It
has been an honor and a privilege to serve as your President for lo these many
years and I am delighted to pass the baton to Mr Miller who showed me how the
job should be done not so many years ago.
Those of you who were not able to attend the River Retreat missed one of our
best outings ever. The golf course at Holston Hills was everything we expected,
a true championship golf course in extraordinary shape given the brutally hot
summer this year. Good food, good drink, good friends and Southern hospitality
at John and Michael's home club was splendid, and we all thought that the highlight
would turn out to be the beginning. However, wonderful surprises were in store.
The Williams Creek golf course was a
phenomenal track carved through dense forest. Each of the challenging par three
holes (18 of them) was surprisingly nestled in dramatically tumbling terrain
with wonderful bunkering and undulating greens. Tee shots that missed those
greens were destined for disaster, and some of us needed to purchase additional
balls when making the turn. Fazio may have designed the course, but Donald would
love it. The fact that this public access golf course is a venue for the First
Tee program and a gift to the people of Knoxville is a model for what should
happen in every community in our country.
In recognition of this splendid asset, and it's contribution to the young
people of Knoxville, those Board members (there were 8 of us) who
played the Wee Course voted to make a DRS Foundation contribution to
the Williams Creek First Tee of $1,000. It would indeed be my hope that some of
our members who played there on Sunday might make their own personal
contributions to this great program as well.
On Monday, we crossed the highway from the extraordinary Cherokee Golf Club
clubhouse where we had had a phenomenal dinner the night before and discovered
another jewel. Long denigrated as a minuscule awkward course, out of date and
in need of repair, the parkland layout at Cherokee squeezed between the highway
and the railroad line has been masterfully restored by Ron Pritchard.
A
brilliant solution to limited space is the incorporation of six par three holes
into the intricate layout. Cart paths are remarkably tucked out of play and
despite the snug fit of puzzle pieces, one never felt crowded or in danger from
adjacent fairways. Each of the par threes asked for different clubs, and some
of the par fours felt like part of a much bigger golf course.
Splendid stuff,
and grand kudos to John Stiles for a truly wonderful three days.