Polson Bay Golf Course
Centerpiece of the town for more than 90 years
by Ty Sparing, MSGA Marketing & Communications
In 1930 Polson city leaders announced they purchased a 40-acre tract of land half a mile west of the Polson Bridge, with immediate plans to build an airport and a golf course on it.
As crazy as it sounds, back then towns and cities in Montana often utilized the same civic space to accommodate the two burgeoning industries. Helena and Whitefish for instance had similar situations with planes landing in fairways throughout the 1920s and 1930s, and Charles Lindbergh in fact once landed his famous “Spirit of St. Louis” plane on the capital city’s Municipal Golf Course (now known as Bill Roberts GC).
The golf-airport combination in Polson, however, never panned out. In part because of heavy resistance to the extra taxes needed for construction, and we can reasonably speculate that the locals had already heard the tumultuous reports coming out of Helena regarding the bitter territorial feud between golfers and pilots.
Whatever the case, as a local newspaper soon made clear, Polson golfers weren’t too keen on sharing the course with aviators, stating that “frantic efforts have been made to secure other land for the golf links.”
Despite the initial idea falling through, local enthusiasts nevertheless remained strident in their quest for a golf course in town and by March of 1931 a handful of local businessmen along with the Phoenix Construction Company devised a way to build a nine-hole links on the south banks of the Flathead River.
And they got to work quick, too, as by the second week of April the new Riverview Golf Course was opened to the public, and according to local newspapers was quickly considered “one of the best in the state.”
(That was a big year for golf in Polson. A month after Riverview’s opening in 1931, the town also got a brand new 18-hole miniature golf course.)
The Riverview Golf Course was a fairly popular spot in town while it was in operation, but in 1936 things changed dramatically when the Polson Chamber of Commerce purchased 64 historic acres of Flathead Lake shore land which included the site where the nine-hole course was located.
Along with the course, much of the new acreage had once been owned by a man of Chinese-Indian descent named Mose Auld, who around the turn of the century was well-known in the area for his work as a translator for many nearby tribes and whose land was described by a local newspaper as “the gathering place of Indians from all parts of Montana,” and was the site of “many an Indian pow wow and dance.”
The city’s plan wasn’t to get rid of Riverview so much as an attempt to rebuild it by using federal funds that were available as part of FDR’s broader New Deal agenda. One of the larger programs of the New Deal was the Works Progress Administration (WPA) which provided funding for public works all over the country. Lasting throughout the 1930s and finally phasing out by 1943, the WPA built 16 golf courses in Montana and improved 23 others.
In Polson’s case, almost immediately after the 64 acres of land was purchased in 1936, the WPA allotted $26,000 ($625,000 in today’s money) to the town for the purpose of expanding recreational activities on the acreage, which included building a log clubhouse and leveling the nine-hole course, “remapping it” and seeding it with grass.
On May 1, 1938, a shiny new Polson Country Club opened to the public and it was clear that the WPA improvements helped leapfrog the course into the upper tier of playing grounds in Montana. It helped having a state-of-the-art log clubhouse, and perhaps more importantly it became one of just three courses in Montana that had grass greens (instead of sand greens).
More broadly, Polson the town went through quite a transformation in the 1930s. Along with the WPA-funded golf course and other recreational facilities, the Montana Power Company built the nearby Kerr Dam (now known as Selis Ksanka Olispe) which was completed in 1938. To celebrate the occasion, a two-day dedication ceremony took place that August where thousands of confederated tribal members and other non-native residents showed up for the festivities. Among the venerated speakers that showed up were Salish and Kootenai Chiefs Martin Charlo and Koostatah Big Knife, along with Montana’s Governor Roy Ayers and Senator Burton Wheeler. Activities included a water regatta, Native-American dances, band concerts, a buffalo barbecue and a two-day ladies’ golf tournament at the new and improved Polson Country Club.
Over the ensuing decades, Polson Country Club settled into becoming a favorite destination for locals and tourists alike, hosting tournaments and all sorts of community events for nearly 90 years now. Incorporated into Polson at an early stage of development, the golf course eventually became fundamental to the personality of the town and ingrained as one of Montana’s most popular golf locales.
One of the unique qualities of Polson golf relative to other areas in the Treasure State is how moderate the weather can be during winter months due to its shielded positioning on the south end of Flathead Lake. One local newspaper writer speaking in 1963 labeled Polson the “Banana Belt Capital of Montana,” and throughout the 1960s the Daily Inter Lake even hosted the “Mid-Winter Golf Tournament” at the Polson course, usually held in January or February.
(The tradition of winter golf in Polson lives on, as noticed this past February when Polson Bay Golf Course announced the opening of nine holes on their Facebook page, “We’re back, baby!” they declared. “All you golf sickos can once again get your golf fix in February.”)
In 1989, due to popular demand, another nine holes and a new driving range were added to the course, with a grand opening that included the annual Polson Summer Wine Festival being held in the clubhouse.
Just 10 years later in 1999 and once again due to popular demand, yet another nine holes were added, making the Polson Bay Golf Course one of the rare 27-hole facilities in the state of Montana. Washington’s John Steidel was the architect of the new nine holes, which he merged with the previously-added nine holes from 1989 to create an 18-hole championship course that is accentuated by the spectacular beauty of the Flathead Lake and the Mission Mountains beyond.
For nearly three decades now the championship course at Polson Bay has hosted a variety of MSGA and high school events, including this year’s Montana State Men’s Mid-Amateur and Master-40 Championships (held Aug. 20-22). It’s also the practice facility for the Polson High School golf teams, who have both been pretty good in recent years, with back-to-back girls’ team titles in 2022 and 2023, a boys’ team title in 2023, along with two individual state champions in Hunter Emerson (2023) and Maxwell Milton (2024).
For a small town of just over 5,000 residents, Polson is nevertheless a leader in the state when it comes to building up the culture of golf.
Meanwhile the original tree-lined nine holes built by the WPA is still open for play and remains as popular as ever, but now at nearly 90 years old it goes by the name of “Olde Course.” Born in response to the Great Depression, the Olde Course has remained sturdy through the years, and given the continued popularity of golf in Polson and the broader Flathead area, it appears set for another 90 more.