Herald's history series:18-Hole Championship Golf Course Planned; Details Are Announced

Woodridge Recreation Area, Inc., governed by a 16-member board of directors, has been in developmental stages for the past 18 months and officials reported this week that 156 acres for the golf course at Webster have been purchased or are under option.

The organization is seeking a Farmers Home Administration loan under the agency's program available to rural residents under which loans may be made for shifts in land use to develop recreational facilities. A preliminary application determining the non-profit organization is eligible for a loan has been approved by FHA.

Officials said the loan is now in the "economic feasibility stage," meaning that before final loan approval is given, the corporation will submit complete architectural specifications and costs estimates and detailed ways and means of achieving the plans. Exact amount of the loan will be determined when the feasibility approval is given.

None of the officials contacted would venture an estimate on a timetable for the golf course actually opening. But one stated that "if construction on the golf course was started today it would be two years before the first ball could be hit." And he qualified that statement by adding that that would be under favorable construction conditions.

John V. Townsend And Associates, Greensboro, are the landscape architects and planning consultants (golf architects), and Moore, Gardner and Associates, Inc., Greensboro, are consulting engineers for the project.

As tentatively proposed, the 72 par course would stretch 6,436 yards. The "front nine" would be 3,145 yards, par 36. The 18th fairway is 500 yards, par 5, the longest on the course. The 3rd, 8th and 11th are all 166 yards, par 3.

Golfers on the course will cross the Tuckasegee River twice (two golf cart bridges will be built), but the proposed plan show balls will not have to hit across the river.

There will be a practice green and practice driving range, the officials stated.

The clubhouse, to be located in the general location of the old Roger Coward homeplace (Buchanan Loop), will have an all-purpose meeting room. The proposed swimming pool will be of junior olympic size (approximately 75 by 40). There will be two tennis courts.

It was explained that the corporation has purchased or optioned nearly 300 acres of land from over a dozen land owners, although the golf course covers only 156 acres. And it was said that because the property has been bought and optioned for the non-profit golf corporation, it will be "passed on" on a non-profit basis.

The loan application calls for repayment over a 40-year period at five per cent interest on the unpaid principal. Plans call for the loan to be repaid by membership fees, annual dues, green fees, etc.

When the FHA loan, which can be up to 100 per cent, is given final approval, advertisements for bids will be published for construction on the project. Members of the board of directors of Woodridge Recreational Area, Inc., are:

Dan Allison, Sr., Jimmy Allman, Jim Cannon, Kent Coward, Clint Dodson, Gerald Eller, Paul Ellis, Col. T.A. Fuller, Jim Gray, Jim Gudger, W.R. Hampton, Jack Hennessee, Paul Holt, Padgett McCoy, Dr. Paul Reid and Boyd Sossamon.

Editor's note: This is the weekly installment of a review of our back issues as The Sylva Herald and Ruralite celebrates its 75th anniversary throughout 2001. This story was originally published in the Sept. 23, 1965, edition of The Sylva Herald. The proposed golf course was never constructed, said longtime Sylva attorney Orville Coward, because political influence was exerted to block approval of the Woodridge loan application.

Back to Archive: 08/09/01.