"Chester K. Steele" was a pseudonym of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, founded by Edwin Stratemayer. The Chester K. Steele books are a mysteries intended for an older audience than the children's books like the Rover Boys and the Bobbsey Twins series Stratemeyer normally produced. In "The Golf Course Mystery," Harry Bartlett and Gerry Poland are friendly rivals for the hand of Viola Carwell. Unfortunately, Harry's family got the best of Viola's father, the Honorable Horace Harwell, in a business deal. Viola shows no favoritism, but her father is rumored to be distinctly cool toward Harry. The Honorable Horace dies in the middle of a golf match. The cause of death is poison. Was it suicide due to financial reverses? Or was it murder, with Harry as a prime suspect? The reluctant detective Colonel Ashley, assisted by his servant Shag, must solve the case. The Colonel would rather be fishing, but murder has a way of interrupting his reading of Walton's "Compleat Angler."