By David Droschak Harrah’s Cherokee Casino is growing faster than a spinning slot machine reel. The resort destination bordering the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has a new luxury hotel that towers over the town of Cherokee, it recently opened a pair of 1,900-square-foot high roller suites on the 21st floor and a Ruth’s Chris…
By David Droschak Developers of the newest golf course in the Sandhills joke that “one foot of dirt” was moved to build Dormie Club. While that’s a slight exaggeration and virtually unheard of in today’s “bulldozer age” of golf course design, Dormie Club’s natural setting really is a throwback layout in the ilk of British…
By JAY ALLRED For close to a century, High Hampton Inn & Country Club, surrounded by the eternal beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Cashiers, has been hosting generation-after-generation of golfers and vacationers who return to rejuvenate their souls and reconnect amidst the 1,400-acre playground. This rustic resort is, arguably, one of America’s top…
By David Droschak The work is complete …. Now the reviews start. In what some have described as a bold move after two successful U.S. Opens and a unique USGA double-header on the horizon in 2014, Pinehurst Resort is ready to unveil the throwback design of its classic No. 2 course to the golfing…
Pinehurst No. 2, the site of the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open in consecutive weeks in 2014, will close in the winter as the final stages of the course’s restoration project are completed. The famed course, designed by legendary architect Donald Ross, will close Nov. 16 and reopen sometime in March 2011, Pinehurst…
By David Droschak Celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway wouldn’t be complete without paying homage to one of the truly great public golf courses in the state of North Carolina. Mount Mitchell Golf Club in Yancey County is just a five-minute drive from the National Scenic Byway, sitting in a “valley”…
By David Droschak Golf course architects are handed varying degrees of landscapes in which to build and design layouts – some good, some challenging and then some that are quite simply spectacular settings. The Sound at Albemarle Plantation in Hertford would fall under the latter category with its panoramic views of the expansive water,…
By David Droschak There’s something special about a son following in his father’s footsteps, or in the case of the Maples family its love affair with a special Virginia mountain retreat that now runs three generations deep. Dan Maples remembers vividly his first job after graduating from the University of Georgia in landscape architecture,…
You have to dig a little deeper and do some extra research to uncover Chuck Smith’s name when it comes to Triangle golf course design, but his architectural influence and land planning expertise reaches from Clayton to Durham, with numerous stops in between. Smith’s resume “officially” lists just three golf courses – including River…
When Mark and Lori Davis got ready to leave behind big-city living, their choice to settle in Siler City seemed like a no-brainer. When golfers yearn for a respite from crowded clubhouses and clogged fairways during the weekend, Siler City Country Club might just be the perfect escape as well. “I’ve absolutely had a…