Pine Brook approaches 50th year with ideals intact

 By MARK CARTNER

 It was 1952 when 14 men gathered at the YMCA on Reynolds Park Road in Winston-Salem to hatch a plan for a new country club.  The group, who played its golf at the city-owned Reynolds Park golf course, had developed an itch for better amenities – the kind found at private clubs. 

Neither Forsyth Country Club nor Old Town Country Club – the only choices in town at the time – were exactly what this group envisioned. They simply wanted to play golf, shower off, and enjoy a meal with friends.

After two of the 14 got cold feet, the remaining dozen set out find a suitable tract and build the club they would later name Pine Brook.  They eventually found their land resting peacefully next to Germanton Road on the north side of town.  The property was formerly the Cox family dairy farm and the family farmhouse (once renovated) served as Pine Brook’s clubhouse until three years ago when a new 18,000-square-foot model replaced it.

To design the golf course, the members brought in a young Donald Ross protégé named Ellis Maples.  In fact, Maples left his post at Raleigh County Club to assume a jack-of-all-trades position with Pine Brook.  Not only was he the course architect, but he also served as the construction supervisor and general handyman, the club’s golf pro and the course greenskeeper.

According to newspaper accounts, Maples’ original design measured 6,896 yards from the championship tees.  Today it totals a few steps less than 6,500 yards.

“One of the most challenging 6,500-yard courses you’ll find,” says current head pro Ross Sanderlin.

He’s right.

Pine Brook, which celebrates its 50th anniversary next year, is a course (and club for that matter) of contrasts. 

The front nine is mostly open and relatively flat while the back side heads into the hills and forests. The 437-yard, par-4 third hole is one of the exceptions at a club where little has changed through the years.  Recently the hole’s original green and a sod green to the left and back switched roles, making the hole play more difficult as a meandering creek must now be crossed on the approach. 

The next challenge comes at the par-3 fifth. The length is average (184 yards), but the green surface is not average.  It is two-tiered with a large false front guarding the upper shelf.  Par is a great score on this hole.

On the back nine, the golfer discovers one of the Triad’s most maddening holes – No. 12.  Not only are all of its 404 yards uphill, but the fairway is severely crowned, making it nearly impossible to find a flat lie for the approach.

Further along is the hole Ellis Maples liked best: No. 14 is a 533-yard, par 5 with demanding second shot that must be hit from a downhill lie. Regarding that shot, Maples remarked, “Even the low handicap players will think twice before going for this green in two.”

Through it all, however, what makes Pine Brook special is its uncompromising commitment to the ideal expressed by the club’s founders.

“They wanted a place that had a laid-back atmosphere,” says Sanderlin.  “They didn’t like the pretentiousness that you find at some clubs.”

Today Pine Brook holds true to its founding philosophy.  Although the new facilities are sparkling, it’s obvious that a low-key approach remains.  Walking is allowed at all times and families and couples are welcome at this club where the past and present mix seamlessly.  Slate shingles from the original clubhouse serve as signage in the new and even Maples’ old bent grass greens and bermudagrass fairways are getting a taste of the future. 

The club recently installed an experimental water filtration system called ECOsmarte that course superintendent Tony Johnson hopes will save the club thousands of dollars in maintenance expenses.  “It changes the (electrical) charge of the soil,” Johnson explained, “making the soil more penetrable and the water more effective.”

It also kills algae, mold and bacteria.  The result is less chemical treatment needed to maintain playing conditions.  The system, which is also used for swimming pool applications, has been tried successfully on golf courses in Texas, Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, and even Spain – but never in North Carolina.

It seems appropriate that such innovative technology be tried at Pine Brook considering it was here that Maples experimented with the first bent grass greens in the area.

And it also seems fitting that at a place where the motto is, “The Way a Country Club Should Be” — the more things change, the more they simply stay the same.