SPORTS
TRIANGLE GOLF BOOM A look at Raleigh’s golf courses, thriving despite the pandemic by LEE PACE
O
ne Friday during the summer of 1998, three Chapel Hill businessmen decided to knock off early and go for lunch and golf at their club. Problem was, the tee sheet was full. “Why don’t we build our own golf course?” was the collective idea from Paul
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Rizzo, Bob Eubanks, and Rex Teaney, all three of them at the time high on the mast at Franklin Street Partners, a Chapel Hill financial management firm. At the height of two decades of a strong domestic economy and rapid growth of golf’s popularity, other golf venues across the Triangle were inundated as well.
The result, three years later, was Old Chatham Golf Club, on a wooded tract in the heart of the Research Triangle, easily accessible from Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill. It was designed by Rees Jones, one of the most prolific golf course architects in America. “I’d been a member at Carolina Coun-
Courtesy Raleigh Country Club (SKYLINE); courtesy Old Chatham Golf Club (HOUSE)
Donald Ross designed the course for the Raleigh Country Club in 1948.
