It starts with good ground, great intentions and people willing to unite behind a vision that will benefit a community. With its many lively neighborhoods, the public golf scene in Nashville, Tennessee, is being rejuvenated by the singular goal to make golf accessible. One renovation, at Percy Warner Golf Course, has been a 9-hole catalyst and much more than a project that has been “completed.”
Nashville Metro Parks operates seven municipal golf courses — Harpeth Hills, Percy Warner, McCabe, Ted Rhodes, Shelby, VinnyLinks and Two Rivers — and renovation possibilities have been crafted for all of them by architect Bruce Hepner, who re-envisioned Percy Warner.
Brandon Denton, superintendent of golf maintenance for Nashville Metro Parks, and a Parks employee for 17 years, has been promoted through the ranks since he was an assistant at Harpeth Hills. He has been critical to the success of the renovations of Percy Warner and Shelby, as well as improving all the courses. His positive communication and organizational skills have been especially important in coordinating the various parties involved.
“Brandon is a miracle worker,” Hepner says. “I am the biggest fan of him. I don’t think we could have done anything if he wasn’t brought on board. He has a forward-thinking mentality.”
Raising the funds to renovate Percy Warner was a group effort. The Tennessee Golf Foundation — led by president Whit Turnbow and Stuart Smith, an independent director on the board — collaborated with The Friends of Warner Parks, a 501(c)(3), to organize funding. They were just shy of their goal until Jim Nantz, broadcasting legend, donated the final $100,000 in honor of his family.
The entire renovation of Percy Warner, starting in the spring of 2023, cost $1.7 million. The routing was good, and 12 greens were constructed, nine for the course and a few for a large short game practice facility for the junior program. Twelve new bunkers, all 1,000 square feet or less, were constructed using a modern liner, and there are all new tees that surface drain. A single row irrigation system was installed with ins-and-outs irrigation heads around the greens.
“We knew it had to be sustainable, maintainable and playable,” Hepner says. “The greens run a 10 on the Stimpmeter — they’re not fast but they are maintained really perfect.” Building cool, interesting greens using drainage, sand and topsoil, as opposed to strictly by USGA specifications, put the requirements of the project and the budget within reach.
Maintenance was always considered with ground features and short grass areas that are easy to mow. Bunkers will be hand-raked only when they need it, and junior players will help as they will be instructed on pitch mark repair and basic maintenance etiquette as part of learning the game.
The best surprise has been the buy-in and momentum, starting with Percy Warner, moving to Shelby and spreading throughout the Metro Parks operation. “I have a great group of superintendents that have taken on the challenge of each course,” Denton says. “They are constantly finding ways to improve and help each other. Thanks go to James Carty, Michael Cella, Brandon Luckett, Jon Odgers and Will Thrower. There are also great groups that have invested in our courses, like The Friends of Warner Parks and the Tennessee Golf Foundation, who spearheaded the campaign to renovate Percy Warner and Shelby. It could not have been done without them.”
MacCurrach Golf Construction helped, too. Hepner has a strong relationship with them, and they executed the construction at Percy Warner. “They were all in on the cool stuff that we are trying to do to give back to the game,” Hepner says. “They gave me their best crew, and they did it at a reasonable cost.”
Hepner has been working in Tennessee for decades and he kept his fees low. He often goes to concerts and spends time in the Gulch, a trendy neighborhood between Music Row and downtown. Nashville is basically a second home. The sound of a guitar is never far away, but it’s the close bonds among the people — and between the people and golf — that are driving these projects.
“We just desperately love the game,” Hepner says. “We are being responsible and fixing what needs to be fixed. At Percy Warner they have four people maintaining the course, so we designed it within their means.”
Smith grew up playing at Percy Warner and the Metro Parks courses are dear to him. “For Shelby, the Tennessee Golf Foundation also hired Lynn Ray,” Smith says. “He gets it, and his heart and head are in the right place.” Ray is a consultant with Golf Management Group. He grew up playing at Shelby, and the Metro Parks felt comfortable with him contributing.
Donald Ross is credited with the design of Shelby, and it was the first municipal course in Nashville, located east of downtown. After a full renovation, it reopened and celebrated its centennial in October 2024 as an 18-hole course that plays at around 6,000 yards.
This renovation became fully funded when Nashville’s previous mayor, John Cooper, was leaving office and gifted $2 million to the Tennessee Golf Foundation to secure Hepner and MacCurrach to transform Shelby. He was that impressed by the response to Percy Warner.
Shelby was the least played golf course, and they wanted to turn it around. “We rebuilt 19 greens” — combining winter and summer green sites, and the practice green — “and tees, moved a handful of cart paths around and cleaned up any trees that were damaged,” Hepner says. “We replaced the irrigation around the greens when we were rebuilding them, too.” The course has no bunkers.
In addition to the renovation budget, gifted also to help with damage from the devastating tornado that tore through Nashville in 2020, Metro Parks invested in the clubhouse. “Feedback from both renovations has been extremely positive,” Denton says. “The new TifEagle Bermudagrass greens have so much more character and are proving to be a fun challenge at Shelby. The practice area at Percy Warner is a huge hit and by removing the cart paths and restricting cart usage, there is a nostalgic feel, taking you back to how the course would be played in 1937 when it originally opened.”
Great people, good intentions
Good feelings and genuine praise are moving in every direction. “I cannot stress this enough, that Bruce is one of the major catalysts of this happening,” Smith says. “I have known him since 1996. I have worked with him on numerous projects and every one was within budget and on time. It is uncanny.”
The Tennessee Golf Foundation deserves credit, too. Their headquarters are in Golf House, with the building funded by Jack Lupton and initiated by the revolutionary thinking of Dick Horton, bringing several Tennessee golf organizations together. Golf House is where the Tennessee Golf Association, which handles the amateur side of things, and the Tennessee PGA, which manages more than 400 golf professionals in Tennessee, work harmoniously.
“Our specialty is taking care of kids and veterans,” Turnbow says, “and we want the game to be affordable and accessible. My role is to make sure that the game is moving in the right direction.” Working with the municipal courses helps.
“Municipal courses in Tennessee are like everything else,” Turnbow adds. “They are getting more expensive to maintain, to play, to renovate and restore. We started working on plans to help Metro and we started in Percy Warner because it fit our mission most closely.” The Tennessee Golf Foundation also works with the GCSAA and the Tennessee Turfgrass Association.
The statistics support their instincts. “Golf is only as good as it is at the municipal level,” Smith says. “Before the renovation at Percy Warner, the peak number of starts was 5,000 rounds. The first month it was open, it did 6,000. Shelby was doing 20,000 — less than half of some of the other 18-hole courses, and now it’s hard to get a tee time.”
Those are huge and lucrative improvements that benefit the entire Metro Parks system. Denton oversees the budget and approximately 40 employees, including the five superintendents who report to him. Each one develops and submits the agronomic plan for the course they maintain.
In addition to the complete renovations, Ted Rhodes has received an irrigation upgrade and a cart path restoration. A new irrigation pumpstation for Two Rivers is being installed and they are converting older irrigation control boxes and software to the Toro Lynx System. The team is improving the Two Rivers and McCabe clubhouses. Capital improvements continue but staffing is tricky.
“The good news is that our current positions are full,” Denton says. “The issue is that there aren’t enough positions allocated for golf maintenance to sufficiently meet industry standards. We have 40 full-time employees for seven golf courses, 117 holes. My goal is to get to 52, averaging four employees per nine holes. We are blessed to have the employees we do because they are passionate. They go above and beyond to provide a great product.”
“Every course has their own equipment,” Denton says, “but we share when a piece of equipment is down for repairs or when we aerate greens, and we share labor when greens need to be covered in the winter. Our course superintendents really look out for each other.”
There are challenges. “When requesting resources or additional employees, we are competing with other Metro Departments. While we understand why city officials prioritize other needs, we continue to make our requests heard to sustain and protect these assets.”
Everyone appreciates what Denton is managing. “When I go out to Percy Warner today and see four 12-year-olds being buddies and they can play, that gives me the motivation,” Smith says. “That is the future of the game.”
“Having a municipal golf course that is affordable doesn’t mean you should take away the experience,” Turnbow says. “The experience can still be spectacular. Golf creates opportunities through being able to play the game and through knowing how to handle yourself on the course. We play a game with no referees and no umpires. It’s a game of honesty and integrity that spans generations and to be able to hand that gift to young people and where it will take them. … We believe in those things and that’s why it is so important.”
And there is more to come. VinnyLinks, home of the First Tee programs in Tennessee, is being upgraded. Nantz has been in discussions about honoring Ted Rhodes, who was one of the first African American golfers to play PGA golf, and renovating that eponymous course. Hepner believes Harpeth Hills “could become the best course in Tennessee.” Exciting stuff but it takes work.
“My favorite part of the day is being on the golf course as the sun comes up,” Denton says. “It’s very peaceful. Each day presents a new challenge and Victory Lap Fridays are essential, driving the course and reflecting on what you have overcome this week and how to prepare for the next.” There is hope.
“Without a doubt our goal is to create opportunities to grow the game,” Denton says. “Our courses are filled with golfers of all skill levels from diverse ethnic, age and socioeconomic backgrounds. Some of the greatest stories we have heard through our renovations at Percy Warner and Shelby were how these courses were where people learned how to play golf and how that positively impacted their lives. Metro Parks hopes, and works, to continue that tradition.”
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