[Eric Smith]

Do you ever just pull over and imagine a golf course on someone else's property?



Some life long friends of my family own this most beautiful farm I'm about to show you.  It's been in their family for over 100 years.  I pass by it every weekday on my way to the office and have dreamed about owning it and building golf holes on it for many years.  It's fair to say that I have two parallel golf dreams, developing both this place and my parent's farm, which I have mentioned on here many times before.

The gentleman that owns this enormous property, some 1500 acres, goes for early morning walks out his gate and down the highway shown above.  I see him from time to time walking from the opposite end of the property where there is another private entrance and a really cool little gravel road heading back deep into the woods surrounding his Elysian fields. 

I sometimes stop and chat with him on my way to work in the mornings as he is just the nicest guy and our conversations inevitably lead to golf.  His oldest son and I were on the high school golf team together so he's been aware of my passion for golf courses for a long time.  He gets a kick out of listening to me try to explain to him how perfectly a golf course or two (or three) would lay on his property with little disturbance to the natural beauty of the place.  Since I love living where I do and plan to raise my family right here on the plateau, a dreamier place I cannot fathom than my friend's farm just down the road.

Yesterday I called him on my way home and asked if I could stop by and go for a walk.  He said a-n-y time, just hop the fence and have at it.  15 minutes later, I'm hopping the fence and dreaming...

I hope you enjoy this little tour.



 


Cumberland Mountain views

 











 



 


30 acre lake
 


the owner's getaway cabin
 



 


sandstone and sand

 



 















 



 



 



 











 



 



 


Nashville airport is only an hour fifteen away
 


I don't want to leave either

 


This morning I'm back again, now on the back side down his cool little gravel road.  What an entrance this would be for a golf club!
 



 



 



 


Entrance to the UT Farm, across from his back entrance

 


University of Tennessee Ag Farm is across the street


HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

[Peter Pallotta]

Thanks, Eric -

what a lovely and peaceful bit of landscape. If it doesn't one day become a golf course (or even and especially if it does) I hope it stays just the same...

Peter

[Philippe Binette]

Definitely a nice piece of ground...

If the soil are right, a course could be done at fairly low cost... no clearing. pond is already there. natural drainage pattern

Give me a call if you find some money

[Chip Gaskins]

Wow, that is an amazing looking place.

[Charlie Goerges]

Absolutely stunning.

[Garland Bayley]

Nice polecat picture Eric,

Here's a picture I got of a cat just under two weeks ago.



Unfortunately, the cats lost to the griz

[Tom Huckaby]

That is a very very cool-looking site, and it is fun to dream of a golf course there.

And I know Eric meant this as no great statement and it is just dreaming, but seeing this, and Rich posting, reminded me of the larger issue:  there are some sites on which golf courses should not be constructed.

Rich's take on the Stanford University practice facility - which is by all standards absolutely fantastic - but which embarasses him as an alum, thinking what other purposes that land MIGHT have been devoted to, hit me like a ton of bricks.  See, I had never thought of it that way at all and I pretty ashamed to admit that.  To me, it was just a world-class practice facility, one I wished I could use.  But man it's right there adjacent to some of the world's greatest hospitals and research facilities, and to devote that land to use by a few students (only the team can use it), well that is embarassing.

So now I look at that land that Eric shows and I think wow what a course could go there.... but then I think man, the world is running out of beautiful open space pretty rapidly, and would a golf course really be an improvement there?  It's pretty darn cool as is.

This is likely what Rich is alluding to in his post also.  But it takes me a bit longer to flesh things out, both in writing and for myself.

So no hassles Eric, and I sure as heck don't mean this as any critique or condemnation.  It just did get me thinking.

There's a piece of land I drive by each day that I too envision a course on - some are likely familiar with it - corner of Foothill Expressway and Page Mill, going up to Deer Creek Road, Palo Alto.  I envision holes on it every day.  But right now it houses horses and is some darn fine open (Stanford-owned I'm sure) land.  In the end it's better as is.  Of course a golf course would be preferable to more corporate offices... not that there seems to be any danger of those being built these days!

Sorry for the tangent.

TH

[Tim Taylor]

Nice land, nice pix, nice looking dog.

Looks a lot like Central PA where I grew up.

Tim

[Charlie Goerges]

So now I look at that land that Eric shows and I think wow what a course could go there.... but then I think man, the world is running out of beautiful open space pretty rapidly, and would a golf course really be an improvement there?  It's pretty darn cool as is. ...

Sorry for the tangent.

TH

On a tangent from the tangent, bear in mind (not that it bears directly on whether the site is better left undeveloped) that the site was, in all likelyhood, covered with heavy forest before the hand of man asserted itself. All of the open space would probably have been cleared in the distant past for use as farmland. The fact that the human race is responsible for its current configuration, however, does not detract from the beauty of the site. Just be aware that it is not likely natural.

Charlie

[Tom Huckaby]

That's a hell of a good point, Charlie.

I'm just not thinking of it so much in a "natural" sense, as in a "what would look better and serve the world better" sense.  And of course that makes no sense given it's a private farm and of course the man can do whatever the hell he wants with it, not to mention the fact it was cleared, etc. as you say.  It's also in TN, where I have to believe they are suffering for open space far less than we do here in CA.  Just in CA terms, well... the land I mentioned is somewhat similar-looking, and as much as I envision golf holes on it, I am glad my visions don't come true.

TH

[John Mayhugh]

Eric,
Looks like Tennessee all right.  My parents live on a small farm (in Kentucky) that would probably only accommodate nine holes, but I also cannot look at the land w/o seeing golf holes on it.  Hope you get the chance to do something about that dream one of these days.

Is that your dog?  Guess he knows to stay away from the funny-looking cat?

[Kirk Gill]

On a tangent from the tangent, bear in mind (not that it bears directly on whether the site is better left undeveloped) that the site was, in all likelyhood, covered with heavy forest before the hand of man asserted itself. All of the open space would probably have been cleared in the distant past for use as farmland. The fact that the human race is responsible for its current configuration, however, does not detract from the beauty of the site. Just be aware that it is not likely natural.

On a tangent that is only tangentially related to your earlier tangent, I wonder why it is that humans feel that everything that they do is separate from nature. I mean, look at those big earthworks that termites build in Africa. Natural. Beaver dams? Natural. But the creations of man are not considered to be natural. I certainly understand what you mean when you say that the hand of man is unnatural, but I guess on some level I just disagree. What may ultimately be unnatural is the how ubiquitous and omnipresent we are here on earth, but nature made us as surely as nature made termites and beavers, and our works are as natural to us as their works are to them.

And if a golf course was ever built on this beautiful property, it would only take nature a few short years to take that land back if we were ever to abandon it, for whatever reason. Our time here has only been a drop in the bucket, historically, and the short amount of time that we live gives us a rather skewed view of what "forever" means.

Children pick flowers.
         Let them.
              Though having them
in hand
         they have no further use for them
              but leave them crumpled
at the curb's edge.
               
                                     -W.C. Williams

[Charlie Goerges]

Kirk Gill,

What are you thinking bringing that kind of intelligent, philosophical inquiry to this site?!

Excellent question deserving of more time than I can devote right now. But to get started; as Lord Russell might say: when it comes to the naturalness of the works of humans, in one sense they are natural and in another sense they are not.

[Jon Wiggett]

Eric,

why not ask him if he has a few hundred acres spare for a golf course.

[Bill_McBride]

Eric, you could call it Skunk Ridge Golf Club.  Your dog looks okay, I guess there was no "close encounter!"

Lots of ridges for blind tee shots - kind of reminds me of Northern Virginia although maybe not as hilly.  It's a lovely site.

[Craig Sweet]

Nice looking piece of land...your dream of golfing on it someday sort of reminds me of a development proposal that came before the city council for a nice piece of land called Fort Missoula....a "historian" (her word) said "oh the Fort would be a wonderful place for housing....it's so peaceful and quiet".....

Garland...yes, the Bobcats did get beat by the Griz, and this weekend another team of Bobcats from Texas State will meet the same demise.

[Jay Flemma]

Hell yeah, it's called Dismal River

Seriously though, I pulled the car over plenty on the road between DR and Sh and said what a great course we could build here and here and here...

[Eric Smith]

That is a very very cool-looking site, and it is fun to dream of a golf course there.

And I know Eric meant this as no great statement and it is just dreaming, but seeing this, and Rich posting, reminded me of the larger issue:  there are some sites on which golf courses should not be constructed.

Rich's take on the Stanford University practice facility - which is by all standards absolutely fantastic - but which embarasses him as an alum, thinking what other purposes that land MIGHT have been devoted to, hit me like a ton of bricks.  See, I had never thought of it that way at all and I pretty ashamed to admit that.  To me, it was just a world-class practice facility, one I wished I could use.  But man it's right there adjacent to some of the world's greatest hospitals and research facilities, and to devote that land to use by a few students (only the team can use it), well that is embarassing.

So now I look at that land that Eric shows and I think wow what a course could go there.... but then I think man, the world is running out of beautiful open space pretty rapidly, and would a golf course really be an improvement there?  It's pretty darn cool as is.

This is likely what Rich is alluding to in his post also.  But it takes me a bit longer to flesh things out, both in writing and for myself.

So no hassles Eric, and I sure as heck don't mean this as any critique or condemnation.  It just did get me thinking.

There's a piece of land I drive by each day that I too envision a course on - some are likely familiar with it - corner of Foothill Expressway and Page Mill, going up to Deer Creek Road, Palo Alto.  I envision holes on it every day.  But right now it houses horses and is some darn fine open (Stanford-owned I'm sure) land.  In the end it's better as is.  Of course a golf course would be preferable to more corporate offices... not that there seems to be any danger of those being built these days!

Sorry for the tangent.

TH

Tom I can absolutely see your point regarding the should you.   I should add one tidbit to the backstory of the place.   The owner has had fairly recent overtures from a mega $$ land baron from Palm Beach who has been on a grand buying spree around the plateau area, buying whole mountains, etc.  Right now, probably not so much of a good idea, but eventually we'll see all those big tracts cut up into a thousand pieces.  I cringe at the thought of this farm being cut up in to 5 -20 acre tracts - the horror.

This dream would need plenty of magic to be realized and that's kind of why it's a cool dream.  What's the point of a non-magical dream?

[Andy Troeger]

You never know what land might be turned into. My family had a 50 acre farm that wouldn't have been enough for a full course but had some wonderful movement and could have had about six good holes on it.

The other half of the family sold their part and it almost got turned into a gravel pit    Thankfully that was averted and we ended up with a subdivision--they built two spec houses that to my knowledge didn't sell in at least their first two years. They might have sold by now, I haven't been back since May.

So if nothing else there could be much worse things than a golf course on that land--but Tom's point is also well taken.

[Charlie Goerges]

In any event Eric, with that hay trimmed, you could be out there playing 17th-century golf right now. Just grab a 5-iron and give the ball a whack in the direction you wish to travel. Then rinse and repeat!

[Eric Smith]

In any event Eric, with that hay trimmed, you could be out there playing 17th-century golf right now. Just grab a 5-iron and give the ball a whack in the direction you wish to travel. Then rinse and repeat!

After a couple of good freezes, the ground should be just firm enough to maybe test out the ground game.

[Anthony Gray]

  A golf course is a wondereful to preserve the land and for it to be prfofitable for the family for generations. By the way Eric I see dead people.

  Anthony

[Tommy Williamsen]

Great piece of property.  Thanks for posting the pictures.  I look at possible sites for a golf course every time I get into the car.  I live in Annapolis MD.  Every time I drive east on Route 50 over the Severn River Bridge, I look at the East bank of the river and wonder what kind of course could be built there. There are cliffs some fifty to seventy-five feet about the river with creeks off the river.  It could be something special.  Too bad it is full of multi-million dollar houses.

When I visit my folks on Lake Michigan (Michigan side) and look at the dunes I drool at what could be built there.  I am just waiting for someone to say, "Hey Tommy would you design a course for me?"

[RJ_Daley]

I expect that if I ever run off the road and get killed in a car accident, my last vision will be of a beautiful golf hole corridor I spotted as I was passing by.   

The thing about developing such land, with only what would obviously seem the potential of a great course, and thinking that even minimal golf design and construction won't detract from the natural beauty, is that McMansions in the area will soon follow.

[Scott Witter]

Eric:

It's great to finally see some pictures to match your previous descriptions of the land

This site clearly has potential for golf, but as Peter P and a couple others have pointed out and given the fact that the Florida land baron is crusing for opportunities, I would do all I could to retain the land as valuable and beautiful I might add, open space.  Now a golf course could be part of an open space program, since the current land owner, along with the local municipality can write covenants into the golf deal where all other contingent land associated with the golf parcel would remain undeveloped and you could even go a step further and say that it will remain as essential agricultural lands and establish a special overlay district, if one doesn't already exist to retain it as such.

I know this site and especially your families land is near and dear to you--perhaps you can befriend this gentleman, moreso than you have, and convince him not to collapse under pressure from the Florida land baron.

Nevertheless, keep dreaming--I always do

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