When Gilbert "Red" Picklesimer worked nights and weekends building his own golf course, he didn't draw designs out on paper.
He simply drove a bulldozer to where he wanted a tee and carved it out.
He didn't have much money for cement to pave walkways.
But he knew the owner of a concrete company who needed a place to dump excess cement at the end of jobs. So Picklesimer stayed ready to receive the cement even on short notice.
Building his Oak Hills Golf Course in northwest Mecklenburg, Picklesimer says now, "was done like the Flintstones."
These days, players at the Oakdale course share tee time with tree removal equipment. The outerbelt's northwest leg is coming through.
The course is staying open, Picklesimer says, even though the planned outerbelt condensed his course from 18 to 14 holes as of last week for the stretch of I-485 opening in 2007.
"We're in the middle of the highway here," says Picklesimer, getting out of his golf cart near hole number 12.
He's known about this since 1990, which might be why the amiable 68-year-old - with more white in his hair than his nickname red - speaks about the changes to his course so matter-of-factly.
Patrons who marvel at the beauty of his golf course, though, are more outspoken.
James Ross, a three-decade regular, was out playing a round with his wife, Jeanne, recently when they came around to hole number 12.
They didn't recognize it at first. The familiar stand of trees was gone. The lake was still there, but will eventually be drained.
"It'll be wonderful to get from point A to point B on 485, I won't argue that," said Ross, a semi-retired consultant.
"Making time and making speed and making haste may be good things, but sometimes I think you can defer those things to a better good. And the better good is you can come around number 12 and see the lake and see the trees."
Ironically, Charlotte's livelier pace drew Picklesimer to the area in the early 1950s.
Growing up on a farm in Knoxville, Tenn., Picklesimer said he didn't realize the conveniences he didn't have until he was 14, when he spent a month visiting a sister in Charlotte. For the first time he could take a bus uptown to go to the movies, instead of hitchhiking to the Saturday matinee. He and his mother sold their farm and returned to Charlotte.
His penchant for hard work kept him occupied in his adopted hometown. First he landed a job unloading boxcars for a grass and cattle firm. Then a friend of his brother-in-law, who owned a concrete block company, hired Picklesimer. He learned how to use equipment doing light grading work.
After getting married, he bought about 70 acres in the Oakdale community with the intention of building a house. He did that, and then thought he had enough land to start a golf course, too. With a business partner and some hired hands, they did everything themselves: putting in an irrigation system, laying the concrete for walkways, nurturing and watering the greens. On weekends, wife Sue and his three daughters packed bologna sandwiches for picnics on the red clay dirt during his work breaks.
Picklesimer first opened a nine-hole course in 1970, then the second phase with nine more holes in 1982.
Oak Hills isn't a typical golf course. The entrance looks more like a used car lot, reflecting Picklesimer's lifelong penchant for fixing anything he could buy at auctions - cars, boats, digging equipment. There's even a Charlotte Transit bus shelter near the 11th hole, where players seek refuge during sudden rainshowers.
"I've been hauling things in here for 34 years, and don't never haul anything out," Picklesimer says.
His regulars don't mind. Ross said black players felt welcome at Oak Hills from the start - which couldn't be said about other courses around Charlotte in the early 1970s.
"At that time, African Americans were not exactly welcome at all golf courses at Charlotte," said Ross, who helped start the "Par Busters" group, then made up of black players.
In 1990, Picklesimer recalls, a member from the state Department of Transportation came to his door with some maps. That's how he learned the outerbelt would run through his property. Picklesimer said he refused the state's offer of $695,000 for the land, saying he should get $3 million because his course will permanently change. The state's offer is in escrow until the dispute is settled.
Source: Charlotte Observer (N.C.)