Bryan Park will soon have simulators open to the public under a business model unique to the Greensboro area.
Kyle Kolls, the general manager of the Bryan Park golf facility, told TriadGolf.com that a new outside, but covered facility with 20 bays equipped with Toptracer simulators, is expected to open in the next week or two. Construction, begun earlier in the fall, has been completed, leaving only a few “touchups.”
The bays occupy about two-thirds of the public driving range at the Ernie Edwards Learning Center and Practice Facility, located a few hundred yards from the Bryan Park clubhouse.
“We hope it opens us up to a whole new user base,” Kolls told TriadGolf.
Customers will not pay for time in the bays. Instead, the bays will be open to purchasers of practice balls. Though Kolls said the prices for buckets of balls will be raised from current rates, he said those prices had not yet been set.
The Toptracer equipment will provide data for swings and shots and also will give users the options to simulate play on famous courses and play other games. Golf options will include closest-to-the-hole and long driving contests.
Kolls said a new short-game area with bunkers and a putting-quality green should be ready by the spring in an open field behind the simulator area.
Kolls said construction and equipment would be paid for by Pinnacle Golf Properties of Charlotte, which manages Bryan Park’s golf facilities for the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation.
The remainder of the teeing area on the Toptracer end of the range — Precision Golf School occupies the end closest to the golf clubhouse — will remain open with natural grass. Customers not using the bays can use Toptracer technology for their shots by downloading apps on their phones.
Though the covered bays have no heating, Kolls said heaters — as well as lighting — are future options.
Kolls said he expects winter hours to be around 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with expanded morning and evening hours during warmer seasons.
The Toptracer bays are accessible by car. The public side of the range has a parking lot. Players at the course are not allowed to drive golf carts to the Edwards facilities.
Bryan Park has a separate practice range and putting green near the pro shop for players warming up to play the Champions and Players courses.
Triad golf courses will play host to some of the Carolinas Golf Association’s major events in 2026.
The 66th North Carolina Amateur, scheduled for June 17-20 at Bermuda Run Country Club, tops the local tourneys. Though not specifically listed in the partial CGA schedule, Bermuda Run’s original East Course (pictured) will be the host.
The Triad was also the site of the 2025 N.C. Amateur, won by Jackson Spires at The Cardinal by Pete Dye in Greensboro.
The CGA Junior Girls’ is set for July 1-3 at Jamestown Park.
Holly Ridge Golf Links in Archdale will stage the N.C. Junior Boys 15 and under and the Carolinas Junior Girls 14 and under on July 20-21. Holly Ridge also will play host to the N.C. Four-Ball on Oct. 9-11.
The 112th Carolinas Amateur is scheduled for July 7-10 at Governor’s Club in Chapel Hill. The Carolinas Women’s Amateur is June 1-3 at Grandfather Country Club in Linville.
Other CGA tournaments include the N.C. Senior Amateur on May 5-7 at Cutter Creek in Snow Hill. Mill Creek in Mebane will be the site of the N.C. Super Seniors competitions on Sept. 22-23. The state Senior Amateur will be Oct. 6-8 at Waynesville Inn.
To see the 2026 partial schedule, including the CGA’s One-Day Tournaments, go to carolinasgolf.org. Several events remain to have courses and dates.
What do you buy a golfer for Christmas? That’s a question gift-givers – especially non-golfers — struggle with every year.
Though zero-torque putters, super-sized putting grips and soon-to-be 2025 driver models are currently the biggest sellers at retailers I surveyed, they are usually purchased by the player, not as a gift.
Still, there are many options. Is your favorite golfer a golf ball beater, someone who loves the practice range?
Gift certificates to a nearby practice range is a great option, and probably not something a golfer would buy themself.
A related gift I’ve seen on various websites are devices that tee up practice balls via a chute from a ball container. Getting balls tee up by an instructor is one of the overlooked benefits of private lessons.
Many surprise, golf-related gifts should be appreciated.
Some of the best golf gifts I’ve received include golf art – paintings or portraits of great courses. Why ex-wife threw out my photo of the Three Stooges in knickers.
Logo golf balls displays. I have an awesome wooden truck ball holder from a friend of my father. I won a fancy wood cabinet with a glass door at long ago RJR Senior Tour Championship outing with closest to the hole at No. 3 on the Champions Course (my shot was inside the shot hit by playing partner and Senior Tour member Walter Hall and I made the putt).
There’s always apparel. Every golfer needs golf shirts. Probably the best options are polos wind shirts, jackets and caps bearing the logo of a favorite course that the recipient HAS PLAYED.
While you might think a Quail Hollow (if you can get one) shirt or a Wade Hampton (cap) would make a great gift (they would if they’re played there), a nice local place where they’ve played is typically much better.
Wear a Wade Hampton cap and people are bound to asked if you’ve played there, requiring either a little embarrassment or a lie.
Instead, buy something with the logo of a resort or upscale public course – or one that has a nice or unusual logo – where the recipient has played.
Range finders or watches – or anything that provides distances on the course.
Gift certificates for rounds of golf. Just about every public course sells them. Ask to play for a set number of rounds. Don’t buy foursomes. Allow the recipient the option of playing all the rounds purchased.
It’s probably too late for this year, but many charitable organizations are donated rounds at private or upscale public courses to raffle. It’s a great way to play an otherwise inaccessible course.
Gift certificates for simulators are great, too. Holly Ridge has six simulators in a lounge with food, drink and TVs. Tee it Up Indoors offers PGA instruction and a bar for a casual beer.
How about out-of-town tournament tickets? There’s a new PGA Tour event near Asheville. The world’s best players play in May at Quail Hollow. Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head also have spring PGA Tour events.
Want to swing for the fences? Masters practice rounds are available through lottery and third-party dealers.
Accessories such as ball markers, towels, head covers and logo balls for display.
Golf balls are a great, affordable gift – as long you know the exact brand and model. In fact, one Triad retail owner told me that most of the spouses that come to his shop are there to buy golf balls as a present.
For a high-handicapper or budget-conscious player give a box of new Titleist ProV1 balls. They’ll appreciate it, though they might ration them for holes without hazards.
Call it a restoration. Or call it an update. Both would be accurate descriptions of Kris Spence’s recent work at Starmount Forest Country Club.
Either way, Spence and Starmount Forest president John Barbee agree that the finished product has a more consistent flow, offering a greater challenge to good players while giving more options to high-handicappers and shorter hitters.
The most obvious changes are in bunkering and green complexes.
“It’s a new day at Starmount, for sure,” said Spence, the Greensboro-based architect who has specialized in restoring many of the characteristics of classic layouts, especially the designs of legendary architect Donald Ross. “There’s more change than what you can initially see.”
“The changes are spectacular in the way that the golf course looks and how it feels,” said Barbee. “It’s a new golf course for each and every member.”
The multi-million project, which closed the course for more than a year, opened to members on October 18. The wet summer caused delays in grassing the fairways and resulted in sodding of about 20 acres. Spence credits superintendent Brooks Turner and his staff with getting the course ready despite the wet weather.
Common to many classic courses, Starmount had changed over the years with normal changes in maintenance and periodic updates.
Wayne Stiles and John Van Kleek designed the west Greensboro course in 1930. In 1947, Starmount played host to the 1947 U.S. Women’s Open.
George Cobb, the architect of Quail Hollow and the Augusta National par-3 course, made renovations and tweaks in 1970. Lester George, whose original designs include Ballyhack in Roanoke, Virginia, made changes, many that improved drainage in 1999.
Spence wanted to restore the old-style feel, though not build a replica.
“Both changes took it away from an older, classic style,” Spence said. We wanted to make it look like the course was built in 1930s.”
Spence tweaked each hole in multiple ways. Bunkers were added, eliminated and moved.
Zoysia tee boxes were leveled, widened and lowered. Some were moved. A few new back tees were added. Some trees were removed – the par-3 eighth hole is more visible from Holden Road – to open sight lines.
The par-3 eighth near Holden Road has a new front bunker with a grass Island.
Many bunkers were repositioned to coincide with the increased of today’s players. The new capillary concrete bunkers drain quickly and play consistently.
Spence removed much of the mounding around greens, providing some shaved areas around the putting surface for greater chipping options. Areas behind greens where mounds had served as backstops now filter away from the green.
Areas around the front of greens were firmed up with a sand base to allow approaches to roll on to the new TifEagle surfaces, which were recontoured to accommodate the faster speeds. The Tahoma 31 collars are durable and resist encroaching on TifEagle.
Kris Spence left shaved areas around the greens to allow an option of approaches and chips.
“The biggest change is the change in the greens, the subtle breaks and challenges added to the greens,” Barbee said. “I’m surprised how well they are putting after only a few weeks.”
About 15 acres surrounding the TifTuf fairways were planted in fescue for a new natural look.
A few new back tees add about 150 yards, making the par-72 layout play to about 6,700 yards from the tips. Course rating and slope were not yet available.
Keeping the course in pristine condition will be much easier thanks to a new irrigation system with 1,000 sprinkler heads, each of which can be controlled separately. The old sprinkler system was three decades old.
Spence made significant changes on the par-5 seventh, the course’s most visible and, arguably, its signature hole, which stretches along Starmount Drive near Holden.
Spence eliminated three bunkers on the left side of the fairway, while placing a new bunker to the left reachable for long hitters. Another two bunkers tighten the second landing area.
A bunker right of the green was removed, allowing the green to move close to the lagoon that extends down the length of the right side with a roll off toward the hazard.
The bunkering on No. 8 features a new bunker with a grassy island on the front left and a small pot on the back left. The right bunker was repositioned, leaving a small corridor open to the green, though shots to the right can filter off the surface.
At the short par-4 ninth, a half-dozen bunkers were tweaked and moved, opening up part of the fairway, but tightening the shot for bigger hitters trying to drive the green. A back bunker was removed and replaced by a slope.
“To drive the green, you have to thread the needle,” Spence said.
The 12th green was moved back to a new spot. A new back tee, shared with 18, can extend the hole from 384 yards to more than 450 yards. The slope on the uphill approach was softened to prevent shots that come up short from rolling back down the hill.
The back tee at No. 18 was moved back alongside the 18th green.
A new back tee at 18 was extended back adjacent to the 17th green. New bunkering design adds difficulty to a long-iron approach into the short par-5 finishing hole.
As pleased as the members are with the improvements, Barbee said results of the renovations will be more impressive when warm weather returns.
“It’s been an overwhelming success to the membership of Starmount Forest,” Barbee said. “We can’t wait until springtime comes around, we get a full growth season and everything turns green.”
The First Responders of the Triad Tournament on Oct. 3 attracted the entry of a record 128 players for the seventh-annual benefit golf outing hosted by Greensboro National Golf Club.
The tournament was created by Byron Donnelly Development (majority owners of Greensboro National) partners Herb Parks and Patrick Donnelly.
This year’s goal was to raise $200,000 for local first responders with at least $25,000 committed to Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which pays off the mortgages for families losing first responders in the line of work.
Donnelly said the amount raised should be around $200,000 when totaled. A silent auction later in October added to the figures.
The Gibsonville Volunteer Firefighter Association was the choice of Alley, Williams, Carmen and King for a $2,500 check.
“We had the best turnout we ever had,” said Donnelly. “Best weather day we ever had. “The largest commitment we’ve had to date.”
Recipients of the awards from the top two teams had yet to be chosen.
Family members of Greensboro Police Sgt. Dale Nix attended Friday afternoon’s post-round dinner and awards-ceremony. Tunnels paid off the Nix mortgage only two days after Sgt. Nix was killed on December 30, 2023.
Belinda Beatty of Statesville, a 2019 recipient after her husband Army Sgt. Dale Beatty died after massive injuries suffered in Iraq, also attended. Wayne Player, son of golf legend Gary Player, represented Tunnels at Greensboro National.
The McPherson Grading Co. team of Russell McPherson, Josh Alexander, Greg Gibson and Ricky Craig were one of three to shoot gross 59 under ideal conditions in a best-ball format and won a scorecard match against the teams of Jason Hutchins, Ricky Draper, Ronnie Hayes and Isaiah Hayes of the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office; and Mike Murphy, Arron Jones, Jon Gourley and Brent Gregory of Nestle Purina.
Tournament Awards, Recipients
McPherson Grading, Co., 1st place, $15,000 (E.M. Holt Fire Department)
Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office, 2nd place, $5,000
Greensboro native Leah Edwards and Western Kentucky University teammate Reagan Ramage shot 70 then won a playoff Nov. 18 at Vanderbilt Legends Club in Franklin, Tennessee, to claim the site’s second and final qualifying spot for the 2026 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball Championship.
Two Triad players earned alternate status earlier in the fall at Wilson Country Club. Anna Howerton of Winston-Salem, and High Point University teammate Ella Perna tied for the alternate spot with Greensboro Country Day sophomore Mallory Pitts and James Madison commit Miraya Lurie of Raleigh.
The tournament is scheduled for May 2-6 at Daniel Island’s Ralston Creek course near Charleston.
The Four-Ball won’t be the first USGA event for Edwards. She qualified for last summer’s U.S. Girls’ Junior, joined by Pitts.
Old Town Club continued its climb in the 2025-2026 Golf Magazine Top 100 Courses in the World rankings released this week.
The Winston-Salem course, designed by Perry Maxwell, was up four spots to No. 80 in voting by the magazine’s 126 panelists from 16 nations.
Pine Valley remained No. 1, followed by Cypress Point and the Old Course at St. Andrews. Shinnecock Hills was No. 5 with National Golf Links at 6, Augusta National at 8, Oakmont at 9 and Sand Hills at 10 as U.S. courses claimed seven of the top 10 slots.
Pinehurst No. 2 was the Carolinas’ top-ranked course at No. 20. The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island was No. 71.
Changes are nothing new at Wild Dunes Resort’s Harbor Course. But the latest changes in a $9.5 million renovation project are intentional and positive.
Forty years after Harbor’s original completion on Isle of Palms, near Charleston, Fazio Design returned for the extensive update. The course reopened Nov. 13.
The result was a more playable layout, especially for average golfers, with reconfigured hazards and landing areas to challenge more skilled players.
The enlargement of landing areas on the par-5 ninth and par-4 10th along the Intracoastal Waterway and vastly expanded TifEagle greens are the most notable improvements. Other landing areas have been widened, beginning with the par-5 opening hole, through techniques including the rearrangement and reshaping of bunkers.
The par-3 11th is the final of three consecutive holes along the Intracoastal Waterway at Wild Dunes. Photo courtesy Brian Walters.
Longtime Fazio associate Bryan Bowers oversaw the project. Following Hurricane Hugo in 1989, Fazio also was brought in to make major repairs and changes in the Wild Dunes courses. During development in the early 1980s, plans for Harbor were altered to address environmental concerns.
With several holes stretching along the Intracoastal Waterway, and most weaving throughout dunes, pristine saltwater marsh and lagoons, Harbor remains a shot-making challenge.
Yes, the course maxes out at about 6,500 yards. Yet, with par only 70, it features four long par-4s (including No. 17, top photo by Brian Walters) and back-to-back par-5s combining for 1,100 yards. Strong ocean breezes off the must be navigated on the mostly exposed fairways. Live oaks sometimes come into play.
“For a good player, you can make it a pretty good test,” said Wild Dunes director of golf Jeff Minton.
A new irrigation system, shifted cart paths, expanding landing areas and new bunkers lined with capillary concrete may be difficult to notice for vacationing golfers. But returnees will appreciate that the size of the greens have almost doubled after encroachment of the collars over the years.
Bowers said Harbor putting surfaces, which previously totaled about 60,000 square feet, now total about 110,000 SF. Contours were softened to accommodate the quicker, firmer TifEagle surfaces.
Nos. 9, 10 and 11 form a memorable stretch with the waterway extending down the left side of each hole, requiring accurate shot-making in typically windy conditions. Formerly as narrow as 20-25 yards wide on 10 and 11, fairways were raised on those holes to widen the landing areas.
The Atlantic Ocean is visible over trees from above the 13th hole, one of six par-3s, at Wild Dunes Harbor. Photo courtesy Brian Walters.
“There are no more issues with high tides,” Bowers said.
The ninth is the second of consecutive par-5 holes. No. 10, a short par-4, and No. 11, a short par-3, continue in a straight line up the waterway.
The 16th is a unique par-3, requiring players to hit a165-yard approach over the waterway from a tee located between homes and docks on the left and road bridge to the right. A sprawling live oak stands out right of the green.
It was Wild Dunes that put Tom Fazio on the map when he opened the resort’s Links Course as his first solo project to international acclaim in 1980.
No. 17 at Wild Dunes Links Course along the Atlantic Ocean is one of the Carolinas’ most iconic holes. Photo courtesy Wild Dunes Resort.
Links, also hit hard by Hugo, remains a classic, finishing with two holes along the Atlantic Ocean.
The par-4 17th, one of the best holes in the Charleston area, runs along dunes and beach to the left. If played into the breeze, the second shot often requires a long iron or fairway wood.
The 18th hole, formerly a dogleg right par-5, is now a scenic par-3 due to erosion that washed away portions of the fairway.
The 153-room Sweetgrass Inn at Wild Dunes Resort opened in 2021.
Wild Dunes has two modern, upscale hotels, Boardwalk Inn and Sweetgrass Inn, and a variety of restaurants and shops. Amenities include pools, a spa, pickleball courts and world-class tennis facilities.
Golf packages are available. The courses are open to non-resort guests.
North Carolina will have a new PGA Tour event beginning in 2026.
The Biltmore Championship will be played Sept. 17-20 at The Cliffs at Walnut Cove, near Asheville. Biltmore Estate and the Explore Asheville tourism non-profit will be co-title sponsors.
Though Asheville has not played host to a major pro golf championship in more than eight decades, in the past Walnut Cove, a Jack Nicklaus design, has served as a venue for the Korn Ferry’s BMW Charity Pro-Am, which originally was played at three Cliffs courses.
The new tournament will be played after the FedExCup Tour Championship during the FedExCup Fall. The tournament has a four-year agreement, according to Monday’s announcement.
Biltmore will be broadcast on Golf Channel as well was three PGA Tour properties. The PGA Tour did not release the amount of the purse.
According to a report in the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion Journal, Sanderson Farms’ sponsorship of a PGA Tour event in early October was completed this year and that tournament’s future is in doubt.
The tournament will give North Carolina three PGA Tour events with the others in Greensboro and Charlotte.
Two high school teammates made strong showings at the last major Carolinas Golf Association junior event of the year.
Andrew Jenkins, a freshman at Forsyth Country Day tied for fifth and junior Griffin Huckabee tied for 15th at the Jimmy Anderson Boys Invitational, Oct. 25-26, at Greenville Country Club. Jenkins finished with 2-under-par 208 for the tournament, two shots behind winner David Quinones of Hampstead, who shot 69 in the final round. Huckabee posted 2-over 212.
Both were on top of the leaderboard at 5-under-par 165 through 36 holes, but fell back in the final round. Jenkins shot 68 and 67 in the first two rounds. Huckabee shot a tournament-low 65 in the second round. Jack Weston of Summerfield tied for sixth at 211.
