Oswego Lake Country Club was officially founded in 1924 as the creation of Paul C. Murphy, who has been called the “Father of Oswego.” Murphy was the primary developer of the town then called “Oswego” through his involvement in the Ladd Estate Corporation, owners of much of the surviving lands of Oregon Iron and Steel.  Commencing about 1910, he was involved with the first significant development of a Ladd Estate property the Laurelhurst neighborhood on the east side of Portland.  In the mid-teens, Murphy continued to develop other areas of Portland, including Eastmoreland. As part of the Eastmoreland development, he constructed the first nine holes of the Eastmoreland Golf Course in 1916-17, with the assistance of golf course designer, H. Chandler Egan. Egan, the great golfing champion from Chicago, had moved to Medford to fruit farm and had already begun his golf course architecture career with the completion of Tualatin Country Club in 1916.

As Murphy considered the development of other Ladd Estate properties, he focused on the Oswego Lake area. In that process, he conceived his vision of the “Live Where You Play” slogan, leading to his idea for a golf course as a focal point, in fact, the crown jewel, of his development ideas for the town of Oswego. By 1923, Murphy had once again enlisted the skills of Chandler Egan to help site and design the golf course. The original design concept, in Egan’s own hand, drawing up more than 18 holes from which to choose the final hole routing. Influenced by his own playing experience in Scotland and Ireland, Murphy himself made some of the final hole and routing decisions.

The construction of the golf course and the clubhouse commenced in 1924. Murphy chose Wm. H. Tucker and Sons of New York, builders of some of the most famous courses in America, to build the course, and the architecture firm of Church and Whitehouse to construct the clubhouse, both of which were completed in 1925. On July 25th of that year, the course was inaugurated by the “First Foursome” of Murphy, Egan, Larry Newlands, and Prescott Cookingham. Newlands was the Club’s first president, and Cookingham was then a vice president of the Ladd Estate Corporation. The course was open for general play by August, 1925. The hilly and difficult par 73 course had expansive views of Mt. Hood and Oswego Lake, particularly on the finishing holes, such as the famous par 3 15th hole, located on the Iron Mountain bluff with majestic views of Oswego Lake.

By the time of the 1929 stock market crash and ensuing depression, Murphy, along with Frederick H. Strong, had purchased all the Ladd Estate Corporation properties and were now effectively the owners of OLCC. They created a new membership program and re-negotiated the debt with the Club officers to ensure its survival. By 1930, the first change to the original course occurred with the creation of the par 3 “water hole”, which had been a par 5 from the same tee, but played to a green located approximately where the 4th green is currently located. Number 4 became the 4th hole as we know it today. At the same time, the par 3, 6th of the original course was eliminated, all of which precipitated re-arrangement of the hole’s routing. 

The Club managed through The Depression years of the 1930’s, but was far from thriving, when World War II commenced.  Discussions began between the Club officers and Murphy, along with his son, Paul F. Murphy, and by 1942, an rearrangement of terms occurred, including a provision that the Club continue as a golf club, prohibiting it from selling the property for a minimum of seventeen years. During the same set of negotiations, the Club and the Murphy’s agreed that the upper part of the course property would no longer be a part of the golf course, reverting back to the Ladd Estate Company for possible, future development. As a result, the par 5 13th, running down to the West; the dogleg par 4 14th; the par 3 15th heading East along the cliff; and a portion of the long par 3 16th and its green which was just beyond the present 15th tee, were all eliminated.

From 1942 to 1945, modifications were made to rearrange the course to become a par 68, primarily by local contractor, Shirley Stone.

This course routing continued until the fall of 1960 and into the spring of 1961 when further changes were made to create the routing of the par 71 course as we know it today. This major work was completed under a plan that the Club’s greenskeeper, Fred Federspiel had devised, utilizing portions of a plan created for OLCC at one time by noted Canadian golfer and golf course architect, A. Vernon McCann. He supervised the construction which was successfully completed by the spring of 1961. One significant alteration in this plan was the elimination of the large swamp area, located between the current 1st and 18th holes, and extending back through the 18th fairway to the 18th tee.  Federspiel had designed Royal Oaks in the early 1950’s and would go on to design the original course at Salishan on the Oregon coast, and the first course at Sunriver near Bend, among others. Both were commissioned by OLCC member John Gray, developer of these significant destination resorts.

In the early 1980’s, the Club utilized Architect Robert Muir Graves to study the course and come up with a new master plan, which contained some very interesting changes including a re-build of the 5th and 14th greens in 1984. As things progressed, the Club enlisted the services of John Fought, Tualatin U.S. Amateur Champion turned architect, who was instrumental in the development of Oregon golf courses, Crosswater, adjacent to Sunriver in the Bend area, Pumpkin Ridge in North Plains, and The Reserve in Aloha. His work resulted in the re-build of the 6th, 8th, and 9th greens during the late 1980’s.

In the early 1990s, a Master Plan Committee, under the guidance of architect Bill Robinson, was formed to study potential major course improvements, including possible re-routing. Instead of re-routing, a plan for significant green rebuilding, re-trapping, and creation or rebuilding of tee boxes was adopted. This work was completed in 1994. At the conclusion of this significant work, the only untouched greens remaining from the original course of 1925 are the 12th, 15th, 16th, and 18th.  They retain a hint of Chandler Egan’s style of utilizing double or multi-levels and are arguably the best greens of the course for their variety of good pin placements and vexing subtleties. 

In recent years, the final golf architectural work was undertaken with John Harbottle, primarily to revise the sand traps in order to solve problematic sand conditions, and attempt to both emulate the style of Chandler Egan’s design of the Club’s original course and incorporate elements of other sand traps Egan had designed. In particular, his work at Pebble Beach prior to the U.S Amateur held there in 1929.

Notable courses designed by H. Chandler Egan

From its completion in 1925, the original clubhouse remained more or less intact until the early 1950’s when a large patio area outside of the main dining room area and underneath the main living room was added, along with an expanded bar area and inside seating area, which included a large dance floor. Other minor changes were made between this time and 1994, including an expanded locker room. A small bar and dining area below the men’s card room and locker room was also added. By 1994, a major clubhouse revision took place, creating the Club facility as we know it today.

In 2004, a completely new pro shop complex was built. Though it had survived previous Club remodels, the original pro shop building with all its character, was sacrificed to make way for an outstanding and much larger complex, complete with second floor pro shop and lower level snack bar appropriately named Murphy’s, in honor of its founder. A new club storage and cart building was built beside it.

The reputation of the course was almost instantly established. By 1927, the course was chosen as the venue for the Oregon Amateur Championship, won by one of the Northwest’s outstanding golfers of the day, Portlander, Rudie Wilhelm, who won his fifth and last title at OLCC.

In the previous year, OLCC hosted the inaugural Oregon State Father-Son Championship. This would become a noted tradition at OLCC, lasting sixty years until 1986, when the Club, along with the Oregon Golf Association, which had run the tournament since the OGA was formed about 1930, decided to move the venue to Salem Golf Club.  Other championships were held at Oswego through the end of the 1920’s and through the 1930’s.While the course was shortened, by no means did this mean that it was made easier. Fortunately, the near-original course was still intact for its tournament “swan song” in 1941 when the Oregon Amateur Championship was once again held at OLCC.

This tournament was won by none other than Oswego’s own Roy Wiggins who took home his second OAC title. Wiggins would win more than twenty Club Championships stretching from the 1930’s into the early 1960‘s. Numerous other amateur and professional tournaments were held at OLCC in the late 1940’s and throughout the 1950‘s. To attest to the tournament challenge of the par 68 layout, the medalists in the 1957 Oregon Amateur Championship were Oswego’s Andre (Ad) Huycke and P.G.C.’s Robert (Bob) Atkinson who shot 69-one over par! Ad Huycke went on the win the championship aided by his regular caddie Doug Ragen.

Gwyn Bowen was the Club’s first golf professional.  Forrest Watson was the successor professional after Bowen, followed by Boyd Bustard. Bustard did a stint as professional at the Multnomah Golf Course in the Raleigh Hills area, which had been built by the Multnomah Athletic Club but the course had a fairly short life, falling early on to residential development in that area.

Telling even a short history of Oswego Lake Country Club would be incomplete without the fortunate story of Oswego’s head professionals, starting with Robert (Bob) Oliver McKendrick, who served the Club for over 40 years, from 1946 to 1986. McKendrick rose from the caddie ranks at Waverley Country Club along with one of his brothers, Buchan (Buck) Erskine McKendrick who served as an assistant professional at OLCC from the fall of 1955 until his untimely death in 1981. Bob was a great gentleman, and a wonderful golfer, accumulating a number of victories or high finishes in important tournaments, such as the 1957 OPGA Match Play Championship. His record of over twenty appearances on the professional Hudson Cup team likely still stands. He was a capable pro shop keeper from dawn to dusk all those many years.

Both Bob and Buck placed considerable emphasis on the development of the junior players at the Club. The list of juniors who went on to become excellent golfers and tournament winners as juniors and after, is long. Most of those will be forever indebted to the attention and assistance of these two wonderful professionals whom the Club was fortunate to have for such a long period of time.

After Bob McKendrick, there were other head professionals, including Mike Davis. In the early 1990's, Brent Murray was hired with major, regional tournaments under his belt, not only was Brent one of the top players in the Pacific Northwest, but his dedication and skill make him a pro’s pro. In 2019, Sean Fredrickson was hired and had an immediate impact on the Member experience, culture, energy and passion. Tragically in July 2020, Sean and his three children were killed in a plane accident in Coeur d'Alene. The Member golfing experience was supported by accomplished assistants, Kevin Walsh, Matt Herrera, Shelby Hunt and Scott Erdmann. Scott was Oregon’s Golfer of the Year for 2011, resulting from his incredible play in the U.S. Club Professional Championship and his Cup competition following in 2011. He has since then become our Director of Golf Instruction. In 2020, we welcomed PGA Professional, Kevin Mathis to lead our team.
 
There have also been a number of fine Club managers over the years, including from Joseph Nance, Jan Richter, Bob Hollister, Tom Strader, Dennis Yamnitsky Michael Carbiener, and Bryan Fisher, CCM.

Authored by John Hedlund, Oswego Lake Country Club Historian and Long-Time Member in September, 2012.