The highly acclaimed Winston-Salem course closed April 16 to make several structural improvements, including the change of the surfaces of the undulating greens from bentgrass to bermudagrass Tif-Eagle. The club will also complete installation of the Better Billy Bunker system in its 80 sand bunkers, improve cart paths and complete other updates around the course…
Tommy Gibson has made his mark in North Carolina golf over the last decade. He’s one of the more successful players on the Carolinas PGA circuit and has held positions at such prestigious clubs as Quail Hollow, Charlotte Country Club and for the last five years at Old Town Club in Winston-Salem. But a little…
By Brad King Less than 20 minutes into his final round at the 2020 Carolinas PGA Professional Championship, Tommy Gibson was forced to change his mind set. Gibson, 31, an assistant professional at Winston-Salem’s Old Town Club, had played rock-steady golf during the prestigious tournament’s first two rounds. He posted a pair of even-par 72s…
By Brad King Safe to say, the cities of Winston-Salem and Tulsa aren’t often discussed in the same conversation. In this case, however, the dialogue that took place in mid-2018 was in regard to a pair of historic golf clubs: Old Town Club in the Triad area and Southern Hills Country Club in Oklahoma. Old…
By David Droschak With more than 650 courses scattered across 100 counties from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Outer Banks, the competition among North Carolina golf layouts can be intense. Any private, public or resort course that claims “they don’t care” about being ranked among the state’s best is, well, lying. Rankings from national…
By Robert Kimball It’s impossible to miss it. The statue out front of the Arnold Palmer Golf Facility at Wake Forest University captures the famous Demon Deacon in a full, powerful follow-through that is classic Arnie. But even The King has to share space with a legend. Wake Forest’s new Haddock House, which opened in…
By BRAD KING McConnell Golf recently held its annual executive meeting in which administrators from the company’s growing stable of clubs made a variety of presentations to the group covering numerous club-related topics. Michael Shoun, the director of agronomy, titled his presentation, “The Year of Extremes.” Golf course superintendents like Shoun are the caretakers of…
By BRAD KING It is not the history, the storied tournament venues, the enormous prize money nor even the numerous, immensely popular players. No, the heart and soul of the PGA Tour is its record-setting philanthropic legacy. In January, the Tour announced that it has surpassed $2 billion in all-time charitable giving. The Tour achieved…
Perry Maxwell’s 1939 course at Old Town Club to reopen this summer By BRAD KING Bill Coore is standing on the first tee box at Winston-Salem’s Old Town Club pointing toward a trio of bunkers flanking the right side of the opening fairway. On an unseasonably cool, spring morning, the soft-spoken, 67-year-old golf course architect –…