"IF YOU LIKE GOLF"
weekly online golf column
by
Chris Dortch
September 19, 2000

Lookout Mountain Golf Club is finally beginning to earn some notoriety in the national media.

That comes after a couple of years of campaigning by Lookout members who are eager to tell the story of the course’s incredible restoration to its original design.

Chattanooga golfers are no doubt familiar with the story by now. History has been kind to Seth Raynor, the man who drew the original plans for what was known in 1926 at Fairyland Country Club. Raynor’s work, traditional in nature, has come to be considered classic golf course architecture.

Lookout Mountain was the last course designed by Raynor, who died in 1927 at 50. Raynor routed the course three months before he died, but never began construction on the project. Because of heavy costs for the day (close to $400,000), and a storm that washed away seeding on eight holes, Raynor’s original design was discarded.

Raynor’s original blueprint, drawn on linen, was discovered years later, and, led by members Doug Stein and King Oehmig, Lookout formed a Raynor Committee and sought approval to redesign the course to its original specs.

The committee ultimately settled on noted course architect Brian Silva, who had been involved with several redesign projects in the past, most notably at Seminole in Florida.

Working from Raynor’s drawing as faithfully as he could, Silva resurrected the original design. In truth, Silva’s work couldn’t technically be called a restoration, for that would imply that Raynor’s blueprint had been followed originally. Far from it.

Seventy years after the fact, Raynor’s vision was finally realized.

Since the work was completed in 1998, Lookout members have tried hard to alert the national media. Their goal is for Lookout to one day be ranked among GolfWeek’s list of the 100 greatest classic (1960 and earlier) golf courses. Golf Week has sent some preliminary course raters to Lookout, and they came way favorably impressed, but to this point, the course hasn’t been ranked.

A recent story on the website golfclubatlas.com might help. It can’t hurt.

The Lookout story doesn’t end on the mountain. Oehmig and Stein were so impressed with Silva’s work that they hired him to design Black Creek Club. Silva created a links course surrounded by mountains. Silva intended Black Creek as a tribute to Raynor and other classic architects. Suffice to say he succeeded.

If you’d like to read the Lookout story on the web, got to: 
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/lookout1.html

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