Who would have guessed the first Jewish Country Club west of the Mississippi is in Tualatin? Eighteen beautifully manicured holes resting on deposits from Missoula Floods under towering conifers.
From the sand beneath those greens to name origins and the Jewish pioneers who just wanted a place to golf, Tualatin Country Club (TCC) historian and golf pro Chris Myrvold took a deep dive into the club’s past for an upcoming book on its history.
He shared the story last month at the Tualatin Historical Society in a presentation that spanned 15,000 years, moving from the Floods to the present day.
“It’s a club founded by Jewish pioneers,” he said. “They were not allowed to be members of Waverley (Country Club in Portland). (So) they had to create their own golf course because of that exclusion.”
At the time, Waverley was the only golf club in the area.
“There were these people who wanted to play golf, and there were a lot of obstacles in their way,” he said.
TCC was founded in the Spring of 1912 by a trio of men, all members of a Jewish men’s social club called the Concordia Club in Portland, and all barred from golfing Waverley, which then prohibited Jews from joining or using the facility.
The founders – former Oregon Governor Julius Meier, Rabbi Jonah Wise, and Roscoe Nelson – brought the Concordia Club’s organizing tenants with them and found an ideal spot in Tualatin: 132 acres belonging to John and Marie Sweek near the rail line, easily accessed from Portland.
“This was before cars, and they stopped at ‘Golf Station,’” Myrvold said. “The first building that ever put on Tualatin Country Club was an old railroad shed.”
The course remained a Jewish county club until 1964, when it opened to the wider public.
Myrvold, who came to TCC from Pumpkin Ridge in 2022, is a history buff whose curiosity was piqued when he noticed that unlike many other courses he’s played around the state and the world, there was little document and memorabilia from the early days on display here.
“I’ve been to a lot of nice high-end private clubs, and they all have a little area inside the club that shows its history,” he said. At TCC, “there’s just a couple little relics. I started asking the members different questions about the history of the club. It became clear that no one had ever really done anything.”
The history, though not compiled, was not unknown. Records and accounts of the club’s founding are available at the Historical Society.
What’s unique is the way Myrvold is compiling and organizing it to create an accessible timeline for and book for club members and local history buffs, something TCC can display.
He dug up historical documents of the original land claim, which the Sweeks initially leased to Meier, Wise, and Nelson with a purchase option that allowed them to expand.
They built the first nine holes, which are now the back nine, on acreage that had been a peach orchard.
The fledgling club, only the fourth established in Oregon, quickly became an innovator in the sport when Wise, the club’s first greenskeeper, became an early adopter of bentgrass seed. The thick, dense, soft, now ubiquitous turf is synonymous with modern greens.
“(It was) a revolutionary move at the time that set a new standard for golf course quality,” Myrvold said.
In 1919, the club opened what is now the front nine holes, designed by golf architecture legend Chandler Egan, who also designed the world-renowned course at Pebble Beach.
“If you’re a golf nerd like me, you would know that name,” Myrvold said.
Though the designer is a big deal, another part of what makes Tualatin so special lies under the soil. Sand deposits left more than 15,000 years ago by the Missoula Floods, which also carved out the Columbia River Gorge, give the course excellent drainage.
TCC was named Oregon Golf Association’s top course of the year in 2022.
“I’ve always felt like Tualatin is kind of overlooked and undervalued as a club because it doesn’t have that big name of Waverley,” he said. “I just wanted to uncover its heritage.”
To see Myrvolds full talk on Tualatin County, visit: tinyurl.com/58sp2mhb.
