From Tee to Green in the Carolina Mountains: Chuck Werle’S Guide to Playing Courses with an Altitude

By Chuck Werle

ELEVATE YOUR GAME

If you have ever played golf in the Carolina Mountains, the pages inside will be a treasure. If you have wanted to play golf at a higher level, this will be your guide. You can learn about the best public and semi-private 18-hole courses to play. Or you can read about two of the nations finest course architects, the late Donald Ross and the great Tom Fazio our toughest 18 holes where you can rent llamas as caddies or how to send used clubs to the military serving in the worlds largest sand traps.

Yes, your golf ball will travel further on tee shots in the higher elevations. But the remarkable scenery will be a distraction.

Our courses include boulders larger than your vehicle, streams winding through many fairways, lots of ponds, the largest lake in the state in terms of shoreline, even a few flat spots for aiming at those undulating greens usually above or below you. And gorgeous waterfalls.

Oh, dont forget to enjoy the views!

Cover photo: By Ron Clark of First Tee Mountain Golf at Mount Mitchell Golf Club.

Cover design: By Mike Davis of Graphic Imprints Asheville.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jan 4, 2011
• ISBN: 9781450283205

Chuck Werle

Chuck Werle, a former sports writer who covered the Masters for both the Milwaukee Journal and Augusta Chronicle, has played golf at ranked courses in all fifty states. He spent forty-five years as a journalist and public relations counselor at major newspapers, corporations and agencies and holds a master’s degree in journalism from Michigan State University.

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Copyright © 2010 by Chuck Werle

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ISBN: 978-1-4502-6310-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4502-8321-2 (dj)

ISBN: 978-1-4502-8320-5 (ebk)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 01/04/2011

INTRODUCTION

This fascination with golf started way back in 1959-60 when Clem Lagundimao was editor of the post newspaper at Fort Gordon, Georgia and I was sports editor.

Clem grew up on golf courses in Honolulu, Hawaii and decided I needed to know more about his favorite athletic endeavor as sports editor. That meant playing for the first time on the Fort Gordon course. Since we were also close friends and neighbors, we played together whenever possible.

A year later, I was covering the prestigious Masters golf tournament in nearby Augusta for the Augusta Chronicle daily newspaper.

Now totally consumed, I have been playing the game badly ever since. So thanks, Clem, for making my life both miserable and enjoyable.

In the pages that follow, I hope you learn how that passion has been enhanced here in the Carolina Mountains.

DEDICATIONS

To retired syndicated columnist Jim Fitzgerald of the Detroit Free Press, who taught me how to write and think; to Bill Prentiss, my public relations mentor, who could still beat me at golf before his 86th birthday; to my beloved son Mark, who died at age 19 in 1985, changing my life forever; to Lyman Welch, long term counselor and confidant, who revises his golf swing every other hole; to retired financial editor Bill Sluis, who has never bought a golf ball during a half century of playing in Illinois 12 months a year, while often searching with this reluctant author for lost round treasures.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To Mr. Welch, Joe Hertel, Al Peterson and Paul Pavlinek for suffering with me for 24 years. We played every Saturday during those years at Timber Trails Golf Course in the Western suburbs of Chicago, which is now a struggling planned community. Add to that John Cameron, retired public relations director at Ace Hardware Corporation, who is now growing flowers between putts and Mr. Sluis, the retired assistant financial editor of the Chicago Tribune, who is now teaching potential journalists between rounds.

More specifically in the process of writing this guide, I am very grateful for the contributions of gifted golfer Julia Williamson, a talented language maven who keeps up the good words, and evaluated the entire manuscript. Equally important for the task at hand were Marie Bartlett, a great friend, colleague and accomplished author in her own right, plus Andy Reed, a professional editor, copywriter, and polisher of other peoples’ words. Ron Clark provided valuable advice and graphic designer Mike Davis did splendid work on the front and back cover.

The author is also beholden to the management at The Laurel of Asheville magazine for enhancing my prose monthly since 2006–Publisher Jerry Johnson, Editor Paul Howey, and Community Editor Tina Wolfe, who checks every phrase as a savvy non-golfer.

Finally, life partner Sandra Boozell offered encouragement, even during my tirades, and played some of these marvelous mountain courses with me in all sorts of weather. My sons Jeff and Dave did the same while usually outscoring the old man.

If you are NOT on this long list, you owe me money.

Table of Contents

NOBODY ASKED ME BUT…

1. First U.S. Golf Course for Tiger Woods Has an Altitude

2. Send Your Used Golf Clubs to the World’s Largest Sand Traps

3. Caddies Chew Their Cuds Near Brevard

4. Donald Ross Left His Mark on Carolina Mountain Courses

5. What a Few Million Dollars Will Do for a Golf Course

6.