports.

F. Clair Merritt is vice president and Raymond A. Merritt is secretary. The other members are William G. Merritt, Paul J. Ziesing, Frank C. Ziesing, Harry Boucher, Dix Shevalier, Morrell L. MacSpadden, Mr. and Mrs. O. G. Devinney, Vincent Longley, Miss Blanche E. Frye, Arthur L. Christiansen and Harold Reely.

The club has plans for a longer and better course eventually and everyone of its members is enthusiastic. At the coming meeting officers will be elected and financial plans will be made. Some system of green fees will probably be worked out and applied during the 1923 season.

“This is merely another manifestation of the golfing spirit, which is covering the entire country,” said a member of the Missoula Country club last evening, when told of the juvenile organization. “Seven million men, women and children in the United States are playing golf now and many more will be added to that army. Eventually Missoula will have a public course. The fact that our youngsters are taking up the game without any help at all shows that.”

The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on April 7, 1923.

Although golf became extremely popular, the Toole avenue golf course never came to fruition.

The Merritts mentioned in the article were members of the William J. Merritt family of 1138 Toole avenue. William was a long-time employee of the Northern Pacific, arriving in Missoula in 1902 and becoming a conductor in 1906. He died in Missoula in 1931 and was survived by his wife, six sons and a daughter. The sons were Irvin, Raymond, William, Floyd, Clair, and Roy. Miss Hazel E. Merritt was their daughter. Mrs. Merritt died in 1953 at the home of her son, Frank in Boise, Idaho.

Their son F. Irvin, who was president of the phantom golf club, graduated from U of M and was a chemistry supervisor at Purdue university in 1932.

Their grandson, Bill Merritt was killed in Korea in 1953. An athlete, he entered the service while a student at U of M, and was honored by the school with the annual University M Club boxing tournament named for him.