Longleaf Golf & Family Club superintendent Jason Friedman couldn’t wait to get his driver’s license when he turned 16. The excitement didn’t stem from driving to school or to his friend’s house. The anticipation was for the opportunity to drive himself to the golf course to spend his afternoons with his grandfather.
“It meant the world to me to be able to go out there and spend the afternoon with them, and play golf,” says Friedman, an Ohio State University graduate and Hudson, Ohio, native.
The golf course offered a soothing place for a hobby, but also a chance to spend time with his family and bond over the game. Today, Friedman works each day to prepare Longleaf Golf & Family Club’s golf course for others to do the same.
Longleaf Golf & Family Club, found in Southern Pines, North Carolina, just east of Pinehurst, is home to an 18-hole golf course, the Bottlebrush par-3 course and the U.S. Kids Golf Academy. The semi-private course was originally designed by Dan Maples and was later remodeled by Bill Bergin, renovating the driving range area, tees, greens and bunkers. The course was built on what was once a horse track, and remnants of that history are still seen on the property — the maintenance facility is a 70-year-old horse barn, and Friedman’s office was once the tack room.
The club offers play to both members and non-members and is aimed at entertaining golfers of any age and skill level. The course offers a unique element, the Longleaf Tee System, which scales the golf course to players based on their driver carry distance. The system was developed between the U.S. Kids Golf Academy and the American Society of Golf Course Architects using statistics from Trackman Golf. Each hole features seven different tee boxes.
“It scales the golf course so that everybody is playing basically the same course,” Friedman says. “Whoever hits the ball farther is going to use a tee that’s farther back, which provides a lot of distinct benefits. It kind of eliminates that irrelevant shot between where the shorter player would hit from and then catch up to the longer hitter.”
The tee system allows the club to host kids and beginners, as well as those who’ve been playing for years. “We’re not exclusively a kids’ or beginners’ facility,” Friedman says. “We still host members, we have package play, which is a big industry in this area.”
Friedman works alongside U.S. Kids Golf Academy vice president Chris Vonderkall, head golf pro Zach Martin and the club’s staff to set up each season’s tournament schedule with green speed and course conditions in mind. The course hosted the U.S. Kids Red, White and Blue Invitational and the U.S. Kids Teen World Championship in July. The club also frequently hosts camps and instructional sessions with the U.S. Kids Golf Academy, in hopes of introducing more people to the game.
“It’s important to have a responsible setup as far as tournaments go in regard to green speed, hole locations, whether it looks like it’s going to be real hot and dry or windy,” Friedman says. “We’ll adjust how frequently we mow. We might roll a little bit more to keep some smoothness.”
Friedman works to ensure that every kid coming out to play remembers the experience and has a positive interaction with the course. “I make sure that we’re responsible in our golf course setup so that the kids aren’t having a negative experience,” he says. “This golf course, on any given day, could be the first golf course or the last golf course anybody sees. You want to make sure that the time they spend out here is worthwhile.”
Welcoming players of all ages means promoting safety in ways a golfer might not notice at first glance. Friedman says the club uses golf cars that don’t speed up quite as quickly as others. “If one of the kids jumps down and accidentally hits the gas pedal, that’s going to be bad,” he says.
Having “family” in the name is about more than just a title, it’s about an encounter, an attitude, even a decision-making factor as a club. Friedman says having a family-centered golf course is going to have “something for everybody.”
Bottlebrush, a six-hole par-3 course, opened in 2016. The course was designed by Bergin and plays at 450 yards total. Holes range from 50 to 100 yards in length and offer play for both the beginning golfer and the player looking to focus on their short game.
“I absolutely adore that six-hole golf course,” Bergin says. “It’s sexy, cool and fun.”
Bergin designed the course with Donald Ross-type push-up greens, and mixed challenges with entertainment. He designed the course to incorporate Longleaf’s brand—welcoming to players of all skill types. Bergin has built numerous other short courses, but Bottlebrush remains his most favored design. Bergin has designed numerous notable clubs including the Country Club of Winter Haven in Florida and The Keep at McLemore in Georgia.
A former PGA player, Bergin has played hundreds of courses throughout his career. He played in three U.S Opens, two Opens and more than 50 PGA Tour tournaments. His playing experience carried over into his course designs.
“It’s a really hard game to wrap your arms around,” he says. “On a small course like this, you don’t take forever to play, it’s all feel, you can see your goals. It’s all doable.”
The short course’s name comes from the idea of how pine tree saplings start. “Pine trees sometimes grow and start off from saplings in bottles to keep it hydrated and keep the roots moist,” Friedman says. The bottles are then planted in the ground. The course’s name is analogous to starting kids in the game of golf with good roots and an understanding of the game, then watching them grow, the superintendent says.
Having family in the name is more than just maintenance protocols or hosting events. It’s a mindset and an atmosphere.
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