This is Brent Taylor. I’m sitting at the Perry Maxwell dining room with Bob Fraser and we are talking about growing up playing golf at Adams Municipal Golf Course. Bob, it’s an honor to visit with you today. I don’t know where this is going, but we’ll see.
The initial idea to write a story about growing up and playing golf at Adams in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, came from a friend of mine, Mark May, who attended College High School with me back in the day. Here is what Mark M. asked: “I was listening to Tom Watson talk about his experiences hearing stories from great golfers of the past like Byron Nelson. Which got me thinking of some of the people I met or came across because of golf. I wanted to know if this memory of mine might jog something loose for you. When we were in high school (and maybe beyond), there were big money games at Adams on Mondays. A character named Sapulpa Pete (I remember him as a stocky guy with a big cigar) would pay OSU golfers like Tom Jones or Jaime Gonzalez to come to Bville and play for money against other really good golfers. Did you ever get included in those games? Or hear about them yourself? I love the stories of golf’s hustlers like Titanic Thompson and colorful characters like Waco Turner. Labron Harris too. I wish that more of that era was documented because the stories are often so much fun.”
I messaged back to Mark: “I was never asked to play. A little before my prime. I remember Dave Wilbur and Lynn Blevins playing and I have this image of them afterwards selecting golf shop merchandise for winning. Kyle Denton would probably have some stories. Would be a fun topic to write about. Seems like the guys were named Leo Cook, Sapulpa Pete, and Freddie Lookout.”
So, my idea, inspired and pushed along by Mark’s question, was to write about those characters and the wild days of gambling and rolls of cash and All-American college golfers playing for money and benefits before the advent of NIL money.
And, Adams Golf course stories are on my mind as I recently wrote a story about Tid Sweet who worked at Adams Golf Shop. It was published in Bartlesville Monthly magazine, October 2026.
Bob Fraser 1:38
Really? You know, Tid was my uncle.
Brent Taylor 1:41
No, I didn’t know that. Yeah, that’s crazy.
Bob Fraser 1:44
Oh yeah, Tid was one of a kind.
Brent Taylor 1:46
He was. The article is about what people teach you when they’re not trying to teach you. Tid did that with so many young kids. I spent a lot of hours on the putting green with Tid, and sometimes he took my quarters. He had that marine crew cut but he was approachable and had a certain level of respect from us kids. Even though we called him Sweet, you know, not Mr. Sweet. It was Sweet, and he was fine with that…I guess.
Bob Fraser 2:24
Oh yeah. How many times he would say, “You dummy, you dummy.”
Brent Taylor 2:31
You can tell he had a little bit of Marine in him. Yeah. But just a good soul, and I always looked up to him, and I was a shy kid, you know, and he was somebody that I could talk to and say what I thought.
Bob Fraser 2:50
Yeah, Wilbur and I always talked about the fact that, well, Dave had such great respect for Tid, but we always laughed at the fact that Mark Kizziar was one of the most intimidating people, and he seemed to intimidate everyone except for Tid. Yeah, you know, Tid didn’t take any guff off of him, and Mark didn’t want to lose Tid, so they just had a different relationship. It was unique.
It’s always fascinating to me. I’d need to go back and find that. I’d love to read that. (The article)
Brent Taylor 3:34
So you mentioned the first time going out there when it was cold. It was 1963. Was that your first memory of Adams Golf Course? I grew up playing at Nowata Golf Course. My dad took me first when I was five years old. Let’s say 1965. So I don’t think I started playing Adams until maybe 1966. I didn’t have junior clubs, so I’d stick a three iron under my arm. It stuck way up in the air above my shoulder.
Bob Fraser 4:03
Your dad was out there a lot. Yeah I could hardly wait for it to open. It was cold. I played by myself, and I think it was so cold I only played nine holes. But Alsie Hyden was the first head pro, and he was just absolutely a class act. Left there, went to Oklahoma City. Went to Trosper Park, and then went to Lake Hefner.
Brent Taylor 4:35
Yeah.
Bob Fraser 4:36
He was at Lake Hefner for quite a while. But you know, at the time, I didn’t think anything about it. We lived on Baylor Drive, and so when I went to play golf, I just put a bag over my shoulder and walked across, cut through Sooner Park, and played.
Brent Taylor 4:59
So you’re 12 years old then?
Bob Fraser 5:02
I would have been 11 when it opened. Yeah, and you know, from that point on, I was out there all the time.
Brent Taylor 5:16
So you spent your summers out there for the most part.
Bob Fraser 5:22
Yes, and you probably did some of the same things. If you did X amount of work, you got credit for range balls. We’d be raking the sand traps on Saturday morning ahead of the first group, different jobs like that, picking up the range before they had the equipment to pick up the range. Did it all by hand.
Brent Taylor 5:52
Wow! Who was the best golfer you ever saw out there?
Bob Fraser 6:22
Skip Graham.
He graduated from College High in 1965. Just a terrific player. Don Maddox was another one. Don went on and wanted to play the tour. I don’t think he ever did. He was teaching pro at Southern Hills for a long time.
Brent Taylor 6:51
Skip Graham. Skip. I always looked up at his name when I came in for a green fee, and said to myself, one day, that will be me. I shot 66 once. Didn’t quite get there.
Whatever happened to Skip?
Bob Fraser 6:52
You know, that’s a good question. I don’t know. The game was so much different then. I mean, it was like if you were good enough to maybe try to play the tour, you could probably make more money getting a real job. I mean, it just wasn’t the big, big money. Yeah, and so I don’t know that it had the draw for someone like Skip.
Brent Taylor 7:22
You had to be in the top 10 to make significant money.
So I mentioned seeing some of the wild gambling games at Adams. What are your memories about that?
Bob Fraser 7:49
Once, I was taking the carts back to the cart barn. There was an old grocery paper sack in the basket in the back of the cart, and I looked into it, and it was just, you know, full of cash.
Brent Taylor 8:04
And that was Leo Cook’s cart?
Bob Fraser 8:06
Uh huh. Leo Cook and Freddie Lookout. And so, neither one of them were good players. I mean they were just out there and I can’t remember if it was every Wednesday, Friday, Monday? I can’t remember, but we would have four groups, and Mark Kizziar would be in one of the foursomes and then a lot of good players. And yeah, I’d stumble my way into the game.
Brent Taylor 8:48
This is the early ’70s.
Bob Fraser 8:51
Let’s see, I graduated high school in ’70. So yeah, ’69, ’70, ’71. but it seemed like at the time, they were big money games. I was playing for more money than I should have been. Yeah, there were guys coming in that I didn’t know, that Kizziar brought in. And one funny story about a player he told me he was bringing in. He said, “You’re not going to believe how far he hits it. He’s new to town and da da da. It was David Kedy.”
Brent Taylor 9:42
Oh, is that right? David could move it out there back in the day. The first professional golf tournament I ever played in was the Oklahoma Open at Kickingbird in Edmond. 1982 I think. I shot 66 in the first round and was tied for second with Gil Morgan and an amateur, David Kedy.
Bob Fraser 9:44
Yeah, David was bombing it. He always did, but he really was back then. Yeah, but those are some of the guys that all of a sudden showed up in the games.
Brent Taylor 10:02
I remember watching Rafael Alarcon, Jamie Gonzalez, Lindy Miller, Tom Jones, it seems like all were Oklahoma State Cowboys, and most if not all were All-Americans. I was dumbstruck that players of that caliber were within 10 feet of me on the putting green at Adams Golf Course. It made me want to play for Mike Holder at OSU. He watched all three rounds of the Oklahoma state championships, where I played with Jeff McMillan (OSU) and Lawrence Field (Texas). I wound up at Harding University, NAIA at the time.
Bob Fraser 10:04
Do you remember Ed Reese?
Brent Taylor 10:06
I remember Ed well.
Bob Fraser 10:07
Remember Frank Alexander?
Brent Taylor 10:09
I don’t remember Frank.
Bob Fraser 10:11
All right. Well, Frank was retired.
Brent Taylor 10:18
Ed had one of those golf swings that was just so silky, even though he didn’t look like he was swinging hard. Yeah, and just very smooth and connected, and yep, never got in a hurry.
Bob Fraser 10:31
Ed and Frank were buddies…played a lot together. We were in the pro shop. We looked up, and there was chaos on the number one tee box. Now I don’t know how old they were because you know, when you’re 20, somebody who’s 65 seems ancient.
Speaker 3 10:58
Yeah, exactly, I’m 67 Bob…
Bob Fraser 10:59
I would have guessed they were in their mid 70s, and they’re having a fist fight on the first tee box. So I don’t know who went out there to break it up, but somebody finally did.
Brent Taylor 11:14
One of my early memories, and I don’t remember this later on, but when I was a kid, people would watch me hit balls on the range, and it was in the late evening, and the lights were on, so that had to be late if it was in the summertime.
Bob Fraser 11:34
I forgot that.
Brent Taylor 11:36
I remember the game being so popular back then that people would go out there at 9 o’clock at night and hit balls with the lights on. And I was just a little kid, and I just wasn’t old enough to hit it crooked I guess…I was just piping the ball down the middle 150 yards on a string, 10 years old. I thought it was about the greatest thing in the world to hit balls under the lights.
Bob Fraser 12:04
Yeah, I remember this would have been about the same time, ‘71. Because Dave Wilbur was picking up the range. Yeah, and you’re exactly right. Because I’d be helping him out, and we’d load up a cart with pop, and it was pitch black, and drive out to the halfway shelter on 12 tee and load the pop machine. Oh yeah, and then come back, and pick up balls on the range. But yeah, the lights were on, and I don’t know how late they were hitting. I mean, if it was in the summer, it had to be 9:30, 10.
Brent Taylor 12:53
Who is the most eccentric or unique or funny character you ran into out there?
Bob Fraser 13:20
Danny Lopez, you remember Danny? Oh yeah,
Brent Taylor 13:35
Danny Lopez. I forgot that name.
Bob Fraser 13:38
Danny was quite a character.
Brent Taylor 13:41
Yeah, he was.
Bob Fraser 13:42
Somebody called him Little Lee (Trevino). Yeah, yeah.
Brent Taylor 13:45
I remember well…
Bob Fraser 13:46
And his reply was, “No, no, no. They call Lee Trevino, Little Danny.” Oh, he was full of it.
Brent Taylor 13:55
Yeah, he was a character. Bill Addison came a little bit later. If you remember Bill, talk about a guy that could bomb it and still make a bogey. I don’t know how many times he’d hit a ball on hole seven, and back then with a laminated club to hit a ball 350, even downwind, was a long poke, and he’d bomb it down there and have 20 yards in, and he would make bogey every time.
Bob Fraser 14:31
Roger Whitling, did you know Roger? He was an assistant. I remember the name under Mark. He was there for quite a while.
Brent Taylor 14:41
I really don’t remember him nor Alsie, but of course, I know of him. Big name in Oklahoma golf.
Bob Fraser 14:47
And Jerry Benedict,
Brent Taylor 14:51
yes
Bob Fraser 14:51
He was out there as the assistant pro for Mark.
Brent Taylor 14:55
He ran the junior program when I was a kid.
Bob Fraser 15:18
Gene Witzel was a good player. In fact, he was considered one of the best amateurs here in town for many, many years…and I remember when Peanuts (Lynn Blevins, who played college golf for Oklahoma and later coached Oklahoma and at the University of Florida) was probably 14 or 15 years old. Peanuts, beat Witzel in a match play tournament out there. That was more than he could handle.(Gene)
Brent Taylor 15:45
He didn’t like that, huh?
Bob Fraser 15:47
Uh-uh. Jim Conatser…
Brent Taylor 15:50
Yeah, I remember Jim.
Bob Fraser 15:52
Talking about characters. Wow.
Brent Taylor 15:53
Didn’t he throw his clubs in the pond on 16 one day here at Hillcrest? Tossed them into the pond, drove his golf cart to the clubhouse. Reached for his car keys, and realized they were in his golf bag! Had to go back out there and go swimming on 16 and fish the keys from his bag. Seems like he got the keys and left the clubs.
Bob Fraser 16:22
Yeah, that would be him. Steve Thompson was a good friend of mine. Steve was a good player.
Brent Taylor 16:30
Yeah, I didn’t know Steve. You and I ran in different circles. I didn’t realize you were, well, that much older, but you weathered well, other than your thumb.
Bob Fraser 16:46
That’s right. It all gives out.
Brent Taylor 16:58
What’s the most memorable round you ever shot at Adams?
Bob Fraser 17:08
I broke 70, and I was playing with Kizziar, and I knew I had to make par on 18 to do it, and I can still remember Mark saying, “You got no chance. You got no chance.”
And somehow, I managed it. Ronnie Potter, you remember Ronnie Potter? Yeah. He and I won the match play two years in a row. That was fun.
A great Mark Kizziar story, but it’s only good if you knew Mark. He was president of the PGA, right? And Southern Hills was hosting the PGA. Had to be in the 70s.
Brent Taylor 18:06
1977.
Bob Fraser 18:07
Okay. Yeah, exactly.
Brent Taylor 18:09
I drove him down to Southern Hills on one particular day of the tournament. He just said, “Can you take me down to Southern Hills?” And I happened to be going anyway to watch, so we got in the car together. I don’t remember any long conversations in the car, but that was probably my fault. I had no perceptible conversational aptitude as a senior in high school. And, I was intimidated. He was, after all, the President of the PGA of the United States of America for cryin’ out loud. What could I add to the conversation?
Bob Fraser 18:16
Huh. So they’re having a golf game, where, traditionally, the president of the PGA played with the host pro, and the host pro had somebody from Southern Hills. And for whatever reason, Mark asked me to play. We get up to the number one tee box, and there were 40 or 50 people around the first tee, and I pop it up straight right. What is that? 18 fairway coming back up beside 1 fairway?
Brent Taylor 19:04
It’s nine, I think.
Bob Fraser 19:06
Anyway, I hit it out there…170 yards straight right. I’m nervous as can be. I turn around and Mark looks at me. He goes, “There’s hundreds of people I could have invited, and I invited you.”
Brent Taylor 19:27
He could be intimidating.
Bob Fraser 19:31
Yeah, and when I talked to him, you know, if I talked to him on the phone today, exactly the same way. We would go back and forth…
Brent Taylor 19:40 The closest he ever came to giving me a compliment was on the driving range. I never really took lessons. Coach Bruno would show me a few things. But every once in a while, Mark would stop by when I was hitting balls, and I never solicited it, but one time he stopped and he was kind of next to me, in his own practice session, and he just wandered over, and I had a five iron in my hand, and I was I was just drilling high draws out there, just short of the 200 sign. He watched me for a couple of minutes, looked at me and said, “You’re hitting that 5 iron to the same spot I hit my 4 iron. You don’t need a lesson.” And he walked back to his bucket and kept hitting. It was his unique way of complimenting me. Really, the only time I can remember one.
Bob Fraser 20:43
Kizziar and I just have a love-hate relationship, I guess. I mean, because again, I got a kick out of him. Everybody else was scared of him, and he and I went back and forth at each other. One time he did something…and I always thought it was an act of revenge on his part. We had the youth clinic at the start of the summer, and he asked three or four of us to help him. We’re going to show how to hit different shots with different clubs. Someone hits a wedge. Someone hits a driver. Back in those days, we still hit two irons. Everybody carried a two iron. Mark says, “Hey, Bobby, get out here and show the kids how to hit a two iron.”
I can’t hit a two iron on a good day, you know. Now, I’m in front of all these little kids showing how to hit a two iron. Again, that’s just typical Mark.
Brent Taylor 21:52
Yeah. But
Bob Fraser 21:55
we were, you know, we took it for granted.
Bob Fraser 22:08
Had excellent pros out there.
Brent Taylor 22:10
Yeah, we did. You ever remember a time you got in trouble out there?
Bob Fraser 22:26
Not that I can remember.You know, I was a typical kid hanging around the pro shop.
Brent Taylor 22:34
Did your parents know where you were most of the time?
Bob Fraser 22:38
I mean, you know, they considered that a safe place, yeah. Especially when Tid was out there, yeah. But, I still remember Don Smith, short guy, came up from Dallas, was assistant pro for Mark, and whatever I was doing, hanging around in the pro shop, and I remember him looking at me. “Bobby,” he says. He calls me over. “Play, practice, or go home.” I was clearly driving him crazy…whatever I was doing.
Brent Taylor 23:20
yeah, that was. Remember many days we played 36, sometimes 45 holes on hot summer days.
Bob Fraser 23:28
Isn’t that something? Who did you play with? Who was your group?
Brent Taylor 23:32
Oh, Mark Cox, who was a good friend.
Bob Fraser 23:47
He just couldn’t find his way.
Brent Taylor 23:49
Yeah, he had some struggles in life.
Bob Fraser 24:00
That’s too bad because he was such a good guy.
Brent Taylor 24:02
He was a good soul…Kyle Denton was my age.
Bob Fraser 24:15
Yeah, I forgot about Rick Long. Jason Cowan, was he your age?
Brent Taylor 24:18
Jason was a little bit younger. I played with John Welch, Mark Steiner, Chris Crawford, Scott Stuart, Jody Myers, David Seaberry, Mark May, Rick Long, at College High. But you were the first or was it the second class at the brand new Sooner High School? 1966?
Bob Fraser 24:47
I think that’s right. “66 or “67.
Bob Fraser 24:58
I remember playing for Sooner when I was a freshman. Tom Emerson was a really good player. He was our number one player. Steve Thompson, Tom, myself….the greatest lesson…now it sounds like I’m just telling Mark Kizziar stories, but this is something that I remember, will always remember, and I have passed it on to my kids…I’ve passed it on to anybody that’ll listen to me. Ninth grade, playing in the state golf tournament, I think it was in Tulsa, and It’s raining. It never stops raining, and it’s cold and windy. I have one golf glove. I don’t have any kind of rain gear or a rain suit. I played horribly. Came back, and next day I’m out at the golf course, and Kizziar said, “How’d you do?” And I said, “Played awful.” I said, “It was impossible weather. It was just impossible weather to play.” And he looked at me and said, “Huh—somebody won.”
Bob Fraser 26:20
And I can remember my son Marshall playing tennis, state tennis in Oklahoma City, and it always was blowing down there anyway. He said to me, “It’s impossible to play in this wind.” And I said, “Yeah, but somebody’s going to win the match.”
Brent Taylor 26:40
What do you think is different in golf today? For instance, do you think kids get coddled a little bit? Because Mark (Head pro Mark Kizziar at Adams Golf Course) was pretty stern with young and old alike. I sometimes regret that nobody pushed me harder. I played seven USGA events, U.S. Amateurs, etc. Played with Fred Couples and John Daly and Hal Sutton and David Toms. They were better than me. But the line drawn between us was small at the time. I knew I was far from playing at the highest level. But, I never pushed myself. I didn’t love practicing. I wish I had the chutzpah to say to Kizziar, will you help me out?
Bob Fraser 27:24
You know, I was never as good a player as you, but I also was never one to put in the time and practice time that really took, to pound practice balls. and then you know, the older I got. The older I got, was even less inclined to practice. You know, by the time I got into college, I played golf at TU as a freshman, non-scholarship, and then I didn’t play after that much competitively.
Brent Taylor 28:10
Did you graduate from the University of Tulsa?
Bob Fraser 28:17
Yes, Me and that little brown-haired girl.
Brent Taylor 28:18
Yeah.
Bob Fraser 28:28
Trying to think, what else?
Brent Taylor 28:33
What would you say has improved in golf since we were playing back in the day.
Bob Fraser 28:44
…the equipment. I mean, the equipment’s just. I think back on what we were playing with. You know, now I sound like we played with… wooden shafts.
Brent Taylor 28:57
Did you play in that Hickory tournament? Oh, yeah, yeah, the injury. (But hi, Terry)
Bob Fraser 29:03
You know my old Hague Ultra Woods that I was so proud of.
Brent Taylor 29:09
Yeah,
Bob Fraser 29:09
…you know, the size of the clubhead.
Brent Taylor 29:11
Right. Yeah, I had a Power Built Driver. It was the first titanium shaft I’d ever had. When I played in the U.S. Amateur, I remember I hit it, but I thought it was just a Gee Whiz club. Yeah, but now it’s an antique.
Bob Fraser 29:37
Wasn’t the first metal driver…made by Adams?
Brent Taylor 29:43
I think Adams had one. I think Hillridge and Bradsby had one. But they were terrible. (By today’s standards) Yeah, they really were. They didn’t have any trampoline effect. I don’t know that they went any farther than the laminated clubs with the plastic inserts. I can’t even tell you what it feels like anymore to have a ball come off of one of those old drivers..the trajectory was different. The ball seemed to move more left and right more, particularly into the wind, less forgiving.
Bob Fraser 30:25
…biggest changes to me would be equipment. And, just like everything else in life, the courtesy of the sport is not what it used to be.
Brent Taylor 30:46
Well, we didn’t listen to music while we played back in the day…but it doesn’t bother me to have music, as long as it’s not too loud. And as long as it’s rhythmic and soothing.
Bob Fraser 30:58
Yeah, but just the overall decorum and etiquette is not what it used to be. I think you could say that about a lot of things.
Brent Taylor 31:08
Yeah.
Bob Fraser 31:08
Not just golf.
Brent Taylor 31:16
Well, the original inspiration for this conversation was the wild gambling stories. We haven’t really gone very deep on that. But I would say if you think of anything beyond what we’ve talked about, especially as it regards to that…
Bob Fraser 31:39
I’m trying to think, gambling-wise. I know there were big games out there, and I didn’t play in those. You know, hundreds of dollars changing hands, but I know that they were going on.
Brent Taylor 31:56
I thought about getting with Dave Wilbur…
Bob Fraser 32:22
Kizziar would be the one with the stories.
Brent Taylor 32:27
Yeah, I mean, maybe I’ll call him. Do you have his phone number?
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