Historic Belle Meade Country Club Site Of This Week’s State Senior Amateur

Belle Meade Country Club has stood as a bastion of excellence within Tennessee amateur golf for more than a century. The iconic venue has hosted numerous state and regional championships over the years, with many of the legends of the games having walked its hallowed fairways.

But Belle Meade will add a new chapter to its storied 124-year history this week as it will serve as the site of the Tennessee Senior Amateur and the Super Senior Amateur for the first time.

It’s only fitting that Belle Meade will be the featured the venue given the fact that a longstanding record among Tennessee golf annals might be equaled in the tournament that runs from Tuesday through Thursday.

Buzz Fly of Memphis will seek to join elite company as one of three golfers in Tennessee Golf Association history to win the same tournament five consecutive years. Fly has claimed the past four Super Senior Amateur titles, and a victory at Belle Meade in the 18^th playing of the tournament would equal the feat accomplished by a pair of Chattanooga legends.

Lew Oehmig reeled off five in a row at the Tennessee Senior Amateur from 1969-73, after which the tournament was not played for the next six years that would have surely given Oehmig a chance to extend his streak. Judy Eller Street also accomplished the feat from 1956-60 in the Tennessee Women’s Amateur.

Fly’s four straight wins is currently tied with Cary Middlecoff, who compiled a streak of four Tennessee Amateur titles from 1940-43. Oddly enough, two of Middlecoff’s victories during that stretch – 1941 and 1943 – were won at Belle Meade.

Clay Uselton of Tullahoma returns as defending champion in the 55^th Tennessee Senior Amateur, having won a grueling challenge last year at Memphis Country Club where the winning score was 8-over.

The 54-hole tournament will feature a cut after 36-holes in both divisions. The Senior Championship reduces the field to the low 30 scores and ties, while Super Seniors will advance only the low 15 and ties.

The fact that Belle Meade is hosting this tournament for the first time has generated plenty of buzz, featuring a full field plus a long waiting list hoping to compete on the revered layout. Belle Meade has previously hosted 13 State Amateur championships, the Women’s State Amateur six times and five Tennessee State Opens.

The Southern Amateur has its origins rooted at Belle Meade in hosting the inaugural tournament in 1902, the first of six times the club has staged that event.

Belle Meade was also chosen as the site of the first U.S. Senior Amateur in 1955. The USGA announced last year its plans to bring a pair of future tournaments back to Nashville as Belle Meade will greet the 2028 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur along with the 2036 U.S. Senior Amateur.

A number of other respected tournaments have been played at Belle Meade over the years. The 1956 Western Open won by Tennessean Mason Rudolph took place there, the 1926 Southeastern PGA, and the 1961 Women’s Western Open are among the other notable events that have helped create the legendary history of the club.

Belle Meade Country Club began as the Nashville Golf and Country Club in 1901, then located on Harding Pike. At the annual meeting on November 13, 1911, club president Frank O. Watts recommended relocating the club to Belle Meade in order to “have the biggest and best golf and country club in the South,” and noted that this would be the most important step in the club’s history. Later that evening, the move was unanimously approved.

In 1916, the club was relocated to its current home on Belle Meade Boulevard. These new grounds were once part of the Belle Meade Plantation, a prominent thoroughbred horse farm of 2,500 acres which surrounded a spectacular antebellum mansion. The limestone rock face to the left of the tee box on No. 4 was once the plantation’s quarry. The Club’s fairways then served as grazing pastures for the famed Iroquois racehorse and other top thoroughbreds raised on the property. Richland Creek, which runs through the course, once provided hydropower for the plantation’s grist and saw mills.

On June 7, 1921, club president Walter Keith and the directors voted to change the name from Nashville Golf and Country Club to Belle Meade Country Club to reflect the new location on the former plantation and celebrated stud farm.

Herbert H. Barker was responsible for the original golf course design, though ultimately Donald Ross completed the golf course, with contributions and updates to the course layout coming from Robert Trent Jones in the 1950s. Another renovation was completed in 2004 under the supervision of Hall of Fame golf architect Rees Jones and his associate Bryce Swanson.

The latest revision under Rees Jones focused on creating more variety to allow by rebuilding the entire golf course using the Donald Ross bunker style. The redesign created all new greens, tees and bunkers. Also, selected fairways were regraded and three holes were rerouted.

State Sr. PGA Professional, Assistant PGA Championships This Week

A pair of Tennessee PGA championships will be on the line this week at Franklin’s Westhaven Golf Club as the Tennessee Assistant PGA Professional and the Tennessee Senior PGA Professional Championships will be contested on Monday and Tuesday.

Brad Hawkins of Beaver Brook Golf and Country Club is the defending champion of the Assistant PGA event, while Jared Melson of Tullahoma’s Bear Trace at Tims Ford seeks to repeat as Senior PGA Professional champion.

Paul Payne can be emailed at paulpayne6249@gmail.com