Asheville, N.C. - From the trees down the left side of the second hole and the right side of No. 4 to the rock wall at the eighth tee, there are positive changes going on at the only public Donald Ross course in the area.
Buncombe County Golf Course celebrates its 77th birthday Friday and will commemorate its 1927 opening with a party and cake from 5 to 7 p.m. at the clubhouse.
The celebration is a thank-you from the Beverly Hills Homeowners Association for supporters of the group's plan to have BCGC placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Plans are moving ahead with that effort, with a presentation to the National Register scheduled for the fall. Organizers hope the golf course will be included in the register by early 2005.
The public is invited to attend the party. Those who want to donate sodas or cakes may call Susan Hammer at 298-0964.
Visitors to the course will find what the regulars have enjoyed in recent rounds -- a general sprucing-up and improvements that in large part have come from donations of the Bill Kaye Memorial Beautification Tournament.
Formed eight years ago to honor a longtime golfer at BCGC, the tournament has raised more than $15,000 to add flowers, shrubs, trees and other work designed to enhance the looks of a municipal layout that gets heavy traffic every year.
This year's tournament is scheduled for June 12-13, a 36-hole, two-person better ball format. Entry fee is $100 per person with 8 a.m. shotgun starts each day, and prizes will be awarded from first through third place (Taylor Made drivers, putters and bags) for all five flights. To enter, call 298-1867.
"We're just trying to make the golf course look better," said course superintendent Robbie Brake, who is working with Kaye's nephew and tournament founder Chuck Chiavaras on beautification projects.
Some of the plantings -- like the five redwood trees on the par-5 second hole and the nine birch trees that border the right fairway of the par-5 fourth hole -- will dramatically alter play once they have matured.
"The holes are not only going to look better, but years down the road it's going to change the way you hit the ball off the tee and the way you play those holes," said Brake.
Chiavaras hopes to get more people and businesses involved in his pet project. The tournament is offering hole sponsorships at $100 each and is trying to secure enough door prizes so that every player walks away with a gift.
Among the prizes this year are four rounds of golf at The Golf Course at Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa and Reems Creek GC and dinners at several restaurants, including Southside Cafe.
"I'm proud of what we've done so far, and I think the course looks so much better, but there's still a lot of work left to do," said Chiavaras, who has a childhood friend from Massachusetts coming in to play in the tournament for the second straight year.
"What we need is more community involvement. People hear municipal course and say, 'Why should we donate to that?' But this is a way to improve a course that thousands of locals and tourists use every year."
Source: The Asheville Citizen-Times