Ask Russell Hurtt what he likes most about working on a golf course and you’re likely to get a shrug, a smile and then the comment, “Everything.”

Hurtt has been superintendent at Twin Hills Golf and Country Club, at Loma Linda Country Club (now Eagle Creek Golf Course), at Shangri-La Resort near Afton, Okla., at Miami (Okla.) Country Club and at Baxter Springs (Kan.) Country Club. He also was the top assistant at Joplin’s Schifferdecker Municipal Golf Course under Don Dickson, who was greenskeeper in the 1950s and early 1960s.

“I learned to like to do everything around the course under Don,” said Hurtt, now 75 and in his 53rd year in the business of maintaining golf courses. “He made me learn it. He was good.”

Hurtt had joined the military after high school and upon leaving the service returned to Joplin. He worked in construction for a while and then took a job with Dickson at Schifferdecker. That was in 1956. He was there for four years before moving to Twin Hills, where he stayed for two decades.

From Twin Hills, he took the job at Shangri-La where architect Don Secrest was building what would become the popular and difficult Blue Course.

Russell and Secrest had a few words over the way some greens were built.

“He had two greens that I changed,” Hurtt said. “He built for the looks; he didn’t build them to maintain. The greens had big humps in them that were pretty severe. I took them down. ... It made him mad.”

Russell still considers his experience with Secrest, whom he considers a great golf course architect, as one of the highlights of his lengthy career.

Once he left Shangri-La, he returned to Twin Hills for another eight years.

Hurtt was in at the beginning of the Ozarks Turf Association. Russell, Dickson and nine or 10 other greenskeepers from this area and from Springfield formed the organization. It was dedicated to solving common problems and exchanging information. Hurtt also was a member of the Golf Course Superintendents Association and the USGA turf group.

Although he has retired a couple of times in the last few years, Hurtt’s love for taking care of golf courses and working outdoors brought him back.

“There really isn’t much on a golf course that I don’t like doing,” he said. “I think that you have to like it. There is so much that has to be done. That’s why I’m still around. I don’t want to quit.”

Hurtt got interested in golf as a youngster. He was caddying at Oak Hill Country Club (now Twin Hills) at the age of 9 and moved to the caddy yard at Schifferdecker when he was 13. That’s how he learned to play golf.

A pretty good stick, he used to play in some high-stakes games with such players as Harry McDowell, Chips Collins, Pete Percy, Jimmy Walker and Roger Amos in the 1950s and 1960s.

“Roger was the best putter I ever saw,” he said.

One of his unforgettable moments came when McDowell, Collins, Percy and Amos were playing at Baxter Springs Country Club.

“Roger never missed putts, but he missed a six-footer and threw his club into a Mulberry tree,” Russell recalled. “It didn’t come down. Over on the other side of the tree, Chips was throwing Roger’s clubs at the putter one by one until only one was left in the bag. All the others were stuck in the tree. I thought Roger was going to kill him.”

What has been the biggest change in the conditioning of the Baxter Springs Country Club?

“It’s always been a lot of fun,” he said. “But back in the old days grass would be that high (holding his hand between his ankles and knees). It has been improved a lot. We’ve put Bermuda in fairways and on the tee boxes.”

The club will hold its invitational tournament next weekend.

Taking care of a golf course has long been a family affair for the Hurtts. His wife worked by his side until they adopted a little boy several years ago. His daughter, Debra, worked with him at Loma Linda and his son, Russell Jr., is his assistant at Baxter Springs.

Russell remembers the story of a greenskeeper who, upon retiring, tore up his lawn at home and covered his yard in cement because he didn’t want to “cut another blade of grass.”

That, he says, won’t happen with him. He likes cutting grass.

Fund-raiser

The second annual Kelly Jo Brookshire four-person scramble is scheduled at 8 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 8, at Schifferdecker Golf Course. She died Dec. 19, 2004, after a battle with fibrolamellar carcinoma.

Proceeds from the tournament will go to Camp Quality, which provides year-round support programs for children with cancer and their families. Each camp is run by volunteers and is community funded. The typical cost for sending a child to camp is $600.

The entry fee is $50 per player or $200 per team.

Children’s benefit

Children’s Haven of Joplin has some new champions: AT&T; Pioneers and the AT&T; United Way Committee. An AT&T; Joplin Call Center Charity scramble will be played Friday, Aug. 7, at Schifferdecker Golf Course. Net proceeds will go to Children’s Haven.

A variety of sponsorship and player packages are available. The entry fee for an individual player is $80. For a four-person team, it is $280. For more information, players may contact Tim Barney at (417) 627-1633 or email tb7075@att.com.

Children’s Haven provides a temporary home for children ages birth through 17 years whose families are experiencing a crisis. The Haven has been operating at near capacity for most of 2009. It is currently providing crisis care for a 3-month-old baby and her 1-year-old brother whose family is homeless.