WHITSETT – If golfers didn’t realize that they were making their rounds on a beautiful piece of former farm property when they played Brookwood’s front nine, there will be no mistaking it when they test the recently opened back nine.

A big red barn, built in the 1930s, is a vivid part of the scenery on the new side which opened in mid-October.

"You’ll come to it on 14, and on the 15th tee it’s right behind you. Then you come right back to it at the 16th green," said course owner Mike Noah, who grew up working on the farm on the same piece of property. "It’s just for looks right now."

Noah runs Brookwood Golf Course with his two sons. His wife and father-in-law also work there part time.

The family-tree theme also extends to the course. Brookwood is the offspring of Shillelagh, an 18-hole course that runs adjacent on N.C. 61 just south of Interstate 85/40. Shillelagh opened in 1965, the back nine was added five years later and the third nine opened in 1990.

Like a child growing up and leaving home, the third nine went out on its own in 1995 and became Brookwood. At that point, the hole routing was changed and Brookwood started operating out of a separate clubhouse. Now, five years later, it has its own offspring.

Noah’s uncle, J. W. Shoe Jr., is the only owner Shillelagh has ever had.

"Basically the whole golf course used to be a dairy farm," Noah said. "When farming got bad in the mid-’80s, we decided we needed to do something else, and we talked him (Shoe) into building another nine. We operated it as the third nine of Shillelagh."

When Noah’s sons, Willie and David, decided to join the business after finishing school Brookwood went out on its own.

It’s far from a family split, however.

"He’s the reason I got into the golf business," Mike Noah said of Shoe. "He’s been there over 35 years. He’s 70 years old and he can outwork most anybody."

The staffs of both courses work together regularly, especially on maintenance projects.

Brookwood has done quite well as a nine-hole course and Noah expects the lure of an 18-hole layout to boost business.

"Anytime you’ve got a nine-hole course you’re missing out on a number of golfers," said Noah. "We have good play during the week but Saturdays have always been slow. On Saturdays, golfers want to play an 18-hole course."

Regular league play, a growing golf association and organized choose-ups keep a steady rate of play on weekdays and Sundays.

"We have golfers coming from Burlington, Greensboro and High Point," Noah said. "We see a lot of golfers from different places."

Brookwood has been known for keeping their greens in outstanding shape, even with other courses have suffered during trying weather conditions.

"If you don’t have good greens, nobody’s going to play," Noah said. "When you do this for yourself, like we do, you’re going to keep a close check on them."

Noah thinks the regulars will find the new nine fun and a little more challenging.

Water, featuring a persistent creek and a lake, will come into play on six of the back nine’s holes.

"The back has tighter fairways and this creek will come into play on three holes to make it interesting."

Noah thinks that holes 14, 15 and 16 will be the toughest, noting that players will have to abandon grip-it-and-rip-it thoughts.

"If they lay up short of the creek on 15, they’re going to have 170 yards to the green," he said of the par-4 hole.

Hole 16, another par-4, will have a 160-yard uphill shot to the green after laying up off the tee.

The par-3 17th will be no easy birdie either. Although it’s only 130 yards from the regular tees (147 from the back), it’s protected by a large poplar tree and the small, two-tiered green will present a putting challenge.

But golfers will leave with a good feeling on the new nine as the 18th is the shortest hole on the course, a 241-yard par-4.

"Some of these guys are going to be knocking it on the 18th green but it’s a little bit of a dogleg with out of bounds on the left side and the same creek on the right side. It will be an easy birdie or easy double bogey hole," said Noah.

Construction on the new nine started in September of 1999.

"We had a lot of tree removal on number 10, 13, 15 and 16," Noah said. "It took a lot of time to get the roots out of the ground. But other than those holes, it was all open land."

The new nine isn’t all new. To better route the order of play, No. 4 on the front has become the new 12th hole, so there’s actually one new hole on the front.

The course plays to 6,461 yards from the back tees. Regular tees measure just under 6,000 yards and the front tees are marked off at less than 5,000 yards.

"We built a course that people could play and have fun on," Noah said. "Everybody talks about the front being easy but the back is tighter."

While the abundance of rain in the summer of 2000 has been a blessing to the bermudagrass fairways, it has caused some of the steep areas to wash out, delaying the anticipated opening for more than two months.

"We’re having to rope off a couple of areas but overall it’s looking pretty good," Noah said. "But it will take a couple of years to get it the way we want it."