the little course

small facility reaps huge rewards

Sometimes dreams do come true, even those that are seemingly out of reach.

When Dick Horton became executive director of the Tennessee Section of the Professional Golfers Association of America in 1973, he immediately recognized the need for the state to combine its golf organizations. Professional and amateur groups were separate, while associations for golf course superintendents and general managers had no business offices. Golf camps for juniors were held at a state park that had limited capacity, and there was no hall of fame for the state’s golfers.

“We wanted to create an entity with everyone under one roof doing all the things a nonprofit golf association can do to benefit the game of golf,” Horton says. “Our greatest challenge was to grow the game, and that meant working hard at youth programs.”

There was another benefit from uniting golf organizations. The headquarters could also be a turfgrass research facility where studies would be conducted under actual playing conditions. For-profit golf clubs may have their own test sites, but they can’t afford to lose a green to experiments.

The 36-hole Legends Club of Tennessee opened in 1992 in Franklin, just outside Nashville. Horton executed into an agreement with the club to house the hall of fame. The club also agreed to provide office space for the amateur and PGA associations in 1,500 square feet on the second floor of the clubhouse. They ran out of room in just two months.

Nearly surrounded by the 305-acre Legends Club was a 15-acre tract that included a brick home built in the 1830s.

“It was the ideal location for what we wanted,” Horton says. “We could bring together all the state’s golf organizations and have a home for the hall of fame. A short nine-hole course could be built on 13 acres for golf camps and turfgrass research. The challenge was to acquire the property from a private individual who was reluctant to sell and then find the funds to build the facility.”

In September of 1993 Horton contacted Jack Lupton, founder of The Honors Course in Chattanooga. Lupton was devoted to amateur golf and well known for his philanthropy. Horton described his vision to Lupton, who agreed to help fund the project.

Bob Cupp, who with Tom Kite designed the Legends Club, designed The Little Course for no fee. Also donated by Earl Swennson & Associates was the redesign of the old home to accommodate the hall of fame and administrative offices, as well as plans for a dormitory for the golf academy.

The next mission was the establishment of an endowment fund to sustain the facility. Parts of the property were offered to the state’s 200 association member clubs for named opportunities. A golf hole, for example, could be sponsored for $50,000 over five years. Thus far the endowment campaign has raised $3.2 million on its way to a goal of $5 million.

The major benefactor is Lupton, whose $4 million in contributions essentially built the project. He never saw the property until it opened in April of 1995.

“I asked Jack what would make him feel like his gift was worthwhile,” Horton says. “First, he said if our facility was copied by the other 49 states. And second, if young golfers appreciated the opportunity given to them by adults and thanked us.”

Turfgrass research center

The Little Course, located on the grounds of the Tennessee Golf Foundation, is essentially a turfgrass demonstration site. Under maintenance are more than 15 bermudagrasses, 12 bentgrasses, 10 Kentucky bluegrass or bluegrass/tall fescue mixtures and 10 zoysiagrass cultivars. These grasses are replicated in three places on the course, including a large putting green, and provide data for the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP). Many new grasses such as A- and G-series bent-grasses, TifSport bermudagrass and Cavalier zoysiagrass have received worldwide recognition because of research conducted at the facility.

Legends Club superintendent Joe Kennedy and his staff maintain The Little Course for a break-even fee. They treat the short course the same as their 36 holes and may even spray less fungicide to see what kind of diseases the grasses will get.

“On this fairway,” Kennedy points out, “there are 10 varieties of zoysiagrass. One may look horrible, but that’s how it came out of the winter. We don’t expect much from the bermudagrass plots, but remember we’re in the transition zone. If some varieties survive the cold, they’ll do well in an area that’s not marginal. We get a lot of valuable information from pushing the edge of the zone.”

The facility gets more than 1,000 visitors a year from around the world.

“I’ve worked in several different climates,” the 46-year-old Kennedy adds, “so I’ve had cool and warm season experiences. The hardest part for me is letting the plots go without doing anything about them, letting things happen to them that I wouldn’t let happen on the Legends courses. I want to fix it right away, but on The Little Course we let things go a little longer.”

Agronomists praise facility

Dr. Milt Engelke, an agronomist with Texas A & M University and a Jacobsen consultant, has donated several zoysiagrassess and about 10 bentgrasses to The Little Course.

“The Little Course has proven to have long-term value in looking at the performance of a number of experimental varieties of grasses in comparison under actual use,” he says. “It gets a tremendous amount of traffic, and junior golfers can really put each surface through a demanding test. A group of plant breeders through the encouragement of the USGA participated in comparative trials where we have bermudagrasses, zoysiagrasses and bentgrasses under play in fairways and on greens. There is virtually no other facility like this in the country that is managed totally and completely under play. The GCSAA and USGA have on-site tests, but they don’t get the use of this facility. The Little Course is very unique from that standpoint.”

Engelke says a significant number of turf managers, golfers and turf producers use The Little Course for long-term evaluation and performance studies.

“I know a number of superintendents who have made decisions on which grasses they put on their golf courses based on the work that Kennedy has done,” he says. “This is a wonderful opportunity to be able to evaluate warm and cool season grasses in such a diverse climate. It represents one of the most difficult environments to grow grass because it can be too hot or too cold. We needed a facility under close scrutiny by the superintendent that is in play to give us field performance results. University data doesn’t mean a whole lot until the grass is put in play.”

Dr. Wayne Hanna is a research geneticist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Tifton, Georgia. He uses The Little Course to test TifSport, an advanced bermudagrass hybrid developed in his research program in comparison to an older TifWay cultivar. He says the facility gives him data on how these cultivars respond to “real world” commercial management of the grasses.

“The Little Course is in the transition area for bermudagrass,” Hanna explains, “so it gives us great information on winter hardiness under golf course or athletic field management conditions. This facility played a key role in our final evaluation of TifSport. It is invaluable for testing and evaluating turfgrasses, and I look forward to continued work here. Joe Kennedy is a very progressive golf course superintendent who appreciates the importance of research and makes sure things are done right.”

Times change

Twenty years ago, if a superintendent had nice grass coverage no one cared about what kind of grass it was. Today, television exposure and competition among courses have not only raised the bar for conditions, but have also escalated costs. Kennedy asks: “How perfect is perfect?”

“People go to Augusta National to find a single weed, and that’s silly,” he says. “I am a minimalist and have done well with that philosophy. Golf courses have to balance high standards against the amount of money they spend and what they’re doing to the environment. The research conducted here gives golfers better conditions earlier in the season, and if we can find good enough grasses that we can provide more cheaply, it should keep the cost of golf down.”

The focus of every activity at the Tennessee Golf Foundation is what’s best for the game. At golf camps, juniors listen to a presentation from Kennedy. Horton says this exposure is crucial.

“Some of these juniors will be leaders at their own club one day,” he says, “or at least members of committees. It’s important at a young age to instill respect for what goes on with the turf side. They need to know about this scientific aspect of the industry. Turfgrass maintenance needs to be treated with just as much respect as any other part of the game.”