Catawba Country Club

Catawba Country Club was organised as World War II ended by a group of Catawba County golfers who wanted a course that would serve the whole county. According to a 2017 Carolinas Golf profile, 100 men put up $1,000 each to create the club. Alex Shuford, a local resident who had bought the old Weidner family farmland, donated 203 acres, and the club was chartered on November 5, 1945.

Donald Ross was brought up from Pinehurst to inspect three tracts of land in the county. His guide was Roby Long, one of the hundred founders, who died in 2000 at 97. Carolinas Golf records that after Ross toured the rolling ground of an old dairy farm, he said he did not need to see the other sites, and he built the course among its hills and swales. The course was formally dedicated on Thanksgiving Day 1946. It was one of Ross's last courses: he died two years after it opened. His original set of architectural plans for Catawba survived, and the team that restored the course in 2016 worked from them.

The course changed little in the decades that followed. Carolinas Golf notes only the removal of a bunker here and there and the conversion of the greens from Bermuda to bentgrass in the mid-1960s. The original clubhouse, dedicated on July 4, 1951, was destroyed by fire on December 13, 1970, and was rebuilt within two years.

Holes to Know

From the Blue tees on our card the course is a par 72, 36 out and 36 in, with four par 3s (the 3rd, 7th, 13th and 17th) and four par 5s (the 2nd, 5th, 11th and 16th). Each nine has two of each. Three of the par 5s, the 5th, 11th and 16th, bend twice. The round closes with a par 5, the longest par 3 and the longest par 4.

The 405-yard 8th from the Blue tees is stroke index 1, and the club's guide calls it the hardest hole on the course. It runs straight between woods on both sides. A ditch crosses the line about 150 yards from the tee, and the fairway runs on to a long green, set along the line of play, with a single bunker on its right side. The club describes the green as sloping severely from left to right.

The 456-yard 11th from the Blue tees is the shortest par 5 and stroke index 18. Its fairway drifts left off the tee and bends right at about 200 yards, with an unbroken tree line down the right side. A lone bunker sits on the left about 85 yards short of the round green, which has a bunker against its right side. The club describes the second shot as uphill and the green as sloping from back to front.

The 343-yard 15th from the Blue tees is the shortest par 4. It turns left at about 200 yards with woods along the whole left side and two bunkers outside the corner on the right, at about 205 and 240 yards. Three bunkers surround the oval green: one off the front left, a two-lobed bunker about 30 yards short on the right and a narrow one along the right edge. The club points to a valley at the front right of the green that feeds balls toward a front hole location.

The 214-yard 17th from the Blue tees is the longest par 3. A ditch crosses the hole on a diagonal, from about 50 yards out on the left to about 150 yards out on the right. The green is deeper than it is wide, with bunkers at the front left and on the right; the club calls it slightly elevated and the flattest green on the course.

The 440-yard 18th from the Blue tees is the longest par 4. The drive leaves a wooded chute, with a ditch along the right side and a bunker just right of the line at about 170 yards. Three bunkers sit on the left between about 255 and 290 yards as the hole bends gently right and climbs to a deep green with a bunker at its front right. The club's guide says the front third of that green slopes severely toward the front.

Ross's Design Here

The one documented decision Ross made on the ground at Catawba was the choice of site. Shown three tracts, he took the dairy farm after walking it, and the course follows its hills and swales. The greens and bunkers are the parts of his design that have been checked against his drawings. Jim Sparks, who managed the 2016 restoration, told Carolinas Golf: "Having those plans was invaluable. We were able to know, in exact detail, what Donald Ross intended for each hole, especially the greens complexes ... and we were able to bring that back." The restoration rebuilt the green complexes to the plans and restored every bunker.

What the greens do today is described in the club's hole-by-hole guide. Several tilt hard from back to front: the 2nd from its middle to the front, the uphill par-3 3rd, the 5th, the front half of the 6th (the longest green on the course), and the front third of the 18th. The 1st and 4th greens have two tiers. The 7th green is set at an angle to the tee, so a shot on the right line but the wrong length misses it. The 8th green tilts from left to right, the 14th has a steep slope through its middle and a small shelf at the back, and the 17th is the flattest.

Water and slope shape the early par 5s. On the 2nd the tee shot crosses a pond with wetlands down the right, and a creek skirts the front and right of the green. The 5th turns sharply left around a fairway bunker that long hitters can carry, and a creek crosses about 80 yards short of a green that slopes steeply from back to front.

Historical Significance

Catawba is one of the last courses Ross designed, planned as the war ended and opened in 1946, two years before his death. It has been a regular site for Carolinas Golf Association championships since 1958, when Billy Joe Patton of nearby Morganton won the Carolinas Amateur there, beating Charles B. Smith 6 and 5 in the final. The Carolinas Amateur returned in 2002, when Brandon Hiott won the final 9 and 7 over Matt Dura. The club also hosted the 1969 North Carolina Amateur, the 1977 Carolinas Junior, the 1995 Carolinas Senior and the 2015 Carolinas Women's Four-Ball, won by Courtney McKim and Stephanie Pribonic. The 2019 North Carolina Amateur Match Play was the seventh CGA championship at the club.

More recent events include the 2021 North Carolina Junior Girls' Championship, the first time that event came to Catawba, and the 2026 North Carolina Junior Boys' Championship, which Noah Fry of Waxhaw won on the first playoff hole over Tanner Jones after a final-round 65 brought him to 8 under par. In August 2025 the Carolinas PGA Senior Professional Championship was played at Catawba; Gus Ulrich won with rounds of 67 and 67.

Changes Since Ross

Between 1946 and 2016 the changes were small: occasional bunker removals and, in the mid-1960s, new bentgrass greens in place of Ross-era Bermuda. As the club approached its 70th anniversary, members funded a restoration. According to Carolinas Golf, Southeastern Golf of Tifton, Georgia, did the work, with Jim Sparks as project manager and Robert Arrington, superintendent since 1993, alongside him. Work began in July 2016. The team rebuilt the green complexes from Ross's plans and resurfaced them with Pure Distinction bentgrass, restored every bunker, and moved a few fairway bunkers to account for the longer tee shots of the modern game. The course reopened the day after Thanksgiving 2016.

In 2024 the greens were converted again, to Mach 1 ultradwarf Bermudagrass. The club's card now includes a set of "Ross Tees" alongside its Blue, White, Gold and Red tees.

Uncertainties

• The previous listing, and some course directories, credit Ron Forse (Forse Design) and Jim Nagle with work at Catawba, including a master plan and restoration. No Forse project page could be read, and the only documented account of the 2016 restoration names Southeastern Golf and Jim Sparks. This listing follows that account.

Sources & Notes

1. Catawba Country Club, "Our Heritage", https://www.catawbacc.org/Club_Info/Our_Heritage (charter date, Shuford land gift, 1946 dedication, clubhouse history, 2016 restoration from Ross's drawings, 2024 Mach 1 greens)

2. Catawba Country Club, "Course Tour", https://www.catawbacc.org/Golf/Course_Tour (hole-by-hole descriptions of greens and hazards; club card with Ross Tees)

3. Catawba Country Club, "Golf" and "About the Club", https://www.catawbacc.org/Golf and https://www.catawbacc.org/Club_Info/About_the_Club (facilities, member-owned private status)

4. Craig Distl, "Pride of Membership: Renovated Catawba Country Club Debuts", Carolinas Golf, Summer 2017, https://www.mydigitalpublication.com/article/Club+Profile/2811234/416619/article.html (Ross's site visit and Roby Long; changes before 2016; Southeastern Golf restoration, plans, scope and reopening)

5. Carolinas Golf Association, "Preview: 10th North Carolina Amateur Match Play", July 29, 2019, https://www.carolinasgolf.org/blog/preview-10th-north-carolina-amateur-match-play (list of CGA championships at the club)

6. Carolinas Golf Association, Carolinas Amateur Championship history (November 2025 update), https://www.carolinasgolf.org/Images/CarolinasGolf/2025/Championship%20History%20-%20Nov/Carolinas_Amateur_11-25_Update.pdf (1958 and 2002 champions and finalists)

7. Carolinas Golf Association, "Preview: 25th NC Junior Girls' Championship", June 11, 2021, https://www.carolinasgolf.org/Blog/preview-25th-nc-junior-girls-championship (first Junior Girls' at Catawba)

8. Carolinas Golf Association, "Fry Wins North Carolina Junior Boys' Championship in Playoff at Catawba Country Club", June 25, 2026, https://www.carolinasgolf.org/blogpost-single/id/529298/fry-wins-north-carolina-junior-boys-championship-in-playoff-at-catawba-country-club (2026 result)

9. John Brasier, "Wake Forest coach finishes strong at CPGA Senior tourney", Triad Golf, August 19, 2025, https://triadgolf.com/wake-forest-coach-finishes-strong-at-cpga-senior-tourney/ (2025 Carolinas PGA Senior Professional Championship)

10. Sandhills Sentinel, "Pinehurst pro captures Carolinas PGA Senior Professional Championship title", August 21, 2025, https://sandhillssentinel.com/pinehurst-pro-captures-carolinas-pga-senior-professional-championship-title/ (2025 Carolinas PGA Senior Professional Championship)

11. Hole shapes, bunker positions and distances in Holes to Know are measured from NC OneMap 2019 aerial imagery and Greens Visited's mapped tour geometry (OpenStreetMap contributors), https://www.nconemap.gov