Blowing Rock Country Club

Blowing Rock Country Club plays over the Green Park-Norwood Golf Course, built beside the Green Park Hotel. In 1913 David J. Craig, L. P. Henkel, C. V. Henkel and others formed the Blowing Rock Development Company and bought the hotel and 365 acres. On September 2, 1915, the Watauga Democrat reported that the company's stockholders had decided to spend fifteen thousand dollars or more on "a modern golf course." That year the company agreed with its neighbour Rufus Lenoir Patterson to build nine holes across their adjoining land, five on Patterson's property and four on the company's. Lute Nelson supervised the work into 1916. In December 1915 Nelson told the Lenoir News that the hotel had spent more than $15,000 on the links and that "a Mr. Raner from New York City" had "surveyed the course and gave instructions as to the building," praising him as the builder of a celebrated New York course; Sven Nilsen reads the name as Raynor's. The 1994 National Register nomination names no designer besides Nelson, and the club's history says Nelson laid the course out with Patterson's financial support.

The course was enlarged to 18 holes in 1922-23. Newspaper clippings posted by researcher Sven Nilsen on Golf Club Atlas show the Green Park Hotel Company "adding nine more holes, making it an 18-hole course" in October 1922. On March 1, 1923 the Statesville Record and Landmark reported that D. J. Craig and C. V. Henkel had "obtained Raynor's services for laying off the course at Blowing Rock," and on March 9 the Lenoir News-Topic reported that Seth Raynor had spent several days there "to help in locating and laying out the 18-hole golf course," which he called "one of the finest he has ever seen in any inland or mountain section." The club's history, drawing on the late historian George Bahto's research, gives the same account. Ed Oden reports on Golf Club Atlas that Kris Spence's research concluded Raynor redesigned the original nine and added nine more.

Donald Ross's claim rests on different evidence. High Country Press reported in 2013 that Ross's own list of his courses credits him at Blowing Rock, where he "redesigned nine holes and added nine more in 1922." The Donald Ross Society lists a 1923 nine-hole design, and the National Register nomination says it is "believed" that Ross designed the 1922 expansion. Mrs. Joseph Lineberger, who first came to Blowing Rock in 1922, recalled meeting Ross that year. In 1923, however, Ross was engaged to build a separate nine-hole course at Walter Alexander's Mayview Park on the west side of town. In April 1923 the Lenoir News-Topic reported one crew "finishing the extension of the Green Park Hotel golf course" while "another crew is building a new golf course in Mayview Park," and in May that the Mayview course "was laid out and is being built under the direction of Donald J. Ross." A 1923 Ross plan of that course is in the Tufts Archives, and Nilsen suspects, with Oden agreeing, that the Mayview job is the source of Ross's credit at Blowing Rock. No Ross plan of the Green Park-Norwood course has been published, and the club lost most of its records when its clubhouse burned on September 21, 1974.

The Blowing Rock Country Club was organized in 1939 and opened its clubhouse on July 4, 1941. It leased the course from its owners in 1950 and bought it on January 26, 1973.

Holes to Know

From the Gold tees the course is 6,244 yards, par 72, with each nine par 36: 3,179 yards out and 3,065 in. There are five par 3s, eight par 4s and five par 5s. The round opens and closes with a par 5, the par 3s come back to back at the 15th and 16th, and the closing 531-yard 18th is the longest hole and stroke index 2.

The 176-yard 2nd from the Gold tees, stroke index 7, is the uphill par 3 the club calls its Redan. The kidney-shaped green is set on a diagonal, front lobe to the right, behind a single bunker short and left.

The 402-yard 7th from the Gold tees, stroke index 9, is the longest par 4. The tee shot passes two ponds before the fairway begins about 170 yards out, and the hole bends left with a road down the right. Three bunkers line the left edge 65 to 90 yards short of the green.

The 192-yard 10th from the Gold tees, stroke index 16, is the par 3 Spence called a textbook Eden. A stream crosses in front of the tee and runs up the right side past the green, which has a long bunker down its left side.

The 346-yard 13th from the Gold tees, stroke index 8, is the hole Spence changed most: he removed a blind tee shot and a fairway pond to make a drop-shot par 4 to a narrow plateau green beyond an old stream bed.

The 303-yard 17th from the Gold tees, stroke index 18, is the shortest par 4. Its green sits beyond a hill, out of sight from the tee, and High Country Press reported in 2013 that two holes-in-one had been made there without anyone seeing the ball drop.

Ross's Design Here

No feature on the course is documented as Ross's by a plan, a contemporary report or a site visit. The club's history sees Ross's influence in the minimal shaping, and names the 4th and 7th as "two classic Ross par four's," with subtle false fronts and greens that slope gently from back to front. That is the club's reading, not a documented attribution.

The rest of what the club and its architect point to belongs to Raynor and his circle. The club's history credits Raynor's partner Charles Banks with the built-up slopes left of and behind the 3rd, 7th and 16th greens, and golf director Wayne Smith told High Country Press in 2013 that significant changes made between 1927 and 1933 show Banks's hand at the 3rd and 16th greens. The template holes, from the Redan at the 2nd to the Eden at the 10th, are Raynor's vocabulary, rebuilt or introduced by Spence.

Historical Significance

Blowing Rock matters to a Ross directory mainly as a corrected attribution. Kevin Robinson recalled on Golf Club Atlas that in 2002 neither the club's professional nor its superintendent had heard of Raynor, yet the Raynor evidence is older than the dispute. Ed Oden reports that Anthony Merrill's 1950 Golf Course Guide describes the course as Raynor's, and the club's history quotes a 1937 Atlanta Journal travelogue saying that "Seth Raynor laid out the original plan for the excellent course, including the Cape Hole, the Alps and the Eden."

In 2013 Brad Klein told High Country Press that "Raynor did not do Blowing Rock," noting its absence from Bahto's book The Evangelist of Golf, though Bahto had by then found the 1923 reports. Spence's 2016 master-plan research led the club to Raynor, and it now calls the course North Carolina's only Seth Raynor design.

The course is a contributing site in the Green Park Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. In 1917 the Rev. Edgar Tufts backed a bill, aimed at the Green Park and Linville courses, to ban Sunday golf in three mountain counties; it died in committee. The Carolinas Golf Association held the 12th Carolinas Super Senior Four-Ball here on September 26-27, 2023; fog cut it to 18 holes.

Changes Since Ross

In the early 1950s, when U.S. 321 was built from old Highway 17, three holes on the far side of the road were taken out of play, though a deed restriction kept that ground maintained as golf course. The club expanded and remodeled the course in the mid-1970s, and its About page says that in 1973 it added nine new holes and renovated the original nine. Tom Jackson later did substantial work; Robinson thought the holes Jackson took out of play the most Raynor-like.

Kris Spence broke ground on the 10th through 13th in late September 2016. The work built new greens from the old poa and bentgrass sod, added Raynor-style grass-faced bunkers, irrigation and drainage, removed trees, moved the 12th green back about 30 yards and removed two ponds to restore stream bed. Spence's phases have also introduced or improved templates around the course: the Redan at the 2nd, a Short at the 6th rebuilt in 2023-24, a Punchbowl green at the 8th, and holes the club names Blowing Rock (9th), Eden (10th), Valley (11th), Hillside (12th), Creek (13th) and Raynor's Prize (14th).

Uncertainties

• Who expanded the course in 1922-23. Ross's list and the National Register nomination credit Ross; March 1923 newspapers and the club's history put Raynor on site laying out the 18 holes. This listing follows the newspapers.

• Who designed the first nine. The National Register nomination and the club's history name Lute Nelson; in December 1915 Nelson himself credited "a Mr. Raner from New York City" with surveying the course, and Golf Course Architecture in 2016 and Nilsen credit Raynor. This listing treats Nelson as the builder and reports the 1915 newspaper's credit as printed.

• The date of Raynor's work. The Seth Raynor Society dates the course to 1926; the newspapers date his layout visit to March 1923, which this listing follows.

• The opening year. The club gives 1915; the nomination has construction running into 1916.

Sources & Notes

1. Davyd Foard Hood and Laura A. W. Phillips, Green Park Historic District, National Register of Historic Places nomination, North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office, June 1994. https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/WT0029.pdf (1913 company, 1915 Patterson agreement, Lute Nelson, 1915 Watauga Democrat report, 1917 Sunday-golf bill, 1922 expansion attributed to Ross, 1939 consolidation, 1950 lease, 1973 purchase, 1974 fire, U.S. 321 holes, mid-1970s remodel, contributing site.)

2. Blowing Rock Country Club, "A High Country Gem. A National Treasure." (golf course history, c. 2024). https://www.blowingrockcountryclub.com/getmedia/c3cd8626-86ea-44d9-a6f3-d822cfef1413/Blowing_Rock_Country_Club-A_High_Country_Gem_pdf.aspx (Nelson and Patterson, Raynor contracted 1923, 1937 Atlanta Journal quote, Society dates, holes 4 and 7, Banks slopes, Spence templates, New River, cemetery.)

3. Blowing Rock Country Club, About and Golf pages. https://www.blowingrockcountryclub.com/About_(1) and https://www.blowingrockcountryclub.com/golf (1941 opening, 1973 purchase and remodel, 1974 fire, season, facilities, "only Seth Raynor golf course" in North Carolina.)

4. Sean Dudley, "Kris Spence to add Raynor flavour to four holes at Blowing Rock," Golf Course Architecture, October 20, 2016. https://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/content/PgrID/573/PageID/1/artmid/574/articleid/12597 (Scope and schedule of the 10th-13th rebuild; "textbook Eden"; 13th drop-shot par 4.)

5. Bill Hensley, "The Mysteries of the Beautiful Blowing Rock Golf Course Continue to Prevail Through the Decades," High Country Press, September 27, 2013. https://www.hcpress.com/news/the-mysteries-of-the-beautiful-blowing-rock-golf-course-continue-to-prevail-through-the-decades.html (Ross's list, Lineberger recollection, Klein and Bahto, Statesville report, Wayne Smith on Banks, 1974 fire, 17th hole.)

6. Golf Club Atlas forum, "Blowing Rock, NC - Ross and Raynor" (Sven Nilsen, Ed Oden, Kevin Robinson and others), December 2015-January 2020. https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,62336.0.html (1922-23 newspaper reports on Raynor, Ross at Mayview in 1923, Merrill's 1950 guide, Tom Jackson's changes.) Clipping images read: Lenoir News-Topic Oct 26, 1922, March 9, April 27 and May 25, 1923.

7. Carolinas Golf Association, "Teaster & Cloninger Rise Up at Super Senior 4Ball," September 27, 2023. https://www.carolinasgolf.org/blog/teaster-cloninger-rise-up-at-super-senior-4ball (12th Carolinas Super Senior Four-Ball.)

8. Sven Nilsen, "Re-engineering Raynor," Golf Club Atlas forum, reply #61, September 20, 2019. https://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,67551.50.html (Clippings of the Lenoir News, December 24, 1915; Statesville Record and Landmark, March 1, 1923; Watauga Democrat, March 15, 1923; 1942 scorecard.)

Hole yardages and stroke indexes are from the Gold tees on the course scorecard; hole descriptions are from the course-tour aerials (NC OneMap, 2019).