Lowdermilk Legacy Lives on at Cedarcrest

Cedarcrest Golf Course 340 Birch Creek Road @ N.C. 70 McLeansville, NC 27301 336-697-8251 Opened: 1970 Architects: Roger Lowdermilk, Harold Lowdermilk and H.C. Lowdermilk General Manager: Becky Lowdermilk Course Superintendent: Gene Sizemore Type: Public with memberships offered Walking Policy: Anytime Spike Policy: Non-metal spikes Green Fees: $10 weekday, $12 weekend Cart Fees: $10 for 18 holes Memberships: $350 regular, $300 senior, $150 junior Greens: Bentgrass Fairways and Rough: Bermudagrass and Fescue Practice Facilities: Putting green Par: 70 Yardages: 5682, 5515, 4826 Course Rating: 66.6, 65.9/70.8, 68.6 Slope: 111, 108/113, 108

Lowdermilk Legacy Lives on at Cedarcrest

By ALAN MARSHALL

The last time I saw Roger Lowdermilk was a couple of years ago, and he was standing on the fringe of the number two green at Cedarcrest Golf Course. He was holding what from a distance looked like a rake handle with a small pitchfork on one end, and he was just standing there as still as a statue in khaki pants and a white T-shirt.

It was early in the summer, a humid buggy evening, and fish were rolling from time to time on the surface of the pond behind him. But there were no bullfrogs croaking, and he didn’t have a flashlight, so I couldn’t imagine what he might be doing there on the edge of the green with a frog gig in his hands.

I was playing by myself that day and in no particular hurry to finish before the sun went down, so I let my curiosity get the best of me. I put my golf bag down on the eighth tee and walked down to the second green and asked him, "Mr. Lowdermilk, how’re you doing’? And if you don’t mind my askin’ what’re you doin’?"

"Hey, Alan, I’m doin’ pretty good and I don’t mind you askin’. Moles been tearin’ up my green here, but I’m gonna get ‘em. I’m gonna get every last one of ‘em."

Well we talked a while as the sun went down, about golf, his health (which was declining) and religion and drinking and golf course maintenance. That’s the way Roger Lowdermilk was. Described by those who knew him best as "a good ole boy," he was that indeed. He was also a brick mason, building contractor and golf course designer, owner and operator.

Roger Lowdermilk grew up in the hard-working neighborhood of Bessemer in Greensboro and had little background as a golfer, but in the late 1960s, along with brothers Harold, H.C. and fellow brick mason and Shillelagh Golf Course owner J.W. Shoe, built Cedarcrest Golf Course.

Started in 1968 on a tract of farmland owned by his wife Becky’s family, the Lowdermilks bulldozed the trees, pushed up the greens and shaped the fairways that would become Cedarcrest. Originally a nine-hole course, it opened in June, 1970. Expanded to 18 holes in 1980, it has become a popular and affordable course that is short enough for beginners and tight enough to challenge more skilled players.

Unlike so many of today’s new courses, it was not built around a high-dollar real estate development. There are corn and soybean fields and woods surrounding the course on two sides and the old Burlington Road and Birch Creek Road on its other boundaries. Cedarcrest is a no-frills, what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of golf course. And in keeping with its blue collar, down-to-earth character, you are as likely to find a pickup truck parked next to you in the gravel lot as you are a new SUV.

And there won’t be golfers dressed like they just stepped out of the pages of a fashion magazine flexing on the first tee. What you will find at Cedarcrest is a "good old boy’s" kind of golf course, a friendly staff and a greens fee that won’t eat a hole in your wallet.

The course is not long, 5,682 yards from the blue tees with narrow, tree-lines fairways and small pushed-up greens. The sand traps can be counted on the fingers of one hand, and water, in the form of creeks and small ponds, will be found on half a dozen more.

In the burned-out dog days of summer, tees and fairways are often parched, but on a warm summer evening a golfer is likely to be serenaded by a nearby Wood Thrush while the sole onlookers are a pair of clover-eating rabbits.

With the passing of Roger Lowdermilk in May of 2000, his widow Becky and son Tommy have taken more active roles in the day-to-day operations of the course. New raised flowerbeds on the tees at 1, 10 and 16 are attractive additions.

Recent aeration and cool spring rains are starting to bring much needed life to the fairways. And course superintendent Gene Sizemore is steadily working to make Cedarcrest better and better.

With its gently rolling tree-lined fairways Cedarcrest is a pleasure to walk, and length for the average golfer is not a problem.

Accuracy is. Take number 11 for instance. It is a classic short par-4, measuring only 292 yards but with creeks threatening both tee shot and approach. You can, as Becky Lowdermilk recently noted, ‘make birdie, par, or just as easily make a 10."

Twelve, a straightaway par-5, measuring 437 yards, uses a towering old oak tree right out in the middle of the fairway to add interest to what might otherwise seem like an easy hole. With its huge trunk and wide-spreading limbs, it is must to avoid.

Number 14 is another unusual hole, a short, 136-yard par-3 that challenges a player to take a smooth swing and trust the result, because the green is so much higher than the tee that the player can’t see the green as he hits his shot.

It’s safe to say that Cedarcrest will never be included in Golf Digest’s top 100 Courses in America, and I, for one, am glad. Like a favorite fishing hole that you don’t want everyone to know about, there are some things – even a gofer – would rather keep to himself. Cedarcrest is that kind of place. It is a "good ole boy," kind of golf course. And it should be. It was built by one, Roger Lowdermilk.

A four-person captain’s choice tournament celebrating his life, the first Thomas Roger Lowdermilk Memorial, is scheduled for Saturday, May 26, at Cedarcrest. Proceeds will benefit Hospice and asbestos related cancer research. Interested persons may contact Becky Lowdermilk at 336-697-8829, Tommy Lowdermilk at 697-1721 or the golf course at 697-8251.