The greater Corbin area used to have not one but two golf courses. Both are now closed. I miss one of these courses. The second one not so much…LOL.
I suspect many of you, who played both courses, probably agree with me.
I am talking about the old Tri-County Country Club and Sweet Hollow Golf Course.
Both were nine-hole courses, but not every nine-hole course is created equally.
Tri-County was in western Knox County between Old Barbourville Highway and the Cumberland Gap Parkway. When I say located between the two roads, I mean literally. The entrance for Tri-County Country Club was off Old Barbourville Highway. Cumberland Gap Parkway was visible from the parking lot.
Tri-County was a fun little course to play. It was built in 1928 and measured about 2,900 yards. As a kid, I can remember a driving range that used to be located across Old Barbourville Highway from Tri-County. I don’t know if it was ever officially affiliated with the golf course.
Approximately 20 years ago, I was a member over at Tri-County for two or three years after my dad joined. The course only featured one par 5, which was hole number three and ran parallel to Old Barbourville Highway. You tried to listen to hear whether cars were coming before you hit your tee shot as an errant sliced out-of-bounds might very well have hit an oncoming car.
The course featured two par 3 holes. Hole number five was somewhat short at 147 yards from the blue tees. You had to hit over decent size pond, which was visually intimidating.
Hole number eight was the other par three and it was anything but short. It measured 236 yards from the blue tees. I knew many people, who had to hit driver off the tee on this hole just to get enough distance to maybe make the green.
Sweet Hollow Golf Course opened in 1995 and measured a little more than 3,200 yards. The fairways on some holes were pretty rough in the early days of this golf course. I can’t say I ever found this course particularly fun to play, which is a shame since it was a public course and a very short drive from my house.
Hole one was interesting as it doglegged to the right and there was a small creek, which ran in front of the green. One normally hit something besides driver off the tee. If you hit your tee shot too straight and too long, you were going to end up in the road. Hole number two was a 177-yard par 3. It required you to hit across a pond. On one memorable occasion, I miss hit the ball and skipped it across the water onto the other side of the pond near the green.
Hole nine stands out to me the most at 284 yards long from the blue tees. This par 4 wasn’t a long hole by any means, but it had a narrow fairway and a small green, which made it tough for me. I always felt like they ran out of room when designing this golf course and they just threw this hole in there to have nine holes.
A few weeks ago, I asked in this column if anyone knew of any upcoming golf scrambles with local connections. I only received information about two.
Union Commonwealth University will host a four-person golf scramble on July 20 at Gibson Bay Golf Course in Richmond.
Registration will start at 7:30 a.m. There will be a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m.
The cost is $100 per person or $400 per team. A cart and lunch are included in the cost.
There will be prizes for first place, longest drive, closest to the pin and more. Door prizes will also be given out.
Corbin High School Football will host a golf scramble on Aug. 3 at The Oaks of London Golf and Country Club.
So far, I have not seen or heard any additional information on the Corbin High School Football scramble, but I will try and share it in this column when I hear more information about it.
If you have some local golf news you want to share, such as upcoming scrambles or recent accomplishments of local high school golfers, then e-mail me at mwhite@corbinnewsjournal.com. I may include the information in a future column.
