Tex Consolver Golf Course

I’ll be the first to tell you, I don’t know anything about golf other than what I learned from Caddyshack and Happy Gilmore.  But since the city’s golf courses are “city parks” I decided to check them out.  Consolver was an interesting one about a unique man and his love of the game.

Beal “Tex” Consolver, known as “Mr. Public Golf” in Wichita, left an unforgettable legacy on the city’s golf scene.

Born in 1914 in Greenwood, Missouri, Consolver grew up in Texas, where he picked up the nickname “Tex” which stuck for life.

Consolver was married to Daisy Juanita Woods Consolver, who was an employee at McDonald Golf Park.

According to a 1993 Wichita Eagle story, Consolver was known for his friendly nature and sharp eye for instruction, estimating that he had taught more than 35,000 rounds of golf, including to five players who went on to join the PGA: Jim Dowling, Monty Kaser, Paul McGuire, Johnny Stevens, and Stan Thirsk.

A skilled player himself, Consolver was a South Central PGA champion and a four-time South Central PGA senior champion. He was a member of the PGA for more than 60 years.

Beyond the greens, Consolver and his brother George were entrepreneurs. They built a driving range at Harry and Crestway, which later expanded to include miniature golf and Kiddieland, a beloved local amusement area that was eventually torn down to make room for the Wichita Mall.

Consolver also helped organize the first Kansas State Junior Championship, the Wichita Golf Association, and the City Junior Fourball Tournament (fourball is a team format where two players form a side and each player plays their own ball), shaping the future of junior golf in the state.

He officially retired in 1973, joking to the Eagle, “I could work from daylight to dark each day, but if I wanted to work I wouldn’t have retired”. Still, retirement didn’t keep him away from the game. Fellow golf pro Trufelli, told the Eagle in 1986 that Tex continued to hit 200 to 300 balls a day, not to improve, but “to keep what he has”.

In 1999, Consolver passed away at the age of 84 after being hospitalized with heart problems in October of that year.  He is interred at White Chapel Memorial Gardens.

In honor of his lifelong dedication to public golf in Wichita, the City Council voted on December 21, 1999, to rename the Pawnee Prairie Golf Course the Beal “Tex” Consolver Golf Course, a change officially dedicated on June 6, 2000, with Mayor Bob Knight presiding.

Fellow golf pro Dean Adkisson once summed up his influence best for a 1985 Wichita Eagle article: “Tex Consolver deserves a lot of the credit for building up public course plans in Wichita… Tex is ‘Mr. Public Golf Course’”