Dormant Overhills course Is Hidden Donald Ross Gem

Dormant Overhills Course Is Hidden Donald Ross Gem

U.S. Army Ponders Future of Former Rockefeller Estate

By JIM PETTIT

SPRING LAKE – Mark Twain once observed that rumors of his demise were greatly exaggerated.

Perhaps the same will one day be said for the golf course at Overhills, a former Rockefeller family country estate that now belongs to the U.S. Army.

The 11,000-acre tract that includes property in both Cumberland and Harnett counties was sold to the government in 1997 for a reported $30 million. The land was incorporated into Fort Bragg's vast complex, giving the post more than 160,000 acres for its various units in training.

The most-discussed part of the Overhills portion was, and still is, the golf course. Both nines were designed by revered architect Donald Ross, and the layout is virtually unchanged from the day the course opened in 1910. The back nine was added in 1918.

Being an exclusive, private retreat for the use of Percy Rockefeller's family and invited guests, it wasn't unusual for a foursome to be the only group on the course. During Overhills' 87-year run, only an elite few can lay claim to having played the 6,000-yard, par 72, challenge.

The Army originally had no plans to do anything other than train soldiers at the Overhills section, but is reconsidering. Public meetings have been held in Fayetteville in to get opinions and recommendations on what to do with historically prominent areas of Overhills that are part of an Environmental Impact Study.

The family estate area at Overhills was known simply as ''The Hill.'' This area included the family's housing and recreational facilities for golf, hiking, swimming, boating, and horseback riding. The Overhills area has numerous sites eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places as well as archaeological sites that have not been researched.

But it's the thought of a pristine Ross golf course that gets the hearts of golf enthusiasts thumping.

The course is in rough shape. Vegetation has been cut back periodically, although there has been no seeding or maintenance. Still, the overall layout and configurations are unchanged, and the course is restorable.

Lewis Phelps of Fayetteville is a 40-year-member of the PGA. He retired as manager of Fort Bragg's Ryder and Stryker golf courses in 1997 and is one of the elite who has played the Ross course at Overhills.

''It's not a long course,'' Phelps said, ''because it was built for the family and, in those days, the courses were built for position golf, not distance. Overhills was built for beauty, too. The first time I played it – and I think I've played it maybe three times – I kept lagging behind because I had to look back on each hole and see what he had created because it was such a thing of beauty.

''A lot of the tees could be longer because Donald Ross didn't build tees up,'' Phelps added. ''They were just part of the fairways and weren't really elevated. He just put tee markers down at one end of the fairway with the green on the other end. The only time a tee was elevated was when the land had a natural rise where the tee box was going to be. He really did take the natural terrain and build the golf course within it.''

What nature offered, Ross sculpted, and the Overhills staff refined.

''That was another thing about it,'' Phelps said. ''There were no ugly spots. If there was one, they would plant flowers or bushes to make it look nicer.''

Phelps recalls that none of the par-5s were more than 500 yards and all were reachable in two, but that the course was not a pushover.

''At Overhills, you had to play position,'' Phelps said, ''because if you went too far to the left, you had no shot. You had to know to keep a shot center-right, or some other position. If you didn't, you weren't going to score well.

''The front nine, which was built first, had very small greens,'' Phelps added, ''but the back nine's greens are larger. The ninth hole out there was about 150 yards long, but the green was about the size of a postage stamp and was surrounded by traps. If you didn't hit the green, you were in the sand.

''The front nine greens are small and what we used to call hog-backed. Ross believed in top drainage first and sub-drainage was secondary. The reason he designed his greens that way was so the water would run off quickly and the greens wouldn't sour out and allow disease and fungus to begin.''

The only change in the course that Phelps knows about was the switch from sand greens to bermudagrass. To his knowledge, everything else is just as Ross designed it.

Phelps is one of many who hopes the course can rise from its dormant state. One suggestion is for it to become part of the First Tee golf program for disadvantaged youth. Others hope to see the course open to public play.

''When you talk about a picturesque place, Overhills is it,'' Phelps said. ''You just stand back and marvel at it. It was almost virgin land because no one had been out there except the Rockefellers. You didn't have mass play. You didn't have ball marks on the greens. There are no cart paths out there, although the family did maintain a fleet of about eight carts for family and guests to use.''

Overhills isn't really gone, just tucked away. And it's anything but forgotten.