Long before Branson became the country music Mecca of the Ozarks, visitors to the area would come to the Golf Ranch Country Club. Now known as Holiday Hills Resort and Golf Club, the Golf Ranch was a popular spot for golfing or just having fun in the rustic clubhouse for people from all walks of life.

 It was in 1938 that golf first came to Branson, Missouri. A well- known Chicago Golf Professional, Don Gardner and his wife, Jill, moved to Branson and developed the Golf Ranch Country Club. Prior to moving to Branson, Don taught golf at the Flossmoor Country Club in Chicago for seventeen years. For several seasons he was a free-lance golf instructor at the Rogers Park Driving Range in Chicago where he had the reputation of giving more golf lessons than any other Golf Pro in the Chicago area. Jill was a well educated woman. Being the daughter of medical missionaries, Jill had the advantage of schooling in Europe and then America. Jill took post-graduate courses in speech at Northwestern and began teaching. She wrote a book, went on the radio, utilizing her wide travel experience and gave lectures, utilizing her musical voice.

In the winters (off season for Don) the Gardner's would tour the country filling Jill's lecture engagements. Always, as they drove through 38 states, they looked for a spot where they could establish a golf ranch. One year, their tour led through the Ozarks. They fell in love with the hills and eventually came back to the "Shepherd of the Hills country" and purchased a wide farm, lying along highway 80 (now known as E-76) just outside Branson.