When one arrives at the Lupton City Golf Club’s cabin-like clubhouse these days, he or she might be greeted by a barking Jackson.
The friendly canine is not waiting around to play in a golf dogfight, but is simply club owner James Leeth Jr.’s 6-year-old pet. The animal obviously loves the grounds of the course and appears to be in heaven running along with Mr. Leeth when he gets in a cart.
Jackson is not all that is unique about this 79-year-old course that for years was used primarily by employees of the former Dixie Yarns plant nearby but for about the last couple of decades or so has been open to the public.
In this era when most of the few new courses opening tend to be perfectly manicured and higher end, Lupton City is a throwback to the sometimes more modest mid-20th century. That is when a lot of simplistic and inexpensive courses opened as the middle class began taking up the sport, too.
With Hickory Valley having been sold and revamped into a practice facility for the UTC golf team and initially others, Concord remains about the only other not-too-sophisticated, but-still-charming golf club in Chattanooga proper.
That is, if one does not include the Brown Acres or Brainerd courses, which are also public but have been more nicely updated in recent years.
Soon, Lupton City will join Hickory Valley and the old Rivermont and Quarry courses as a part of golf history, however. As has been documented in the media, a group of investors has bought the golf course land and surrounding property and plans to build the multi-faceted Riverton housing development there.
And that means Lupton City will soon be closing, although an exact date has not been set. While Mr. Leeth said he has actually been in conversations with one of the developers about keeping some of the holes or reconfiguring them, such a wish may just be a long shot.
What is known is that, with major residential construction coming to this tract just a short distance north of the popular North Chattanooga, Riverview, Rivermont and Stuart Heights areas, the course as it is now known will certainly disappear.
And that has Mr. Leeth feeling a little sad.
“It’s a shame it will all be gone,” he said as he surveyed the land late last week. “It’s the end of a huge era.”
Mr. Leeth, who has also done construction work over the years and is from North Georgia and played golf at Shorter University, said he actually was not very aware of the Lupton City course until recent years.
“I had always heard a course was over here, but I thought it was an urban legend,” he said with a laugh of the nine-hole tract that is somewhat hidden off Lupton Drive on the east side of Hixson Pike.
However, his father, James Leeth Sr., found it, and Mr. Leeth Jr. actually started playing golf some there. In early 2010, the younger Mr. Leeth purchased the club operation from Don Huffman.
He removed the only two sand traps on the course, but tried to make some improvements by putting in a pond along the runoff brook on No. 8, and successfully was able to get grass growing where a number of dirt spots were.
These were minimal standards compared to the nicer private clubs in town, where members pay thousands of dollars in joining fees and dues, but he did try to place a high emphasis on enjoyment.
“I never set out to make it a high-end golf course. I set out to make it a nice place to play,” he said.
He became very close to a number of members, who get preference on tee times on weekend mornings, with the public welcome other times. Several have unfortunately died since he became well acquainted with them, and he has the cremated remains of one former member and the golf bags of several by the fireplace in the knotty pine-paneled clubhouse.
“This course has meant everything to me,” he said of his friendship with some of the members.
Another example of the closeness of the membership comes in the fact that on the first Saturday of every month, his father, who helps him keep up the course, cooks such hearty breakfast foods as sausage and biscuits and eggs for the golfers.
“He makes the best gravy,” the younger Mr. Leeth said.
Because of the likely limited future of the club with the planned development, the younger Mr. Leeth did not even offer memberships this year, but instead relies simply on daily green fees. The cost to play is $13 for nine holes with a cart, $20 for 18 with a cart, and $10 to walk as much as one wants in a day.
The club will likely be open for several more weeks, and Mr. Leeth wants to let the public know that the course has not yet closed, despite the several articles and media reports about the Riverton development.
He also plans to have a big homecoming weekend when he does know the exact closing date, and hopes to get some of the former golfers who used to play it a lot out.
While the course’s long-term future is uncertain, the past is at least slightly clearer. However, surprisingly not a whole lot has apparently been documented about the course over the years either in newspaper stories or in public information put out in Dixie Yarns plant publications, a look at the public library files reveals.
Mr. Leeth Jr. said the course opened in 1939 and the clubhouse – featuring cedar posts to give it a cozy look -- opened in 1952. “For the first 13 years they got under an old oak tree to do the low balls,” he said.
At one time, the plant, which was opened by J.T. Lupton and other investors in 1920 as the Dixie Mercerizing Co., also had a movie theater and gymnasium.
The quaint wooden clubhouse is certainly a throwback to the past with its early 1970s Coke machine – where a narrow vertical door is opened to pull out a drink.
It also includes several items Mr. Leeth got from the old nearby mill complex through a separate salvage rights agreement he secured. Among them is a mid-century-style electric wall clock.
Mr. Leeth said Dixie Yarns mill workers used to be about the only ones who could play at the course, although they could bring a guest. However, preachers were always allowed to play there, he said, and a number of high school golf teams have used it as their home course over the years.
Among those who played there as a high school golfer was Gibby Gilbert of Central, who went on to a successful PGA Tour career that included a tie for second in the 1980 Masters.
Mr. Leeth said he is also aware of a local picture taken of the great golfer Bobby Jones with some Chattanoogans, and the photo said it was made at Lupton City.
Among those from the mill era who still play the course or come out regularly are Lum Ruth, Don Huffman, and Huck Hallman, among others, he said.
The course had been sold to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee in 1999 when Blue Cross was looking at building a new headquarters campus on the mill grounds. At that time, the sellers tore down three homes around the course, including the Prigmore home used by the plant manager, Mr. Leeth said.
And now the course is scheduled to be history, too, as development pressures are proverbially yelling “fore” at this land that is now in high demand.
It will be a noisy place soon with all the bulldozers, but Mr. Leeth said he has enjoyed a rewarding and quiet last few years overseeing this course that time seems to have forgotten.
“It’s been a pleasure running it,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed the people we got to know.”
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To listen to James Leeth Jr. discuss what is unique about the Lupton City course, click here.
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