Sugar Mountain Golf Course
Pros on the Mountain:
The Best Job in Golf By Tom McAuliffe
reflected. “How many of us can be so fortunate—how many of us can say that?” Peter Rucker enters his fourth decade at Hound Ears. Forty-five years ago Rucker was an all-conference golfer at Appalachian State. As Rucker dropped anchor in the beautiful Watauga River Valley, his predecessor, Tom Adams, moved to the head position at the Boone Golf Club. It was a natural fit for Adams, who, along with brothers Sam and Austin, earned NAIA All-American honors for App State under legendary coach Francis Hoover. Today Tom’s son, Art Adams, provides a youthful boost to the family enterprise that is unsurpassed in longevity popularity. Hall of Famer Chip King left his legacy behind in Pinehurst fifteen years ago to direct golf operations at Grandfather Golf and Country Club. Mountain golf fans would call it a promotion and the stalwart King has never looked back to the Sandhills. At Linville Golf Club, where familial ascension was a constant for years, Bill Stines enters his second season, getting a job of a lifetime when longtime pro Tom Dale moved to the General Manager’s position. After a storied career that included a stint at Scioto in Ohio, Stines returns to the North Carolina mountains. It was a homecoming for the affable pro who learned the game at Springdale Resort in Cruso near Waynesville, where his
grandfather, Pug Allen, was the head professional. “I’ve always wanted to return to the mountains,” Stines said. “But whether it was Biltmore Forest Club or Blowing Rock, once you get a head job in western North Carolina you never want to leave it. The people here have made it that way, it’s just a special place. It’s a matter of timing.” The Beech Mountain Club will be without head pro John Carrin for the first time in over two decades. For young pro Loren White, late of Kingsmill in Williamsburg, VA, and Berkely Hall in Bluffton, and his wife Heather, a PGA pro in her own right, the timing was perfect. “It has been a dream of ours for several years to live and work in the mountains,” Beech Mountain’s new pro said. “I’ve found our members here are happy. It’s a short season and they want to get every moment out of the time they spend on Beech.” And being lovers of the outdoors and skiing in the off season, they may have found their forever home in eastern America’s highest town. For the golf club professionals of the High Country it appears to be a trend.
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GOLF GUIDE
Change is rare when it comes to head golf professionals in the High Country. Once ensconced in any of the spectacular golf operations here it’s hard to let go of the wheel. So when a head pro position opens in our neighborhood, the competition is fierce. That was the case two years ago when Andrew Glover was called to fill the shoes of Wayne Smith, who had held the office at Blowing Rock Country Club for 35 years. Three years ago David Burleson of Mountain Glen took over for Newland’s Sam Foster, who spent almost 50 years at the Avery County jewel. Grassy Creek Golf Club’s Bruce Leverette is looking to retirement in his 46th season at the popular public course in Mitchell County, particularly in light of new ownership. “When I started here the irrigation system was a fiftyfoot garden hose,” Leverette recalled, who, with Superintendent Howard McKeithan, leave a lasting legacy in Spruce Pine. At Linville Ridge, eastern America’s highest golf club at 4,800 ft. above sea level, Kurt Thompson enters his 17th year as golf director. “I’m so fortunate to be here,” he said. Thompson learned the game guided by the ‘larger than life’ John McNeely, who brought his young protégé to Grandfather and later to his Tom Fazio creation at Diamond Creek. “I’ve been in the golf business for 23 years and 22 of those have been in our mountains,” he
Loren White, first year golf director at the Beech Mountain Club, wife Heather, asst. pro at Grandfather, and PGM intern from Sam Houston State Perry Grant at home in the High Country
