ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 30, 1996 TAG: 9604010114
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: GOLF
SOURCE: RANDY KING
Yet another club has been added to the Roanoke Valley Golf Hall of Fame's ever-expanding mailing list.
Starting in 1997, Chestnut Creek Country Club in Hardy will become the Hall of Fame's 11th competing member club.
"I figured our time would come,'' said J.R. Jones Jr., general manager of Chestnut Creek.
"We've been after [Hall of Fame inclusion] for a couple years. Now that we've got it, I don't think anybody will be disappointed. Our people are genuinely excited about being part of the Hall of Fame.''
It's still undecided as to when Chestnut Creek will make its debut in the tournament's course rotation, which had been drawn through 2003 for the 10 current competing clubs. Jones said the sooner, the better.
"I think getting into the Hall of Fame moves us into the big picture,'' Jones said.
"I just want all the good players to come down here and see what we've got to offer. Our golf course, in the eyes of some, is still the one it was three or four years ago. But it's not true because it's a vastly improved course now.
"We do a lot of advertising in newspapers and such, but I've found out in this business that nothing works better than word of mouth. Hopefully, a good player will come here and then say something good about our course. Then when a guy in Roanoke is thinking about playing golf on a Wednesday, Chestnut Creek will hopefully come up.''
Chestnut Creek's original nine holes were built in 1989. The back nine is six years old. Jones, the former head professional at Hidden Valley and Hanging Rock, said the course has matured to the point of Hall of Fame worthiness.
"I've been to some good ones,'' Jones said. "I'm not going to say ours is the premier facility, but if you're looking for a fun round of golf on outstanding fairways and greens, we're the place.''
The addition of Chestnut Creek for '97 marks the Hall of Fame's fourth expansion in the past 11 years. Waterfront (1986), Hanging Rock (1992) and Water's Edge (1994) have been added to the original seven-club set since 1986.
"I think it really shows how golf is growing in the Roanoke Valley,'' said Ned Baber, Hall of Fame executive director.
"At the start of this thing [1974], I don't think anyone ever envisioned us ever having 11 clubs and this many players.''
Due to the increase in numbers, Hall of Fame officials already had decided to trim each club's men's team from 12 to 10 players for this year's event, to be held June 7-9 at Countryside, Ole Monterey and Roanoke Country Club.
In other changes officials hope will speed up play, golfers will compete in groups of three instead of foursomes in the first two rounds. Sunday's final round will feature foursomes, with shotgun starts at 7:30 a.m. (women) and 12:30 p.m. (men).
GOOD OMEN: Although it in no way guarantees his dream of one day playing professionally, Virginia Tech's Sean Farrell has to like his PGA Tour chances a tad better now.
When Farrell fired a final-round 5-under-par 67 to win last week's Furman Intercollegiate, he became only the fifth player ever to have won both the Furman and Palmetto Invitational titles in their college careers.
The four other players who pulled the South Carolina double are Jodie Mudd (Georgia Southern), Billy Andrade (Wake Forest), Brad Faxon (Furman) and Griff Moody (Georgia). The kicker is all four have played, or currently play, on the PGA Tour.
Farrell, who captured the Palmetto title in 1994, won at Furman with an 8-under 208 total, breaking his school 54-hole scoring record of 209.
FLORIDA TROOPERS: Local pros Chip Sullivan and Billy King spent most of the winter in sunny Florida, playing for bucks on the Avon Grips PGA tour.
Sullivan, a teaching pro at Hanging Rock, bagged $4,088 on the regular tour.
King, the longtime head pro at Blue Hills, won $1,473 on the senior circuit. All but $458 of King's earnings came Feb.13, when he banked $1,025 for finishing fourth in stop No.6 at PGA National.
HELPING MOVE: The PGA Tour's lone Virginia stop in Williamsburg finally gets a schedule reprieve in 1997 when it moves to Oct.9-12 on the calendar.
Except for 1990 when it was held the first week of July, the Kingsmill tournament has been unable to attract many big names because its date during the second week of July always has preceded British Open week. Also, by moving the event to October, players and fans won't be subjected to the stifling July heat that steams off the nearby James River.
The tournament, known as the Anheuser-Busch Classic in the past, will be called the Michelob Championship starting with this year's July 11-14 event.
SAND BLASTS: The Greater Greensboro Open, which will be played Apr.25-28 at Forest Oaks, has a new title sponsor (Chrysler replaces Kmart) and an increased purse that will offer $324,000 to the winner. ... The 83rd VSGA Men's Amateur Championship returns to Hot Springs on July 1-5. The renowned Cascades Course was the exclusive home of the event from 1948-73. Since '73, the tournament has been in Hot Springs only twice (1979 and '86). ... The July 9-10 Andrew Haley Memorial, one of the area's top junior tournaments, has been moved from Martinsville's Lynwood Golf Club to Mariners Landing.
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