"IF YOU LIKE GOLF"
weekly online golf column
by
Chris Dortch
July 18, 2000

Bear Trace opened more than a year ago amid great anticipation from daily fee golfers. Black Creek opens this week, just as eagerly awaited among its members. Tauqueta Falls, a resort course on top of Lookout Mountain that is under construction, has also generated considerable attention.

Overshadowed a bit by those three golf courses, another new Chattanooga-area course chugs along, doing ever increasing business as players begin to discover it.

Hampton Creek, a 9-hole course located off Snow Hill Road in Ooltewah, opened more than a year ago, just about the same time as Bear Trace. Not the best timing, considering how much fanfare the course at Harrison Bay received, but Hampton Creek has been carving out its niche.

Surrounded by an exclusive subdivision steadily filling with $300,000-plus homes, Hampton Creek has provided an opportunity for golfers to squeeze in a quick nine holes on its par 32 layout. When I say quick, I mean quick. I’ve played the course several times, and can usually tour the nine holes in an hour and 15 minutes. Not bad when your day won’t allow the four hours-plus it usually takes to play 18.

"It’s a neat little golf course,’’ said Rich Balthrop, vice president of development for M&M Holdings, which started the project. Balthrop says that with pride, and he should. With no prior design experience, he drew the plans for Hampton Creek with some help from a professional architect in Minnesota who added suggestions here and there.

Balthrop is excited that Hampton Creek is finally getting noticed. The equivalent of 16,000 18-hole rounds have been played there since May, 1999, an encouraging number.

"People are starting to come out now as they see the vision for the golf course,’’ Balthrop said. "They see the homes out here, they see the club house and swimming pool, and they see the golf course, and realize what kind of condition it's in."

"We’re getting great comments on the course,’’ said head professional Lea Alvey-Boyer. If that name sounds familiar, it should. Alvey-Boyer is the wife of Bear Trace pro Robin Boyer. She came from Nashville’s Springhouse Golf Club, and like her husband, knows a thing or two about treating golfers.

"People like to play on a challenging, well-conditioned golf course,’’ Alvey-Boyer said. "The people who have come out here love the shape this course is in. They especially love the greens."

The condition of the course is no accident. Greens superintendent Mike Anderson is another in a long line of protégés emerging from the tutelage of Honors Course superintendent David Stone, one of the best in the business. Anderson learned well from the master; Hampton Creek’s greens are superb.

The golf course is fun to play. With five par 3s, it’s going to test your short irons. But with three challenging par 4s, it will also test your driving accuracy.

The par-4 holes are played consecutively, after two opening par-3 holes.

No. 3 plays 385 yards from the back tees and requires a dead straight tee shot. Anything left or right suffers a watery grave in a lake (left) or the creek (right). The approach is no picnic either; the lake still beckons on the left, and a shot that flies the green can find the creek as well.

No. 4, at 376 yards, is a little easier driving hole, but you absolutely can’t go right, or trees block your approach. And the green is crowned in Donald Ross fashion, which means errant approaches can roll for a while.

No. 5 is Balthrop’s favorite. It’s a tight hole with trees on either side and the creek on the left and in front of the green. No. 5 plays 380 yards from the back.

I love all three par 4s, and the par-5 7^th is neat, too. At 490 yards, it’s a reachable par 5, but it’s a classic risk-reward hole because it’s surrounded by water. Anything long and right or short and left goes into the drink.

M&M Holdings has been so encouraged by Hampton Creek’s development that it plans nine more holes on property that will cross back over Snow Hill Road. Whereas Balthrop has limitations on the front nine, he’ll have plenty of room on the back to built some man-sized holes.

Ultimately, Hampton Creek will be a full-sized, championship course that will probably play to a par of 71. That means some changes on the front.

Plenty of lots are still available on the surrounding property, and the course, listed as semi-private, is accepting memberships. The first 50 property owners in the subdivision (46 lots have been sold) get a membership included. After that, dues will be $85 per month for individuals, $95 for couples, $100 for families and $150 for corporations.

If you haven’t done so already, check out Hampton Creek. Amid such fierce competition, it’s more than holding its own.