LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Heading into the 2018 Boys Junior PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club, Campbell Kremer was confident about at least one thing: He would birdie hole No. 15 every round. That didn’t go according to plan. Instead, he bogeyed the hole every day.
“Golf will humble you,” he said. “And that’s a prime example of it.”
Yet 15, always and forever, will be Kremer’s favorite hole. In a sense, it’s part of his family. His grandfather, Walt Gahm, had his ashes spread on the hole.
Six months ago, Kremer birdied 15 for the first time since his grandfather’s ashes became one with the hole.
“Walking onto that tee box,” Kremer said, “is a special feeling that I never feel anywhere else.”
Kremer and his grandfather are part of Valhalla’s founding family.
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Walt Gahm, along with his brothers, Gordy and Phil, and their father, Dwight, founded Valhalla in 1983, hiring golf legend Jack Nicklaus to design a championship course. It opened three years later. Since then, the course has hosted numerous national tournaments, including three PGA Championships (1996, 2000 and 2014), two Senior PGAs (2004 and 2011) and the 2008 Ryder Cup.
This week, the PGA Championship returns to Valhalla for the fourth time.
But Missy Kremer, Campbell’s mother, Walt’s daughter and Dwight’s granddaughter, has recollections of the course in simpler times. Before it even was a course.
“I remember when it was a farm. And the smell — the smell of horses,” she said with a laugh. “And there were cows there, and they had cattle. It was just the distinct smell of a farm.”
When she travels out of town, Missy admits it’s still “pretty bizarre” to see people wearing shirts with “Valhalla Golf Club” or hats with “1996 PGA” emblazoned across them. The same place she grew up riding horses along what is now the 10th fairway.
“I’m just so proud of the memories from way back when and to see where Valhalla has come to,” Missy said. “I mean, it is known (around the world). And I thank my grandfather, my dad and my two uncles for that. The legacy is living on.”
One way that legacy lived on is through Campbell, who recently wrapped up his career with the Kentucky men’s golf team. And then there’s another one of Dwight’s granddaughters, and Missy’s cousin, Lindsay Gahm. She’s now a member of Valhalla along with her husband. That followed a decorated golf career of her own; she was the 2009 Kentucky state champion at Sacred Heart Academy and was Kentucky’s Miss Golf that same year. Lindsay went on to capture the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Year award at Indiana during the 2010-11 season before transferring and completing her college career at LSU.
Now back in Louisville and working for ISCO after spending time on the Symetra (now Epson) Tour, she’s well aware of her family’s legacy.
“I think it’s so inspiring: this story of my grandpa (Dwight) having this dream — and he went for it,” Lindsay said. “He took a huge risk. Back then, that out there was the boonies of Louisville and he took this risk to build a golf course out in the middle of nowhere (because of) this dream. And he actually made it happen, right?
“He had the vision and was willing to say, ‘I’m gonna sell this to the PGA to make sure that it brings more tournament golf to Louisville.’ I think it just says a lot about him and his dreams. It’s been very inspiring for me, too, just in my outlook on life.”
Dwight died in 2016 at the age of 96. Campbell said there’s no way to summarize how much his great-grandfather meant to his entire family, noting he was “instrumental” in all of their lives.
“He gave us a lot of guidance,” Campbell said, “and built something that we can have pride in.”