By John Brasier
The Triad will soon lose another driving range. But it may gain a “supreme” replacement.
Country Club Golf Center (pictured above), at 5675 Country Club Road in Winston-Salem, will close late this summer, according to Tommy Pegram, one of the business’ operators. The 6-acre property at the western edge of the city, near borders with Lewisville and Clemmons.
Pegram told Triad Golf that the property owner, listed as Jo Anne Beauchamp in Forsyth County records, plans to develop the land. Pegram said his 30-year lease is up in “5 or 6 months.”
He said he and business partner Ricky Lyons have their sights on Lewisville property to put a “first-class” driving range with covered hitting areas, grass areas, target greens, chipping areas and a putting green.
“It’s going to be absolutely supreme,” Pegram said. “That’s the only way I’m going to it.”
Pegram did not specify the location, noting the property had not yet been purchased. Pegram, a PGA professional and instructor, designed Crooked Tree Golf Course in Browns Summit, and has done work at several other courses in the region.
Like Country Club, the new location is planned to have a shop and facilities for lessons.
Practice ranges are disappearing in the region. Rick Murphy Golf Academy and Practice Center on Pleasant Ridge Road near PTI International Airport closed in late 2021, and will soon be home to a new Mercy Hill Church campus. Deep River Golf Range on N.C. 68 in High Point was sold around the same time to developer Lowell Easter, who plans to add the property to 100 surrounding acres for a major development.
Pegram said rising land values have led property owners to sell to developers for other uses.
But several businesses have opened with indoor simulators, including golf and other games, with food and drink options in the past few years.
Davis Troxler, who had operated the Deep River Golf Range and the North Carolina Golf Academy on the same property, opened Tee It Up Indoors on Battleground Avenue in Greensboro. Similar multi-simulator facilities have opened in Clemmons, Kernersville, Bermuda Run and Archdale.
