"IF YOU LIKE GOLF"
online golf column
by
Chris Dortch

August 8, 2007

The future of golf in Chattanooga is in good hands, thanks to a pesky creek that oversteps its boundaries in wet weather and the foresight of one of the city’s greatest benefactors of the junior program.

Most everyone who has played golf in Chattanooga knows of the Tribble family, which has supported junior golf for years and traditionally offers its course, Hickory Valley, to support the cause.

If a proposed agreement between the city, the Chattanooga First Tee Program, UTC and Hickory Valley goes as planned, the venerable nine-hole course will be no more, giving its life, so to speak, for a two-fold cause.

Residents of the Hickory Valley can tell you what a pain in the posterior it is when Friar’s Branch spills over its banks. Kathleen McCarthy, Executive Director of the First Tee, has led the life of a nomad for five years, teaching golf and life skills to juniors at whatever public course is generous enough to offer its facilities.

Last week, it was announced that the city would buy Hickory Valley, whereupon the state of Tennessee would institute flood control measures, leaving residents high and dry and 29 acres left for noted golf course architect Bill Bergin to build a state-of-the-art practice facility for First Tee.

Though final details have yet to be worked out, UTC’s men’s and women’s golf teams will also benefit from the project, with their own dedicated practice facility on the premises.

“It’s huge,” McCarthy said of the project. “We’ve had great support from every golf course and professional we’ve asked for help. Still, you have programming once a week with a particular group [of juniors], and they’re kind of left on their own to figure out where to practice the rest of the week.

“With this facility, new kids can come into the program and practice every day, if they want to. You have the potential to serve a lot more kids.”

Make that a lot more.

“I think we’ll be able to reach five fold what we’ve been able to the last few years,” said Hunt Gilliland, the director of golf at Council Fire who has worked tirelessly in behalf of the First Tee as president.

That means more than 1,000 junior players will have the opportunity to be exposed to a great game, and learn all-important skills that will serve them the rest of their lives.

“We’ve unfortunately had to turn kids away in the past because we didn’t want to overcrowd the classes,” McCarthy said. “We’ll of course want to make sure we grow at a pace where we can still do things well, but, assuming we can raise funds for a coaching staff, I could easily see us working toward 1,000 kids.”

Bergin, a former PGA Tour player and teaching professional, was a perfect choice to design the facility, which will contain a short range, complete with target greens, for juniors, putting and chipping greens and a three-hole course. The facility might even be open to the public at certain times.

“This very exciting for me,” Bergin said. “I’ve looked at these facilities from a player’s side and a teacher’s side, which gives me great insight from a design standpoint. And there are certain criteria First Tee demands. They have progress points their students must master—driving a certain distance and with accuracy, hitting an approach onto a green from 110 yards. We’ve incorporated all of that into this project.”

The new facility, which could open in the first quarter of 2008, “in a perfect world,” Gilliland said, will be a flurry of activity, with groups of students and teachers working on a half dozen skill sets at a time. And when practice is over, the juniors can jump on the three-hole course, which contains a couple of par-3s and a short par-4.

“It’s rare that you can go practice, and then be able to take what you’ve been working on to the course,” Bergin said. “The three-hole course allows you to do that.”

UTC players will have their own chipping and putting green, and a driving range with a special tee that will allow the longer hitters to whale away with their drivers. It’s another weapon in the arsenal of UTC men’s coach Mark Guhne, who has steadily built a program that appears capable of becoming a perennial contender for the NCAA Tournament.

The First Tee facility will be a lasting legacy to the Tribble family. Most adults who play tournament golf in Chattanooga got their start in junior tournaments at Hickory Valley, under the watchful eye of Dan Sr. and Dan, Jr.

“Junior golf was a big part of why my dad really loved about golf,” said Dan Tribble, Jr. “We’d like to carry that on. I’ve had other opportunities for this property, but I turned them down in favor of this. For our golf course to be turned into a First Tee facility, I couldn’t ask for any more than that.”

*** Feedback ***
click here to give me your comments about this article,
 or suggest a subject for a future article