Cleveland Country Club will be host to another major state amateur tournament (the Tennessee Mid-Amateur) this summer. This men’s tournament (Sept. 4-7) has about the same prestige as last summer’s Tennessee Women’s Amateur at CCC.
In addition to its normal schedule of events, the country club will once again be host to a one-day qualifying tournament (Sept. 3) to determine seven spots in Chattanooga’s PGA Nationwide tournament.
Also this year, for the first time, the country club course will be the location of a Lee University Invitational for several collegiate golf teams.
Other events will include one of two rounds of competition for the Women’s City Tournament, the annual Cleveland Country Club Men’s Invitational and several club events ... Member-Member, Member-Guest and club tournaments for men, women and juniors.
Country Club Professional Neil Scott said the Mid-Amateur (a practice round and three competitive rounds) will feature some of Tennessee’s best amateurs.
“It’s pretty much the same as the Tennessee State Men’s Amateur, without collegiate golfers,” he said.
Scott is expecting 80 to 100 golfers for the Mid-Amateur.
The Nationwide qualifier is scheduled the day before the Mid-Amateur begins.
The Lee University tournament is scheduled next month, on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, March 6-8. Sunday will be a practice round, with competition Monday and Tuesday.
The country club’s annual Men’s Invitational is scheduled this year on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 6-7.
The Women’s City Championship will be played at the country club on Thursday, July 14. The two-day tournament begins a day earlier on the Chatata Valley Golf Course.
Another big event at the Country Club each year is the Junior Golf Camp. This year the camp is scheduled July 18-21. A Tennessee Golf Association Junior Tour event is scheduled the first day of the camp, on Monday, July 18.
Chatata Valley Golf Course has a number of tournaments scheduled, with others anticipated throughout the summer months.
Chatata officials are currently busy with repairs to several greens which suffered damage from overplay and last summer’s heat. The public course is also removing several trees which surround the par-4 16th green.
Among fundraisers already scheduled are events to benefit United Methodist Youth, the Walker Valley Football program, Walker Valley’s girls and boys golf teams, Cleveland City Schools, Vietnam Veterans, Ocoee Regional Builders (2 tournaments), Southeast Tennessee Veterans Home, Bradley County Sheriff’s Office, the Bradley Central High School basketball program, and the Polk County Education Association. Other tournaments will be scheduled throughout the summer months.
Special events and tournaments will be limited at the City of Cleveland’s municipal golf course at Cherokee Springs.
The city has constructed several new holes on the incoming nine due to the widening of Dalton Pike through the golf course. Two tunnels will take golf traffic from the East side of Dalton Pike (where the clubhouse is located) to the West and back.
Golf course manager Jimmy Tatum said the road construction crew are in the process of opening the new west side of the golf course to maintenance crews.
Tom Grant, Cleveland’s special projects director, says that despite rough winter weather he anticipates that the new nine holes will still be opened for play by mid-summer. Tatum is somewhat skeptic of the opening date.
Grant said some irrigation touch-ups remain and the golf course needs some good weather for the grass to grow over the new construction. All of the holes, old and new, have been shaped and are ready for growth.
The design of the front nine holes at Cherokee Springs remains the same as the golf course has been for years.
The new nine holes include some major changes. Par-4 holes at No. 10 and No. 16 have been redesigned as par-3s. The old No. 11 par-5 remains the same in the same location, but the par-5 12th has been changed to two par-4s with a double green midway down the old fairway.
The short par-4 14th is now No. 13 in the opposite direction. No. 14 is now the southern end of the old 12th in the opposite direction to the double green. The old par-4 15th remains as it has been in the past. The 16th tee box remains in the same location, but the green is to the lower elevation to the right (a par 3).
The signature hole for the new nine is a par-5 17th. The landing area for tee shots is where the old 16th green was located. The new 17th green is located adjacent to Dalton Pike down a severe incline. The new 18th hole is a par-4 from a tee box near Dalton Pike with a drive to the north. The green is located where the fairway was on the golf course’s old 17th hole.
City recreation officials will announce later when the new nine holes will be open to the public.
Another addition at the city’s golf course is a snack shop in the clubhouse.
