Industry initiatives do not help grow the game of golf, people do. People like the Pitts family.
The Pitts have a long history with junior golf in South Carolina's Piedmont region, and they know that helping to promote it is critical to growing the game at least in their corner of the world. Mike and brother David, owners of Environmental Landscaping, grew up playing junior golf and excelled on the Ware Shoals High School team. Their father, Don, was a fixture in junior golf for more than a decade.
From junior golf, through high school and beyond, one common thread for so many in this area south of Greenville has been Ware Shoals Golf Course. A fixture in the community for more than 75 years, the course is a modest nine-hole daily fee that has fallen on hard times. The Pitts want to bring it back to its former glory and utilize it as a resource to promote junior golf and help grow the game in the local community.
The Pitts' Environmental Landscaping Inc., a golf course and sports field construction company, took over management of the course on Nov. 2. Their plan is to gradually improve playing conditions over the next few years of their three-year lease with the Ware Shoals Community Foundation, which owns the course.
"The course has been open, but in a capacity in which it is in dire need of life support," said Mike Pitts, owner of Environmental Landscaping.
"We approached the foundation in April with a plan to restore and renovate the golf course and make it a place for junior golf in the community."
The greens, which have a modest footprint of just 30,000 total square feet, never have been renovated are mostly mutated versions of 328 Bermudagrass, and are in surprisingly good condition, as are the tees that are mostly common Bermuda and 419. The fairways, though, will need some work, Mike Pitts said.
We've committed to the foundation and the community that we would improve the fairways, tees and greens by next spring. We're going to do bunker work over the winter and plan a grand opening for late summer. It won't be where we want it by then, but we will be on our way.
"We overseeded the greens with Poa Trvialis this year, and they are in pretty good shape, as are most of the tees," he said.
"One goal I've set for fairways, and it may be overly ambitious, is to get on them in December with herbicide applications and push them in the spring and get a fairway unit on them for some grooming by July. They are a hodgepodge of every southeastern turf weed imaginable. There is a lot of Bermuda there, but it is covered up."
The nine-hole course was built in 1943 by the Riegel Textile Corporation, which once was one of the area's largest employers. The thousands of people who worked at the mill were automatically made members. Everything for Ware Shoals - the town and the golf course - changed in 1984 when the textile mill closed. According to local legend, a fire in the mill expedited the closing.
Ownership of the golf course was transferred to the Ware Shoals Community Foundation with the agreement that it always remain a golf course. A host of operators have come and gone since then. The latest, Johnny Magaha, has managed the entire operation - golf course and golf shop - as a one-man show since 2012.
"He's done a good job," Pitts said. "He just needs more help. One thing we bring is that we have full-time jobs. We're not living out of the cash register."
Magaha will stay on to help in the golf shop and foster the many relationships with locals he has built in his time as Ware Shoals' operator.
The Pitts brothers and their father will serve as superintendent by committee.
"It's going to be a collaboration of myself, my dad and my brother," Pitts said. "We are using our renovation company as a main resource, and my dad will be there every day. He's recently retired and looking for something to do. I've built relationships with about 25 superintendents in the Southeast, and I'm sure we'll be leaning on those friends to help with some problems."
Ware Shoals will never be confused with Kiawah Island or Sea Island. It's a humble course, with a humble background. And its comeback is on a similarly humble schedule, and it will remain open throughout the improvement work.
The plan is to work on the course throughout the fall, winter and spring and be ready for a popular two-person invitational tournament at the course.
The nine-hole course was built in 1943 by the Riegel Textile Corporation, which once was one of the area's largest employers. The thousands of people who worked at the mill were automatically made members. Everything for Ware Shoals - the town and the golf course - changed in 1984 when the textile mill closed. According to local legend, a fire in the mill expedited the closing.
"We've committed to the foundation and the community that we would improve the fairways, tees and greens by next spring," Pitts said. "We're going to do bunker work over the winter and plan a grand opening for late summer. It won't be where we want it by then, but we will be on our way."
The foundation owns a limited amount of equipment, including a triplex mower, bunker rake, tractor and a few other pieces, some of which date back to the 1980s.
"I've done some horsetrading with superintendents over the years on equipment that is coming off lease or is just parked out back, and through that we've acquired a couple mowers, greens mowers, tee mowers, blowers and Gators," Pitts said. "I have three triplexes, so we can mow greens, tees and collars. I also have a couple of sprayers. A dedicated fairway unit is a real need."
Ware Shoals has a history with junior golf, and that is a connection the Pitts will continue.
"We have some architects who have agreed to help us," Pitts said. "They're going to help us tweak things and make the course fun and more entertaining. We have a lot of good people lined up to help us make it a playground for junior golf, get more tournaments and get the membership built back up."
