Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 18, 1993 TAG: 9304180021
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
CHESTNUT CREEK, DESPITE RUMORS, NOT WORRIED ABOUT FUTURE
To borrow an old line of Mark Twain's, reports of Chestnut Creek Golf Club's demise have been greatly exaggerated."Listen to some people and we're history," club president David Smith said this past week. "There are a lot of rumors out. Our biggest problem, I guess, is the adversity, the scuttlebutt, the gossip that goes on and nobody knows what they're talking about. They just like to spread rumors.
"Who knows where it starts? Maybe it's coming from the competitors. I haven't pleased everybody in the world. I'm sure I've disgruntled a lot of people around here. And anybody can start a rumor."
Fact is, things could be better at Chestnut Creek. The 438-acre golf course and residential development at Smith Mountain Lake is caught up in the dispersal of a Vinton businessman's estate.
In mid-January, Central Fidelity Bank filed a $6.9 million lawsuit against Chestnut Creek, Smith and the heirs of Wallace E. Cundiff. According to the lawsuit, Chestnut Creek stopped making its payments on the loan shortly after Cundiff died last June.
"Our only financial difficulty arose when the main financial partner in this development [Cundiff] died," Smith said. "Since then, there were some financial problems, but we feel like we're on the way to getting those straightened out.
"The estate hasn't been settled; it should hopefully happen in the next 60 days. We don't know what the final outcome will be, but I've got some pretty good early pictures and I feel real comfortable with it. We have a lot of good members and property owners here and they want to protect their investment as well. I'm working the best I can to protecting their investment and integrity of the development."
Smith said he's confident the situation will be settled before any court action.
"The bank understands the situation," Smith said. "There's just a lot of a factors involved when you have an estate as large as Mr. Cundiff's. The legal matters have to be taken care of before we can satisfy other things."
In the meantime, it will be business as usual. Smith said the course that opened for play in 1989 with nine holes has continued to attract more play each year. The course's second nine opened in 1991.
"The club is carrying itself," Smith said. "We did 15,000 rounds the first year. That number has increased by about 3,000 each year. We hope to do 25,000 to 28,000 this year.
"We're in a rural area. We're not in the city like Hanging Rock or London Downs. They've got a municipality to draw from. We're not going to do 45,000 rounds a year."
Chestnut Creek, which has 135 members, is the only lake course open to the public. Club professional Steve Firebaugh estimated that 65 percent of the course's play comes from Roanoke golfers who make the 30-minute commute.
Still, Smith said he sometimes wondered if Roanokers know about the course, which was designed by noted South Carolina architect Russell Breeden.
"I think there are lot of people in the Roanoke area who still haven't heard about us," said Smith, formerly the project manager at Bernard's Landing resort on Smith Mountain Lake. "Maybe they're just set in their ways. Maybe they enjoy Blue Hills, Countryside, Hanging Rock and Ole Monterey. I would like to invite them to come check us out.
"No matter what happens down here, the golf course is going to be here forever."
\ PANTHER PINBUSTERS: Ferrum's victory in last weekend's State Division II-III Intercollegiate Tournament at Hot Springs marked its third straight win.
Coach Ray Corron's team won the Concord College Invitational on March 27-28 in Athens, W.Va., then took the Bluefield College Invitational in Tazewell on March 29-30. Cave Spring graduate Stuart Smith sparked Ferrum, winning the individual crown at the State Intercollegiate after finishing second and third in the other two events.
\ SAND BLASTS: Roanoke native Ed Sneed made a rare PGA Tour appearance at last week's Masters undercard - the Deposit Guaranty Classic in Hattiesburg, Miss. Sneed finished last among those surviving the cut in the non-descript field, 27 shots behind winner Greg Kraft. Sneed's paycheck of $576 marked the first time he had cashed in at a PGA tournament since 1986. Sneed will become eligible for the Senior Tour when he turns 50 in 16 months. . . . Late commitments to this week's Kmart Greater Greensboro Open include Tom Watson, two-time champion Sandy Lyle, 1981 winner Larry Nelson, Ian Baker-Finch, David Frost and Vijay Singh. . . . The Roanoke Valley Women's Golf Association has announced the dates and sites for its annual City-County tournament. The tournament will be played July 20-22 at Hidden Valley, Blue Hills and Botetourt Country Club.