Bald Head Island Hole 8 after the renovation The course was built on a shoestring from 1972-74. Mike Hux, who owns a landscaping business on Bald Head, was on the original clearing and construction crew and said “some weeks we had a crew of twenty, some weeks only two as the owners struggled to meet payroll.” As a result, the course was very basic in terms of rounded pushup greens and ground level tees and a few municipal-like sand greenside bunkers. It was built on a coastal barrier island which supplied the natural beauty of specimen live oaks, draped in Spanish moss, with a backdrop of wildlife including deer, fox, raccoons, osprey, bald eagles, red tail hawks, ibis, white and Great Blue Heron and many alligators. When excavating the first hole Cobb hit water very easily and said “let’s keep building lagoons” despite no lagoons sketched in his original plans. Now there is water in play on fourteen holes that, combined with the customary off- and on-shore winds of a barrier island, make for a very challenging course. The Developer operated the club for fifteen years until January 1, 2003. As a result of fifteen years of severe underspend, each hole was surrounded by dense vegetative growth and the lagoons fared no better. There was a wall of bamboo- like phragmites growing eight to ten feet high creating an impenetrable wall so first time players were unaware there were lagoons on many holes. The greens and tees over time had become much smaller and rounded and the sand bunkers were “muni-like.” The greens turf was the original Tifdwarf Bermuda grass nearing twice its estimated life expectancy. The antiquated hydraulic irrigation system, thought to be the last in the state of NC, was constantly breaking down and leaking extensively. A group of members headed by Win Stevens, who had recently
Hole 8 before the renovation moved to Bald Head, stated “this course holds great promise, in good measure because of its location, and needs to be cleaned up restored and modernized as little has been done other than ‘let it go to seed’ since 1974.” Win was a thirty-plus year member at Winged Foot Golf Club and a Golf Digest senior executive. After persistent lobbying and persuasion beginning in 2001 the renovation process was begun. Like many old courses that suffered from neglect, the original Cobb plans were lost until discovered in his attic by the first BHI Club Head Professional, Tom Plankers. The comparison of what was drawn by Cobb and what was actually built was saddening with many elements omitted due to the limited initial budget. Stevens, now Chairman of the Greens Committee, and club board member shared the original Cobb plans with some on the board until consensus was reached to bring in an architect and construction company to determine what it would take to rebuild Cobb’s original dream to modern day standards.
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On The Green magazine 11