Have you ever played a golf course that was in such pristine condition, with lush fairways and greens that roll like and dream, that you could imagine the operators hosting a bigtime golf event at a moment’s notice?
A recent college golf tournament hosted at Cobblestone Golf Course in Acworth, Ga., illustrates what it takes to achieve great success when such an opportunity arises. First, you have to be willing and able. Then you need to come up with a plan. And finally, you have to execute it perfectly. All three came to fruition recently when Cobblestone sprang into action to stage The Scrappy, hosted by nearby Kennesaw State University.
The intercollegiate tournament, which was played in mid-October and involved 10 men’s college golf teams from all over the eastern half of the United States, was originally supposed to be played at Kennesaw’s home course, Pinetree Golf Club, which is about 10 minutes away from Cobblestone in Kennesaw, Ga., just outside of Atlanta. (Cobblestone is a public golf course operated by Bobby Jones Golf Links, a premier manager and developer of private, public, and resort clubs in the United States.)
But a scheduling conflict realized just weeks out from the event made the course at Pinetree unavailable, so Kennesaw State head golf coach Bryant Odom approached the management team at Cobblestone, a beautiful public course designed by Ken Dye, with rolling hills and a wide variety of challenging, scenic holes.
Paul Carey, general manager at Cobblestone Golf Club and regional manager of operations for Bobby Jones Links, explained that the dates of the tournament took priority over the venue, because these schools plan their calendars far in advance and had already made travel arrangements and probably couldn’t reschedule.
“The date was more important to them than the facility, because they wanted to host all those schools,” Carey said. “Looking at our calendar, and talking through it, logistically it appeared we could accommodate them.”
So Carey met with his team, which includes Head Professional Bobby O’Brien, Superintendent Ashley Byrd, and Curtis Huber, who heads up Cobblestone’s food and beverage program. When Cobblestone agreed to host the tourney, they had to figure out how to get the facility ready in just six weeks.
“We put together a menu and a plan and presented it to Coach Odom, and he signed off on that. And then, there was getting our turf team to get the golf course in shape to host a Division I golf tournament.
“It’s not that we were in bad shape, but when your superintendent knows he’s got the opportunity to host colleges from all over the country, it kind of gets his juices flowing a little bit to show off his product. The attention to detail really kicked in.”
Byrd had to ramp up the maintenance schedule to get the greens, fairways, bunkers, and tees in top condition.
For example, during regular play, the greens are usually around a 10.5 or so on the Stimpmeter, but for the tournament, they were running between 12-13, which is very fast, like a typical PGA Tour event. Byrd’s team made sure the greens were super healthy, too, along with the rough and fairways. The bunkers were caressed and edged, too. And during the event, the greens were double cut and double rolled. In addition, during the competition, the fairways were mowed each morning, which not only had them in near perfect shape, but it also got the dew off for the early tee times.
The teams participating in the tournament were Kennesaw State, Bellarmine, Bradley, Belmont, Georgia State, IU Indianapolis, Tennessee Tech, UT Martin, Morehead State, West Georgia, and Murray State.
One of the biggest challenges, actually, was feeding the players and coaches. Huber pulled it off flawlessly. The staff arrived prior to 6 am preparing breakfast each day, a variety of breakfast sandwiches, hashbrowns, burritos, and an assortment of fresh fruit and the event ran smoothly.
“Cobblestone is a public golf course with a limited food and beverage area,” Carey said. “It’s more of a grill than a dining room, where there might be a traditional country club banquet hall. One of the biggest hurdles for us was how we could feed 90 people five times in three days.”
As for the tournament, Kennesaw State won both the team title and the individual title. They had a little bit of an advantage getting to play practice rounds on what turned out to a very difficult course for the competitors.
The host Owls posted a 54-hole total of 11-over 863, finishing 13 strokes ahead of second-place Georgia State. Kennesaw State senior Shaun Cook won his second career individual title with a 2-under 211 total, and he was the only player to finish under par. Two other players were even, with the rest of the field over par.
“These kids will go to tournaments, and their whole team will typically shoot under par,” Carey said. “In today’s day and age, it’s a long-hitter’s game. All of these kids want to hit the driver and bomb it. And our course kind of forces you to think your way around the golf course. I think that proved to be an excellent challenge for them.”
In the end, Cobblestone, which has seven holes along Lake Acworth, was more than up to the challenge. In fact, O’Brien has been in discussions with the women’s head coach at Kennesaw about hosting an event. And Odom, according to Carey, was more than pleased with how the event turned out, both in terms of hosting and winning, of course.
“For all of us, we viewed it as an opportunity to showcase our facility,” Carey said. “And it was a long few days for the staff. But this is why we get into this business. All the stars aligned for us to pull this off – golf course conditions, logistics, feeding them, etc. It really went well. I was proud of our team.”
