by Roy Exum
posted July 3, 2008
 Roy Exum |
Sam Woolwine and I drove up to a pretty old farm in Ooltewah and met Jack Lupton and Pete Dye so we could be let in on a top-secret project.
Mr. Lupton, who already had an Augusta National blazer in his closet, was going to build his idea of a golf course, and Pete Dye, the Michelangelo of all golf course architects, was going to design it.
Of course, sharing the secret with Sam and me – making us promise that we wouldn’t yet write a word - was like taking a pair of diabetics to a candy store, but Jack’s vision was that history was going to be made and he wanted to share it from the start.
That’s the way he is. He wants neither praise nor plaudits. His goal, from the very beginning, was to build a monument to the amateur golfer and, that day in the woods, I saw the look in Jack Lupton’s eyes as he and Pete walked through the woods, stopping here and there, and talking quietly. It was almost magical to see the two together.
At one point I asked Mr. Lupton what he planned on this certain spot and he retorted, “We are talking about putting an eight-foot fence all the way around it to keep neighborhood dogs out ... and that includes you.”
But I’ll never forget the love I felt that very first day, for the land and the game of golf and the promise of making a dream come true, and today the Honors Course, a place of unmatched Tennessee beauty, stands as a sterling testimony that promise has been overwhelmingly fulfilled.
There was a huge outlay in the newspaper the other day about the Honors at age 25, and I lapped up every word as a flood of memories came in a rush, but what was missing is that the course, like the game itself, is as much a tribute to gentleness, to proper manners, to sportsmanship, to kindness among friends, to unfettered fun on a quiet Thursday afternoon, as it is to the growing list of names that are on such tasteful display in the Honors Circle.
For instance, when the greatest basketball player the world has ever known was on a baseball jag, Michael Jordan would play at the Honors every time the Birmingham Barons were either in Chattanooga or Knoxville. Michael, also a dandy golfer, had a penchant for betting that included some extra zeroes and Mr. Lupton sent the lovable Gene out to tell him “Not here. Nobody gets hurt here.” Michael Jordan loved that.
Personally, my adoration was never as a player. Because I was so lousy, I never felt the glow that Tiger Woods and Arnold Palmer and so many others from all over America swear happens when they play the Honors. I was much more attuned to the late humorist Lewis Grizzard who, once over post-round scotches, said he believed “Ooltewah” was an Indian name meaning “double-bogey.”
Because I was usually the worst, the upside was that I was always paired with the best, and the countless afternoons I’ve spent walking its fairways usually made me witness to some of the greatest shot-makers who ever hit a driver.
My all-time favorite partner was the late Lew Oehmig, who I had known as a child, and his command of the course coupled with the fact he was such an exemplary gentleman had so much to do with the love I will always have for the Honors and its people. Playing with “Sparky” Probasco was the exact same way.
Its heroes are many. Joe Richardson has played such a masterful role in guiding an impressive membership while David Stone, the superintendent, can spit and a flower will grow. Joe and David are both supreme artists in their own right and today, as I study anew Jack Lupton’s masterpiece, it is nearly heresy not to adore the other great works in the Ooltewah “gallery.”
Add Jack’s wife Alice, whose taste for gracious beauty abounds in every building and garden, and throw in a collection of the finest pros and best caddies ever to loop a bag, but above all is the land and the game and the dream that was sparked one winter’s afternoon in the woods about 30 years ago.
Sadly, when the obituary is written on Jack Lupton – and I hope it will be long in coming – his Honors Course will be only a footnote when compared to the so many acts of kindness, compassion and largess that he and his family have done in so many areas of our lives.
But as the golf course celebrates its 25th year, how wonderful it is to behold the fact, like so much of what else Jack Lupton has done, its best is yet to be.
royexum@aol.com
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