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with a shovel and a few tomato cans he "borrowed" some of Mr. Walsh's pasture, planted tr <br /> tomato cans in the most likely spots and shared his so called "Woodpile" country club <br /> with his friends and the cows. All hazards on the "Woodpile" course were strictly. <br /> natural. <br /> It was Karl who dreamed up the possibilities of a golf course on this land. As <br /> pointed out earlier, the property had been platted, mapped and registered on March 14th, <br /> and was advertised for sale by a Minneapolis real estate company, Olson and Berdan. <br /> Response to the advertising was very weak. The Mr's. Walsh, Olson and Berdan were <br /> becoming quite concerned when I approached them with a proposition. (Would they consider <br /> letting me buy a lot at a time over a period of years, in the meantime letting me use <br /> whatever lots were needed to start a golf course? If the venture held some promise <br /> • of success, would they concentrate their sales efforts to the north side of the Orono <br /> Orchards Road, leaving the opportunity to develop the golf course on the south side? <br /> If they would agree to the proposition, I would buy one lot on the north aide just <br /> across from the 9th (now 5th) green and construct a small building to house the <br /> concession and golf shop. They agreed. <br /> With Karl's help I laid out the golf course. It was not what is there today, tho <br /> roughly, and I do mean roughly, it followed the same general pattern. On a day in late <br /> April a man drtving a Ford model T wouthward on the Orono road pulled up sharp to watch <br /> a "crazy" man pushing a lawn mower around in a hay field south of the road. The "c-azy" <br /> man told me later that he did feel a bit foolish, mowing in a hay field with a hand <br /> mower. He was Spencer Smith, starting construction of the then 9th green. All of the <br /> original greens at Orono were built on locations where the original hay or pasture sod <br /> could be refined to form a crude putting green. This was accomplished by mowing, top- <br /> dressing, seeding, topdressing again and again until the surface was smooth enough to <br /> permit putting with a least a 107. chance of the ball ending up near the hole. We <br /> have often wondered what Grandfather Walsh might have thought had he been able to see <br /> his grandson pushing a new-fangled mowing machine down by the beaver dam! <br /> - 4 - <br />