Black Mountain Golf Course

The club dates Black Mountain Golf Course to 1929 and credits Donald Ross with its first nine holes, today's front nine. No account of Ross visiting the site, drawing plans or corresponding with the town has been published, and no source records him returning. Visit North Carolina's Ross guide lists it for its front nine holes.

The town's part is documented from December 4, 1933. At a Town Board meeting that night, according to local historian Wendell Begley, the board adopted a "recreation plan" to buy land from the Methodist colony near what is now Lake Tomahawk for a community clubhouse, a lake and a golf course, and appropriated about $2,500 to build a nine-hole course. The Valley Echo's 2025 account has the town buying the land in 1933 and completing the surrounding grounds, including Lake Tomahawk and a clubhouse, seven years later.

By the early 1960s the nine holes were run by Ross Taylor, the club's professional and superintendent and a Class A PGA member for 23 years by 1963. Golfdom reported in July 1963 that a nine-hole addition of about 3,400 yards was planned, with a 745-yard par 6 that "may be the longest in the world." The town broke ground for the second nine in 1962, with Billy Graham wielding the shovel. The new holes were built on land formerly owned by Cora Dula and the Goodson estate, and the town covered the cost by auctioning ten town-owned home sites bordering the course. Begley recalls his father, a board member, saying the back nine would not have happened without Graham's help in working out the sale. The nine opened with a ribbon cutting at 10 a.m. on Friday, May 15, 1964, at which Graham spoke.

Holes to Know

From the Blue tees on our card the course is par 71 and 5,942 yards: 35 out over 2,831 yards and 36 in over 3,111. It has twelve par 4s, four par 3s (the 3rd, 8th, 10th and 13th), one par 5 at the 2nd and a par 6 at the 17th. The back nine opens with a par 3, and the 13th, 105 yards from the Blue tees, is the shortest hole.

The 1st, 340 yards from the Blue tees and stroke index 6, climbs a broad cleft whose fairway, Will Bardwell wrote in 2024, cambers hard from right to left, to a green with a single bunker short and right.

The 3rd, 246 yards from the Blue tees, is the longest par 3 and stroke index 4. A creek crosses on a diagonal about 150 yards out on the line, and no bunker shows around the green.

The 4th, 353 yards from the Blue tees and stroke index 8, bends gently left between houses on the left and a creek on the right. Its green has one large bunker at the front right, and Bardwell found that the open right side of the fairway leaves an approach over it.

The 5th, 383 yards from the Blue tees, is stroke index 2, with a creek up the right, houses down the left and an unbunkered green.

The 17th, 720 yards from the Blue tees and stroke index 13, is the par 6 from the 1964 nine. A creek runs down the left, woods line the right, and two bunkers sit short of the green.

Ross's Design Here

Bardwell's 2024 account is the most detailed description of the Ross nine, and he credits its interest to the routing rather than the greens, which he found less contoured than Ross's better-known work. The 1st and 2nd run in opposite directions through a broad cleft, so each fairway cambers from right to left. The routing then crosses a narrow neighbourhood road to three holes laid across and around a slow, low-lying stream, and crosses back for four closing holes that skirt the edges of the cleft clockwise, tilting slightly from left to right, against the camber of the first two.

What is on the ground today matches that outline. Creeks cross or line every hole from the 1st to the 5th, with bridges carrying the cart path over the stream on the 3rd and 5th. Bunkering is sparse: the 2019 aerial shows one bunker at the 1st green, three around the 2nd, none at the 3rd or 5th and one large one at the front right of the 4th. The 7th is a short par 4, 273 yards from the Blue tees, that Bardwell nearly drove. The club describes the layout as traditional, with tees close to the previous greens, which keeps the walk short. No source ties a specific green, bunker or hole shape to Ross's drawings.

Historical Significance

The course's best-documented history belongs to its municipal era. In July 1963 Bob Collins, sports editor of the Asheville Times, wrote in Golfdom that the course was "a preacher's paradise." Because it lay a few minutes from the Ridgecrest Baptist Assembly, the Montreat Presbyterian Assembly and the Blue Ridge Assembly, between 3,500 and 4,000 ministers and church workers played it each summer, and Taylor told Collins that hardly a day passed without someone from the assemblies saying they had played their first golf there. Billy Graham, whose Montreat home practically overlooked the course, was a close friend of Taylor's and played regularly, sometimes three times a week, "often in the 70s." Collins reported that Graham hoped to hold a Pastor's Invitation tournament at the course that September and claimed its bentgrass greens were the best in the country. Taylor was president of the Carolinas Golf Course Superintendents Association and, with state representative Gordon Greenwood of Black Mountain, had worked for years to get the legislature to fund turfgrass experiment stations at N.C. State.

The 17th gave the town its wider fame. The town designated it the "World's Longest Hole" when it opened, and the Valley Echo reports that it held that distinction until 1993. WNC Magazine wrote in 2009 that it had become the fifth-longest hole in the United States and that three double eagles had been recorded on it. In 2026 course manager Brent Miller told the town council that keeping a municipal course in the community for 100 years is "a little bit unheard of."

Changes Since Ross

The largest change was the 1962–64 addition of the second nine, which made Black Mountain an 18-hole course with Ross's holes as the front nine. The par-6 17th has varied in length since: 745 yards when it opened, 747 on the club's card today and 720 from the Blue tees on our card. No architect-led restoration or renovation of the Ross nine is recorded.

Tropical Storm Helene struck in September 2024. Floodwater from the Tomahawk branch of the Swannanoa River destroyed the maintenance building and most of the equipment, about 35 trees came down, and the bridges on the front nine, including those on the 3rd and 5th, were lost. FEMA's damage estimate was $2 million, and the back nine reopened in June 2025 after nearly nine months. In April 2026 Miller presented the council with repair estimates of $1.3 million to $1.8 million and a ten-year plan that includes rebuilding the 9th, 6th, 8th and 5th greens, all on the Ross nine; the council took no action at that meeting. The front nine reopened in September 2026.

Uncertainties

• Founding date. The club, the Valley Echo and the Black Mountain News give 1929 for a Ross front nine, but Begley dates the course's beginnings to the town's December 1933 decision to fund a nine-hole course, and no 1929 report has been found. The listing follows 1929.

• Ross attribution. The club and Visit North Carolina credit Ross with the front nine; a 2013 Golf Club Atlas post says Brad Klein's Discovering Donald Ross does not list the course, and no Tufts Archives or Donald Ross Society record was found. The listing keeps the attribution.

• Back-nine design. The previous listing credited "Joe Holmes and Ross Taylor" from a May 1964 Black Mountain News notice that could not be found; a 2009 WNC Magazine feature credits the 17th to "Donald Ross & Ross Taylor," which the 1960s dates rule out. The text names no designer.

• Yardages. The club's card totals 6,215 yards with the 17th at 747; our card totals 5,942 from the Blue tees with the 17th at 720. The text uses our card.

Sources & Notes

1. Black Mountain Golf Course, home page and "The Course". https://www.blackmountaingolf.org/ and https://www.blackmountaingolf.org/thecourse 1929 and Ross front nine; 747-yard 17th; club yardages; tees near greens; opening days and booking; Green Tee Grille; all 18 reopened September 2026.

2. Black Mountain Golf Course, 2026 Rates Schedule. https://www.blackmountaingolf.org/rates-1 Rates, passes, walking after 1 p.m.

3. Bob Collins, "Watch Your Language If You Play Black Mountain", Golfdom, July 1963, p. 86. https://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/golfd/article/1963jul86.pdf "Preacher's paradise"; church assemblies; Graham and Taylor; planned 745-yard par 6; bentgrass greens; Taylor's turf-research work.

4. Wendell Begley, "Black Mountain's Past", The Valley Echo, August 8, 2024. https://www.thevalleyecho.com/all-news/xanf9rex986a5jrrd85sgj86wafazg December 4, 1933 recreation plan and $2,500; 1962 groundbreaking; May 15, 1964 opening; Dula and Goodson land; home-site auction; Graham's role; 745-yard 17th.

5. Fred McCormick, "Black Mountain Golf Course gets back into the swing of things", The Valley Echo, June 23, 2025. https://www.thevalleyecho.com/all-news/black-mountain-golf-course-gets-back-into-the-swing-of-things 1933 land purchase; 1964 dedication; longest hole until 1993; Helene damage, bridges on the 3rd and 5th; remodelled pro shop.

6. Black Mountain News, "Valley Rewind: Black Mountain Golf Course", April 8, 2024. https://www.blackmountainnews.com/story/news/2024/04/08/valley-rewind-black-mountain-golf-course/73199498007/ 1929 nine beside Lake Tomahawk; Ross front nine.

7. Karrigan Monk, "Black Mountain Golf Course partially reopens after Helene damages", Black Mountain News, June 26, 2025. https://www.blackmountainnews.com/story/news/2025/06/26/black-mountain-golf-course-partially-reopens-after-helene-damages/84323951007/ Town ownership; FEMA estimate; $135,000 spent; back nine reopening; rounds per year.

8. Karrigan Monk, "Black Mountain council considers future of Lakeview Center, golf course", Black Mountain News, April 3, 2026. https://www.blackmountainnews.com/story/news/2026/04/03/black-mountain-council-considers-future-of-lakeview-center-golf-course/89438962007/ Repair estimates; ten-year plan and greens rebuilds; Miller quote.

9. Will Bardwell, "Black Mountain", Lying Four, June 28, 2024. https://www.lyingfour.com/conversations-blog/2024/6/11/black-mountain Routing of the Ross nine; cambers on the 1st and 2nd; bunker at the 1st; approach at the 4th; the 7th.

10. Visit North Carolina, "The North Carolina Donald Ross Golf Experience". https://www.visitnc.com/story/qRap/the-north-carolina-donald-ross-golf-experience Lists Black Mountain Golf Course (front nine holes).

11. WNC Magazine, "Better than Par", August 2009. https://wncmagazine.com/feature/better_par Fifth-longest US hole; three double eagles; designer credit noted in Uncertainties.

12. Golf Club Atlas forum, "Par-6s?", reply by Carl Johnson, February 11, 2013. https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,54825.25.html Klein's book does not list the course.

13. GolfPass, Black Mountain Golf Course. https://www.golfpass.com/travel-advisor/courses/9899-black-mountain-golf-course Club card (6,215 yards); bentgrass greens; 2026 reviews on the front nine's reopening and the lack of a driving range.

14. Visit North Carolina, Project 543, "Black Mountain Golf". https://project543.visitnc.com/black-mountain-golf/ The 17th as a featured hole.

15. Greens Visited scorecard and course-tour aerials (NC OneMap 2019 orthoimagery). Blue-tee pars, yardages and stroke indexes; hole shapes and hazards.