Spence recently completed a renovation of Dunedin, an original Donald Ross design on the Gulf Coast, just north of St. Petersburg.
Forbes focuses on Spence’s discovery of Ross’ original and larger greens complexes and his restoration.
A Missouri native, Spence is regarded as an expert at Ross renovations with experience in restorations at more than two dozen Ross courses.
Locally, the Ross designs he has renovated include Sedgefield Country Club and Forsyth Country Club. He has also completed high-profile renovations at Ross courses such as Roaring Gap Club, Grove Park Inn and Cape Fear Country Club.
Despite a massive slowdown in the design and construction of new courses throughout the country, Spence has stayed busy with high-profile renovations.
Spence has also earned a few high-profile design opportunities. Quixote Club, opened in 2021 in Sumter, South Carolina, has gathered worldwide praise, placing No. 19 on Golf Digest’s list of South Carolina’s top courses. At Quixote, Spence built a new design on the site of modest former course.
With ample justification, Anna Howerton took lofty goals into the “spring” golf season at High Point University.
“I’d love to be a contributor to bringing a Big South Championship to High Point,” Howerton told TriadGolf.com on Tuesday. “I’d like to be the Big South Conference Player of the Year.”
Lofty goals, yes. Cocky or arrogant? No. Just honest. And realistic given Howerton’s track record, which prompted Big South coaches to pick the Winston-Salem native as their 2025 Preseason Player of the Year.
Howerton was Big South Freshman of the Year last year, with individual highlights including winning the UNC Greensboro Collegiate and finishing third in both the Big South Conference Championship and the 19-team Golfweek Intercollegiate won by the Panthers at Caledonia Golf and Fish Club in Pawleys Island, South Carolina.
Howerton has made a strong start to the current spring season. She went 3-0 in a match-play event with Samford, Gardner-Webb and The Citadel at Charleston (S.C.) Municipal Golf Course and followed with a tie for sixth at 3-over-par 219 as the Panthers won a 14-team event at nearby RiverTowne Country Club. Earlier this month, she tied for eighth individually as HPU finished seventh in a 16-team field in Jacksonville, Florida.
In the first match of the fall 2024 season, Howerton shot a bogey-free (first in collegiate competition) 66 in a return to Caledonia.
“I’m having fun. I’m in a good place,” Howerton said. “I’m really starting to see my potential. I’m really feeling I can do this at an elite level.”
At Reagan High, Howerton often played in the team’s individual No. 1 lineup spot (based on previous scores) on a team was voted the nation’s top prep team by the National High School Golf Association and included Wake Forest star Macy Pate and Virginia Tech standout Morgan Ketchum.
Howerton (right) teamed with Macy Pate (center) and Morgan Ketchum to win two state titles at Reagan High.
“Playing with them, really upped my drive,” Howerton said.
Next up: a duel Saturday with local rival Elon University in “The Battle of the Triad,” at High Point Country Club’s Willow Creek course. Players on each team will play two matches. All eight players on the HPU roster will take part. Elon, which has nine players, have their No. 8 and 9 players play in one match each.
Despite shooting 77 (HPU’s best score) in cold, wet and windy conditions at the final round in Jacksonville, Howerton has a 71.93 scoring average as a sophomore.
“That was a test of my mental game,” Howerton said. “I had to knuckle down and stay level-headed.”
Howerton and the Panthers have about a month to prepare for the Big South tournament at Fripp Island, S.C. That’s where High Point can earn an automatic NCAA regionals berth with a conference title.
As a mid-major, HPU has little chance of receiving an at-large berth. The Panthers enter the match with Elon at No. 94 in the national rankings.
Howerton is No. 254 in the individual rankings. With few, if any, opportunities to play the highly ranked players from power conferences such as the SEC or ACC, moving up the rankings is especially difficult. At 5-foot-3 with a slender, athletic build, she has a solid, all-around game, but doesn’t enjoy a significant distance advantage off the tee.
A “people person” and finance major who maintains that she has no desire for the lonely rigors of the LPGA Tour, Howerton still makes five-hour drives to see instructor Rickey Sullivan at Bulls Bay Golf Club, north of Charleston. After the sessions, she makes the return trip home.
“It’s not something I see myself doing forever,” Howerton said of a potential career traveling alone on the road. “I’m definitely trying to play as well as I can now, but I don’t aspire to do this after college.”
Howerton sees this weekend’s event as a milestone. In past years, HPU has played a similar event with UNC Greensboro, but not at Willow Creek, the Panthers’ “home” course.
“It’ll be a really cool event,” Howerton said. “I don’t think we’ve ever hosted an event at Willow Creek.”
There’s been a major shakeup at one of the Triad’s best-known golf facilities.
The husband-wife team of Eddie and Jane Stephens have left their positions as general manager and food and beverage director, respectively, at Forest Oaks Country Club.
Multiple sources told TriadGolf.com that the couple left their positions a few weeks ago after a falling out with owner Terry Lee, and that director of golf Codey Adams was filling the GM role. While serving as Forest Oaks GM, Eddie Stephens maintained a Greensboro wealth management office.
Eddie Stephens, who grew up as a member of the course, was a catalyst in Lee’s decision to buy the club in 2019 and make improvements. Forest Oaks had suffered instability under the Japanese Nisshin Corp., which hired eight different management groups and neglected the facilities after the PGA Tour’s Greater Greensboro Open returned to Sedgefield Country Club in 2007 after 31 years at Forest Oaks.
With its somewhat isolated location in southeast Guilford County, Forest Oaks was unable to sustain itself as an entirely private club and accepted outside golf play in recent years.
Forest Oaks was actually locked and closed in 2014 due to unpaid debts. Lee purchased the club the land sits on for $1.2 million.
With Stephens as GM and limited partner, improvements were made to amenities such as the swimming pool and tennis courts and a simulator room was added for members. Last year in a cover story in Triad Golf Magazine, Stephens said that management with his family and the Lees had “hit our stride.”
Reached Wednesday, Stephens texted, “All I can say is … ‘I wish them the best.'”
The University of North Carolina women’s golf set a school record Tuesday by posting a 31-under-par total for 54 holes to romp to an 11-shot victory over Kansas in the 12-team Yale Invitational West at PGA West in LaQuinta, California.
Ing Iadpluem finished second in the individual race for the No. 15 Tar Heels at 11-under 205 after a final-round 71. Helen Yeung was fourth at 208 and Reagan Southerland was fifth at 209.
Virginia Tech, with Triad natives Morgan Ketchum and Emily Mathews in the lineup, finished fourth at even-par for the tournament. Both shot 72 in the final round. Ketchum tied for 19th at even, one shot ahead of Mathews. The Hokies finished two shots better than the fifth-place team, No. 12 Vanderbilt, the highest-ranked team in the field.
A small city at one edge of the Triad has a new golf professional at one club and one on the way at another.
Veteran Triad golf professional Andy Cardwell is the new pro at Mt. Airy County Club. Cardwell told Triad Golf Magazine that he would take over his new duties on March 24.
Currently the golf professional at Deep Springs Country Club in Stoneville, Cardwell previously served as general manager at Oak Valley Golf Club in Advance.
Less than a mile down the road (Greenhill/Country Club roads) from Mt. Airy CC, Timmy Brant has left Cross Creek Country Club and taken a sales position with an out-of-town company, Triad Golf Magazine has learned. A replacement has not yet been announced by the club.
Brant, a Mt. Airy native, was brought back to Cross Creek after Skip and Cathy Eckenrod bought the club in October 2020. The Eckenrods own Interlam, a Mt. Airy-based designer and manufacturer of sculpted wall panels.
Brant had worked at several N.C. courses, serving as head pro at High Meadows Club in Roaring Gap before going to Cross Creek, which has an 18-hole Joe Lee design open to public play with several amenities for members.
Triad golfers Morgan Ketchum and Emily Mathews made strong showings with the Virginia Tech women’s team on Monday at the Yale Invitational West at PGA West at LaQuinta, California.
Ketchum shot 2-under-par 70 and Mathews posted 71 for the Hokies, who are in seventh place. North Carolina is running away from the field with a 10-shot lead at 22-under 554. The Tar Heels, ranked 15th in the nation, are one of five top-30 teams in the 12-team field, led by No. 12 Vanderbilt.
Ketchum is in 20th place in the individual standings at even-par. Mathews is in 26th at 1-over. Ing Iadpluem of UNC leads the individuals at 10-under.
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Guilford College tied for eighth and Greensboro College placed 12th in the 20-team field at the Tiger Invitational, which concluded Tuesday at Forest Creek Country Club’s North Course in Pinehurst.
Methodist, ranked No. 2 in Division III won the event at 9-under-par 567 in the 36-hole event, beating second-place Babson College by nine 11 strokes. Sewanee, Emory and Hampden-Sydney rounded out the top five in the team race at the Tom Fazio-designed layout.
Chase Watts of Methodist was medalist at 10-under 134. Triad native Evan Mendyk, ranked 12th in Division III, tied for 29th at 148, for Guilford. Luke Wise finished at 151 for the Quakers. Triad native Ethan Cuddeback and Brevin Knight led Greensboro with 152.
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Elon was in seventh place after the opening day of the scheduled, 54-hole Babygrande Donald Ross Collegiate at Mid-Pines Golf Club in Southern Pines. Chattanooga led the 20-team field at 10-under, 18 strokes ahead of Elon and five on top of second-place George Mason, when play was suspended in Monday afternoon’s second round due to darkness.
There are about 100 golf courses on Grand Strand. It all depends on how far up and down the coast and into Brunswick County you keeping counting. When I lived there for most of the 1990s, the number increased every year, rising well above the century level.
Yes, I had played them all, including private clubs such Wachesaw Plantation, DeBordieu Cub, The Reserve at Pawleys Island and Grande Dunes Members, plus those whose status has changed such as The Dunes Golf and Beach Club, The Surf Golf and Beach Club and Pawleys Plantation.
Then came 9/11 and a recession. Then the popping of the real estate bubble. The tourism business struggled. Fewer visitors came to the Myrtle Beach area to play golf.
I used to count St. James Plantation outside Southport, which later took its four courses private, and Bald Head Island Club, which is two hours away if you include the ferry ride.
The days of going to Myrtle Beach and playing a new course are long gone. But when you’ve got 60 miles of coastline and 100 existing courses, there is always news.
I had a fantastic, but short, trip to Myrtle Beach last week, including rounds at Caledonia Golf and Fish Club and the Dunes Club. Here’s a few tidbits gathered during my pre-spring trip last week:
–The Calabash River bridge on scenic Beach Drive between Calabash and Sunset Beach is expected to reopen in May, according to multiple sources quoting NCDOT. The closing for almost two years has caused detours of 15 minutes for golfers heading north to Oyster Bay Golf Links and the three courses at Sea Trail Plantation.
–PopStroke, the Tiger Woods-affiliated entertainment facility with specialized putting courses that opened in spring 2024 at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach, is worthy of a visit. Designed with artificial grass products offering and a variety of playing conditions and undulating holes, PopStroke also offers food and drink in a sports bar atmosphere.
–The PGA Tour’s OneFlight Myrtle Beach Classic, scheduled for the same weekend in May as the Truist Championship, will have celebrity pro-am stars such as Kevin Costner and Kurt Russell. Beach music favorites Chairmen of the Board and Tyler Hubbard of Florida Georgia Line fame will hold concerts.
–Brierwood Golf Club in Shallotte, an 18-hole facility catering mostly to locals but open to the public, is planned to reopen with nine holes after closing several years ago.
The owner of three prestigious Triad golf clubs has added a South Carolina course to its holdings.
McConnell Golf, owner of Sedgefield Country Club, The Cardinal by Pete Dye and Old North State Club in the Triad, has purchased the 27-hole Cobblestone Park Golf Club near Columbia, sources with McConnell confirmed Friday to Triad Golf Magazine.
McConnell has renamed the Blythewood property as Cobblestone Golf Club and created a new club logo. Headquartered in Raleigh, McConnell now has 17 properties, including 15 in the Carolinas.
Originally opened for University of South Carolina supporters as University Club in the 1990s, the hilly Cobblestone layout was designed by P.B. Dye inside a gated community.
The clubhouse includes guests a large pro shop and Alexander’s Restaurant. The club also has practice centers, including a driving range, chipping area, and putting greens.
Other facilities include a swimming pool, seven tennis courts, pickleball courts, and a fitness center with a basketball court,.
Kelvin Hernandez, playing in his second consecutive Puerto Rico Open on the PGA Tour, shot another 72 Friday to finish at even-par 144 after the first two rounds, missing the cut.
The UNC Greensboro sophomore, who last year become the first Spartan player to play in the NCAA Championship, had earned a spot in the field through a local qualifying event over his winter break.
Despite the solid performance, Hernandez was five shots from making the cut. He also missed the cut in 2024.
The second-leader is Rasmus-Neergaard Peterson at 15-under with rounds of 64 and 65. The $4-million tournament is taking place while the Tour’s top players compete in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
The UNC Greensboro women won the 13-team Puerto Rico Shootout by five strokes over James Madison at Palmas Del Mar Country Club in Humacao when Thursday’s final round was canceled by poor weather.
The Spartans shot 2-over 574 for 36 holes. Lulu Leetham led UNCG with a 4-under-par 140 total, good for a second-place tie with Anna Dawson of Little Rock, one stroke behind Hannah Rabb of James Madison.
UNC Greensboro won the Puerto Rico Shootout by one stroke over James Madison.
Boston College finished third, Southern Mississippi placed fourth and Florida Gulf Coast placed fifth. The tournament host was Ball State.
Leetham, a freshman from Brackley, England, now has four straight top-30 finishes. Teammate Kasey McIlvaine tied for 10th at 146, with Elle Burnette tying for 19th at 148, Eva Romfo tying for 26th at 149 and Sophie Lauture posting 152.
