Clifford Roberts, the major domo of Augusta National Golf
Club was to spend a few days in the summer of 1968 at Grandfather Golf &
Country Club in Linville, North Carolina, bringing along a discerning eye,
irascible nature and, the staff suspected, impossible demands. “Everyone was
quivering and quaking, scared to death about his visit,” remembers Hugh Morton,
one of the club’s developers.
On the final day of the visit, Morton had lunch with Roberts.
“Hugh, most mountain golf courses aren’t worth a damn,” Roberts said. “But this
is the best one I’ve seen.”
High praise from people with rigid standards would become the
norm for this summertime paradise at 3,500 feet, under the peaks of Grandfather
Mountain (so named because early settlers saw in them a bearded man looking
toward the sky) in the Blue Ridge Mountains. At forefront of the golf community,
Grandfather was the brainchild of Agnes Morton Woodruff, who won four Carolinas
Women’s Amateur titles from 1948–58.
The county’s one golf course, Linville Golf Club, had become
so popular that tee times in the prime mid-morning slots were difficult to come
by. “I was sitting around with a couple of friends and said, ‘You know, it’s
about time I built my own golf course,’” says Agnes. “It was getting too
crowded. I was kind of joking. But then I got to thinking about it.”
Designed by Ellis Maples, the course opened in September
1967. What makes the course work is that it’s routed mostly in a valley beneath
the spires of Grandfather. While there are crests and glens throughout, the
mountain is more around you than under you. Streams and ponds are hazardous on
many holes, and native boulders crop out from the bentgrass fairways here and
there.
Two of the best choices are the 8th and 18th. No. 8 is a
short par 4, uphill to the green with a spectacular view of Grandfather Mountain
and the famous “Mile-High Swinging Bridge.” The home hole is a long par 4 with a
peninsula green surrounded on three sides by one of seven lakes built around the
clubhouse.
