Incredibly, the 1921 proposed J.W. Watson-designed golf course for the Maryville Golf Club is still on the latest published USGS topo map. It was supposed to extend from the original Methodist Seminary on 1st and Memory Lane, around the west end of the campus through the Chautauqua grounds, and curve around to the north side of the Northwest Administration Building, summiting Maryville’s highest point (1,181 feet at what today is the Garrett-Strong Science Building). This quirk has been discussed in the Ville Facebook group, and everybody assumed it was unexplained. But there was a real attempt to establish this.
The story involves a golf course designer, J.W. Watson, who was a golf pro at the Mission Hills Golf Club and claims to have designed the Mission Hills course (although Wikipedia says the course was designed by The 18-hole course was originally designed by Tom Bendelow . The Watson name and Mission Hills immediately evoke the name of famed golfer Tom Watson, who has a history with Mission Hills.
But genealogy on Find-A-Grave for Tom Watson’s father, Raymond Etheridge Watson Sr., who was also an avid golfer, shows no obvious connections to J.W.
Here’s the story of the plans November 10, 1921 issue of the Forum:
MARYVILLE GOLF CLUB IS FORMED TWENTY ENTHUSIASTS ATTEND MEETING LAST NIGHT WILL TAKE 100 MEMBERS Initiation Fee Will Be $100-Cost Of Course Between $5,000 And $7,500 About twenty Maryville golf enthusiasts attended the meeting held last evening at the Chamber of Commerce and a preliminary organization of the Maryville Golf Club was formed with an executive committee composed of Harvey L. Haines, Ed W. Keck, Fred Hull, Dr. E. C. Braniger and A. N. Somerville in charge. An effort will be made to get 100 members for the club, with an initiation fee of $100, to be paid one-half down and the other half in six months. If 100 members are secured, then the golf club organization will be perfected, and work will start on a course on the State Teachers College grounds under the direction of J. W. Watson, professional golfer of the Mission Hill Club of Kansas City, who spent the day here yesterday going over the proposed course. Mr. Watson said a good course could be made on the College campus by starting on the old Seminary grounds to the south and running north and west of the College building. There would be sufficient room for a nine-hole course. Uel W. Lamkin, President of the State Teachers College, presided as chairman of the meeting last night. If sufficient interest is taken in the proposed golf club, the matter will be brought up before a meeting of the Board of Regents of the institution for their approval. It is thought that the board will favor such a course on the College campus. The entire course will be built and constructed by the golf club, with no expense to the college. Then a golf course will be an attraction for students of the College. Several estimates of the probable cost of a course were made, and if a grass-green course is built, it will cost approximately $7,500. Mr. Watson thought a sand green course could be constructed for around $4,500 or $5,000. The course type and other organizational details will be discussed once all club members are secured.
The Northwest plans fell through, and in 1922, it bought part of the original Prather Faustiana Farm property, where it still operates (north of the highway, even as a new version of Townsend-owned Faustiana would operate south of the highway).
