May 31, 2023
The Trophy
By Patrick Stopulos
Local writer from Davenport, Iowa
The Tri-City Title golf tournament was a major amateur event in our area for nearly forty years. Most competitions that achieve such status generally come into existence with little fanfare and, over time, gradually earn the reputation of being an elite tourney. Not so with the Tri-City Title tournament. It burst onto the scene with a single, remarkable round of golf.
Recently I was doing some unrelated historical research and my study took me to the Richardson-Sloane Special Collections Center at the Davenport Public Library. In going through old newspapers there, I by chance came across a column from September of 1964 written by John O’Donnell, the legendary sports editor of what was then the Times-Democrat. The backdrop of his column was the annual Tri-City Title golf tournament which was being played at Emeis golf course in Davenport. In the column, Mr. O’Donnell relates a debate he had that week with, presumably, some of the players and/or fans of the tourney. His friends were unanimously of the opinion that the game of golf was better than ever in 1964. “The equipment is better, the courses are better and the scores are better” they argued. O’Donnell didn’t necessarily agree. He reminded them of one particular round of competitive golf that took place in 1926. The event was the inaugural Tri-City Title tournament which was played that year at the Rock Island Arsenal Golf Club. A fellow by the name of Ardo Mitchell shot an amazing 6-under-par 65 in the qualifying portion of the tourney – a score that, according to O’Donnell, was never equaled in the 38-year history of the tournament.
With my interest now piqued, I did some more digging and learned that men eligible to compete in the 1926 Tri-City Title tournament were the two best players from each of the following organized golf clubs: Credit Island Municipal Club, Davenport Country Club, Rock Island Arsenal Golf Club, Short Hills Country Club, and Black Hawk Hills Country Club (which became the county-owned Indian Bluff golf course in the late 1940’s). The format of the event evolved a bit in the early years, but the basic structure remained the same – a stroke play qualifying competition after which the low eight or sixteen players would move into single-elimination match play staged over several days to determine the champion.
Ardo Mitchell would go on to win that first Tri-City Title. He won it again in 1928 and once more in 1930. The tournament soon became the premiere amateur tournament in the area and remained so until its final year in 1964. Over time, other clubs came about and were thereby eligible to participate in the competition. Both Saukie Golf Course and Oakwood Country Club were first opened in 1929. The Outdoor Club of Duck Creek was created in 1936 and in 1964 Mill Creek Country Club was founded. The tournament was played annually in September and, over the years, eight different courses hosted the event.
I found the O’Donnell column to be interesting. On one hand, Mitchell’s 65 was but one round of golf that most people would consider fairly obscure in the annals of Quad-City golf history. After all, the round was shot in merely the stroke play qualifying portion which preceded the “main event” – the match play competition. On the other hand, it was an achievement firmly etched in at least one fellow’s memory nearly forty years later.
Another person who I thought would find the column interesting was my good friend, Ann McNamara, who I knew was related to Mitchell. So, I mailed a photocopy of it to her and her husband, John Brooke. I thought they would enjoy reading about an event that took place nearly a century ago and, perhaps, learning something new about Ann’s great-uncle Ardo.
Well, not only were Ann and John aware of this magical round, imagine my surprise and delight when, a couple days later, I received a text message from Ann that included a photograph of the actual trophy awarded to Mitchell for shooting that 65! The Times-Democrat, the tournament sponsor, awarded him two handsome, sterling silver trophies following that first Tri-City championship – one for winning the tournament and one for having the low qualifying score. On the latter, in recognition of how remarkable the round was, the sponsor did something I’ve never seen. It actually engraved the hole-by-hole score onto it!
As O’Donnell reminded his readers, the Arsenal was not just an average golf course at that time. It was challenging enough to have been chosen to host the prestigious Trans-Mississippi Amateur twice – once in 1907 and again in 1920.
I don’t imagine that when Ardo Mitchell walked off the 18th green on that September day in 1926 he thought people would be talking about his round nearly forty years later let alone almost 100 years afterwards. Yet here we are in 2023 doing just that. Serendipitous, it seems to me, that I just happen to discover a 59-year-old newspaper column the focus of which is a round of golf played 38 years earlier by the great-uncle of a friend of mine who just happens to have the trophy he was awarded!
Ardo Mitchell died in 1954 at the age of 69. His family donated the trophy – and several others – to his home club, the Rock Island Arsenal Golf Club, where they remained on display in the stately clubhouse until the club’s closure in 2016. Prior to the public auction of the club’s contents and memorabilia in 2019, most of Ardo’s trophies were rescued and returned to the loving care of the Mitchell family.
