The Dugan Aycock Davidson County Amateur is accepting registrations for the July 26-27 tournament at Lexington Golf Club.
The 36-hole stroke-play tournament is open to all amateurs 16 and over. The field will be flighted after the first round. Tee times begin at 7:30 a.m. each day off the first tee.
Players do not have to live in Davidson County to play. Players can register in person at the pro shop or by calling 336-248-3950.
Players must be 16 years and older. A Senior Division is open to players 55 and older.
The newest addition to the Wake Forest women’s golf team showed good form this week.
Winston-Salem native Morgan Ketchum, who transferred to Wake Forest this summer after three seasons at Virginia Tech, finished third in the Carolinas Women’s Amateur Championship at The Cliffs at Keowee Falls in Salem, South Carolina.
Ketchum shot 71 with two birdies on her last three holes Wednesday to finish at 2-under-par 214, one stroke behind Sydney Roberts of Chesnee, S.C., a player at nearby Clemson University, and Australian Samatha Whateley of Mississippi State, the recent winner of the CGA North Carolina Women’s Amateur.
Whateley, who makes her summer home in Charlotte, won a one-hole playoff with a birdie after a dramatic swing on the 54th hole. Whateley birdied the final hole of regulation play, while Roberts, who took a two-shot lead into the final hole, made bogey. Roberts had birdied Nos. 16 and 17 to take control.
The 52-player field included many of the top collegiate players in the Carolinas.
Emily Mathews of Mebane, a teammate of Ketchum at Virginia Tech, tied for 10th at 223 after a final-round 80. Mathews entered Wednesday only two shots off second-round leader Roberts, who rebounded from an opening 76 with 65 on Tuesday.
Anna Howerton of Winston-Salem, who plays for High Point University, tied for 16th at 225 with two-time Class 4A individual champion Leah Edwards of Northwest Guilford High, who qualified for this month’s U.S. Girls’ Junior at Atlanta Athletic Club and begins her college career this fall at Western Kentucky.
Hallie Wilson, a 16-year-old from Winston-Salem, tied for 20th at 229 after recovering with an opening 80. Emery Lewis, a rising junior at Northwest Guilford, placed 24th at 231. Ellen Yu of Greensboro, a University of North Carolina recruit, came in 31st at 240.
If you want to play the best public golf courses in North Carolina, Golfweek would advise you to go to Pinehurst.
The top eight public courses in the state are in the Pinehurst area, according to a Golfweek list released Friday.
The top 10, in order: Pinehurst No. 2, Pinehurst No. 10, Pinehurst No. 4, Mid Pines, Pine Needles, Tobacco Road, Pinehurst No. 8, Southern Pines, Bald Head Island Club and Woodlake Club, a course in Vass reclaimed from abandonment two years ago by Greensboro architect Kris Spence.
Four are part of Pinehurst Resort and three (Mid Pines, Pine Needles, Southern Pines) are owned by Bullet and Peggy Kirk Bell family members.
Tot Hill Farm at No. 12 was the only Triad course on the top 20 list.
The rest of the top 20 (in order): Thistle Golf Club in Sunset Beach, Tot Hill Farm, Duke Golf Club, Waynesville Inn, Pinehurst No. 7, UNC Finley, Mid South in Southern Pines, Pinehurst No. 9, Currituck in Carolla and Rock Barn (Jones Jr.) in Conover.
Earlier in the month, a Golfweek list made Old Town Club the state’s top private course ahead of Wade Hampton Club in Cashiers. None of the magazine’s top 15 private courses in the state were in the Triad.
Southern Methodist golfer Mackenzie Lee of North Little Rock, Arkansas, won the North & South Women’s Amateur on Saturday at Pinehurst No. 2. Lee beat Australian Jazy Roberts 2-up in the championship match.
Winston-Salem golfer Macy Pate, a rising junior at Wake Forest, claimed a share of medalist honors for the second straight year. Pate shot 72 at Pinehurst No. 7 and 66 at Pinehurst No. 2 to post 6-under-par 138 and tie two other players.
Pate, runner-up in match play last year, was upset 3 and 1 in the first round by Sara Im of Duluth, Georgia, a player at Vanderbilt.
In the North & South Men’s Amateur, Carlos Astiazaran of Tucson, Arizona, and the University of the Pacific, beat Tyler Watts of Huntsville, Alabama, in 19 holes in the championship match. Astiazaran was one of the two players who advanced from a nine-way tie at 1-over 142 in stroke play for the final spots in the 32-player match play format.
Neither an iron to the head in the conference tournament nor a “monsoon” in the state tournament could prevent senior Brandon Bowman from leading Mt. Airy High to the Class 1A boys’ state championship.
Bowman’s final postseason adventures began at Roaring Gap Club with the Northwest 1A Conference tourney.
Standing in high grass “15 yards” from the No. 3 tee markers and gazing down the fairway of the short, dogleg left par-4 with his range finder, Bowman never saw the practice backswing from Alex Garza of Elkin that crashed into the side of his head and knocked his cap off.
‘”What was that?’ I thought,” recalled Bowman, stunned by the unseen blow. “Then I look over, and he’s about to do it again.”
Like Bowman, Garza must have figured he was a safe distance from the tee and his competitors. Bowman said the Elkin player, who he now jokingly calls “headhunter” apologized multiple times.
Bowman, who did avoid a mulligan swing from Garza, admits he was “dizzy” for a few holes after getting hit with the iron — no, he didn’t get the number of the iron that hit him — and soon developed a significant “knot” on his head.
Initially, Bowman seemed to shake it off. But he soon got dizzy and a bit queasy. He asked his mom for a soft drink to help settle his stomach, but eventually vomited behind the bushes at No. 5. At 7, he hit a shot out of bounds and made double bogey.
That’s when Mt. Airy coach Mark Hiatt met with Bowman to make sure he was OK to continue. They decided to make a decision at the turn.
Bowman rebounded with birdies on No. 8 and 9, eventually finishing with 73 on the tough Donald Ross design. Most important, he escaped serious injury.
“(Hiatt) said, ‘Go to the back nine,”‘ Bowman remembered with a smile.
“That’s a pretty good comeback,” assessed Bowman, who didn’t have a concussion when he was examined the next day. “The doctor said an inch in another direction and I would have been hit in the temple.”
The Granite Bears, the regular-season Northwest champions, finished second to Elkin in the tourney. But a state title was still a possibility.
At the State 1A Midwest Regional, Bowman and Mt. Airy rebounded. Bowman was medalist with 1-under-par 71 at Cedarbrook Country Club, leading the Granite Bears to a two-shot victory over Union Academy.
In the state tournament at Longleaf Club in Southern Pines, heavy rain plagued the opening day of the scheduled 36-hole tournament.
Mt. Airy won the Class 1A state title at Longleaf Club. Shown (from left): coach Mark Hiatt, Oscar Stanley, Will Bowman, Shockley Hiatt, Brandon Bowman and Finley Baird.
Bowman and Mt. Airy slogged through eight holes — Bowman was 4-over — before play was stopped. Comparing conditions to a monsoon, Bowman said the rain prevented him from seeing through his range finder.
With the tournament shortened to 18 holes, Bowman got off to a bad start the next day with a bogey and a double bogey on his first two holes. So he was 8-over after 10 holes and mired somewhere “in the 60s” on the scoreboard.
“I told myself, ‘Bear down and make something happen,”‘ said the long-hitting Bowman, who knew he could take advantage of two remaining par-5s.
With three birdies — two on the par-5s — in the final eight holes, Bowman finished with 76 to tie for fifth in the individual standings. Though he didn’t look at the online leaderboard on his phone, Bowman was later told that his birdie on the 16th hole put Mt. Airy ahead for good.
Shockley Hiatt added 80, Oscar Stanley posted 81, Will Bowman shot 83 and Finley Baird had 88 for the Granite Bears, the only public school team to finish in the top 6.
Sawyer Slate of South Stokes won medalist honors at Longleaf with 71.
Bowman said the Granite Bears celebrated with a pool party. The school will award them with rings in the fall.
Bowman will have to drive back from Buies Creek to get his ring. He’s been accepted into Campbell University’s PGM program and plans to stay five years to get an MBA. He turned down a few offers to play college golf at other schools.
“I don’t think I’m good enough to go to the PGA Tour,” Bowman reasoned.
Interested in mechanical engineering, he hopes to someday work for a major club manufacturer.
“If I could get an internship at Titleist, that would be cool,” Bowman said. “That would be my No. 1.”
North Carolina A&T announced on Tuesday that it had hired Mesha Levister as its new director of golf over the school’s men’s and women’s golf programs.
Levister, a standout player at North Carolina Central, won the 2004 Virginia Women’s Amateur and played on the Epson Tour. She was the women’s coach at Prairie View (Texas) A&M the past three years, earning coach of the year honors in 2023.
Levister is the first woman to coach a N.C. A&T men’s team.
With Pinehurst Resort’s continued expansion, its chief rival in the Sandhills appears unlikely to be left in the dust.
Owners of the Pine Needles and Mid Pines resorts have announced a partnership with Marine & Lawn Hotels & Resorts, which will take over management and oversee renovations on the hotels and their food and beverage services.
The Miller, McGowan and Tharani families own Pine Needles, Mid Pines and recent acquisition Southern Pines Golf Club, which has established itself as a worthy sister property after an extensive restoration.
In 1953, Warren and Peggy Kirk Bell took over at Pine Needles. They added Mid Pines, just across N.C. 2, in 1994. Kelly Miller and Pat McGowan married Bell daughters.
“This is an exiting initiative for our resorts,” Kelly Miller, president and CEO of the group, said in a release. “We’ve needed for some time to upgrade our lodging facilities as well as our food and beverage, and Marine & Lawn is an ideal partner for us.”
Both Pine Needles and Mid Pines have world-class courses designed by Donald Ross, who also designed Southern Pines, which does not include lodging.
Mid Pines is scheduled to close for renovations of 6-8 months in the fall. The golf courses will not close.
In the UK, Marine & Lawn’s golf portfolio includes Rusacks St Andrews, Marine North Berwick, Marine Troon and Dornoch State in Scotland; and the Slieve Donard near Royal County Down and Portrush Delphi.
Pinehurst Resort has expanded from seven courses to 10 in the past three decades with No. 11 under construction. Pinehurst has also acquired many lodging properties during the same time frame.
A college standout who grew up close to Wake Forest University apparently will finish her collegiate playing career at the Winston-Salem school.
Morgan Ketchum, a three-year starter at ACC rival Virginia Tech, will play her senior year at Wake. Ketchum was the 2021 medalist in the N.C. Class 4A state championship and played on three state title teams at Reagan High School.
At Virginia Tech, Ketchum led the Hokies in scoring average two years and was second last season. Ketchum had five top 20 finishes during her junior year.
Though not yet announced by Virginia Tech or Wake Forest, the transfer was made public on the Women’s North & South Amateur online site listing players’ college affiliations.
At Wake, Ketchum will reunite with fellow Reagan star Macy Pate, the Demon Deacons’ top returning player. Pate was the medalist at last year’s North & South and advanced to the championship match.
The Men’s North & South begins Tuesday with the first round of stroke play at Pinehurst Nos. 2 and 7. Last year’s winner, Catie Craig of Western Kentucky, turned pro.
The Triad will be represented in the 120-player field by Ketchum, Pate and a strong group of entrants including Virginia Tech’s Emily Mathews, High Point’s Anna Howerton and Lewisville high schooler Hallie Wilson.
The top 32 players after 36 holes of stroke play, advance to match play.
How did a small town build the Jamestown Park Golf Course, a challenging, well-maintained facility with 18 holes and a driving range?
“It literally was built with booze and liquor money,” said Scott Coakley, the longtime parks and recreation director for the Town of Jamestown.
You see, back in 1974, Jamestown (population 2,231 in 1970 Census) had a bustling ABC store near the border with then-dry High Point. Revenues were pouring in, and not enough was getting spent by the town.
According to what’s he been told, Coakley said state officials told Jamestown to spend some of that money. To back up the story, Coakley said he’s seen the state grant request from the town, listing ABC revenues as the source of matching funds.
So the town pieced together Jamestown Park’s 180 acres — some acquired in a land swap with High Point — and built the golf facility.
The small town, still under 4,000 in population, built a big-time muni course, most of it free of adjoining housing, with Tif-Eagle Bermuda greens among the fastest in the Triad.
The par-72 layout measures 6,700 yards from tips with a rating of 72.4 and a 129 slope. Three other sets of tees are available, beginning at less than 5,000 yards.
Jamestown has made the commitment to maintain the course in good condition. The course’s staff is made up of full-time city employees. There’s never been a management company.
“Jamestown has always taken pride in this place, a small community with an 18-hole course and a driving range,” said Coakley, who believes the town may be the nation’s smallest to operate an 18-hole course with a range.
Architect Lester George renovated the greens of the John Townsend design in 2016, softening some of the contours to allow more pin positions and replacing the former bent grass surfaces.
Coakley said only 6% of play at Jamestown Park is from town residents, who get a discount. But the course played 33,000 rounds last year. Rack rates for 18 holes and cart are $45 on weekdays and $55 on weekends.
“Honestly, word of mouth is important,” said head professional Marcy Newton. “The greens are good — we hear that all the time. Our greens rival some of the country clubs.”
Undulating fairways, often lined by trees, provide much of the difficulty. Water rarely comes into play on a few holes — the par-3 17th requires a carry to a green that slopes back toward a lake.
No. 9, requires a medium-length carry over water to an uphill fairway bending slightly left toward the clubhouse.
The drive at No. 9, one of the toughest holes at Jamestown Park, must carry a lake to an uphill landing area.
There are opportunities to roll shots onto most of the greens. Bunkers aren’t dramatically deep.
“I would say we get all types of golfers — beginning to scratch,” Newton said. “I think the course is good in that way.
But the par-3 eighth is probably the signature hole. Stretching to almost 200 yards from the back tees, the holes plays longer, ranging uphill to a green featuring a big hump on the right. Woods run tightly along the right. Shots missing to the left either find a deep bunker several yards short of the putting surface or tumble down a steep slope, leaving a tough pitch. Out of bounds are only a few steps over the green.
The majority of the course’s par-4 and par-5 holes bend at least slightly to the left, prompting another Jamestown Park legend.
“Rumor has it that all of our holes bend left because our town manager (Charles Turner) at the time was left-handed,” Coakley said. “I’ve heard that story several times.”
In June, the course got new lithium-powered Yamaha carts with GPS — a feature new to the course.
“We keep trying to push the envelope to get better and better,” Coakley said.
Superintendent Justin May said the course hopes to make renovations to bunkers and tees in the next few years. Coakley said the town is also considering reopening the clubhouse kitchen to offer more than the current hotdogs and cold sandwiches.
Aiden Wilson of Winston-Salem tied for fourth on Thursday in the CGA North Carolina Junior Boys’ Championship at River Landing Golf Club in Wallace.
A rising senior at Oak Grove High, Wilson finished at 3-under-par 213, five strokes behind champion Ian McGee of Durham. Wilson shot 71 in the final round, including an eagle on the par-5 13th hole.
