Area Insider: Course Closings and New Golf Shops Top News in Area

By JAY ALLRED

Several new golf shops will open at Winston-Salem golf centers. Sand Trap Golf Shop has opened at Cedar Pointe Golf Center in Winston-Salem. Grip It Discount Golf and Repair will open at Country Club Driving Range in August. Custom Club Golf of Lexington will open a second store at Armory Golf Center in Winston-Salem.

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Several courses are expected to close later this year, the complete story is on page 29 along with management changes at Anderson Creek, Crescent (page 26), McCanless (page 35). Quaker Creek hopes to open its final nine in late summer of this year.

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Officials with the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro said work was being completed to get the Forest Oaks course reopened in time for the tournament. Officials will know by August if they will be able to get the course to PGA Tour standards or if they will host the event at Tanglewood Park in Clemmons. The Championship Course at Tanglewood was chosen based on the infrastructure that had been in place for the former Vantage Championship.

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Rock Barn Golf and Spa is expected to open the original Tom Jackson course in August and it will hold a qualifier for the Champions Tour event to be held on the Robert Trent Jones Jr. course in September. Sponsorships for the event have gone well although a title sponsor has not been found. The new course will offer great challenges for the Champions Tour players, but after all those long tough holes they can relax in the Spa which is scheduled to be open just before the tournament. (Additional article on page 19)

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Jim Buck and Rocky Manning are leasing the grill at Gillespie Golf Course to provide a full service grill at the course.

“We wanted to give back to the community and improve this area and the course. We will offer hot dogs, wings and sandwiches,” said Buck.

“We will put our wings up against the best in Greensboro. We have daily specials like ribs and BBQ,” said Buck. “We want the community to understand we are here for them. We are getting a good reception from the community by offering them great food at an affordable price,” stated Mr. Buck.

The grill will open for breakfast and lunch and will remain open during golf course hours.

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The Pine Needles golf course in Southern Pines, which will play host to the 2007 US Women’s Open Golf Championship, will close next May for approximately five months and undergo extensive renovations and restoration.

        “It’s time to catch up with modern technology and to restore the Donald Ross values to our prized possession,” said Pine Needles president Kelly Miller.

Architect John Fought of Scottsdale, Arizona, will supervise the project. The course will reopen in October.

        Miller said about three hundred yards would be added, lengthening the 1928 classic from 6700 yards to 7000, bunkers will be removed and replaced, and a new strain of bentgrass will be used on the greens. The 14th hole, now a par-5, will revert to a par-4, and the 15th hole, a long par-4, will become a par-5.

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Another Ross course, No. 3 at Pinehurst resort, will close this year for four to five months of renovation work. A new irrigation system will be installed and all greens will be resurfaced.

        Golf Director Matt Massei said the course would close in early August and would be out of commission until the end of the year.

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        Fifteen greens at the recently reopened Grove Park Inn course in Asheville were damaged by vandals, but the course was repaired in one day and did not have to be closed to members or resort guests.

        Spokesman Phil Werz said that someone dug up the cups on 15 holes during the night, but that the maintenance staff was able to make immediate repairs.

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                The Club at Longview, a private club designed by Jack Nicklaus, will open near Charlotte this fall. Graham Biggs, a Roaring Gap native, is the Director of Golf.  He formerly was an assistant at the Old North State Club and was head pro at Tot Hill Farm in Asheboro before taking a job in Virginia two years ago.

Mel Graham and Steve Puckett are the developers.

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Lastly the Carolinas Golf Night appears to have ended this year due to the increasing costs of the evening. The event had been a cooperative effort of the Carolinas PGA, Carolinas Golf Association and the Carolinas Golf Reporters.