OREM — Herb Stratton's 45-year vision to see an 18-hole golf course in Orem became reality on Friday. But it took most of his life, a march through a lot of political battles and even so, to finish the job, he left it for another generation as his son, Keven, completed the dream.
Orem now has its first 18-hole golf course.
In official ceremonies involving the Provo-Orem Chamber of Commerce and other community dignitaries, officials of Cascade Golf Center at 1313 E. 800 North, conducted a grand opening for nine new holes set in the hills that overlook the city and front-nine layout.
"This is realization of a vision long ago," said Herb Stratton, a retired fruit farmer who instigated golf in Orem with brothers Frank and Vern when Cascade Fairways opened in 1968.
"The new layout set above the city has a breath-taking view of the valley, the best vista of the valley safely created for the public so far," Keven Stratton said. Stratton estimates it will take 15 years to recoup his investment in the new addition.
"If I had a nickel or dime for every time somebody asked me when we were going to add another nine holes, we could have paid for this by now," Stratton said.
Planning on the addition began in 1995 but got hung up for two years as the owners worked to meet city demands. That included reconfiguring the frontage on 800 North which required redesigning several holes, relocating the driving range and construction of a road to service a nearby elementary school. "This course does offer some incredible views," PGA professional Randy Anderson said.
The elevation of the new Mountain Course is more than 400 feet above the original course, giving Cascade a par-71 course, the city's first 18-hole layout.
Stratton bought a new fleet of golf carts to enable players to manage the steep grades and fairways in gullies and canyons. Some of the grades are 15 to 18 percent with stretches that are 23 percent.
"It took about 6,000 dump truck loads of fill dirt to build the course addition," Stratton said.
"What's particularly pleasing to me is this takes you into the mountains where you can see native flowers bloom and we've seen a red fox, pheasants and quail. The view can be quite stunning."
The battle for an 18-hole course in Orem was a long one and included many compromises by the owners who've basically provided golf for citizens through a property lease because Orem mayors and councilmen have refused to provide a city-owned course.
Herb Stratton tried to get Orem to buy 1,000 acres from his family along with orchards owned by the Crandall and Ferguson families some 45 years ago. The land would have provided a 36-hole golf course and park.
"The city refused," Herb Stratton said.
"A bunch of us guys used to golf at the old Timpanogos course in Provo, which was only nine holes. But we wanted to golf in Orem. We thought the sun rose and set on Orem."
Herb Stratton later joined other businessmen on a golf committee in the early '60s to study the feasibility of building an 18-hole course where the current bottom layout is located. After doing the work, Orem city refused to act on the plan.
Herb Stratton decided to go into the golf business and do it himself, signing a pact with his brothers to lease land where the current golf course is located. Orem City had bought the land, a former junkyard, for its water rights. The nine-hole course was completed in 1968.
In the mid-'70s, after Orem city threw an economic punch at Provo by building the valley's first major shopping mall, Stratton was pressured to give up a lease on land south of Cascade Fairways where there was a driving range. That site became home to the Osmond Studios.
"If somebody had told me back in 1965 when we planned the course that our new nine would be located up there on the mountain, I'd have said they were up in a tree," Herb Stratton said, referring to the new addition.
Stratton plans to use the next 36 days to commemorate completion of the course. He's scheduled daily drawings for golf, range, miniature golf and merchandise giveaways and will have clinics, club demonstrations and a Chamber of Commerce tourney June 18.
E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com