The great Athens gopher eradication of the 1960s
Anyone familiar with the film “ Caddyshack ” knows what a pest a gopher can be on the golf course .
In the movie , Bill Murray will stop at nothing in removing the little beast from the luscious greens and fairways where he has chosen to make his home . In the end , no gophers were actually harmed in making the movie , but the swanky Country Club where the critter was living sustained substantial damage in the extermination process .
The Athens Country Club has been the home of countless gophers through the years and in the summer of 1969 their handiwork was becoming all too visible to members playing the beautiful course .
In “ Joel Lusk ’ s Golfing Scene ,” a regular column in the Athens Review , at the time , the efforts of greenskeepers in getting rid of the gophers are revealed .
Gophers are usually about six to eight inches long and weigh about a pound . According to the Animal Network , they spend nearly all their time underground . Gophers create “ elaborate systems of tunnels to search for food , sleep , raise their young , and store food .”
That ’ s not what you want taking place just below the surface on your local links .
Bill Kittles decided in 1961 the course couldn ’ t survive any further influx of gophers and stepped up efforts to remove them . “ They were taking over the couse ,” wrote Lusk .
Whenever a fresh mound of dirt was thrown up by one of the furry rodents , Bill immediately set up a trap . Usually , within a short time , the gopher was incarcerated .
According to the Review story , the removed gopher toll had , by then , reached 653 and if all those and their little buddies had been allowed to create holes in the course and proliferate in a gopherly way , the golfers would have soon been choosing from multiple holes to sink their puts into . “ If the gophers hadn ’ t been thwarted , we can ’ t imagine what the course would have looked
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like ,” Lusk wrote .
According to Lusk , taking care of the course was a labor of love for Kittles and he spent so much time on the gophers and other projects , he didn ’ t have any time to play the game himself . He had formerly been one of he leading golfers at ACC .
The Country Club got started at the location in 1946 , giving locals a place to pursue their pitching and putting without driving to Tyler or Corsicana . At the time of the 1969 story , Mack Adams was president and highly invested in improving the facilities . He donated large culvert tiles for a bridge across the fourth hole . Adams served as president for a total of 12 years from 1969 to 1988 .
Jack Ward was donating the labor of his workmen to build the bridge for golfers to cross on the lake hole . Golfers had to detour around the construction , winding up on the eighth green , from whence they could traverse their way back to the fifth green to resume their round .
“ No one seemed to care ,” Lusk wrote , because everybody knew the end result was going to be a more beautiful fourth hole and a more convenient crossing .
The Country Club ’ s first clubhouse burned at about the time of the Review article . A new building burned in 1984 and was replaced by the one you see today .
The columnist , Lusk was an avid golfer and also connected with the Review for many years . While an employee , in 1923 , he was noted for having the first auto license number in Henderson County .
He was also involved in the community in other ways , serving as Kiwanis Club president , boy scout leader , County Republican Chairman and head of the Masonic Lodge .
58 | Greater Athens Magazine | May 2023