June 18-19
Tryon CC
Tryon, N.C.
There are not many golf courses in Western North Carolina where wooden-shafted hickory golf clubs have been played. Tryon Country Club, founded in Tryon, N.C. in 1916, is one of those. The Carolina Hickory Golf Association (CHGA) will recreate those thrilling days of yesteryear in Tryon when it stages the first Carolinas Hickory Open.
In 2021, hickory golf is played with original century-old clubs and modern reproductions. Modern golf balls can be used but some players opt to use replicas of golf balls used during the wooden-club era. Top players can hit drives over 250 yards and shoot scores under par. Many players match their dress to the era with men sporting plus-fours, long-sleeved shirts and ties and women favoring long, flowing dresses. Today it is estimated that about 3,000 golfers regularly play hickory golf.
The CHGA, organized in 2005, is the largest regional hickory golf society in the United States. After staging regular monthly events for many years the CHGA will contest its inaugural Carolinas Hickory Open championship in June. As a true “Open” both amateurs and professionals from North and South Carolina and beyond are eligible. The format will be 36 holes of individual stroke play with gross and net winners in the Open, Senior and Women’s divisions.
The Tryon Country Club course was designed by North Carolina-based Donald Ross, the pre-eminent golf architect of the early 1900s. Ross designed more than 400 courses in setting the standard for the industry. The sporty Tryon course features 10 greens and multiple tees to provide golfers a different experience each time around the course. Four-time major championship winner Jim Barnes failed to break par on the historic 9-hole layout during the hickory-shaft era in 1920 and legendary Sam Snead only matched the par of 72 in the prime of his career. The log cabin clubhouse built in 1922 has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Registration is now open for the Carolinas Hickory Open. Click here for a registration form.
Details also can be found at the CHGA website: http://www.carolinahickory.com or by contacting the Captain of the CHGA, Richard Schmidt, at midpinesrich888@gmail.com or 910-603-7908. Spectators interested in seeing golf as Bobby Jones played it are welcome at no charge.