Tryon Country Club

Ross Design History & Timeline

The origins of Tryon Country Club trace to Emma Payne Erskine, a writer, painter, and civic leader who had moved permanently to her stone estate Lynncote on the outskirts of Tryon in 1895. After her husband Charles died in 1908, Erskine purchased a dairy farm in what was then known as "Holly Hills Valley" west of town with the intention of building a golf course that would establish Tryon as a social and recreational destination alongside its growing reputation as an artistic mountain community.

In 1914, Erskine and a group of local business leaders and promoters began work on the project. George H. Holmes, an English-born civil engineer and banker, prepared a detailed plat titled "Golf Links of Tryon Country Club, Tryon, NC" on the property of the "Erskine-Corwin Estate." That plat document shows a 2,945-yard nine-hole course, a clubhouse site, and 58 residential lots.

According to the Tryon Daily Bulletin's account, Erskine traveled to the Grove Park Inn in Asheville to meet Donald Ross, who was then in high demand following the success of Pinehurst No. 2, and retained him to design her course on the dairy farm.

The Donald Ross Society lists the Tryon course as laid out in 1914. Robert Albert "Bert" Leonard, an English-born golf professional who had built the earlier Mimosa Golf Links in nearby Lynn around 1901, was hired to supervise the laying out and construction of the course. Leonard and his family moved into an old log cabin on the property during construction.

The club was formally established in 1916, and the course opened for play around that time. The National Register nomination states the course opened in 1917; the Tryon Daily Bulletin's 2022 feature and the Donald Ross Society both cite 1916. The clubhouse was built in 1922 as a Rustic Revival log structure and was later relocated to its present site on the north side of the course.

Ross designed the nine-hole layout to function as an 18-hole experience through dual tee placements within each tee box — one set for the front nine, another for the back nine — allowing golfers to play the same fairways and greens twice with meaningfully different angles of approach. One hole features an additional, independent green that creates a distinct hole on the second loop.

Unique Design Characteristics

The course occupies the valley floor formed by Little Creek, and Ross's routing follows the natural contours of this setting. The creek is the course's defining strategic element, crossing fairways on multiple holes and creating the kind of risk-reward decision-making that characterized Ross's work. As originally designed, the fairways were narrow and composed of native grasses, with drainage following natural paths to the creek.

The greens are small — characteristic of Ross's 1910s work — and tightly defended by their surrounds rather than by elaborate bunkering. The scale reads convincingly as early Ross: compact putting surfaces where precision with approach shots and short game finesse determine scoring, rather than length off the tee. The undulating bent grass greens feature enough contour that pin positions dramatically alter the difficulty of each hole, even when players are playing the same green for the second time on the back nine.

The course's terrain creates meaningful elevation changes despite its valley setting. The seventh hole plays uphill to a green with a depression in front that members call the "Valley of Sin" — a ball that comes up short on the approach rolls back into a difficult recovery position. The eighth hole features a creek-bisecting dogleg. The course finishes with the short par-3 ninth, playing over Little Creek back toward the clubhouse terrace.

The alternate-tee concept is more than a space-saving device; it fundamentally changes the playing experience on the second loop. The sixth hole, for instance, plays as a straight 300-yard par 4 to a small two-tiered green with bunkers back left and front right on the front nine. When played as the 15th from the alternate "brown" tees, the hole becomes a slight dogleg right playing to a separate, independent green — a completely different hole using the same fairway corridor.

Historical Significance

Tryon Country Club holds significance within Ross's body of work primarily for its early date and its mountain-valley context. If the Ross attribution is accurate — and the National Register authors concluded it is "very likely" — Tryon represents one of Ross's earliest original designs in the North Carolina mountains, predating better-known western NC commissions by several years.

The course was laid out during the period (1914–1916) when Ross was transitioning from his Pinehurst base into a nationally sought architect, making it a window into his early design philosophy before the larger, more elaborate courses that would define his reputation.

The course's founding story also illuminates the social history of mountain resort communities in the early twentieth century. Emma Payne Erskine envisioned the course as an anchor for Tryon's identity as a destination for arts, recreation, and community — a vision that proved durable. The Erskine family's lasting influence on Tryon extended well beyond the golf course: daughter Violet endowed the Tryon Fine Arts Center, son Harold became a sculptor and designed the town's Congregational Church, and son Ralph founded a high-style furniture company. Erskine herself died in 1924, just two years after the clubhouse was built.

The club was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013, listed under Criteria A (association with events significant in broad patterns of history) and C (embodiment of distinctive construction characteristics). The nomination was prepared by club members Jane Templeton and Clay Griffith beginning in 2010. The course celebrated its centennial in April 2016.

The Donald Ross Web Library catalogs the Tryon entry as: 9 holes, 1922, with one photo, two scorecards, one layout of the course (noted as "NOT Ross drawn"), and one document. The absence of Ross-drawn plans in the archive is consistent with the "very likely but unconfirmed" attribution status.

Current Condition / Integrity

The overall routing, green sites, and the alternate-tee/eighteen-from-nine concept have been preserved since the course's construction. The club has had only ten head professionals in over a century of operation, and current PGA professional Gerald Weathers (as of 2022) has emphasized maintaining the quality of the course while remaining true to the original design.

Key alterations over time:

1940 — Sand-to-grass green conversion and tee adjustments: The original oiled-sand greens were replaced with grass greens in 1940, enabled by new warm-season grass varieties that could survive southern summers. Tee adjustments were made on five holes (3, 5, 7, 8, 9) at the same time. A pre-1940 photograph of the fifth hole showing one of the original rectangular sand greens survives and is displayed in the pro shop.

1968 — Additional alternate green: A second green was added for the third hole, used as the "12th" hole on the back nine, to address shading issues on the original green. This addition enhanced the eighteen-from-nine concept by giving one more hole a genuinely distinct target on the second loop.

2009–2010 — Bridge replacements: Seven modern cart bridges with low stacked-timber parapets were constructed to replace earlier bridge structures. These infrastructure updates did not alter hole strategies or routing.

Bill Love — Additional architectural work: GolfPass, GolfNow, and Tiger Golf Traveler list Bill Love as a secondary architect at Tryon Country Club. The scope and date of Love's work are not documented in any detailed source located during this research.

Preserved elements: Original routing; green sites; the alternate-tee concept; creek-mediated strategy at holes 1–3, 4, 8–9; small-scale, tightly defended greens; the 1922 log clubhouse; the ~1935 pro shop.

Altered elements: Grass greens (1940) replacing sand; tee adjustments at five holes (1940); one additional green (1968); modern turf varieties and irrigation; bridge and cart path infrastructure.

Sources & Notes

1. Tryon Country Club — official website, "History" page. https://www.tryoncountryclub.com/history/

2. National Register of Historic Places Nomination — "Tryon Country Club," North Carolina SHPO (2012; listed February 5, 2013). NRHP Reference #12001262. Establishes course chronology (laid out 1914; opened 1917; clubhouse 1922), describes the east-west routing in Little Creek valley, documents the 1940 sand-to-grass conversion and tee adjustments, details the 1968 addition of an alternate green, and provides hole-by-hole summaries. States Ross authorship is "very likely" but based on secondary sources.

3. Tryon Daily Bulletin, "Life in our Foothills: A gem in the Valley — Tryon Country Club," Terry Brown, October 27, 2022. https://tryondailybulletin.com/2022/10/27/life-in-our-foothills-october-2022-a-gem-in-the-valley-tryon-country-club/

4. Tryon Daily Bulletin, "'Bert' Leonard, 'The Reason for Golf in the Foothills,'" submitted article (Alan C. Leonard), April 21, 2016. https://www.tryondailybulletin.com/2016/04/21/bert-leonard-the-reason-for-golf-in-the-foothills/

5. Tryon Daily Bulletin / Haynes family history talk, "Haynes to share family history at Tales of Tryon," August 2025. Confirms Erskine donated the land for the country club.

6. Preservation North Carolina, "TEE TIME: Tryon turns 100," May 2016. https://www.presnc.org/news/tee-time-tryon-turns-100/

7. Wikipedia, "Tryon Country Club." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tryon_Country_Club

8. Tiger Golf Traveler, "Tryon Country Club," November 2014. https://tigergolftraveler.com/2014/11/24/tryon-country-club/

9. Always Time for 9, "Tryon Country Club — Tryon, NC," May 2023. https://alwaystimefor9.com/tryon-country-club-tryon-nc/

10. GolfPass, "Tryon Country Club." https://www.golfpass.com/travel-advisor/courses/10274-tryon-country-club

11. Donald Ross Web Library (Given Memorial Library, Pinehurst). Entry: "Tryon Country Club — Tryon, NC. 9 holes. 1922. Photo 1. Scorecards 2. Layout of course 1, NOT Ross drawn. Document 1."

12. Tryon History website, "Emma Payne Erskine." https://www.tryonhistory.org/biography/emma-payne-erskine.html

13. Sky-Land Magazine, "A Visit to the Home of Payne Erskine," Hilliard Booth, January 1915. (Referenced in Source 4; describes Erskine showing the golf course to a visitor, confirming the course was in place by early 1915.)

Disputed/Uncertain Points:

Ross attribution: The central question. The Erskine donor family attests Ross designed the course, and club tradition holds that Erskine traveled to meet Ross at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville. The Donald Ross Society lists the course. The National Register nomination, however, states explicitly that "no primary documentation has been located to definitively confirm Ross as the designer" and characterizes the attribution as "very likely" based on secondary sources. The Donald Ross Web Library's layout of the course is noted as "NOT Ross drawn." The design characteristics — small greens, natural routing, creek-mediated strategy — are consistent with Ross's 1910s work, but are not so distinctive as to rule out other competent architects of the period. Bert Leonard, who supervised construction, had prior experience building a golf course (Mimosa Golf Links) and may have contributed to or executed the design.

Opening date (1916 vs. 1917): The club website states it was "established in 1916." The Tryon Daily Bulletin's 2022 article and the Donald Ross Society both cite 1916 as the opening year. The National Register nomination states the course opened in 1917. Wikipedia follows the National Register's 1917 date. The George Holmes plat and the 1915 Sky-Land magazine article confirm the course was being built and was at least partially in place by early 1915, so both 1916 and 1917 are plausible as formal opening dates. The club's centennial celebration was held in April 2016, suggesting the club itself considers 1916 the founding year.

Bill Love's work: GolfPass and GolfNow list Bill Love as an architect alongside Ross, but no source describes the nature, scope, or date of Love's work at Tryon. This needs verification with the club.