University of Utah making plans to fold up tent at historic golf course

The golf course has hosted big tournaments such as the Western Open and the Utah Open. Golf legends such as Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and Byron Nelson have walked its fairways and putted its greens.

By this time next year, however, the University of Utah Golf Course will be history, eaten up by still more buildings for the ever-expanding university.

The U. Golf Course, which has been shrunk to a 9-hole executive course, used to be the Fort Douglas Country Club. It was the premier golf course in the state and hosted the PGA Tour and its stars in the 1940s.

It became the property of the University of Utah in 1959 but, after being chopped up and changed around several times, it is finally meeting its doom.

Two large "U STAR" (Utah Science Technology and Research) buildings are scheduled to be built where the current No. 1 and No. 9 holes are located, with work scheduled to get under way in the spring of 2009. Future plans call for expansion of the medical center in the area where the current Nos. 3, 4 and 5 holes are situated.

Talk of the demise of the golf course has been going on for a couple of decades, but since Michael Young became president of the university five years ago, the plans have accelerated.

"In 2003 with the new president, Michael Young, it was very appropriate, with his vision and for the mission of the university to have an updated campus master plan," said Mike Perez, associate vice president for facilities management. "That campus master plan is now complete and we're doing the final documentation."

Although some folks don't believe all hope is lost until the first bulldozer or shovel hits the course, there's little chance the course can be saved. According to Perez, the construction on the U STAR buildings will likely start early next year, perhaps in April, just about the time the golf season gets going in Utah.

The golf course was started in 1923 "principally to improve public relations between the Fort Douglas Military Administrators and the local civilian population," according to the history of the Fort Douglas-Hidden Valley Country Club.

Prisoners from World War I were housed at the Fort, and at one time it housed more than 700, including 331 German sailors. They were put to work by General Ulysses Alexander, using horses and equipment at the post with funding from neighbors and the business community.

It began as a three-hole course, with six holes added in the 1920s and the other nine in the '30s.