Schifferdecker Golf Course in Joplin celebrates its 100th anniversary

Members of the community and local golfers marked the 100th anniversary of the Schifferdecker Golf Course along Route 66 on the west side of Joplin, Missouri.

The ceremony Wednesday included a ribbon-cutting, speeches, lemonade and free rounds on the par-71, 18-hole, 6,123-yard course, reported the Joplin Globe. An anniversary tournament also was held last Saturday.

Joplin-area historian Brad Belk provided the newspaper with some historical context for the course:

Schifferdecker was inspired by a private course, Oak Hill Golf Course in the area of Iron Gates, which became Twin Hills Golf and Country Club. Schiffedecker was first laid out as a nine-hole course on 160 acres of land donated to the city by entrepreneur and philanthropist Charles Schifferdecker. Belk said Schifferdecker acquired the property, which had served as a dairy farm, to search for lead and zinc, but drilling yielded neither. He left the land to Joplin in his will when he died in 1915.

At that time, though, the city did not have the money to develop the land, and it sat for several years until sources of donations were accumulated to build the course.

It was a hit from the start, Belk said, expanding to 18 holes within two years. “This made Schifferdecker the only course in the four-state region to boast 18 holes with grass greens,” he said.

Schifferdecker Golf Course reputedly is the second-oldest west of the Mississippi River.

In addition to a website, Schifferdecker Golf Course has an active Facebook page.

In case you’re wondering about famous golfers at the course, another article in the Globe reports it has a particularly noteable one:

Many of golf’s top players came to Joplin, but the best known was W. Horton Smith, “The Joplin Ghost.” Born near Springfield in 1908, Smith became the head professional at Oak Hill in 1928. Smith was the top PGA money winner in 1929 when he won eight tournaments as well as the French International Professional Championship. He was on five U.S. Ryder Cup Teams. In 1934, Smith won the first Augusta Invitational, now known as the Masters, and won it again in 1936. Although he left his position as head pro at Oak Hill after two years, Smith returned often to Joplin and his career was followed closely by Joplinites. Smith continued professional play until 1948. He became president of both the PGA of America and the PGA Seniors, and was elected to the Professional Golfers Hall of Fame in 1958 and to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1990. Smith died in 1963.

Golfing pros Byron Nelson, Patty Berg, Hale Irwin and Payne Stewart also reportedly have played there.

(Image of one of the tees at Schifferdecker Golf Course in Joplin, Missouri, via Facebook)

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