But to the five 13 and 14 year olds who made up that first tournament field it looked as impressive as the solid silver cup awarded at the national amateur championship. And they competed for it as though it really were sterling. The names of all five - not just the winner - were eventually hand-lettered around the lower part of the mug and it became a treasured symbol, displayed at the scoreboard at each successive tournament for many years. Today it’s in retirement, battered but still colorful - and still symbolic of an unusual golfing tradition.

The tradition grew up largely as a result of the energy and imagination of one man Mahlon B. Rucker, a Spokane businessman and summer resident at Hayden. A life-long golfer himself, he decided that he would try to promote a strictly kid golf tournament for the children and grandchildren of Hayden Lake Country Club members. He had worked individually with many of those youngsters, helping them to be-come acquainted with the game. But he felt they needed something to shoot for, a tournament of their own, a special sort of competition with a place for all levels of golfing skill.

From the start, the Mughunter tournament was based on handicaps so that everyone in an age category was on an equal footing. And - way ahead of its time - the tournament was unisex. Boys and girls competed in the same brackets, not in separate divisions.

During the early years, Mahlon Rucker supervised the whole tournament. He persuaded the club directors to open the course to the Mughunters for their tournament week (despite the grumblings and misgivings of some elders who worried that the kids would clutter up the place, never replace their divots and ruin the tees and greens.) He helped work out the handicaps, made the draw and generally kept things rolling. Before any Mughunter took to the course, he or she had to pass Mr. Rucker’s class on golfing etiquette and the principles of sportsmanship. His "Ten Commandments of Golf" became gospel to several generations of players, most of who kept on with the game through life. His daughter, Betty Jean, was one of the five contestants back in 1937 and in later years went on to win several state and regional championships. In 1995, she was inducted into the PNGA Hall of Fame.

All of the early Mughunters took their tournament seriously. The original mug was replaced by a growing number of more conventional trophies for the various divisions, most donated by parents. And the caliber of golf played kept on improving. In the 1942 tournament, for example, ten of the twenty qualifiers in one division carded in the seventies and the oldest was eighteen. In those days teenagers made up the Mughunters and the Juniors included slightly older golfers, some in their early twenties.

The divisions had officers (last year’s winner was president) and they gradually assumed increasing responsibility for organizing and running the tournament. Handicaps were revised after each round of competition; to reflect as exactly as possible the relative skills of the players, and everybody took part in the lively give-and-take discussions that resulted in those revisions, with the officers making the final decisions.

During World War II there were gaps in the field, with many of the older Mughunters and Juniors in the service. So parents were drafted to fill out the brackets, playing under handicaps that ensured they would be knocked out in the early rounds.

During the war, too the Mughunters who were still around pitched in to keep the course up when few maintenance workers could be found, organizing 100-strong for weekly green-weeding expeditions (in those days, hand-work, not chemical sprays, kept weeds under control).

Mahlon Rucker continued to supervise the tournament in the post-war years, and when the Hayden Club members finally decided that the Sunday mixed-foursome competition that had been the closing event of the Mughunter season could no longer be played on the club course, he came up with a happy alternative.

He persuaded beach front residents near his own home to let their lawns be used for a miniature pitch-and-putt course, complete with greens mowed to a professional level and printed scorecards with fanciful names for the individual holes. After the mixed foursome match had been played, trophies for the regular Mughunter tournament were awarded and everyone trooped to the beach for a bonfire and picnic.

The picnic sessions were enlivened during the late 1940's and early 1950's by the presence of movie star Bing Crosby. He had a Hayden home for several years and his sons competed in the Mughunter tournament, so he would often show up at the picnic to sing a few sets for an entranced audience of youngsters (and equally impressed parents).

Mahlon Rucker turned over the reins of the annual tournament to Chud Wendle after 1950. Another Spokane businessman and ardent golfer, Chud had a daughter in the tournament at the time and carried on the traditions ably. He was succeeded in turn in 1957 by the former Betty Jean Rucker and her husband, John Hulteng, who had moved west from Rhode Island and had begun spending summers at Hayden.

It was about then that the Mughunter field was expanded to include younger players. In the first years there had been just one group — the Mughunters — and all played 18-hole rounds. Then as the original players grew in years and skill, the Juniors division was added for those over eighteen who still cherished the Mughunter tradition.

One of those, Curran Higgins, the 1940 and 1942 champion, was by 1946 in the Army, but he was so determined to get back for that year’s tournament that he wrangled a furlough from his Texas base and came racing north, wiring ahead for a place in the draw. He was qualified in advance, as a former champion, and he arrived just in time to play and win his first match, barefoot and with borrowed clubs.

By the late 1950's, younger brothers and sisters wanted to get in on the action, so divisions for beginners and those slightly better than beginners were organized. The youngest competitors, six and seven years old, played three-hole matches as "Grasscutters". To qualify, they had to be able to average twenty strokes a hole. But in the press of competition and in the early morning dew, that standard was difficult to adhere to, so adult "counters" had to be recruited to go along and keep the sometimes astronomical scores.

Next came the "Sandblasters", who could manage five-hole matches, and the "Divot Diggers", who competed at nine holes and often graduated quickly to the top division, the 18 hole Mughunters. The old Junior divisions broke off to become a separate tournament. The Mughunter competition thus included, in all divisions, contestants from six to sixteen. Many youngsters played the full ten years, taking on more tournament-management responsibilities as they progressed. Many Mughunter alumni say that some of their brightest growing-up memories are linked to those summer interludes on the Hayden course.

The mixed foursome match along the improvised beachfront pitch-and-putt course was continued, but the elaborate final beach dinner gave way to a more casual popcorn and soda occasion centered on the awards. A horse race and family picnic were added to the week as preliminary events, before the start of the tournament proper.

Although Mughunter week was a fun occasion for the younger generation at Hayden, it also continued to be characterized by fine competition.

Still remembered is a 1960's Mughunter final pitting Jack Sheehan against Mike Halvorson. After 36 holes of excellent golf, the two were tied and the cry went around the course: "Sudden death!" (Kids love the drama of extra-hole matches.) The weary pair battled on for eight additional holes before Mike finally clinched the victory to the cheers of the sizeable gallery still trooping along. (Galleries, incidentally, were often augmented by anxious parents and other relatives, but the Mughunter tournament has usually been blessedly free of the frenzied parental involvement that sometimes shows up in Little League sports.)

The Hultengs, aided for several years by Joan and Conrad Gotzian (Connie was one of the earliest Mughunters), continued to keep the tournament going until the early 1970's, when Catherine Wendle Bradley, daughter of the second tournament director, took her turn at the helm. Some years later she turned it over to Mardi Uhlmann Lundgren, herself a former Mughunter. But others also helped through these later years as a support organization formed.

First, Bob and Jean Beschel (Jean is a Mughunter alumna) took over as organizers of the two-ball on the beach, and were succeeded by Jackie (another ex-Mughunter) and John Peterson, at whose home the award ceremonies were regularly held.

Beginning in 1983 Helen Schmidt, Mary Drummond, and Gail English teamed up as co-managers of the Mughunter project, with B. J. Hulteng back as advisor. In 1987, Carol Wilson began to take an active part and soon became chairman. By 1992 Carol’s able assistant, Kay Edmonds took over as chairman (both Carol and Kay were former Mughunters). Helen Schmidt and B. J. moved to emeritus status.

During that period a new tradition was born when Nancy Sue Wallace inaugurated a video luncheon on the Friday of the tournament week, featuring instant replays of tournament action. In earlier years tournament movies were shown, but only weeks after the actual play.

Several old ideas were revived. The family sweepstakes that had been popular in the 1960's was brought back for the observance of the 50th Mughunter competition in 1986 (family teams made up of Mughunters, parents, grandparents and pre-Mughunter toddlers played a five-hole medal round, one ball per team.) It proved so successful that it replaced the horse race as the starting event of Mughunter week. But the family picnic remained a feature of opening day. The long-time tradition of allowing grandchildren of stockholding members to play in the Mughunter tournament gained favor in the 1980's as Hayden Club member-ship became attractive to many newcomers from other parts of the country. Summer visits were frequently scheduled to coincide with the Mughunter week, and as much as a third of the entry list was made up of grandchildren. Grandparents often joined parents in the roles of counters and marshals.

The closing event, the two-ball on the improvised beachfront course, continued, but evolved into a nine-hole competition. This seemed better suited to the availability and age level of the majority of the Mughunters.

As the Mughunter institution moves on into its second half-century it is in some respects a far cry from its inaugural version, with the five contestants and the 20-cent trophy. But its purposes and values are still the same ones Mahlon Rucker formulated.

When he urged his fellow club members to give it a try that first year, he promised them that the experience would be a good one for the club as well as for the small contestants. It would teach the youngsters golf, good manners on the course and — most important of all — an understanding of and regard for sportsmanship: how to be considerate competitors, good losers and gracious winners. And, he reminded them, those youngsters were the future of the Hayden Lake Country Club. If the present members didn’t encourage the young beginners they would be cutting off the next generation of players who would keep the club going.

And, of course, he was right. Contestants in today’s Mughunter, Divot Digger, Sand Blaster, and Grass Cutter divisions play for an array of trophies but they play also with a growing love of the game that for many will last a lifetime. And they are learning the exhilaration — and the responsibilities — of competition. . . . and on to the 21st Century

During the 90’s, the Mughunters gained renewed momentum. Perhaps it was the "Tiger Woods Effect". The golf shop started a Kid’s Golf Camp that immediately precedes the Mughunter Tournament schedule. With so many grandparents making the Mughunters an important part of summer plans, the instruction given at golf camp greatly improves the skills of many of the young contestants just arriving for the big week. As Kay Edmonds passed the tournament coordinating and trophy management duties on to Jo Ann Longwell and Sharon Kohls, a strong committee structure emerged as former Mughunters and newer converts stepped up to help. The bulge in entries in the three and five hole divisions had increased the need for counters and as the nine hole division swelled, more marshals were needed. Dozens of parents, grandparents and other family members were nudged into service.

By the time that Beth Merck took over the chairperson role in 2001, seasoned committee members were ready to go, including Lyn Mills, Cece Patterson, Kerry Payne, Connie Richardson, Karen Enich, Susan Brockley and Diedre Chadderdon, who were all former Mughunters and/or parents of current Mughunters. And Peter Enich, married to Mahlon Rucker’s granddaughter, Karen, had to do double duty. Peter serves as the adult adviser for the Mughunter officers, who traditionally do the handicapping for the eighteen hole division, as well as preparing for the final event in the Hulteng/Enich front yard. The two-ball event that marks the conclusion of the tournament has moved back to the original Rucker beachfront under the guidance of the Hulteng and Enich families (the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the founder). On one Sunday a year, residents along a dozen waterfront lots see an eighteen hole course spring to life complete with new flags, official scorecards and even a signature hole that requires hitting over the water off a dock from the "World Famous Floating Tee."

And there were other changes! In 2002 a new division was added, named "The ForeTeeners". This fifth division was designed to help alleviate a long-standing concern of Mughunter committees. It recognized that not all boys or girls are ready to make the jump from the nine hole, Divotdiggers, to the eighteen hole Mughunters, in one giant step. This new division plays fourteen holes, but participates in the handicapping and shares the same time schedule along with the top division. By 2003, another wonderful innovation will be available. The Board of Directors and the golf course architects, with final approval of the entire stockholding membership, are adding an expanded practice range and developing three practice holes. This will be an invaluable help to the Mughunter program as well as the adult membership who may still be Mughunters at heart!

An Outstanding Sportsmanship award was started in 1993 as a memorial to our long-time pro Jim Griffitts. At the final trophy presentation that follows the Beach Two-Ball, the name of the annual winner is announced. The award normally goes to a contestant who is turning sixteen that calendar year who began golfing in the program as a youngster in the 3-hole Grasscutter division, and has through the years developed as a golfer and good sportsman. The award helps to lend emphasis and recognition to the true meaning of the Mughunter program, which strives to teach proper conduct and good sportsmanship, both on and off the golf course.