George Schneiter Sr.
and Lake Hills Golf Course
by Ty Sparing, MSGA Marketing & Communications
The Lake Hills Golf Course in Billings, Montana, was conceived in 1956 when the legendary Utah golfer, George Schneiter Sr., drove up from his home in Salt Lake City and spent the summer in the Magic City drawing up plans for an 18-hole layout and adjoining clubhouse, of which he would take on the role of president.
By August of that next summer, despite not being quite finished, Schneiter announced that the front nine holes of the municipal course were opened for play. “If it wasn’t for the large demand by local golfers,” he told a reporter from the Billings Gazette, “we wouldn’t have opened the course until later this month.”
Longtime Hilands pro and MSGA Hall of Famer, Paul Allen, remarked at the time that, “Lake Hills looks awfully nice. By next spring this should be one of the prettiest courses in Montana.”
Not only did Allen have nice words for the course, but for the likeable Schneiter too, a future PGA of America Hall of Famer who Allen played against and got to know over the years at some of the professional events throughout the region. “You have to pay tribute to George for his faith in the city of Billings,” Allen said at the time. “This course is an asset to Billings, and George is an asset golf-wise. Any community would be glad to have him as one of its residents.”
It would’ve been hard not to be impressed by Schneiter’s career up until that point, both as a player and as a golf administrator. Called “Mr. Golf of the Intermountain States,” he played on the PGA Tour from 1944-1950 and once defeated Sam Snead in the Match Play quarterfinals of the 1944 PGA Championship, along with competing at major events such as the Masters and U.S. Open.
Among other tournament victories that Schneiter accumulated were three Utah Open titles (1936, 1941, 1942), two Rocky Mountain Open Championships (1940, 1943), and one title each at the Colorado Open (1934), Northern California Open (1954), and Montana Open (1954).
Despite all those accomplishments as a player, Schneiter is perhaps best remembered for his contributions to the world of golf administration. Starting out as a caddie at age five at the Ogden (Utah) Golf & Country Club which was across the street from where he grew up, Schneiter was the head professional there by age 18. At age 22 he helped organize the Rocky Mountain PGA Section, for which he served as president of for a decade. In 1942 at age 31 Schneiter took the Head Professional job at the Salt Lake Country Club along with joining the PGA Tour a couple years later.
Although still playing elite golf against the likes of Ben Hogan and Sam Snead, Schneiter was nevertheless recruited by the PGA brass to take over the role of PGA Tournament Bureau Manager, a role that lasted for three years and came to define his career in golf. Working in a role that is equivalent to today’s PGA Tour commissioner, Schneiter had a large task in helping organize the struggling tour but through his efforts he helped set the stage for the coming renaissance a decade later when the likes of Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus ushered in the modern celebrity era of touring golf.
Among a slew of other administrative accomplishments, as detailed in his 2017 PGA of America Hall of Fame induction bio, Schneiter crafted the PGA Tour format, a pairings formula that is still used today, along with developing the early points system for determining the U.S. Ryder Cup Team, along with a Tour Players’ Guide and a sponsor’s guide. Although it was only three years in which he held the role of tournament bureau manager, Schneiter’s reign proved to be something of a pivotal point in the evolution of tournament golf which became more streamlined and singular within the broader golf industry.
By 1956 Schneiter was well acquainted with Montana, eventually coming to own a ranch near Billings along with regularly playing in the Montana Open, which was held at Hilands Golf Club in those days. Designing a course was a suitable hobby for a man no doubt looking at the second half of his career in golf and wondering where else he could make his mark.
One of his first orders of business at Lake Hills was to hire his son, George (Jerry) Schneiter Jr., as the first head professional. George Jr. was a chip off the old block, emulating his father’s career in many ways as a player and administrator. (A whole separate article could be written about the Schneiter family that includes not just the two Georges, but also cousins, grandkids and siblings that all left a mark on the game of golf.)
George Sr. continued playing golf at a high level, winning regional events while at the same time managing his Lake Hills course in Billings. Although he seemed destined to age into a wise old golfer doling out advice to the younger generations and lending a hand to local golf associations and leagues, sadly that was not to be.
In 1964, George and his wife Beatrice were on their way to Lake Hills, on a drive up from Salt Lake that they’d done dozens of times. It was in the middle of a rainstorm when their car collided with another vehicle on the highway, killing everybody involved.
Schneiter’s tragic death sent a shockwave through the golfing world. It didn’t seem fair that such a well-liked and hard-working individual could suffer such a fate, as friend and fellow tournament golfer Dutch Harrison lamented shortly after, “George worked so hard and was just getting to enjoy the good things,” he said. “He did a lot of things for people he didn’t get credit for. He always was nice. He always had time for people. He was one of the fellows that got the PGA organized.”
George Ferguson, a Utah sportswriter of the era concurred with Harrison’s assessment of Schneiter. “He loved to play golf,” Ferguson wrote. “He loved the associations in golf. He was habitually cheerful. Even on his worst golf days, his reaction was never more than undertones of disgust.”
The Lake Hills Golf Course was passed down to George Jr., who not only served as president of the course, but also spent years on the PGA Tour and Senior Tour. Lake Hills has gone on to become one of Montana’s most popular courses and the site of many championship events, including this year’s Montana State Junior Championships and one of the sites for the State Senior Tournament.
While George Sr. left this earth too soon, his impact was felt for generations and eventually recognized in 2017 by the PGA of America to be Hall of Fame worthy. As his grandson Steve remarked during the induction ceremony, “My grandfather pointed the way for us all to find our niche in golf. He was a visionary in all respects.”