Mark White

While the old nine-hole Pineville golf course was the first one I ever played as a high schooler in the 1980s, the first 18-hole course I ever played was General Burnside Island Golf Course in General Burnside State Park. Burnside was the third golf course I ever played behind the old Pineville golf course and Indian Springs Country Club in Knox County, which is a nine-hole course still in use today. Compared to Pineville or Indian Springs, I remember Burnside seemed huge when I first played it. The then 14-year-old or so me found having 18 different holes on a course cool to play. This was the first course I had ever...

I can still remember the first golf course I ever played. I was either in eighth grade or a freshman in high school when I first took up playing golf. My dad started playing golf about one year prior to this. I would see him out in the yard practicing and then I started practicing myself. The first course I ever played was this little public course in Pineville. I don’t remember if it was part of the state park system at the time. It was this pretty short fun little course. Almost everyone walked this course because it was a short distance. I think the longest hole on the course was hole number...

My dad, Mike White, finally got one of his Christmas presents earlier this month. For Christmas, I had gotten us two tickets to see “Elvis! The Concert of Kings,” show at Renfro Valley. The show features three different Elvis impersonators representing his early days, the era of the famous 1968 Elvis comeback special, and the era of Elvis’ Las Vegas residency years. If you liked Elvis, or his music, then this was a pretty good concert to see. I only wish our cousin, Terry Profitt, was still with us. He died approximately five years ago. Terry was a huge Elvis fan. It did not matter if it was the music, Elvis’ movies or...

Only once in my more than three decades as a journalist have I been asked to demonstrate my knowledge about a subject before someone would let me interview them about it. It happened one day in late April 2017. I was sitting in my Williamsburg office after lunch when local horse enthusiast Phillip Perkins stopped by my office. Phillip told me he had a good story to tell me about the Kentucky Derby, but first I had to demonstrate to him I knew something about horse racing. Fortunately, I know a little something about the sport. I told Phillip I knew the first leg in the Triple Crown of horse racing was the...

When it comes to golf, I am what most people would call a hacker, or at least I used to be back when I played. There are a lot of us out there. For any non-golfers reading this column, a hacker is generally someone, who isn’t necessarily very good at golf most days but still enjoys getting out on the golf course to play. We enjoy spending time with friends or family while knocking the ball around the course on a pretty day. While we enjoy shooting the occasional good round and posting a lowish score – at least by our standards – we are not driven so much by our...

The political winds of change were blowing across the Tri-County area on Election Day as there were some big political shakeups in Laurel and Knox counties. In Laurel County, longtime Judge Executive David Westerfield lost a close primary election to Walter T. Hulett. Incumbent coroner Doug Bowling also lost his bid for re-election to challenger Mike Masters. In Knox County, incumbent Judge-Executive Mike Smith lost his bid for re-election to challenger Jeff Ketcham by a nearly two-to-one margin. By contrast, there wasn’t much political change in Whitley County on Election Day. Incumbent Whitley County Judge-Executive Pat White Jr. was not even challenged in his bid for re-election. Neither was Second-District Magistrate Mondo Cima. Third-District...

Recently, I had to say goodbye to a furry friend. I am not going to lie. I bawled my eyes out more than I have at the funeral of some human friends. It is amazing how close we can become with our pets. Gizmo lived a good life up until the very end. We got him and his sister, Gadget, approximately 18 years ago when they were kittens. They were so small back then they would have fun jumping through the holes in lattice under our back deck. During their early years they were inseparable and loved spending time outside. If we would have moved his food outside and gone out there to play...

Whitley County recently lost two pillars of the community with the recent death of former Williamsburg business owner Paul Steely and Corbin Dr. William Briscoe. Steely died at the age of 95 years old on April 28. He was well known in the Williamsburg community as one of the owners of Paul Steely Ford. He purchased the first Ford Explorer ever sold off the lot of Paul Steely Ford. He also purchased the last Ford Explorer ever sold off the lot on Sept. 11, 2009, right before it closed after more than 28 years in business. Steely, who was a lifelong Williamsburg resident, was much more than just a successful businessman. He...

The 2026 session of the Kentucky General Assembly was a very good one for Whitley County, which received nearly $11 million in funding for various projects in addition to millions more for various road projects. The Williamsburg-Whitley County Airport is getting $7 million for a new runway expansion. $1.5 million has been earmarked for a replacement water tank for the City of Williamsburg. An additional $1.5 million – on top of previous state funding – is going to help pay for the jail renovation and expansion project, and $950,000 is allocated to help renovate the old Williamsburg post office into an innovation hub. It will be good to see something positive...

What do you hear about this year’s election? This is a common question I typically get this time of year. This year I would sum up my answer with one word. Quiet. It’s a word Whitley County Clerk Carolyn Willis also recently used to describe the upcoming May Primary Election when I interviewed her, as well as various others. There just is not much buzz about it. This may have something to do with the fact many races are uncontested this year in Whitley County, such as judge-executive, coroner, district judge, county attorney, state representative and PVA. This is probably a sign most people are generally content with the job these incumbents are doing. This isn’t...