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Old-Fashioned Golf Not out of Style at Old Town Club by DUNLOP WHITE III of North Carolina

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Old-Fashioned Golf Not out of Style at Old Town Club by DUNLOP WHITE III of North Carolina Old-fashioned golf not out of style at Old Town Club By DUNLOP WHITE III of North Carolina. Again, the Babcocks donated a portion of their estate for the university cam- hen you first arrive at Old Town Club, pus just north of the golf course. it’s readily apparent that this is not Consequently, Old Town has always been W your typical country club. Normally, the home for the Demon Deacon golf teams and W has groomed many tour professionals, including the golf course appears somewhat deserted. “Where is everyone?” inquired John MacKenzie, Curtis Strange, Lanny Wadkins, Scott Hoch, director of development for Davis Love Leonard Thompson, Gary Hallberg, Jay Haas, Enterprises, who was obviously amazed that we Billy Andrade, Len Mattiace, Jay Sigel, Laura had the course to ourselves on such a nice Diaz and Darren Clarke. October day. At 340 members, Old Town is Lanny Wadkins professes, “Old Town offers rather small, but the golfing membership is so many varied challenges that it is the best even smaller. course for training serious, young golfers.” The first tee sets the stage for a good old- Jim Ferree, veteran tour professional, and fashioned golfing experience. Not only is it his father, Purvis Ferree, member of the positioned just a few feet outside the clubhouse Carolinas PGA Hall of Fame, also honed their door, but it also rests inconspicuously on top of skills at Old Town. Renowned professionals like native terrain. Kris Spence, a Greensboro-based Arnold Palmer, Mike Souchek, Lew Worsham architect who has an affinity for classical and Billy Joe Patton played exhibition matches designs, once nodded with approval. “If it at Old Town, while other old-timers, including weren’t for these two tee markers, golfers would Golf course designer Perry Maxwell harbored an undying affection for the Old Course Byron Nelson, Lloyd Mangrum, Lawson Little never know that this was a tee,” said Spence. at St. Andrews and created the double green shared by the 8th and 17th holes. and Ralph Guldahl, always tuned up at Old Old Town evokes an antiquated sensibility Maxwell and Babcock around the construction Long Island”, said Clouser. Town between the Greater Greensboro Open by its very name, but the old-style feeling and site at Old Town and encouraged them to merge The Babcocks initially gave Maxwell more and the Land of Sky Open in Asheville. spirit continues to reveal itself throughout the the adjacent greens together at holes 8 and 17. than 1,000 acres of unadulterated, washed-out Reclaiming a Masterpiece 1939 Perry Maxwell layout. Golfers can’t help According to Blake Clarke, a longstanding farmland, including the area where Wake Forest The “Golden Age” of golf architecture faded but notice the archaic stone walls and bridges Augusta member, Roberts insisted, “a double University is currently situated. Maxwell essen- with the onset of World War II. Chris Clouser which pepper the course like ruins. Stout, wood- green would make for interesting bar room con- tially had his pick of the litter, a luxury architects noted, “In reality, it probably ended with Old en flagsticks are also used as a throwback from versations.” But Maxwell had his own incentive. always crave. As soon as the ideal location was Town Club, because it remains the last signifi- yesteryear. Harboring an undying affection for the Old marked, evidently no landform was compro- cant design by any architect prior to the war.” Informalities are commonplace at Old Town. Course at St. Andrews, Maxwell embraced the mised. With a heightened appreciation for Maxwell, Standard groups comprise five or six golfers. idea. All ridges, knolls, swales, and ravines were Old Town has taken a special interest in preserv- Plus, the golf shop doesn’t even take starting Roberts also secured Old Town with its first left undisturbed, while all ponds and streams ing and restoring its architectural heritage, while times, a time-honored practice that nearly all teaching professional, Guy Paulsen, who had were maneuvered only slightly for irrigation. also keeping pace with advances in modern members appreciate. Jim Holt, club professional, served as an associate to Bobby Jones for three Maxwell was a proponent of minimalist architec- technology. holds back a smile as he divulged some infa- years at the Augusta National. ture – advancing the natural state of the land. Through the years, however, Maxwell’s mous clublore. “Allegedly, a member once sug- In November of 1939, the Winston-Salem Maxwell declared, “The site of the golf course original design gradually deteriorated. As living gested that we consider using tee times,” said Journal introduced the club’s opening as follows, should be already there, not brought there by landscapes, golf courses naturally evolve. Trees Holt. “The suggestion was met with the most “it will immediately take rank as one of the man … many an acre of magnificent land has grow, greens shrink, and fairways contract. It’s delicate response, ‘if tee times were what he South’s three great courses and as one of the been utterly destroyed by the steam shovel difficult to notice this ever-shrinking process in wanted, he should perhaps consider playing at nation’s 10 best.” throwing up billows of earth.” any one season, but over the course of 60 years, courses that used them,’” recounted Holt. Perry Maxwell, however, had greater expec- As a result, Old Town’s fairways are armed many golf holes have lost nearly half of their Old Town has always protected the personal tations. He endorsed the Old Town Links design, with varying degrees of lateral slope, giving original playing areas. Plus, equipment technol- freedoms of its golfers, but the club has guarded “as one of the seven finest in the nation”. This is golfers a greater premium for hitting the correct ogy continues to render golf courses narrower its anonymity with much less success. From the quite a compliment considering Maxwell had quadrant with the properly shaped shot. Golfers and shorter. Old Town was no exception. beginning, the golf course was destined for previously renovated other venerable layouts, then encounter many awkward lies while play- In 2002, Florida-based architect Bobby prominence. including Augusta National, Pine Valley, Merion, ing approach shots from a variety of unlevel Weed, with the aid of authentic aerial photogra- National Golf Links of America, and Maidstone. positions. The greens, however, offer the ulti- Perry Maxwell’s Southern Jewel phy, implemented a modest tree management Plus, Maxwell had already designed Crystal mate challenge, as they strategically tumble program, expanded the fairways to their original In 1939, Mary Reynolds Babcock, of the R.J. Downs in 1933, Southern Hills in 1935 and much like the fairways. widths, and lengthened nine select holes to Reynolds Tobacco family, and her husband, Prairie Dunes in 1937. Thus, Maxwell was Coined as “Maxwell’s rolls,” Maxwell had a bring the intended landing areas and shot values Charlie Babcock, donated more than 170 acres to involved with many legendary courses and still penchant for shaping putting surfaces with back into play. Weed also installed multi-row start a golf club adjacent to her historic estate, gave Old Town this high billing. extreme contours. According to Bill Coore, irrigation for wall-to-wall distribution and now known as Reynolda House and Gardens. Old Town’s routing is terrific primarily America’s hottest architect, Old Town’s greens upgraded fairways from common bermudagrass Charlie Babcock then managed a thriving because of the character of the land. Bradley were the most intricate and undulating greens in to a pure hybrid, called Tifsport. Green chairman investment firm by the name of Reynolds & Klein, architecture and design editor for the Maxwell repertoire. However, it wasn’t the Logan Jackson and superintendents Mac and Company, later to become Dean Witter Golfweek, admitted, “I didn’t realize how extraor- bold mounds and ridges that made these greens O’Neil Crouch were instrumental in this process. Reynolds. In 1934, Babcock hired Clifford dinary the property was until I approached the so exceptional. Instead, Coore exclaimed, “it was Today, Old Town is a par 70 measuring just Roberts, co-founder of the Augusta National interior stretch and noticed that distant site lines the artistic little bumps and rises here and there, over 6,900 yards from the back markers. Golf Club, as a business associate. and sweeping vistas could be available of the which looked like someone just pushed them up Golfweek publication currently ranks Old Meanwhile, Roberts was desperately trying entire premises.” from underneath with an air hose, that created Town as the eighth best course in North to bolster The Masters Tournament as a preemi- Chris Clouser, a Perry Maxwell historian their intimacy.” Carolina. In The Confidential Guide, noted archi- nent invitational for the game’s elite. Afraid that from Indiana, agreed that the course was meant Today, golfers may have plenty of putts in tect, Tom Doak, ranks Old Town among the Top Augusta was losing its bite, Roberts employed to have an open, linksland look. In his manu- the same round that slide laterally 10 to 15 feet, 10 in the country “Worth Groveling To Play” along mid-western architect Perry Maxwell to recon- script, The Life and Works of Perry Duke Maxwell, particularly from the wrong side of the hole. with Cypress Point, San Francisco Golf Club, struct the greens on holes 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, and 18. Clouser pointed out that Maxwell always According to club historian Robert Whaling, Pine Valley, Chicago Golf Club, Seminole, Roberts, pleased with the results, recommended described it as the Old Town “Links.” “there are straight putts out there today, but you Augusta National and Fishers Island.
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