Restoration Of Lookout Mountain Golf Course Brings Closure For Doug Stein And His Pilgrimage With King Oehmig

It will be a bittersweet occasion for Doug Stein on Saturday when the Lookout Mountain Club unveils its breath-taking restoration of the golf course. After three decades of chasing an elusive dream that was seemingly crushed on multiple occasions along the way, Stein expects the ceremony will bring about equal parts joy and sorrow.

The joy will emanate from the actuality that, nearly a century since its inception in 1925, the golf course will finally be completed to the original specifications as designed by noted golf course architect Seth Raynor.

But the sadness will stem from the fact that his beloved friend who shared Stein’s vision and passion in a chasing a dream - King Oehmig - will not be present. While the conclusion of this momentous undertaking will be widely celebrated, Oehmig’s absence since his death eight years ago will undoubtedly create a heaviness of heart for Stein.

This odyssey they shared since the early ‘90s was forged through a mutual fascination with historical golf course design and Lookout Mountain’s connection to a once-forgotten course architect. But it became much more, evolving into an enduring friendship that flourished over the years into something that went well beyond the game of golf.

Although he grew up across from the Lookout Mountain golf course, often playing football on the 17^th fairway as a child, Stein’s introduction to the sport didn’t occur until he was 26. His family construction business was awarded the privilege of building The Honors Course, so he joined the club in 1982 almost out of necessity.

“I had a friend tell me that I had better learn how to play golf if I was going to build a golf course for Jack Lupton and Pete Dye,” Stein said. “It was my relationship with Pete Dye that first piqued my interest in golf course architecture.”

While Stein was introduced to golf later in life, it was part of the very fabric of Oehmig’s family. The Oehmig name is considered part of golfing royalty. His father, Lew, was one of the most decorated amateur golfers in the country, winning three USGA Senior Amateur championships, claiming seven Tennessee Senior Amateur titles and capturing the Tennessee State Amateur an impressive eight times.

Oehmig was a varsity golfer during his time at Baylor School, then followed in his father’s footsteps as a four-year letterman on the University of Virginia golf team. While devoting his life to ministry as an ordained Episcopal priest, he still found time to coach Baylor’s boys and girls golf teams to 21 championships during his 12 years at the helm followed by a three-year stint coaching the men’s golf team at the University of the South.

Although they knew each other from having been raised on Lookout Mountain and both attending Baylor, the friendship between Stein and Oehmig deepened as adults during their encounters on the golf course. But the depth of the relationship grew beyond their time on the links.

“King and I had three tracks we were on together. One was this group that met for breakfast every Tuesday. Another track was golf, and the third one was religion,” Stein said. “I had wandered far from the church, and King would say, ‘You do realize the Episcopal church has broad enough theological underpinnings to contain a heretic like you?’ That’s the reason I was led back to the church, through the many thoughtful conversations we had together to understand grace and forgiveness. He was the best friend anyone could ask for.”

“The Rembrandt in The Attic”

But a chance discovery that made its way onto the wall of the men’s grill at Lookout Mountain Club in 1990 served as the catalyst that fueled their shared passion for the next two decades. While rifling through her mother’s storage closet, Tibby Gass came across a dusty, framed architectural rendering of Raynor’s original design of the course 30 years after the club opened. Years later when her husband, John, assumed the role of Greens Chairman, they donated it to the club thinking that it might spark some interest among the membership.

Did it ever.

“I had called Pete Dye to ask about Seth Raynor, and he told me that he had been a major influence on his own design ideas,” Stein said. “He said that Raynor only knew how to build 22 holes. The only question would be which 18 did we have. That encouraged me to dig deeper.”

Stein was examining the replica of the original layout for the course then known as Fairyland Golf Club when he noticed that a local company still in business - Edward E. Betts Engineering - had performed the topography work. Having done some work with Betts through his family construction company, Stein decided to drop by for a visit.

“I went down to their offices and said I needed to see a certain drawing, because I knew they didn’t throw anything away,” Stein said. “It was there when they opened up the drawer. They bring out this six-foot wide and four-foot tall blueprint on linen. I did a take-off of the plans and I started telling the membership that this golf course is still here. This is what we’re playing, but it doesn’t have any of the bunkers on it, the greens aren’t like what’s drawn, but it’s the same tee to green routing that’s two holes out of sequence.”

Around this same time, Oehmig had his own epiphany about the golf course’s origins. A former Baylor classmate and golf teammate, Bob Palmquist, was in town for their 25^th high school reunion. Having completed a morning round at Lookout Mountain, Palmquist asked in passing if Oehmig knew who had designed the golf course. When told it was Raynor, Palmquist excitedly explained the significance of this discovery.

“Bob writes this letter and goes through the whole golf course and explains to King what Raynor intended for each hole at Lookout Mountain,” Stein said. “He knew this because he was a member of Fishers Island off the coast of Long Island, another Raynor design. In the letter, he asked, ‘Have you ever heard of the Seth Raynor Society? Me neither! We’ve just started it!’ We told the club membership we had discovered a Rembrandt in our attic and we needed to do something with this.”

Energized by their discovery of the original plans and their historical significance, the newly formed Seth Raynor Society – deemed “a gang of vagabonds” by Stein - was joined by Gary Chazen and Clay Crumbliss among others in the summer of 1995. They visited as many Raynor golf courses as possible over several years in a crash course to better understand Raynor’s design concepts. The group also published a “Raynor Report” that described their discoveries to the Lookout Mountain membership.

It was an era when many older golf courses were being renovated to make them “relevant to the modern game”, as designer Robert Trent Jones Sr. described his services. The intention was to increase their difficulty by lengthening the layout, narrowing fairways and replacing bunkers. But instead of pursuing a renovation of Lookout Mountain’s course, Stein, Oehmig and their compadres sought to bring about a completion to a course that was never completed.

Raynor’s original design placed the clubhouse near the southeast corner of the property, with the opening hole being what is currently No. 3. The routing was essentially the same as the initial plans with the exception of the construction of the current clubhouse in 1957 being placed on the knob where the original 12^th green was situated, which also forced the conversion of the present day first hole – No. 17 on Raynor’s plans - from a par 5 into par 4.

“We suddenly realized we were playing the course today in the same order, but we’re starting at the wrong spot,” Stein said. “None of the bunkers were in. The greens were not the same shape. King and I both believed we could finally finish this course as it was originally designed.”

The Restoration Begins, But Soon Faces Headwinds

With support for the project from Lupton and other prominent members, the club hired Brian Silva to develop a master plan for restoration in 1995. A scaled down version was narrowly approved three years later to renovate the greens on holes 11 and 17 and the addition of 70 new bunkers to better define the strategy Raynor intended for the golf course. It was hoped that these revisions would spark an even greater interest in completing the full restoration.

“The membership was blown away by the results,” Stein said. “They loved it. I even had people who shouted us down that we were going to ‘ruin the golf course’ later come back and apologize. Having Mr. Lupton on board and his support was key. Plus having the Oehmig named associated with any project gave it instant credibility.”

Raynor-designed courses had gain renewed interest nationally, with Silva becoming the expert on various restorations. The “son of long-range plan” he developed for Lookout Mountain was unique from some others in that he could directly reference original working plans drafted by Raynor. It seemed like the club was poised to finally achieve Raynor’s intended design.

“By ’98, King and I believed we had enough momentum to where we knew this would be completed,” Stein said. “There was a sense of anticipation. Little did we know, there would be a lot of heartbreak between then and now.”

A proposal to move forward with Silva’s master plan was met with opposition, that, when coupled with external economic headwinds, derailed the momentum for finishing the restoration at the time.

“We had the Dot-com crash, Y2K, then 9/11 in succession,” Stein said. “The membership loved the golf course like it was because we had converted it from what it had been into a place that was a lot more fun. They loved the views and they didn’t want to give up the club for another year to finish the work. Then there was an influential group of members who didn’t think Silva was the right guy, and they asked King and me to find someone else.”

Disappointed but undaunted, Stein and Oehmig used their connections to find another course architect. They settled on another rising star in the industry, Gil Hanse, who the club hired to develop a plan for completion in 2007. But when it was finally produced two years later, the whole economy was in turmoil due to the financial crisis. When the Hanse proposal was presented to the membership, it failed to garner the needed votes.

“The timing could not have been worse,” Stein said. “I understood why Hanse’s plan got voted down because the economy was in shambles. But it still broke my heart. I knew we were on the brink of something special, and now it was gone.”

Stein was forced to shift his attention to keeping his business endeavors afloat in the midst of the economic upheaval. The club’s membership experienced some attrition as well. The dreams of the past twenty years seemed to evaporate for Stein and Oehmig.

The Loss of a Co-Pilot

“Without a doubt, 2014 was the hardest business year of my life,” Stein said. “It was exceedingly difficult and I got through it all. Thinking things couldn’t get any worse, the next year King died. At that point, I assumed this was over. I had lost my co-pilot.”

Oehmig’s unexpected death at the age of 63 left Stein adrift in continuing their pilgrimage alone. After two decades of traveling the country exploring Raynor courses, creating a band of brothers with others who believed in the project like Patten Smith, Pat Corey, Lex Tarumianz, Tom and Robby Jones along with Chazen and Crumbliss, Stein believed this was where the story would end, buried alongside his beloved friend.

“After King was gone, I didn’t think it would ever happen to be honest with you,” Stein said. “But after several years, the younger members of club decided they wanted to do this and they did. The project that’s being built is the completion of a golf course that never got finished. This is the realization of what Raynor actually drew.”

When the COVID pandemic struck, interest in golf spiked and the membership swelled. There was a younger demographic involved at Lookout Mountain that was interested in revisiting the restoration as the course struggled with playable greens in 2020. Stein was approached about engaging Hanse to finish his plan that had previously been incorporated into the club’s by-laws.

“Most of the people involved in the earlier projects were gone except for me,” Stein said. “I told them Hanse was unavailable because his star had risen and he’s too busy. He did the Olympic course in Rio in 2016, and he also oversaw the recent renovations done at The Honors Course. But I asked him, and he said he could get to us in 2026.”

The Dream Is Revived

When Stein queried Hanse on who he would recommend to implement his plan for the golf course, he suggested Kyle Franz and Tyler Rae as rising stars within the industry. They were hired in 2021, and the plan to move forward with the golf course restoration in conjunction to renovations being done at the Fairyland Club was approved by a resounding 88-percent of the membership as the two long-independent entities had merged to operate as a single club.

When recently admiring the masterpiece completed by Franz and Rae, Stein confessed the finished product exceeds what he envisioned in his wildest dreams.

“The project that’s being built is something more than the Hanse plan,” Stein said. “This is well-beyond that. This is the realization of what Raynor actually drew. When we started, hardly anybody knew about him and not many people cared. There is now a whole new generation of golf architecture enthusiasts who have found things we didn’t know. The finished product is going to blow people’s minds.”

While Oehmig’s absence from this crowning moment for the golf course will be felt by many, it’s helped bring a sense of closure and celebration for Oehmig’s wife, Margy, and their family.

“Doug and King were on this journey together and grew through it,” Margy Oehmig said. “King always said golf was more than a game. He saw there were so many life lessons to be learned through golf and he grew up witnessing that through his dad.

“They shared the ups and downs, the disappointment, the naysayers that said they were crazy, that the membership would never go along with it. They never gave up because of their shared vision. It evolved into a deeper friendship over the years. The fact Doug has continued to see this through is gratifying on so many levels. Whenever we see each other, we both tear up. This will put Lookout Mountain’s golf course on the map in ways I think King and Doug believed could be possible.”

Reflections of the Journey

After investing decades of time and energy into this endeavor, it’s almost surreal for Stein to realize the journey has reached its destination. The completion of the project will require an adjustment for Stein and a redirection of his energies.

“This has been a 30-year crusade of sorts,” Stein said. “I can’t wait to get back out there and walk the course, to enjoy Raynor’s intended design. But I’m going to miss this journey once it’s completed. It has become like a companion over the years.”

Stein is quick to admit that this campaign has not been his and Oehmig’s alone, but there were countless others whose support and contributions have encouraged him over the years.

“None of this happens without Jack Lupton,” Stein said. “Having his support from the outset brought immense credibility to the project. Then there was Rody Davenport and the Probasco family who were important advocates. You recognize that none of us are here without standing on the shoulders of those who have come before us.

“Also, Caroline Williams did an absolutely incredible job as the president of the club that got this approved. Barton Mathews is the new president and he’s been doing a good job and very encouraging to me as the project comes to an end. They have both been excellent leaders.”

Even though her husband will not be able to share in the celebration at Saturday’s ceremony, Margy Oehmig is confident that King would approve of how things have unfolded.

“It took that deepening of the friendship to enable this project to be completed,” Margy Oehmig said. “Doug and King were already friends, but it was a moment in time when everything came together. I don’t know if it would have happened if either had tried to do it single-handedly. I think King would be thrilled over the finished product. I have no doubt he is rejoicing.”

As he thoughtfully pondered how he would respond to the public unveiling of the dramatic restoration, Stein admitted his emotions might get the best of him.

“They’ve asked me to speak and I’m scared to death,” Stein said. “I’m probably going to cry. Because for years my dream was dead, and it came back to life. Now it’s going to be realized at last.”

Paul Payne can be emailed at paulpayne6249@gmail.com