Biltmore Forest Country Club

Biltmore Forest Country Club began with the town around it. In 1920 Edith Vanderbilt, widow of George W. Vanderbilt, acquired land from the Biltmore Estate for the new town of Biltmore Forest, including a site for a country club. She planned the club with a group of Asheville men who became its charter members: Junius G. Adams, Burnham S. Colburn, Thomas W. Raoul and William Knight. According to the club's history, once the town was laid out and its first houses were going up, Donald Ross was retained to design the golf course, Edward L. Palmer of Baltimore received the clubhouse commission, and Chauncey D. Beadle of the Biltmore Estate was chosen as landscape architect.

Construction began in 1921. When the developer's money ran short, Cornelia Vanderbilt, George and Edith's only child and the owner, advanced funds to finish the club. The board of governors held its organizational meeting on June 8, 1922, and the club opened on July 4, 1922. On a rainy opening day Cornelia Vanderbilt hit the first shot at 2:30 p.m. A year later, on July 4, 1923, Edith Vanderbilt teed off to mark the club's first anniversary, watched by Cornelia, Junius Adams and the Spanish ambassador, Juan Riaño y Gayangos.

An oral history held by Buncombe County Special Collections names the man who built the course. Samuel Abdul-Allah told the library that his grandfather, Samuel Barnes, who had trained in landscape work under Beadle, was given the club's blueprints to build the golf course, and the library records Barnes as the course's first superintendent.

In 1940 the club signed a ten-year lease at $10,000 a year with an option to buy for $200,000, and in 1948 it exercised the option, issuing $175,000 in bonds to the company and becoming a member-owned club. Brian Silva restored the course in the 1990s and renovated it again in 2014-15; the club now names Andrew Green as its architect of record.

Holes to Know

From the Gold tees the course is par 70 and 6,638 yards, 35 out and 35 in. There are three par 3s (the 3rd, 9th and 15th), fourteen par 4s and a single par 5, the 516-yard 7th on the front nine.

The 429-yard 2nd from the Gold tees, stroke index 3, is the hole Ben Hogan praised. It starts beside a tree-lined creek, then turns right about 40 degrees around a stand of trees. A pond runs down the right for the last hundred yards, one bunker sits left about 65 yards short, and the pear-shaped green has a single bunker behind its left side.

The 461-yard 4th from the Gold tees is stroke index 1. The creek runs up the right for the first 220 yards under a line of trees, the fairway has one bunker on its right edge at about 260 yards and another left near the green, and a long bunker lines the right side of a pear-shaped green.

The 396-yard 10th from the Gold tees is straight and open from the tee. Its defence is six rectangular bunkers set in rows on both sides of a nearly rectangular green about 35 yards deep, four on the left and two on the right.

The 313-yard 12th from the Gold tees has ten bunkers, all in the last 110 yards: a chain of four down the left of the fairway, two more at the green's left, and four on the right, two of them stacked in front of the green about 28 and 38 yards short.

The 446-yard 16th from the Gold tees bends left about 40 degrees roughly 290 yards out. Bunkers squeeze the landing area from both sides at around 180 to 210 yards, and two more sit on the inside of the bend 70 and 35 yards short of an unbunkered oval green.

Ross's Design Here

Silva, who studied the course closely in the 1990s, put Ross's contribution in the routing: "The genius of Biltmore Forest can be found in how Ross routed the holes: They lay so very naturally on the rolling terrain." In 2013 the Asheville Chamber described it as hilly, tree-lined and compact, with most tees a few paces from the previous green.

The greens carry the strongest documented link to Ross. Golfdom reported in 2000 that Silva found a cache of photographs showing every green, fairway and bunker as they were when Ross finished the course, and used it to restore all 18 putting surfaces to their original configurations. Players describe them today as small, well bunkered and well contoured. Brenda Corrie Kuehn, a two-time Curtis Cup player and club champion, told the Chamber in 2013 that "the fairways are wide and there's not much trouble to get into. But you have to know how to play the greens."

The bunkering is Ross's in pattern rather than in construction. The same photographs let Silva reinstate dozens of original Ross bunkers and remove the ones added later, and the 2014-15 project reintroduced more from Ross's plans. Today the 10th and 12th, where bunkers stand in rows along the sides of the greens, are the holes Top100GolfCourses calls perhaps the most photographed on the course. The creek Top100 describes as coming into play on a number of holes is most visible today beside the opening yards of the 2nd and 4th.

Historical Significance

The Biltmore Invitational ran from 1922 to 1962, with a women's event to 1946, and its champions included Billy Joe Patton, Harvie Ward, P.J. Boatwright, Frank Ford Sr. and Dan and Charles Yates. In March 1923 Walter Hagen won an open played over 36 holes at Asheville Country Club and two rounds at Biltmore Forest, beating Joe Kirkwood and Jock Hutchison. Bobby Jones was an honorary member, and Jess Sweetser, the 1922 U.S. Amateur and 1926 British Amateur champion, was a member; the club's Sweetser Memorial four-ball honours him. Cary Middlecoff was a longtime member.

Ben Hogan won the Land of the Sky tournament at the club three years running, from 1940 to 1942. The club's history records him calling the par-four 2nd one of the finest holes on the professional circuit. Club member Charlie Price has said Hogan three-putted only twice in 216 holes while winning three straight tournaments in 1940, both times at Biltmore Forest.

The club has hosted two USGA championships. Dorothy Delasin won the 1999 U.S. Women's Amateur, beating Jimin Kang 4 and 3 in the final. Julia Potter won the 2013 U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur in 19 holes over Margaret Shirley, becoming the first left-handed USGA champion. Scott Harvey won the 107th Carolinas Amateur there in July 2021 at 10-under 270. The club was to host the 2025 U.S. Senior Amateur, but after Hurricane Helene the USGA moved that championship to Oak Hills Country Club in San Antonio, and Biltmore Forest took Oak Hills' place for the 73rd U.S. Senior Amateur, scheduled for August 26-31, 2028. The club cites a No. 11 ranking in North Carolina from Golf Digest.

Changes Since Ross

Golfdom reported in 2000 that when Silva was hired to assess the club's long-range needs, he found a course that had drifted away from Ross's concept. Working from the photographs, he restored all 18 greens, reinstated dozens of original bunkers and removed later ones, directed a substantial tree-trimming campaign, and rebuilt all 18 tee complexes in a rectangular style typical of the 1920s. Golfdom says he finished in 1995.

Silva returned for an eight-month, $6.4 million project that reopened the course in July 2015. Working from Ross's plans and early photographs, he reworked the greens and reintroduced some of the original bunkering. The club's account adds irrigation and drainage replacement, Better Billy Bunker liners, improved practice facilities and cart paths, and new sod on greens, tees and fairways: A-1 bentgrass greens and zoysia tees and fairways. Golf Club Atlas contributor Ed Oden, writing as the course reopened in July 2015, gave the scope as recovering lost green space and softening some of the most severe greens to add hole locations, restoring the kick plate on the par-3 9th, the hole regarded as the course's redan, rebuilding all the bunkers and restoring a few lost ones, and adding fescue around some greens and bunkers.

Hurricane Helene in September 2024 cost the course trees rather than holes. Superintendent Michael Heustis told LINKS Magazine the staff cleaned up more than 160 trees and that the club was shut for a period without power.

Uncertainties

• Opening date: Golfdom's 2000 sidebar says the course opened in summer 1921; the club and the Asheville Chamber give July 4, 1922. This listing follows the club.

• Silva's first restoration: Golfdom says he finished in 1995, the Asheville Chamber dates the work to 1994, and Top100GolfCourses to 1998. This listing follows Golfdom.

• Land of the Sky tournament: the club places it at Biltmore Forest from 1939 to 1942; a 2013 Chamber piece says the Land of the Sky Open was played at the club from 1933 to 1951. Hogan's three wins (1940-42) are common to both.

Sources & Notes

1. Biltmore Forest Country Club, Club History and Historic Timeline, https://www.biltmoreforestcc.com/history (read 2026-10-07). Land, charter members, Ross, Palmer and Beadle, construction and opening, 1940 lease and 1948 purchase, invitationals, Hagen, Hogan and the 2nd, championships, 2028 Senior Amateur.

2. Biltmore Forest Country Club, About the Club, https://www.biltmoreforestcc.com/about (read 2026-10-07). 2014-15 renovation scope, turf, Andrew Green as architect of record, Golf Digest ranking, facilities.

3. Golfdom, "A Kodak Moment," March 2000, p. 64, Michigan State University Turfgrass Information Center scan, https://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/golfd/page/2000mar61-70.pdf. Silva's restoration from vintage photographs, completed 1995; Silva quote on the routing.

4. Sean Dudley, "Course at Biltmore Forest Country Club reopens following renovation work," Golf Course Architecture, 6 July 2015, https://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/content/PgrID/573/PageID/2/artmid/574/articleid/12209. 2015 project cost, length and scope.

5. Katherine Calhoun Cutshall, "Building Biltmore Forest: 52 Weeks, 52 Communities," Buncombe County Special Collections, 12 March 2019, https://specialcollections.buncombenc.gov/2019/03/12/building-biltmore-forest-52-weeks-52-communities/. Samuel Abdul-Allah oral history on Samuel Barnes.

6. Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, "Biltmore Forest relishes opportunity to host 2013 Women's Mid-Amateur Golf," 2013, https://ashevillechamber.org/news-events/biltmore-forest-relishes-opportunity-to-host-2013-womens-mid-amateur-golf. Course character, greens, Hogan's three-putts, members, Kuehn quote.

7. Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, "Biltmore Forest enhances rich golf heritage with U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur," 2013, https://www.ashevillechamber.org/news-events/biltmore-forest-enhances-rich-golf-heritage-with-u-s-womens-mid-amateur/. Cornelia Vanderbilt's funding, location.

8. TurfNet, "Helene forces USGA to move Senior Amateur from North Carolina to Texas," December 2024, https://turfnet.com/news/helene-forces-usga-to-move-senior-amateur-from-north-carolina-to-texas/. 2025 relocation and 2028 swap.

9. LINKS Magazine, "A Year After Helene: Asheville Golf Courses on the Comeback Trail," 2025, https://linksmagazine.com/a-year-after-helene-asheville-golf-courses-on-the-comeback-trail/. Helene tree damage.

10. Top100GolfCourses, Biltmore Forest Country Club, https://www.top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/biltmore-forest. Brook in play; the 10th and 12th and their bunkers.

11. Wikipedia, U.S. Women's Amateur, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Women%27s_Amateur; U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Women%27s_Mid-Amateur; Ben Hogan, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Hogan. Finals results and Hogan's 1940-42 Asheville wins.

12. NC OneMap 2019 orthoimagery, https://www.nconemap.gov, with the Greens Visited scorecard (Gold tees). Pars, yardages, stroke indexes and hole descriptions.

13. Jean Sexton, "Golf at Biltmore: Past and present," Biltmore, 3 September 2026, https://www.biltmore.com/blog/golf-at-biltmore-past-and-present/. Opening-day first shot; July 4, 1923 first-anniversary photograph.

14. Ed Oden and others, "Biltmore Forest (Photo Tour)," Golf Club Atlas, October 2009 and July 2015, https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?topic=41716.0. Pre-2015 hole-by-hole descriptions; 2014-15 scope.