Concern Over State Golf Championship Course

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TSSAA Championship Course ‘Unfair’ to Players

Golfers from at least 30 schools participate in the TSSAA State Golf Championship each fall.

This past month, between girls and boys teams and individual qualifies, 68 schools from all over Tennessee sent golfers to just outside Manchester, where one can find WillowBrook Golf Club.

With Tennessee’s finest high school golfers competing for Tennessee’s biggest title, the pressure is on for the choice of course to equal the talent and stakes.

With sparse fairways sometimes indistinguishable from rough, some spectators and coaches found the TSSAA-chosen course to be, putting it diplomatically, not quite up to expectations.WillowBrook Golf Club, Concern Over State Golf Championship Course

According to Jared Street, the golf coach at Brentwood Academy:

I know that the state golf tournament has been at WillowBrook for several years now, but I thought the course conditions were not the best . . . The greens were slower and some good shots off the tee box left you with a bad or wet lie in the fairway.  I did not think that was fair for the players . . . There were some good shots off the tee box that left you with a lot unfair lies on the fairway. [Bear Trace at] Tim’s Ford [where Division II-AA held its region tournament] was wet during our regional tournament and I felt that the fairways were in better condition.

WillowBrook is a public course, and has a reputation around Manchester and online as a rather decent course, not particularly challenging or striking, but definitely providing a good value for its rates.

In the District and Region Tournaments, the TSSAA leaves it up to the schools in each district to pick the course for the district tournament. With the region tournaments, the two districts in each region alternate picking the course year by year.

Division II-AA this year used Bear Trace at Tim’s Ford, which Jack Nicklaus designed and is more or less universally praised. Looking at several golf sites that rank Tennessee courses (golflink.com, golfdigest.com, golftennessee.com and pga.com), several of the courses that schools chose this year for district and region competition were ranked among the top 10 or 20 in the state. These included courses such as Bear Trace at Tim’s Ford, Bear Trace at Harrison’s Bay, Champions Run, Glen Eagle and the TN River Golf Club. (For a complete list of where district and region tournaments were held, see the table below.)

WillowBrook appeared on none of the lists of top golf courses in the state, but the reviews for it were generally positive. Fairway problems were cited  by some reviewers. Local schools that played in the state tournament this year included CPA, BGA, Brentwood, Brentwood Academy, Franklin Road Academy and Father Ryan. For our coverage of the tournament, click here.

After bringing these concerns about WillowBrook to the TSSAA, Matthew Gillespie, assistant executive director, had this to say:

There are many factors that go into selecting a state tournament site.  Location, cost, volunteers, hotels, restaurants, etc. Next year we will be entering the final year of our contract at Willowbrook.  Of course, they will have the opportunity to bid to keep it, and we would entertain other courses/sites that would be interested as well. Quality of the course is a factor, but not the only factor.  It depends on who you talk to.  There are many schools that play on courses in better condition during the regular season.  There are also many schools that this is a course better than what they have the opportunity to play.

Bernard Childress, TSSAA executive director, said:

Over the years, we have been conducted out state tournament at several different courses. The TSSAA Board of Control decided to sign a contract with WillowBrook only after several of our rules officials, who work events across the nation on every level, assured them that the course is sufficient for our championship event.

Here is  complete list of where each district and region played its tourny:

DivisionClassRegionDistrictSiteDate
Div. IA-AA1Elizabethton Golf Course9/29/2015
Div. IA-AA2Sevierville Golf Club9/28/2015
Div. IA-AA3Ruggles Ferry9/21/2015
Div. IA-AA4Egwani Farms Golf Course9/24/2015
Div. IA-AA5Chatata Valley Golf Course9/28/2015
Div. IA-AA6Moccasin Bend Golf Course9/28/2015
Div. IA-AA7
Fall Creek Falls State Park Golf Course
9/28/2015
Div. IA-AA8
Fall Creek Falls State Park Golf Course
9/30/2015
Div. IA-AA9Champions Run9/28/2015
Div. IA-AA10Swan Lake Golf Course9/29/2015
Div. IA-AA11Greystone9/28/2015
Div. IA-AA12Lawrenceburg Country Club9/28/2015
Div. IA-AA13The Farms, Dyersburg9/28/2015
Div. IA-AA14Jackson National9/28/2015
Div. IA-AA15TN River Golf Club9/24/2015
Div. IA-AA16
Div. IA-AA1Elizabethton Golf Course10/5/2015
Div. IA-AA2
Sevierville Golf Course (Girls--Highland; Boys--River)
10/1/2015
Div. IA-AA3Bear Trace @ Harrison Bay10/1/2015
Div. IA-AA4
Fall Creek Falls State Park Golf Course
10/5/2015
Div. IA-AA5Harpeth Hills10/1/2015
Div. IA-AA6Montgomery Bell State Park10/5/2015
Div. IA-AA7The Farms, Dyersburg10/5/2015
Div. IA-AA8TN River Golf Club10/1/2015
Div. IAAA1Country Club of Bristol9/14/2015
Div. IAAA2Patriot Hills Golf Course9/14/2015
Div. IAAA3Millstone Golf Course9/14/2015
Div. IAAA4Lambert Acres G. C.9/14/2015
Div. IAAA5Bear Trace @ Harrison Bay9/9/2015
Div. IAAA6Lake Tansi9/17/2015
Div. IAAA7Smyrna Golf Course9/14/2015
Div. IAAA8Lakewood Country Club9/14/2015
Div. IAAA9Long Hollow Golf Course9/15/2015
Div. IAAA10Swan Lake9/14/2015
Div. IAAA11Greystone Golf Club9/14/2015
Div. IAAA12Ted Rhodes Golf Course9/14/2015
Div. IAAA13Pickwick Landing9/14/2015
Div. IAAA14Glen Eagle Golf Course9/15/2015
Div. IAAA15Greens of Irene9/14/2015
Div. IAAA16Fox Meadows9/9/2015
Div. IAAA1Patriot Hills Golf Course9/21/2015
Div. IAAA2Fox Den Country Club9/21/2015
Div. IAAA3Bear Trace at Cumberland Mountain9/10/2015
Div. IAAA4Lakewood Country Club9/21/2015
Div. IAAA5Swan Lake9/21/2015
Div. IAAA6Greystone Golf Course9/21/2015
Div. IAAA7Glen Eagle Golf Course9/21/2015
Div. IAAA8Audubon9/17/2015
Div. IIAE/MRiver Bend Country Club9/28/2015
Div. IIAWFair Oaks Golf Course, Oakland, TN9/21/2015
AWWindyke Country Club9/21/2015
Div. IIAAE/MBear Trace at Tim's Ford9/28/2015
Div. IIAAWWindyke Country Club9/21/2015
AAWQuail Ridge Golf Course9/24/2015
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